FarmerTy Posted November 14, 2016 Share Posted November 14, 2016 Personally, I'd never had an issue with too low phosphates. It's your zero nitrates that are the issue. I'd leave the reactor as is. Maybe feed more or start dosing aminos or potassium nitrate in the tank to bring up your nitrate levels. Started feeding twice a day, algae growth is definitely up, but still zero nitrates.As far as ALK burn, I stopped the Kalkwasser drip, as I couldn't get it to be a consistent flow and having to fill it up every day is a bit of a beating. Now I'm dosing 15ml Seachem Fusion 2 after lights out and testing every morning between 9a-10a to see if I can find the sweet spot. Letting CA go for now as I'm convinced my testing chems are no good. There's no way I add no CA for a week and the levels bounce back and forth from 400-600, right? Yeah, that's a funky Ca test. Get a new one. Remind me what are you doing for water changes and filtration (reactors, skimmers, Etc)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BobcatReefer Posted November 15, 2016 Author Share Posted November 15, 2016 Oredered new CA reagent for my Hanna today. Bubble Magus Curve 5 skimmer BRS GFO & Carbon dual reactor Change about 15gal water every 6-8 weeks in ~90gal system. Have a fuge w/ chaeto, but I'm convinced it's ornamental. Hasn't grown a bit in months. I think my fuge light isn't an ideal spectrum, but my assumption was that any light should work for macroalgae growth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 Oredered new CA reagent for my Hanna today. Bubble Magus Curve 5 skimmer BRS GFO & Carbon dual reactor Change about 15gal water every 6-8 weeks in ~90gal system. Have a fuge w/ chaeto, but I'm convinced it's ornamental. Hasn't grown a bit in months. I think my fuge light isn't an ideal spectrum, but my assumption was that any light should work for macroalgae growth. Perhaps remove your chaeto entirely? Also, that Hanna Ca checker is the only unreliable checker to me for marine use. I like their alk and phosphate one but the Ca checker is highly inaccurate. They made their test protocol too sensitive for that one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 Agreed with Ty on all accounts. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BobcatReefer Posted November 15, 2016 Author Share Posted November 15, 2016 I'm guessing that w/ the chaeto removal, I'm just going to shake the heck out of it to make sure I get as many pods staying in the fuge as possible, eh?Hanna checker is going to have to do for a while on the CA testing. Hopefully the new reagents help, instead of the 2014 expiration stuff I got from someone on here.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 If you want... I don't know how many you'll dislodge but I know you'll probably dislodge a ton of detritus so might want to do it in a separate bucket. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 Oredered new CA reagent for my Hanna today. Bubble Magus Curve 5 skimmer BRS GFO & Carbon dual reactor Change about 15gal water every 6-8 weeks in ~90gal system. Have a fuge w/ chaeto, but I'm convinced it's ornamental. Hasn't grown a bit in months. I think my fuge light isn't an ideal spectrum, but my assumption was that any light should work for macroalgae growth. How old is this aquarium? Chaetomorpha sp. that hasn't grown in months can be caused by low nutrients. White tips on SPS can also be caused by low nutrients. Do you have a low fish load? Are you carbon dosing, using a large amount of GFO or wet skimming? Chaeto should have a deep green color, like a Christmas Tree. If it's washed out or light in color then that may be the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BobcatReefer Posted November 16, 2016 Author Share Posted November 16, 2016 Tank has been up since March. Running BRS carbon/GFO reactor - I never know if this is what you guys mean by "carbon dosing"... GFO is about 60-75% of the reactor container. 4 smaller fish in the tank - clown, pink stripe goby, firefish and anthia, maybe 6-8 members of the cuc. not a high load. You guys keep saying low nutrient load, but the only way I know to increase that is to feed more, which I did. I cut back this week because algae was starting to grow more than I'm comfortable with. If there's something else I can do, I'm all ears. I removed the majority of the chaeto last night, and yes, it was fairly light in color. I did leave the darker green clump as I thought there may be some difference. We'll see how it goes w/ that chunk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 Carbon dosing is a general term for methods that make carbon available in the water to induce bacteria to grow and consume nitrates I believe. Then people skim off the bacteria and this accomplishes nutrient export. Some examples are vinegar dosing and vodka dosing. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BobcatReefer Posted November 17, 2016 Author Share Posted November 17, 2016 How old is this aquarium? Chaetomorpha sp. that hasn't grown in months can be caused by low nutrients.You know what? The chaeto was in the fuge while the tank was fallow for 70+ days, and I was feeding the corals Reef Chili and using Aquavitro Fuel, but pretty sparingly. Maybe the chaeto starved back then and never really recovered? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted November 17, 2016 Share Posted November 17, 2016 Whoa! What reactor are you using for your GFO when you say its 60-75% full? You may be running waaaayyyyy too much GFO. Got a picture? Nevermind, I see you said you're using a BRS dual reactor. That's way too much. Like crazy too much. I'm pretty sure this is the problem. How much carbon are you running as well? What type of GFO? What type of carbon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BobcatReefer Posted November 17, 2016 Author Share Posted November 17, 2016 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted November 17, 2016 Share Posted November 17, 2016 Just for reference, I use half of what you are using for both the GFO and the carbon in my 215-gallon monthly. I would recommend using 1/3 of the GFO and 1/4 of the carbon and I have a feeling all your corals are going to be really happy in the next couple of weeks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted November 17, 2016 Share Posted November 17, 2016 Tank has been up since March. Running BRS carbon/GFO reactor - I never know if this is what you guys mean by "carbon dosing"... GFO is about 60-75% of the reactor container. 4 smaller fish in the tank - clown, pink stripe goby, firefish and anthia, maybe 6-8 members of the cuc. not a high load. You guys keep saying low nutrient load, but the only way I know to increase that is to feed more, which I did. I cut back this week because algae was starting to grow more than I'm comfortable with. If there's something else I can do, I'm all ears. I removed the majority of the chaeto last night, and yes, it was fairly light in color. I did leave the darker green clump as I thought there may be some difference. We'll see how it goes w/ that chunk. Your comments about the algae tipped me off as to what might be the problem. You're using more GFO and Carbon on your 75g then I use on my 300g. Better yet, you're got The Rock on Kendall Jenner's diet. Carbon dosing is a general term for methods that make carbon available in the water to induce bacteria to grow and consume nitrates I believe. Then people skim off the bacteria and this accomplishes nutrient export. Some examples are vinegar dosing and vodka dosing. Good summary Jolt. Biopellets is becoming a popular method of carbon dosing as well. Technically, you're not "dosing" anything, but the media adds a constant carbon source for the bacteria. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BobcatReefer Posted November 17, 2016 Author Share Posted November 17, 2016 Aaaaand THIS is why ARC is such a helpful resource! Thank y'all. I'll adjust and report back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BobcatReefer Posted November 20, 2016 Author Share Posted November 20, 2016 (edited) Took the reactor offline altogether the other day. Mostly because of laziness, but might as well watch what happens w/ no carbon/GFO for a little bit. Probably need more fish too. Edited November 20, 2016 by BobcatReefer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 That calcium at 371 ppm isn't doing you any favors. I've had issues with my acros anytime it went below 380 ppm. I'd try to keep it around 420 ppm if possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BobcatReefer Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 I haven't been able to monitor CA until I got my reagents in yesterday, so I wasn't going to add any. I'll be doing that over the next week and seeing where the sweet spot is re: ml/day. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this: To help keep pH balanced, add ALK at night and CA in the morning, yes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 I haven't been able to monitor CA until I got my reagents in yesterday, so I wasn't going to add any. I'll be doing that over the next week and seeing where the sweet spot is re: ml/day. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this: To help keep pH balanced, add ALK at night and CA in the morning, yes? I'd bring Ca back to 420 ppm ASAP, and then tune your system to figure out ml/day. The priority is to get it back to a tolerable level for your acros before they decline in health any further. Ideally I'd never chase pH, such a useless parameter to follow once your tank is stable, but to answer your question, ideally you'd want to dose in the middle of the night to keep it balanced, but since that's not a reality unless you automate it, I'd dose in the morning to bring your pH back up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 I've been using the methods described in this article by Rand Holmes-Farley. I think it's a losing battle to dose Alk to raise pH, and I've never heard of dosing in the day or night, but it's possible. I try to do all of my testing and corrections at the same time of day for consistency. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BobcatReefer Posted December 3, 2016 Author Share Posted December 3, 2016 Sascha - it's not in an effort to raise pH. It's that your tank naturally has rise/fall of pH during different time of the day, so you dose at an appropriate TOD to compliment/normalize that, instead of intensifying it. I wish I could find the specific vid where they describe it.I've been testing at the same time of day (or at least trying to) for the same reason - normalize my findings. I'm more confused than ever now! lol (not really lol)Here's the Alk - Ca is just as looney. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offroadodge Posted December 5, 2016 Share Posted December 5, 2016 i wish i knew all the correct peramiters....i just watch the corals and how they react. I check the salinity and that's about it. I guess I did adjust my levels at 1st to get to a desired level then set up the Ca Rx and let it go. ill post some growth pic from a new tank set up 6 or 7 months. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BobcatReefer Posted December 29, 2016 Author Share Posted December 29, 2016 Sascha - it's not in an effort to raise pH. It's that your tank naturally has rise/fall of pH during different time of the day, so you dose at an appropriate TOD to compliment/normalize that, instead of intensifying it. I wish I could find the specific vid where they describe it. finally found it! (looking for a dosing pump) http://youtu.be/zbUzr_YNJIg?t=1m50s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keishakornbread Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 Did the setosa ever recover? If so, what was the change? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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