I hate my tank a little less.
Thanks everyone for the Support. I will try and answer the questions in order.
1)I will try to give my tank more love. Its unfortunate she is such a cruel mistress.
2)I am just using tapwater with no treatment for topups. As I understand it, if you let it sit for 24 hours all the chlorine evaporates off.
3)I think getting my water tested at the LFS is a great idea. I will bring them a sample for sure and let you know how his values differ to mine. I am specifically interested in Specific Gravity
4)Regarding DOCS (dissolved organic compounds?) I did not realize that could happen. I agree water changes should be applied. I have been planning a tank build post for a while. I will try and get it going
5)I acllimated the snails over 2 hrs slowly adding my water to the store water. I used a shot glass to slowly add bits of water every so often. The shot glass was well rinsed and is a tank dedicated shot glass.
6)I have no idea why my Calcium is so high. I will have to do some more reading about it.
7)As I previously said, I don’t use prime as I always let my water sit. I think I will add prime to the water from now on regardless.
8)The live rock was fully cured when I got it.
9)I will try to be more patient in the future
10)If the cyano gets really bad again I will leave the lights off. For now it seems to be holding off.
11)I will have to look into dinoflagulates. Interesting possibility.
12)I am trying to do a lagoon tank so I am not putting a lot of flow in my tank. Its circulating about 4 times its volume in an hour so I think its ok.
13)I thought my nitrates and phosphate levels were really low. I will look into that book.
14)My test kit is a brand new instant oceans reef kit.
Conclusions
-Do more water changes
-Get my water level parameters checked at the LFS
-Start treating my top up water
-Consider getting a phosphate remover and RO/DI unit.
Additional questions
1)How do you test of TDS (Total dissolved solids?). Does that not include dissolved calcium. Is that not a good thing.
2)I have read that increased Calcium can be a good thing for stony corals. Why is it bad for Coraline? I am not treating calcium so it must be coming from my sand and water top ups.
If anyone has any other ideas based on my responses, feel free to let me know.
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