my sps are crashing

[jokersplayground]

It's kinda my fault for not keeping up with testing my alk. But I'm still kind of upset. For a few days now I have seen my sps closed and upset, so I tested my alk yesterday and I got 5.8 for a reading. So then I dosed over the course of the day to bring it up to 6.8. I tested today to see where it was at and it was back down to 6.1. So I then waited a hour or two to make sure I wasn't getting a off reading. Then I tested again and got the same thing. So I started to dose once again to start and try to get it to 7.1. Halfway through the dosing i see my sps starting to either alk burn or rtn. Why does this crap happen to me? 90% of my sps are either dieing or getting burnt. I don't know what to do. Should I do a large water change what.

 

[HuuTa]

Were you trying to dose all at once trying to get it back to 7.1?

 

[jokersplayground]

No doing small doses at a time

 

[reefstarter]

you should not change alk more than about 1/2 a point a day so from 5.8 to 7.1 over a day ? or 2 ? better a few days . it probably took some time to get that low , it should take time to get it back up . Hope you make it through .

 

[jokersplayground]

Thanks man i use the brs alk solution and they say no more than 1 point a day so that's why I was doing one point a day. Should I try and do a water change or should I wait till tomorrow?

 

[mnavick]

Didn't you just change out your lights also?

 

[jokersplayground]

Yeah I did, but I have the lights on 25% for whites, 40% blues

 

[reefstarter]

How big is the tank ? if its a small tank a large water change will either help or hurt , ( its really hard to say which ) some tanks come riht back after a water chane others ,...well..... lets not think about that lol. If you are lets say 6.5 to 6.8 now and you do a 10 % change using either reef crystals or coral pro . which has an alk of at least 11-12 . and your system is 50 gallons total . you should only raise the level by about 1/4 point maybe a little more . But since you already brought it up . I would wait till tomorrow and then do a slightly larger change like 15 % and continue that daily till levels get back to normal . And FWIW this is why I keep my alk at 8.5 ish

 

[reefstarter]

ahhhh thats right you changed lights too . so between that and the low alk . whamo .

 

[jokersplayground]

How big is the tank ? if its a small tank a large water change will either help or hurt , ( its really hard to say which ) some tanks come riht back after a water chane others ,...well..... lets not think about that lol. If you are lets say 6.5 to 6.8 now and you do a 10 % change using either reef crystals or coral pro . which has an alk of at least 11-12 . and your system is 50 gallons total . you should only raise the level by about 1/4 point maybe a little more . But since you already brought it up . I would wait till tomorrow and then do a slightly larger change like 15 % and continue that daily till levels get back to normal . And FWIW this is why I keep my alk at 8.5 ish

OK I will follow this guide. I usually keep my alk at 8.0 but I have been selling frags alot lately so I have been replacing quiet a bit of our water. So I stopped dosing. I was afraid of dosing to much. Why would the light effect my coral at such a small percentage?

 

[Greg Hiller]

>you should not change alk more than about 1/2 a point a day so from 5.8 to 7.1<

I actually disagree on this. IMO/IME when your alk is low you should get it back into the right zone IMMEDIATELY if you want corals to survive. Getting them out of an unhealthy situation slowly is not a good idea. In the short term I would add enough baking soda to alk up to at least 2.5 to 3 meq/liter. In the long term get your calcium reactor (or whatever method you use) tuned up and cranking away.

 

[jokersplayground]

Wouldn't I alk burn all my sps and maybe even kill them?

 

[reefstarter]

>you should not change alk more than about 1/2 a point a day so from 5.8 to 7.1<

I actually disagree on this. IMO/IME when your alk is low you should get it back into the right zone IMMEDIATELY if you want corals to survive. Getting them out of an unhealthy situation slowly is not a good idea. In the short term I would add enough baking soda to alk up to at least 2.5 to 3 meq/liter. In the long term get your calcium reactor (or whatever method you use) tuned up and cranking away.

He knows more than me I'd do what he says . thanks for chiming in Greg

 

[dannyp02908]

I would not question Greg hiller. Seriously do what he says. Research his name and you will understand why. Then, if you want brutal honesty, stop keeping an SPS dominant tank until you have some form of automatic dosing. Stability is the key and if your alk was 5.8, and we've all discussed your alk before, it's clear you are not doing it correctly.

 

[jokersplayground]

I would not question Greg hiller. Seriously do what he says. Research his name and you will understand why. Then, if you want brutal honesty, stop keeping an SPS dominant tank until you have some form of automatic dosing. Stability is the key and if your alk was 5.8, and we've all discussed your alk before, it's clear you are not doing it correctly.

It's not that I don't get it. It's I didn't know if I should still be dosing sense I was basically doing daily water changes. So if that makes me incapable of keeping sps then alot of people should not be keep them as well. You don't need a automatic dosing systems to keep a sps dominant tank you can easily Google and see plenty of tanks that are not on them and are doing awesome.

 

[dannyp02908]

Those tanks have someone dosing them daily sometimes multiple times. You should be testing daily as said in a previous thread. I'm not trying to break your balls but this has definitely all been said before. It doesn't matter how many times you ask the question, the answer will always be the same. In an SPS dominant tank, you need to stay on top of the big 3. Get a GOOD test kit. Not API. test daily and figure out what your uptake is. And compensate for it. It's not rocket science. You have been around here a long time. You have worked at a reef store. These things are common sense to any long time reef keeper. Not like you are a newb.

In response to you saying "it's not that you don't get it", making that statement and then saying you don't know if you should dose means 100 percent that you don't get it. Fact is, you test to see if you need to dose. You don't assume that a water change is enough.

 

[dz6t]

How about your calcium level?

 

[jokersplayground]

How about your calcium level?

It is 435ppm

I also tested today and alk is at 6.7 so going to try and bring it up more

 

[KSC]

Just remember that your hobby grade test kit isn't that accurate to give a reading of 6.7. I always assume the reading is off 5-10% or so, just to be safe.

 

[jokersplayground]

I got my alk back up to 7.8-8.0 I saw some polyp extension after I got it up there. No further damage which is good