Soooo...I refilled my alkalinity doser yesterday around noon, and plugged it into the wall instead of the timer to refill the dosing tubes (I let i run dry...oops). I set a timer for 10 minutes so I wouldn't forget. I remember to timer going off, but apparently I didn't go unplug the doser! WTF?!!! Anyway, this morning I walk by the tank and I usually glance at the doser vessels in habit to check if one needs refilling and the alkalinity is HALF EMPTY! I left it on for
20 hours!
I tested calcium at 430 ppm and alkalinity at
17 dKH. I have no idea why calcium is so high as the high alkalinity should have yanked the calcium down...maybe the high alkalinity is preventing the inhabitants from utilizing calcium and alkalinity. Anyway...I added a bunch of calcium hopefully bumping it up to 500 ppm which will help draw the alkalinity down a bit and also help to balance it a bit better. Of course I ran out of one of the liquids for the calcium kit (it didn't feel
that empty rrrg!). I just did a waterchange yesterday so I didn't have new water mixed up yet, but I have it mixing now. Everyone looks happy, so I won't bother doing a waterchange unless someone shows stress. They are tough. I hope...
Some other changes in the tank...added a 200 micron filter sock to this tank. I bought a doser and some Kalk to start adding Kalk, but had a brain fart and ordered a slow doser instead of a fast doser, so that project is on hold. Kalk should help a bit while the rocks are still leeching nutrients. I bought everything to modify the sump for a Chaeto filter as well. Back to basics!
The "Melanurus Wrasse" is actually a Grey Head Wrasse! He is almost done changing into a male now...He has changed a bit since the last pic. I was looking at him a couple weeks ago thinking, "He just doesn't quite look like a Melanurus, and he's getting sooo big!" So I did some searching around and found out he is a Grey Head which I'm not familiar with! Thankfully the Grey Head is essentially the same personality as a Melanurus, but I can expect him to get another 1 1/2" on the Melanurus! The female Melanurus and female Grey Head look very similar and I guess he was mislabeled right from the wholesaler because I special ordered him. I didn't notice the difference...actually I didn't know there was a similar looking wrasse in existence! So...long story short...he has turned into one big @$$ wrasse!