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Long overdue not done out of lazyness update!!!

Hello everyone!!

Its been a long time since I've updated on here. I've lurking around the forum picking up live stock here and there but didn't get enough time to update anything here.

So after my last update, I've added a few fish and a lot more corals. I've had a few casualties as well one of which was probably my fault as I did not feed enough out of paranoia of havning high trates and phates.

Long story short... Tank is doing well at the moment. I've recently started testing for major tank parameters and been keeping a log of them.

I need to start 2 part dosing asap to get some growth out of my corals as well as control the phates as they are extremely high atm.

Params on 11/15/2013 - Before Adding GFO or any sort of dosing

Nitrates 0
PH 8.11
Phosphates .11
Calcium N/A
Magnesium N/A
Alkalinity N/A
Salinity 1.023

Params on 11/21/2013 - After adding GFO and still no dosing (I dosed for the first time ever after this test)

Nitrates 0
PH 8.1
Phosphates .08
Calcium 364
Magnesium 1000
Alkalinity 4
Salinity 1.023

I did not do any dosing from the last check till today. No water changes were done from the last params date till this day.

Params on 12/21/2013 (Before Water change)

Nitrates 0
PH 8.02 (checked at night)
Phosphates .16
Calcium 380
Magnesium 1150
Alkalinity 4
Salinity 1.022

Params on 12/22/2013 (After the water change)

Nitrates 0
PH 8.1
Phosphates .12
Calcium 392
Magnesium 1150
Alkalinity 4.5
Salinity 1.023

I plan to start dosing the tank regularly startign this weekend.

My phosphates are out of control and I'm just not sure why that is the case, given I'm not feeding a lot. I try to change the 10 gallons of water every week. Sometimes I skip a week but otherwise its consistent.

I took some pics last night but haven't had a chance to upload them yet. I'll do that sometime tonight.

Any suggestions on dosing and bringing down phosphates are appreciatied.

Think you definitely need to get tour alk up. Asap.
But slowly over a few days.

Quote:

Originally Posted by reeferfulton (Post 868574)

Think you definitely need to get tour alk up. Asap.
But slowly over a few days.

Yeah I just dosed a little today per the instructions on the bottle to raise it up to the optimal level. Hopefully this will help creep up my readings slowly to the right levels.

I would be more concerned about the salinity and alkalinity. It would be wise to have the salinity sit around 1.025-1.026 and alkalinity somewhere between 7 to 10dkh (differently reefers maintain different alk). You can take care of phos and nitrate as you move forth fixing those first.

And make sure your test kits are not dead ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrhasan (Post 868639)

I was keeping salinity low to 1.022 or 1.023 on purpose. I read somewhere on the forum that its easier on the fish to keep it on the lower side. I had it at 1.025 at the beginning but brought it down later.

Would keeping it at 1.025 help with proper growth in corals and healthier fish?

Hoping to get alkalinity up to the desired level by this weekend.

Some recent shots

Has anyone else noticed these worm type things in their GFO unit? I'm wondering if thats normal or not. Also, this gives you an idea of how much I used as GFO the first time. Any suggestions on how much I should be adding?

http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/...ps423abf10.jpg

http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/...ps44dc87a9.jpg