ready to give up

Discussion in 'ASAP' started by botie, Mar 30, 2008.

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  1. botie

    botie Feather Duster

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    temp stays at about 78.5 bulbs are 10weeks old
     
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  3. botie

    botie Feather Duster

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    what do u think about takin the legs off the light that will give me 3inchs or so
     
  4. lunatik_69

    lunatik_69 Giant Squid

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    I wouldnt touch the lights, just move up the corals.
     
  5. botie

    botie Feather Duster

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    ok thankx luna
     
  6. lunatik_69

    lunatik_69 Giant Squid

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    Have you checked the expiration date on the NH3/4, No2 and No3? Again, first bring your Mag up to 1350-1500ppm, then worry about your Alk and Cal. They will come up after your Mag does. Trust me
     
  7. familyreefer

    familyreefer Plankton

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    Augusta Ga
    Iodine

    Softies love iodine. Add a little per instructions and see if that doesn't help. Everything listed is soft...There hasn't been any "meds" added lately have there. Has anything been added to the tank lately? ANYTHING that may have been exposed to copper perhaps. The tank was never kept as a fish only system in the past has it? If so it may have been dosed with copper and now it is leaching from the seals or somewhere...Just my 2 cents.
    Scott
     
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  9. amcarrig

    amcarrig Super Moderator

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    Pleas DO NOT add iodine. Even if you can test for it, there is no solid proof that corals use it. Have a read here if you don't want to take my word for it.

    Chemistry and the Aquarium
     
  10. coral reefer

    coral reefer Giant Squid

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    I dose iodine based on what I have read by Eric Borneman, Julian Sprung and Charles Delbeek with great success!
    I know that Xenia does better with a higher nitrate level as well as a higher than normal pH!
    Xenia tends to prefer stronger lighting and water flow, whereas mushrooms like subdued lighting for the most part!

    You want to make sure that your coral do not recieve too much light or you run the risk of creating toxic elevated superoxide radicals that in essence will kill your coral. If you have too little light, you run the risk of two things happening, either zooxanthellae gets expelled by the coral or you will get a decrease in chlorophyll required by corals and its host zooxanthellae!
     
  11. geekdafied

    geekdafied 3reef Sponsor

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    All I will say ont he subject of iodine is if you dont have a test to test for it, DONT ADD IT! Over time the things you dose because you think you need it or you were told you needed it will build up if not kept at appropriate levels. I learned the hard way. I was dosing kents essentials not realizing it had calcium and magnesium in it. I use to always test my tank and everything was always perfect so I quit testing and kept doing what I normally did. Then one day I noticed my coraline was going away, then I noticed anytime I would put a new sps frag in the tank, it would RTN by the next day. I finally broke down and bought all new test kits and low and behold it was off the charts!!! Calcium was 800, magnesium was 1780, dkh was 5.8. All the corals and fish I had previous to this all adjusted to the conditions cause it happened gradually over a period of 1yr or so. I couldnt figure out what was going on. One somebody asked me what was in kents essentials and thats when I noticed it had calcium and magnesium. So dosing that and not testing ending up wreaking havoc on my tank. So yeah, back to the original topic... Dosing Iodine and not testing for it, you have no idea how much your tank is consuming. 75% of the time, you dont need to add it, especially if you do weekly water changes because iodine is in the salt you use.
     
  12. geekdafied

    geekdafied 3reef Sponsor

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    I would do a 20% water change, and quit using the magnesium boost. The bionic Ca and ALk will take care of the rest. When you use the Ca part of the 2 part solution, it raise your magnesium up as well. Im sure whoever sold you the mag boost failed to tell you that 1tsp of it will raise your magnesium up by 0.001ppm, so it would take 240tsp to raise it to 1300ppm or 40.5fl oz of it. When you buffer your magnesium, it fights against your Ca and Alk.