I have had my alk over 16 with no ill effects, weird :neutral:

Steve

the hippo was a baby and i was not skimming for 3 weeks i dont know, I forgot to mention that when i looked at the test kit and noticed that the cal was down i added REEF COMPLETE to bring it up so may the jump in cal and the lowering of ALK did it.

To get rid of the ick I added Quick cure to help out it did ,but in the long run i think the quick cure killed of the fish.
MAN I feel like a idiot. :frown:

FOr the record i lost the scopas and the other Coral beauty to the CB died last night when i got home.

Well I'm going to be going with schooling fish from now on.

Mike :bad-word:

I guess as Mike has already posted, here is a good reference for future new aquarists to be aware of. Hope Mike does not mind, but I know he has limited posting time, training those army guys. :lol:

We think what happened was not the high alk. but the rapid increase in buffering the tank. The alk went from about 3dkh to 16 dkh in a week. I myself did that with a buffer about 12 years ago, but lost ni fish, just a few corals.

Mike tank has been fighting hair algae and he is trying to increase coralline growth. The reactor was pumping out buffer & calcium at the same time to much chemical buffer was added. If this increase is to rapid it stresses the tanks inhabitants. For anyone unaware of the reactors ability to increase alkalinity and the reaction from buffers, this mistake is easy for someone to make.

As Mike said, he had a very small, but healthy captive raised hippo. These are already an icky fish and easily stressed. We think this is what started it. It was removed, {but I guess to late}, and is currently doing well in my hospital tank. In hind sight, :cry: , I guess some of the others should have been removed. Perhaps the achilles, as they are also very icky. I might add this was a very healthy, pig achilles, that had lots of room and food in the 280 gal tank.

Myself and another aquarist had experimented with Quick Cure, {which is an ick medicine}, when we fought flatworms. Most corals, except sps and all crawlies handled it well. So thinking this may be the best treatment for his already in trouble stock, Mike treated the tank. I am not sure if to much was added or it was just the icks progression, but they just kept going downhill.

The message to others would be to make changes very slowly and be very careful what and in what amount something is added to a reef tank. What may work for something else. like fresh water, does not necc. apply to reefs. And sometimes the instructions mean dick, when it comes to reefs.

I don't buy the alk thing. It has been stated on RC by RHF and a couple others, that a over night raise of ALK from say 3 to 8 or 9 shoulden't be a problem.

I have several times taken my alk from 3 to about 13 over-night. I don't have a hippo but I do have a tang. I am not saying it is good to raise your alk that fast but I don't see it as being the main problem either.

havign said all this the raise was over a week as you stated, that is even less od a Per Day that is recomended on buffer products.

Steve