Letter To Wally

So there's a fellow electrician who I kind of turned on to reef tanks about a year ago. I'm 42, he's 23. He's a kid who doesn't care much about technical stuff. He just knows he likes corals and thought it woud sure be neat to have a reef tank.

Talk about injustices in life. He makes me want to throw in the towel.

I read up on reefkeeping like a bookworm confined to a library. He works overtime and doesn't have the time to read. He became a member of 3Reef, on Valentines day of 2008. He has posted one time since becoming a member. I'm his only friend here (in the "friends" category).

I spared no expense. I have a great drilled, reef ready 90 gallon tank. He has a 55. I got an ecotech vortech computer driven pump. He has two koralia 3's. I have a phosphate reactor, he doesn't know what one is. I built a DIY sump/refugium, he has a wet dry. I'll admit, he has a UV sterilizer where I've read that they're not terribly beneficial in a reef tank, so I never got one.

A couple of months back, he gave me some xenia that he had purchased and begged me to take some because it was infringing on his corals. It was growing like weeds. I was a good friend and took some.

About a month ago, you-know-what hit the fan in my tank, and the xenia he gave me, died. Two weeks ago he begged me to take some more, as he has been picking it and flushing it down the toilet. It just grows too much. I told him I was having some problems, and would wait until I got my act together before killing anymore xenia in my tank.

Today I decided I'd get some more from him, as things might be looking a bit better in my tank. I used a zip top baggie, and took enough of his water with me to test his water. I figured I'd do him a favor, since he doesn't really know what testing water is. I told him I'd get back with him with the test results.

I include them here.

While I tested his water, my wife, who tries to be as supportive as she can, listened to my complaints. My wife is a brilliant woman, successful in her profession and bound for fame, knows nothing of "parameters."

I thought it best to use an analogy to bring her up to speed. I told her this, "Imagine you brought up a child. You limited video games and instead forced him to read a bit more. Instead of television you provided him interactive, stimulating educational tools to foster learning and insight. At night you showed him videos of Yo Yo Ma playing Bach's 5th Concerto. Despite all your efforts, Young Master grows up to be a gang member. By the time he's a teen, he's killed 3 people.

On the other hand, you have this friend who works 18 hours a day and lives in a single parent household. The child is not held accountable, goes to school when convenient, and doesn't have to report to his parent because his parent doesn't give a rats. Sometimes he gets dinner, sometimes not. He sleeps on a cardboard box and shares a room with 19 other children. Somehow, though--this young adult has now been accepted to Princeton on scholarship."

My wife rolled her eyes. She doesn't have time for my foolishness and storytelling.

Anyway, folks--here's the letter I wrote to Wally apprising him of his water parameters.

I'm really at my wit's end, here. What am I to do? I should mention that Wally's tank is about as beautiful as any pictures I've seen on the internet--He's got a monti cap that's grown from a 3" cup to a 6" mass of gnarled growth resembling a cross between a bowl and an elk's antlers.


Begin cut and paste here--------------------------------

Salinity is first. Seawater is 1.026. I keep mine dead on at 1.026. Yours is 1.022.

Calcium--coral need it to make their skeletons. Stony corals don't grow without it. A good example of a stony is the montipora capricornus (monti cap). Without sufficient calcium levels, a monti cap can't grow. Calcium should be maintained at approximately 440ppm in the reef tank. I keep mine at 440 or 450. Your calcium is 350.

Magnesium--a component of saltwater, without it, calcium can't be maintained at high enough levels. Mg. should be in the neighborhood of 1350. I keep mine between 1300 and 1350. Your Mg. is 1050.

Alkalinity--a measure of how much acidity your water can withstand before the pH begins to change into the "acidic" range. Alk. should be held at between 8.2 and 11 dKH. (degrees of carbonate hardness). I keep mine at about 11. Yours is 10.5.

pH--a measure of how acidic or basic water is. Pure water is 7. Seawater varies, but reeftanks should be kept betwee 8.2-8.4. Mine is pretty solid at 8.4. So is yours.

Phosphates--like ammonia, it's a byproduct of life processes. We tend to accumulate it in our reef tanks from frozen food, tap water, or the wrong kind of sand (like silica based sand). If it's high, algae thrives. Your phosphates are undetectable. For months I thought mine were too, but holding yours and my test vials side by side, I notice mine is a bit darker than yours. That means that mine are not quite undectectable, but yours are.

Nitrates--a byproduct of the nitrification process. Ammonia is changed to nitrites, and nitrites to nitrates; by the beneficial bacteria that lives in live rock, and on all available surface area in our tanks. Neither of us have any. That's good.


The only marked differences I see between our tanks, is that you don't have a phosphate reactor (a device that gets rid of phosphates.) I do have a phosphate reactor. Funny--your phosphates are undetectable. Somehow there are phosphates present in my water. Additionally, I have almost no coralline growth in my tank. Coralline algae is a primitive species of coral. For it to grow, water quality must be on point. Your back glass is covered with the stuff. While I keep my calcium, mg. and alk. just where they should be in the hopes that I'll grow some of the stuff--I don't have any of it growing!! That pisses me off too!.

Finally, algae growth is a great detriment to coral growth. If your tank has plenty of healthy corals that are growing, you are almost guaranteed to not have an algae problem, as algae and corals don't usually occupy the same tank. You don't have a speck of algae in your tank. My live rock is getting choked out by algae. Where my mushrooms used to cover their rocks and thrive, now I see the rock behind the shrooms is covered in velvety algae. Your mushrooms are plump and healthy looking. Mine have become thin and sickly. I'm pretty pissed about that.

If I were to take an educated guess, seeing as you have had your reef tank less than 7 months, and your live rock is pretty new, having been purchased from an LFS, and my LR is years old, I think that my LR has a good amount of phosphate locked in it.

I take great pains to read and keep up on the water parameters. You say you don't know the last time you checked your water.

That pisses me off!!

 

Wow! what a story. As like you, I heavily researched before starting. I have test kits for everything and tend to my tank everyday. I guess some people just get lucky. The good news is that his tank is still relatively young. It may crash any day, you can take some solice in that. Besides that, im' pissed too

 

that is very unsatisfying to hear stuff like this, when did your problems occur? sounded like everything went down hill shortly after you added those xenias?

 

Not quite, Nano. See this thread.

By the way, I should say this thread is really more tongue in cheek than real anger. I wish him the best, he's a good friend, and a great kid. No malice from me.

I'm really looking for a laugh here. But at the same time I am somewhat discouraged.

I like what Guitarman said. Maybe one day I can bask in his failure!!

 

Pics please;D

...and get Wally on here....lol

 

I suppose you mean pics of his tank, yes?

I've sent him a link to this thread, and maybe he'll read it. I know he has an IPhone that takes awesome pics. He's a techno kinda guy. Stay tuned.

 

I would only read a rant that long from you and a small handful of others on here, Sparky (take that as a compliment). I sincerely hope things improve in your tank. Thanks for the ironic rant; I did get a little laugh.

 

That made me chuckle a little. Oh the irony.


Well I will say this. His Calcium and Magnesium are spot on as far ratios go. Magnesium should be 3 times Calcium, so 350ppm Calcium translates to 1050ppm Magnesium. Does he use Kalkwasser to maintain his dKH? Otherwise I can't see how he could possibly have a dKH of 10.5 without dosing of alkalinity buffers. I run a Kalk drip, but since my evaporation rate is so low (about 2 gallons a week in a 38 gallon tank), I still have to add some Superbuffer dKH every week. I went from adding 2 tsps every other day (without Kalk drip), to adding 2 tsps once a week to maintain 10-11 dKH. Very rarely do I see 12 dKH. Same with Calcium. The kalk drip takes care of most of my Calcium needs, but I still have to add a little bit each week (just not nearly as much as before I used the kalk drip). As far as phosphates go: Now that your phos reactor is actually working, I think you'll see it eventually drop to undetectable levels.

Some people (Wally) have all the luck. That Bastard.

 

I do, Bogie! Thanks, man.

When I looked under his tank at his wet/dry today, I did spy a bottle of kalkwasser. Maybe he's privately excersizing some husbandry behind our backs?

 

lol for the first 2 years i monitored nothing on my tank, i did water changes once every six months. and my corals were very healthy exploding in growth. i had so much coraline algae it was rediculous, it was a non stop coralline algae bloom, i would clean the glass then two days later half the glass would be covered again. i think it probably had to do with how stable the tank was. But any way about 2 years ago i noticed a down turn in growth and fish health, it would seem my lazzie fare policy wasn't working anymore, l believe the tank reached its capacity for processing the waste. I guess my point is that while it seems that many corals do better in the evironment that has less fluctuations, its not a good way to raise the corals because it won't last, eventually it will retard growth or crash the tank. the real test to any tank is if it can make it to the 10 year mark(mines only 5).