unable to keep sps.
- Thread starter johnnyb
- Start date
Steviereefs
Non-member
I just read through 6 pages and I must say for one I think Dong hit the nail on the head with this post. If you only have softy coral and you want to introduce hard coral to the mix your alk and cal demand is low and considering they are frags the demand will be even less because of slow growth initially. I think you should pull the reactor off if this is the case and dose manually. Even better if you can switch to coral pro salt which contains cal and alk ,so when you do water changes you'll be adding some stuff you need everytime you water change and as for manual dosing start slowly .. hear is the key .. start doing water changes with new salt so that your adding stable water with perfect cal and alk chemistry right off the bat, next day after the water change check your alk levels and record it, now wait three days test your alk again and make another record , now your at the next water change a week later with the new salt again , do the water change and the following day test alk again and record it . Now at this point you will not see much of a trend change in alk because not much is being used . Why are you not testing cal , well you need to understand calcium and alk areused in equal parts so if your alk test results have no fluctuation the same should apply to calcium. So now your two weeks out and you've continued to test and record the alk say every three days now at the beginning of the third week or maybe even sooner you may notice your alk drop if this so and assuming you have Coraline algae which calcifies and other crustations that use calcium if you alkalinity is still in a acceptable range but dropped you can start to safely dose manually starting with just a teaspoon of soda ash and also a teaspoon of calcium , mix each separately in a cup of ro and dose into your sump a half hour apart so they do not combined and precipitate out of solution. Now the next day after the manual dose test your alk and if there is no change you may dose the same again , one teaspoon of each, now a reminder so you start to get it you are dosing a teaspoon of each because they are used up in the reef in equal parts by organisms that calcify. Now continue the trend of water changes with new salt , testing frequently at least every three days and if the alk value stays the same in a acceptable range between 9-10it's OK to dose the cal and alk in equal parts . Now the next day after you dose if it is a alk test day and you see the alk raise Do Not Dose that day , the next day test to see if alk came back down if it's normal again continue to dose as normal and use the same method again if you see alk go up again just skip that test day . Now for the downward trend if you see a drop in alk you want to increase your doses equal by a little more , say by two teaspoons of alk and cal instead of one . Test the next day and if it is back up to normal continue dosing a single teaspoon of each a day and if the treadK keeps going down now it is time to increase the daily dose to the two teaspoons of each a day and that means your demand has increased and the dose should remain similar for extended periods of time until the demand goes up again . If you can maintain this stability for a month then you can probable support sps if you have no other underlying issues. This is a very easy way to dose in the system for sps when the demands are not high. You should be able to use this method for a couple of year at least and have stable parameters for Sps and the point when you need to consider a change is when dosing becomes unconventional and can not meet the demands , this is when you need to consider adding automation with media reactors , cal reactors , kalkwasser auto top off reactors and so forth. In my opinion I thing people who want to reefn need to start to understand that that type of automation is for experts that have large quantities and large demands and slot of money to support it . If you start slower it's cheaper by along shot and you gain the knowledge of understanding what actually makes the reef tick. So thanks for you time I hope this will help you
Last edited:
Steviereefs
Non-member
Just a note on one thing all things considered the manual dosing method needs to have a start point before you start adjust you alk and cal first to the desired point alk 10 and cal 420 then wait to start when you see the first drop in alkalinity , this is the start point that you want to maintain .
OP
OP
johnnyb
Non-member
I took the reactor off after Dongs post. My levels have stayed fine through testing. I havent done any testing this week as I was trying to recover from the freshwater accident but my levels have been consistent with the exception of i let my alk drop to around 9.0. I havent had to dose anything as my water changes with reef crystals that I switched to early on in this thread have been enough to keep all levels the same. Sps still dying.
Steviereefs
Non-member
Your doing alot of what changes and you have a good size volume are you putting the sps in after the water changes , is the temperature of the water going in warm enough ? Are your heaters OK?
OP
OP
johnnyb
Non-member
Yeah seems fine I keep the water at 78 in the display tanks between the ACand heaters its stable. I hear the water in a separate barrel where it mixes before adding to the system. I usually don't add any frags until a day or 2 later to make sure there is no spikes in anything from the change.
You end this posting with "SPS STILL DYING" , of course you will have that issue until you are able to keep the system STABLE , as mentioned in the long posting #203.
For now, I will just focus on get STABILITY. Lots of good ideas have been provided on the thread. Forget the SPS for a time. Get your system working stable and after, let say a month of good stable parameter, try some SPS again.
delta
Impatient Reefer
I agree. Sometimes when you can't find the problem its time to follow that old school saying "Keep your hands out of the tank"
OP
OP
johnnyb
Non-member
There is a small misconception (I belive that is the correct word, if not my apologies) concerning stability. With the change you had with the accident I am sure, SPS will notice it. And some, not all, in the case of a full SPS tank will suffer. Any spike of whatever can have an impact.
Yes, accident can happen to anyone and that is something that bothers me every day with my SPS tank.
But if I understand your postings, the accident occurred because there are issues with the way you have your tank setup.
My feeling of this thread is that you still do not have a stable system in al sence. If I am wrong, please disregard my comments and my apologies again for the misunderstanding.
Best !
Yes, accident can happen to anyone and that is something that bothers me every day with my SPS tank.
But if I understand your postings, the accident occurred because there are issues with the way you have your tank setup.
My feeling of this thread is that you still do not have a stable system in al sence. If I am wrong, please disregard my comments and my apologies again for the misunderstanding.
Best !
Last edited:
OP
OP
johnnyb
Non-member
I think One thing I dint mention in my post was prior to the accident all of the sps was dead. I hadnt added anything since begining the addition of the 55 gallon tank that leaked over. I was waiting for the new sump to be added and the new tank will have a different light over it so i can test my water conditions with a different light set up. When I posted sps still dying it was in reference to before the accident. I was responding to someone suggesting the calcium reactor be removed which I had done weeks ago. No sps where in the tank when the accident happened.
reefstarter
Non-member
Definition of stability for an dos tank..... Parameters temp bio load and filtration all must stay the same upon measuring in my opinion for at least 3 months. Some things will grow just fine during this time but other things may not or even die. While your system may seem stable it is not yet. Once it is you will better see what I mean saying this to you. And I know you will get there. Adding tanks changing anything changes what the system can do for itself starting with bacteria levels all the way up to the fish a good biodiversity is key in keeping stability. All calc and mag are not the only important things in a reef. It is called a system for a reason and it should manage itself with very little help from you. The idea is to create that system which can be in 10 gallons or 10 thousand the more water you have allows for little param changes and much slower change but it takes longer for things to establish. Hope this makes sense and helps you to have your dream aquarium
