Salvaged Acros and monti, think they'll make it?

sounds like bleaching from the new lights. Raise the fixture if you can and or cut the photo period. What are you using to dose and what is your calcium at. with 16 dKH your h2o chem is way off!.

 

Sounds like alk burn.

 

try lowering the coral placements and cut back on the lighting cycle to 8 hrs. you might need to lower your dkh. seltzer water is supposed to lower it. also test your water change water for its dkh... 10-12 dkh is ideal.

 

Ok, guys and gals, I bought the calcium test kit that I ran out of and the phosphate test kit that I was missing. I believe other than iodine and more advanced test kit, I have all the major/relevant ones. And I just got done all my testing. Here are the results:

Tested 1/16/2010
Net Water Volume: 65 US Gallons (including sump and skimmer)
Temp: 79
Salinity: 1.025
pH: 7.8
Amonia, Nitrite AND Nitrate are all at 0 (zero)
Phospates: also came at 0 (zero)
Magnesium: 1560 ppm
Calcium: 485
dKH: 15.7
Lights: T5 / 215 Watts total in 4 x 54 watts bulbs detailed below
1 x 54W 11000K Aquablue Plus T5 HO Fluorescent (GSM0013) by Giesemann
2 x 54W Blue Plus T5 HO Fluorescent (ATI1013) by ATI =
1 x 54W 75/25 14000K AquaBlue T5 HO Fluorescent (UVL0029) by UV Lighting

These bulbs are about 3 weeks old. When I replaced my 8 months old bulbs (crappy ones) with the new ones from above, I cut my 9 hr light schedule to 6hrs and added 30 minutes per day until I reached my current 10 hour light schedule. I had a little green dust algae? (that is usually more visible on the glass walls) develop on the sand, but it is now slowly retreating. Also, today I raised my light system to 12 inches from the water surface, since I used to have it at 8 inches before.

I recalculated my Total Water Volume, since I had it wrong. I followed guides and took out the water displacement from rocks and sand and counted the extra water from the sump and the half gallon my skimmer holds when turned on to a total of 65 US Gallons.

In a few minutes, by Night-Rida's and reefmonkey's recommendation, I'm going to try to get my ALK down by adding 1 gallon of salt water with some extra salt mix (Reef Crystals) to get my salinity at 1.026 and tonight after it's all been mixed very good in there, I'll do a 5 gallon water change with RO water. This should bring my alk down by 1 or 2 points according to Night-Rida's estimations.

Please, let me know if there's something else I could do to help my corals get well. All fish and hermits seem to be doing fine, except my skunk cleaner shrimp that died about 1 week ago.

Thanks in advance for all your help and advice.

- Magnus.

 

sounds good, make sure to test your fresh ro water to make sure the dkh = 0. Once you do that water change your salinity should be 1.024ish..

also stop using any ph/dkh buffers, 2part and/or kalk. all will raise alk/dkh levels.

In the future when you alk/dkh levels are high, and if you need to raise calcium use a calcium only booster (kent liquid calcium), and if ph needs to be raised only use a ph only booster.

I noticed after dropping my very high dkh, my corals opened up more.

 

So, I don't need to add the extra salt to that 1 gallon? Can I just add the RO water instead and let my salinity drop a bit? I know this would be easily fixed with my next Saltwater change.
Just want to make sure

- Mag.

 

yea go ahead and add 1 gallon of very salt water to bump up your salinity now to .026ish. then late tonite do the 5g WC.

 

Done! Can't wait to see this alk drop!! The bad thing is that all the other levels will drop as well and Mg proved to be kind of difficult to calculate properly for me. I may also try seltzer water. I never heard of this water before though. So I don't know where to buy it or how to make it? Pardon my ignorance, but I'll have to play the "I'm foreign" card again

By the way, I just checked my RO water for ALK and it tested undetectable! Yay!!

- Mag.

EDIT: I just googled "seltzer Water" and it lots of bottled products came up, making me assume that this is a widely marketed soda of some sort? Like plain carbonated water, correct?

I'll go buy two gallons and I'll put them tonight as well, unless there is only a certain amount of this water that I can add safely? I'm going to the store. Please let me know if there's a limit of this water or how much I can add. I'll do some research on the subject as well.

 

just get plain seltzer water from publix etc.. its in the wine section by tonic water. I wouldnt add more than 2-3g to a 55g. google "seltzer lower dkh" should find instructions. dont worry about your other levels, they are in the upper ranges, so u have room to spare. and remember take it slow, may take 2 days to get your dkh down to 12.

 

Seltzer water has zero effect on lowering Alkalinity. It will lower your pH but will do nothing for the high Alk. You need to just stop dosing and continue with your normal water change schedule and let it drop on it's own.