What do I do??

[1mbrews8]

I am not sure anything is "wrong" but I think the results should be a bit different. What do you all think/recommend?

coral - everything looks fine. My one My Miami is looking a bit whack, but my other one is looking killer. (they are about 1" away from one another). My captain americas (which have never looked good) are still "skinny". Some of my z/p looks like the mat part is getting "thinner". red planet looks great with awesome polyp extension. etc..

getting some green/yellow algaeish stuff on the bottom of one of my frag tanks. kinda like bubble algae.

have been dosing vodka for like 2 months and at a constant 3.5ml every night around 12am for last 2 weeks.

do not dose anything else.

have a 180g display, basement 100g sump, 75g fuge, a 60g frag tank split into 2 30g sides.

2 skimmers in sump. sro 3000int and ocotpus extreme 200 or 250 i believe.


Today/recent test results:

Hanna checker alk = 133ppm (2.66meq/L, 7.448 dkh)
hanna checker phos = .35ppm
elos nitrite = 0
api nitrate = 0
apex temp (now) = 80.4F
apex ph now) = 8.46



starting last night, I just started lowering the vodka to 3ml and added 3ml of white vinegar (to try to get rid of the bubble/cyano/whatever it is)..




so it looks to me like my ph is high, phos high, and alk low? i have an old api kit i sometimes check cal with and could do that if needed.

how do i fix it without messing anything up?
mike

 

[thanh386]

Alk is on the low side if reading are accurate. Phospahte is high for my taste but shouldn't affect things too much. My captain american sucks too. They grow in numbers but look shrivel up. Maybe it's gettin too much light. Did better in the lower part of my tank. My Miami is a beast. I wouldn't worry too much about unless flesh is coming off. If you are dosing vodka make sure that the softies are not near the return assuming u are dosing into the sump. I donno why but mine dies near vodka.

 

[1mbrews8]

so what is the best way to lower the ph? i am starting to add vinegar to the vodka dose which should help.

also if i get a cal reactor, that will too, right?

 

[ralph atl]

Raise your Alk to 9 or so by using two part... I believe it's the non baked Alk will not raise ph. Just look at brs web site.

Use GFO to lower phates.

 

[ralph atl]

BigJohn;735246 wrote: I use kalkwasser. Its eaier to me. I have read it keeps the ph & dkh balanced correctly.

It raises PH though.

 

[thanh386]

Oh usually will fluctuate throughout the day, higher in the day lower at night . Funny question, but are you using salinity? I don't remember is I asked you before

 

[ripped tide]

When is the last time that you calibrated the ph probe?

 

[itsamyheff]

If your vodka dosing has been the same dose for a while, it may have dropped the nitrates and phosphates to fast all of a sudden and the corals are adjusting. I would not think so being your phos is still detectable, but something to think about. What does the vinegar do?

 

[ripped tide]

If he has a 7.00ph calibration solution, if he sticks the probe in there and it doesn't say 7.00, then he will need to re calibrate it, or buy a new probe.

 

[1mbrews8]

I am using IO salt.

Ph probe was calibrated prob may of last year. It has not ever given off a weird reading and never been out of the water.

Vinegar is supposed to do the same thing as vodka, just isn't as prone to cyano, certain other types of algae.

For the vodka dosing, I started at the rec dose, adn worked up to 3.5ml. I noticed that most of the algae was gone, so i cut dose in half like rec. It started to come back so I worked my way up again to 3.5 and am just staying here as of now (though like i said, i did 3ml of vodka and 3ml of vinegar last night..)

the corals have never really looked bad the whole time (just the same few)

 

[ff337]

1mbrews8;735312 wrote:

Ph probe was calibrated prob may of last year. It has not ever given off a weird reading and never been out of the water.

I would double check it. I calibrated my probe and then recalibrated a month later it was .5 off.

 

[itsamyheff]

My rk lite seems to act up after power outage. You got me looking into the vinegar thing now, thanks.

 

[ff337]

Also maybe double check your salinity? Wishful thinking for you

 

[1mbrews8]

just got a new refractometer! ) Sitting at 36ppt or about 1.027 with my squinty eye.

 

[crewdawg1981]

1.027 isnt going to hurt anything as long as it was a gradual move up. I'd look elsewhere for the issue.

 

[kirkwood]

1mbrews8;735063 wrote: My captain americas (which have never looked good) are still "skinny".

Only thing I'll mention is that I have nuclear green's that were very thin and not fully opening, and bought an ELOS calcium test kit and found that my calcium was very low.. Since then I switched to Salinity and got my calcium level up to 450.. Now the Nuclear Green's are fully opening and much fuller... I also have a captain america (only have it a couple weeks) and it is looking good too..