What’s happening people just did a full fledged water test these are the numbers I came up with I did it twice on each one to make sure I was correct I followed along with the BRS video and remembered stuff that Mike had told me I know my phosphate is high started at .45 down to .39 within last three days
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Any thoughts or advice on this water test
- Thread starter Paulie 069
- Start date
6.4 alk is pretty low. (Everything is a little bit low) but only the alk makes me nervous. The best thing you can do is keep your alk pegged and steady the other parameters are much easier to hold steady. For this reason I test alk every other day and keep mine within .3 points of my target number. Which in my case happens to be 9 DKH this is not however a number you need to target. You need to target a number that you find easy to maintain and keep it there.
Everything I’ve ever put in tank has either doubled or tripled in size and look great, but yesterday things looked to be changing, my GSP went to sleep purple gargonian isn’t full of polops as normal and brown Algea starting to cover rocks
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Hockeynut
NJRC Member
Paulie how old is this tank?
I think it’s just going through the motions.
your Alk is a bit low but you don’t have any sps so I wouldn’t worry to much. Get it moving up but it isn’t the end of the world.
If I could give you one bit of advise it would be to stop testing every day!!!!!
Chasing numbers on a test strip will cause you nothing but problems. Look at your water look at your tank look at your corals make your decisions based on that non-water test strips says, algae is normal diatoms are normal they suck but they are very normal especially if the tank is new. Getting rid of your Chito in your pods isn’t a good idea it’s a bad idea you want that Chito growing so that it competes with the algae in your tank and takes the excess nutrients out of your tank. Good luck sit back and enjoy your tank let it roll for a while and it will come around.
Not to say this is the norm or what you should do but my 40 breeder ran for six months and I never tested the water not once with anything and it looked great go back into the tailor the tank and you could take a look at it slow and steady is the way
I think it’s just going through the motions.
your Alk is a bit low but you don’t have any sps so I wouldn’t worry to much. Get it moving up but it isn’t the end of the world.
If I could give you one bit of advise it would be to stop testing every day!!!!!
Chasing numbers on a test strip will cause you nothing but problems. Look at your water look at your tank look at your corals make your decisions based on that non-water test strips says, algae is normal diatoms are normal they suck but they are very normal especially if the tank is new. Getting rid of your Chito in your pods isn’t a good idea it’s a bad idea you want that Chito growing so that it competes with the algae in your tank and takes the excess nutrients out of your tank. Good luck sit back and enjoy your tank let it roll for a while and it will come around.
Not to say this is the norm or what you should do but my 40 breeder ran for six months and I never tested the water not once with anything and it looked great go back into the tailor the tank and you could take a look at it slow and steady is the way
The tank was just plugged in January 17 and I’ve had nothing but luck with all my quarrels but lately I’ve been battling a brown algae and my big piece of GSP on the clamshell was extremely beautiful and then yesterday it look like it died this morning it still looks like crap I don’t get it I do not use test strips I have the red sea foundation test kit and I definitely do not test all the time I have lots of corals which are basically all over I have mushrooms I have Zola‘s I have a digity I have a leather crown,gorgonian‘s lots of zoas I have a green Singulara I have a cabbage mushroom so it’s just a nice mixture of things that I have all together and like I said this is the first time it’s ever looked like this everything I’ve ever put in my tank has doubled or tripled in size. Yesterday because of the warm weather I am guessing my temperature in my tank went up almost 3 to 4° I have always kept it at 72 1/2 sometimes a little bit lower but never any more than 72 1/2 and everything has always looked great then yesterday it got a lot warmer and things started to look like crap especially my large amount of GSP which really breaks my heart because it was beautiful
Also I forgot to say I have a couple of leptoes and a fava I think they usually call them incrusters
I’ve only had my tank up and running since January 17 I went through the cycle then that is when I added more live rock and then it went through a second mini cycle that was two months ago and it’s been beautiful ever since until yesterday
I’ve decided to lower my bio load I am looking to get rid of two cardinals and a hawk fish since I have those two big red dragon breath macros I have decided I am going to get rid of the Chaeto And replace it with algae scrubber I also bought a lawnmower blenny and a cleaner shrimp
Hockeynut
NJRC Member
Sorry I said test strips but I meant tests in general.
I think what your seeing is just a normal event and I wouldn’t worry to much. I think
72 is a bit cool for your water. It’s gonna be really hard to keep that temp consistent in summer months. I try to keep my tanks between 76 and 78 easy to get to that in winter and if the house gets a little hot in the summer it rarely gets to 78. Lol if it did my wife would probably melt She likes it cold. It just is a bit more consistent at least for me.
I’m going to take your advice and test my ocean water today to see what that is like but I really don’t think that is the problem since I’ve been using it for two years now with my small tanks i used to have before I got my big system
Hockeynut
NJRC Member
I like the lawnmower blenny dragons breath is usually not as aggressive as cheato in removing nutrients.
The reason I keep it at 72 is because of my seahorses I have erectus seahorses And they like the cooler temp water so I’ve always based everything around them
Feed frozen mysis and brine also healthy load of copepods in my tank
Your tank looks amazing to me! You’ve also added a lot of life over the past few months and they’re all growing like mad so finding the right amount of alk and calc to put in may be hard. With seahorses being big waste producers I wonder how low your nitrates can go, and also how low you should aim for since there are some benefits. You have Chaeto in the fudge so those numbers should go down.
When I tried to hone in on how much to dose, most regimens saiid test, figure out the right amount to dose (I Used the BRS calculator; lino below if you need it), and dose for 3-4 days before testing again. See how much you over or under shoot and divide by the number of days between and adjust. Small adjustments because, like MadReefer said, stability is more important than nailing the number.
With the time you put into your tank, I recommend trying automatic dosers; I didn’t have until a few months ago and iit’s made a huge difference. Two dosers, digital timers, and bucket/container for all and calc and some airline tubing and you’re all set. The gradual drp keeps stability and my corals have flourished since starting it. Before setting those up I was consistent with manual dosing and I didn’t think it would make a difference it, but it definitely did. There are a few used ones for sale on this board too; check out the breaking tank down posts that are on here.
Good luck and don’t sweat it too hard—your system looks great!
The dosing calculator: Aquarium & Reef Calculators
When I tried to hone in on how much to dose, most regimens saiid test, figure out the right amount to dose (I Used the BRS calculator; lino below if you need it), and dose for 3-4 days before testing again. See how much you over or under shoot and divide by the number of days between and adjust. Small adjustments because, like MadReefer said, stability is more important than nailing the number.
With the time you put into your tank, I recommend trying automatic dosers; I didn’t have until a few months ago and iit’s made a huge difference. Two dosers, digital timers, and bucket/container for all and calc and some airline tubing and you’re all set. The gradual drp keeps stability and my corals have flourished since starting it. Before setting those up I was consistent with manual dosing and I didn’t think it would make a difference it, but it definitely did. There are a few used ones for sale on this board too; check out the breaking tank down posts that are on here.
Good luck and don’t sweat it too hard—your system looks great!
The dosing calculator: Aquarium & Reef Calculators