reef tank problems!! HELP!!! AHHHHHH!!!!!
Casey
WAY too much calcium chloride on Sunday. Tuesday I noticed a dead fish.
Yesterday I scooped out 5 more and today I don't see the last couple. The
2.5' long waving hands looks almost dead, the 1.5' leather coral looks BAD.
All the mushrooms are now closed up. Could this all be from the calcium??
Its around 580 ppm and water is now turning a bit milky... We have changed
about 25 gal in last 2 days but the problem is I tested the Tropic Marine
salt we've been using and even though there is no calcium listed in the 75
nutrients shown to be in the salt the level is HIGH. I mixed up r/o water
and salt to a high concentration of about 1.029 or so thinking that it would
take a high concentration to get a reading and to my amazement it tested at
700-800!!!!
What can I do?!?!? I can't just dump in 25-30 gal fresh water to drop the
calcium because that would screw the salt level, ph, etc....
Has anyone tested instant ocean to see what the calcium level is??
Haven't tested tank today but Tuesday's levels
PH ~8.15 ish (hard to tell)
Ammonia 0 - 0.1
Nitrite .05
Nitrate 6 - 7
Alkalinity 4
Calcium 540-560
Yesterday's levels
PH ~8.0-8.05 (again hard to tell)
Alkalinity 3.75
Calcium 580
Could the Alkalinity be more of a problem than the calcium??
I think the water is turning milky because the salinity is dropping trying
to mix it weak and even some fresh to drop the calcium.
If I don't get this thing headed in the right direction TODAY I'm afraid
Everything will die :-( !!!
Most everything in the tank has been doing great for over 2 years or more
and has multiplied in size several times... man I hate to see anything die!
Thanks for any advice!!
Marksfish
being added. The water going milky is probably the supplement precipitating
out of solution as it is so saturated. Why oh why did you raise the sg so
high? Are you using a hydrometer or a refractometer? With a hydrometer, you
could actually be looking at a much higher sg as they are not the most
reliable instruments to use.
I used Instant Ocean salt in my tank all the time, but I never measured
calcium levels as I had mostly soft corals. You need to be bringing your sg
down to around 1.025, but do it gradually, not all in one go, otherwise you
will shock everything again. The leather will probably be okay as they are
quite resilient, although it may sulk for a couple of weeks and shed lots of
mucus. Not sure what waving hands are, is it xenia? Looking at the stock
levels, you don't mention any hard corals, so why are you adding a calcium
supplement?
Mix up a fresh batch of water, which you should really be mixing for 24
hours beforehand and change 5 gallons. Leave the tank for a couple of hours
and then change another 5 gallons, leave for a couple of hours............
Do this as often as you need to stabilise the water conditions. Once stable,
you can work on bringing the parameters back to acceptable levels.
BTW, the ammonia and nitrite readings are more of a problem than the calcium
levels, these should really be a 0ppm if the filter is working correctly.
Hope you get it sorted
Mark