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Our 57g rimless
- Thread starter NikkiT
- Start date
Looks great,nice choice of fish..
We moved some things around and our helfrichi pair out of nowhere decided to start fighting. We dont' know if we shifted their bolt hole or what but the aggression started. We had some old shot glasses laying around so we through a couple in there to give some extra hiding places. I don't know if they used the shot glasses, but they are back to being buddy buddy again and are just fine.
So . . . The last few months have been a bit rough on our tanks. The 57 was looking far from perfect, and as a result, many of our corals have been migrating to our 45g. Why am I telling you all this? Well, because I asked Ethan to come take a look at our tanks, to see if we were missing something in our husbandry that would account for our coral losses. Suffice to say, they have amounted to such a level that, like at the time of the 2009 tank crash, a new spreadsheet will be begun shortly because I simply can't look at the old one.
Well, it turns out that we were missing something significant.
First, I calibrated our refractometer with fresh water, not a recalibrating solution. I may have been in this hobby for 17 years, but I still did the wrong thing, and as a result, our refractometer was off by .005. So, our 57g was at 1.020, when we thought it was 1.025. That is not all.
Second, we have been messing with dosing pumps for some time, trying to stabilize our alk. Well, we were failing (partially because of the low specific gravity I understand from Ethan) - when he was here yesterday, Alk was at 6.5. And did I mention that phosphates were at .09? Yeah. About that.
Alk at 6.5 + low SG + .09 phosphates = problem.
So. . . What to do.
1. Ethan did a 10g water change with Red Sea Coral Pro, which brought our Alk back up to 8 and our SG up to 1.021
2. Ethan calibrated our refractometer, and we will be getting calibration solution from AO.
3. We will be doing weekly water changes of 10g pr week to try to bring our tank back to normal.
Why am I telling you all this? So that you can avoid my mistakes. Because, just wait, coming soon, a post on the 45g parameters (yes, the happy pretty tank). And it is not good either. The moral of the story: when something goes wrong, look for a simple solution first. It might just be right under your nose.
Well, it turns out that we were missing something significant.
First, I calibrated our refractometer with fresh water, not a recalibrating solution. I may have been in this hobby for 17 years, but I still did the wrong thing, and as a result, our refractometer was off by .005. So, our 57g was at 1.020, when we thought it was 1.025. That is not all.
Second, we have been messing with dosing pumps for some time, trying to stabilize our alk. Well, we were failing (partially because of the low specific gravity I understand from Ethan) - when he was here yesterday, Alk was at 6.5. And did I mention that phosphates were at .09? Yeah. About that.
Alk at 6.5 + low SG + .09 phosphates = problem.
So. . . What to do.
1. Ethan did a 10g water change with Red Sea Coral Pro, which brought our Alk back up to 8 and our SG up to 1.021
2. Ethan calibrated our refractometer, and we will be getting calibration solution from AO.
3. We will be doing weekly water changes of 10g pr week to try to bring our tank back to normal.
Why am I telling you all this? So that you can avoid my mistakes. Because, just wait, coming soon, a post on the 45g parameters (yes, the happy pretty tank). And it is not good either. The moral of the story: when something goes wrong, look for a simple solution first. It might just be right under your nose.
Sorry to hear of your troubles. As soon as I got done reading, I checked all my equipment. Thermometer, refract, back up refract, and checked dates on my test reagents. All good. When we've been doing anything for a long time we tend to forget the roots of maintanance, thanks for the reminder and I hope everyone takes advantage of your advice
Twisteds 180 Reef
Twisteds 180 Reef
+1 I've been thinking the same thing lately. I don't test as often as I used to, probably because it seems redundant when everything is "OK" almost every time. It's hard to keep that up, but I try to force myself to continue the process. I just have to remind myself that if I slack on the testing and I miss some minor change... it could end up causing huge losses (both financially and emotionally).
Anyway, sorry to hear of your troubles too Nikki. Glad you figured them out though and now it's just a matter of getting back on track.
So given we are doing more frequent water changes I finally took out the rodi unit and set it up. I needed a faucet adapter which I got today and we were off. Then things went quickly down hill. I setup everything and was running a few gallons through to clear it out. It was then I noticed the tiny puncture holes in the lines from our cats. Tried to tape them up but could not. I found some airline tubing that fit so on that went as a temporary measure. This went fine until it didn't and the hose came off the unit and sent water flying, luckily I heard it instantly and we only had some water sprayed around.
So tint to order some new rodi line or see if a store has it locally. All in all not a good start with homemade water.
So tint to order some new rodi line or see if a store has it locally. All in all not a good start with homemade water.