Well, this is a little embarrassing. I have a 55g tank in my basement that has been my catch-all tank for about 8 years. I have it stocked with a one eyed PJ Cardinal, a cowrie that really like to munch on my fungia and a bristle start that just got too big. Along with those those ragtag critters are various softies and a few accidental frags. I've recently upgraded the lights on my display tank and that meant the basement tank recently got a second hand upgrade too! So, I started moving some stuff around, testing once in a while in preparation to make this tank a frag/coral tank.
I bought some frags today to add to it and that's where I screwed up. It was looking really good, lots and lots and lots of new coralline growth encouraged me to go full steam ahead. Nice long drip acclimation and the frags were in their new home! Since I had time I thought I might go ahead and run the parameter again even though I had just done it. It turns out, I hadn't and the last time I ran tests was January 6th. All of that coralline growth and a few fast growing hunks of monti had depressed my alkalinity to 4.3. (The fact that I've been dealing with super low alkalinity in the salt mix I've been using didn't help.) I did everything we're supposed to do when getting ready to add corals to a tank but perform any recent tests. I've been slowly raising the alk level and I hope the corals end up being alright. I did have enough sense to NOT raise the alk level too fast but we'll see. All other parameter were acceptable and the alkalinity could have been easily corrected if I had just done the stinkin' tests.
I bought some frags today to add to it and that's where I screwed up. It was looking really good, lots and lots and lots of new coralline growth encouraged me to go full steam ahead. Nice long drip acclimation and the frags were in their new home! Since I had time I thought I might go ahead and run the parameter again even though I had just done it. It turns out, I hadn't and the last time I ran tests was January 6th. All of that coralline growth and a few fast growing hunks of monti had depressed my alkalinity to 4.3. (The fact that I've been dealing with super low alkalinity in the salt mix I've been using didn't help.) I did everything we're supposed to do when getting ready to add corals to a tank but perform any recent tests. I've been slowly raising the alk level and I hope the corals end up being alright. I did have enough sense to NOT raise the alk level too fast but we'll see. All other parameter were acceptable and the alkalinity could have been easily corrected if I had just done the stinkin' tests.
