Help coral problem

[mohammadali]

i changed about 5g water and i added some kh buffer in the 5g water i raised the salinity higher to 1.27 so far my cleaner shrimp is doing good
ill go to jl tomorrow ask john about this problem

[monocus]

take a sample of water in or if your in the area bring me a sample and i'll do some tests with my checkers.it looks like you have sponge on your coral

[monocus]

it also looks like you have diatoms on your sand bed-how long has the setup being running

[FragIt Dan]

Originally Posted by jords

This is in regards to I think the 1st reply on this thread (about pH buffers)...
IMO, I wouldn't use them...

I would have to partially agree with ScubaSteve, it is clear there is a lack of understanding on the relationship between buffers, dKh, alkalinity and pH (no offence jords, it's just some well intentioned but perhaps ill advised advice). Carbonates, dKh, alkalinity and buffers ALL refer to the same thing with respect to marine aquariums, and they are essential to a healthy tank (FOWRL or reef). Stoney corals consume your buffer (carbonates) to combine them with calcium to produce calcium carbonate, the white stoney part of the coral left over after it dies. As your levels of carbonates in your tank falls, your tank loses it's ability to resist changes in pH. IME dKh values above ~6 degrees are sufficient to resist damaging shifts in pH, although keeping values above 8 will keep your corals much happier. In a FOWLR tank, water changes replenish the small amount of carbonates that are consumed, but less so in reef tanks. The only thing that has any significant effect on pulling pH away from it's natural resting point is CO2, either from the air, or respiration from metabolic processes in your tank. The natural resting point (I think this is referred to as pK), is controlled by the type of buffer you use. In marine tanks we are essentially restricted to a mix of carbonates and bicarbonates which will give a resting pH point in most tanks of ~8-8.3. If you are in a particularly polluted area with elevated CO2, you may be observing slightly lower resting pH, perhaps ranging from 7.8-8.1, than if your tank were elsewhere (ie ocean acidification). In this situation you could use a pH 'up' buffer, which contains borates. These have a higher pK (natural resting point for pH) and so will counteract the elevated ambient CO2 levels. I am just skimming the surface with respect to the relationship between buffers and pH, there is a lot more to it, but that should give you enough to hopefully make some informed decisions as to the use of buffers in your aquarium. Oh, and no need to buy buffers, just look up DIY dKh, it is essentially just arm and hammer baking soda but sold at 10x the price. I have been buying it from Costco in bulk for years and have 5 tanks of happy sps (~400G total).

[mohammadali]

can you post a pic of the soda your using ?

[FragIt Dan]

DIY instructions are readily available but I can give a quick Coles notes here (apologies for hijacking the thread). You can use this stuff straight, but personally I prefer to balance my buffer before I add it (it will do this on it's own in the tank but will cause a pH shift while doing so). I do this by baking some of the baking soda in the oven at 400f for about an hour (this converts the bicarbonate to carbonate). Then I add 1 part of the baked stuff to water and mix until dissolved, then 7 parts of the non-baked stuff and mix until it is mostly dissolved. If you add in the opposite order it will be fine but harder to dissolve. You will get a saturated solution using about 100g total (~15g baked+85g nonbaked) for every litre of water (there will actually be a bit of powder leftover on the bottom that will not dissolve so shake before each time you add to your tank). I use RODI water but you can get distilled water from a pharmacy, or tap water should be fine too. A 500g box makes up about 5l, with a total cost of a couple of bucks (as compared to $100+ in the stores). This is not a 'close match' to store bought stuff, it is EXACTLY what the stores are selling you, the exception being the pH 'up' versions that have borates added, and some companies vary the ratios around the 7:1, but this matters little as your the naturally occurring chemical reactions in your tank establish an equilibrium between carbonates, bicarbonates and CO2, so varying the ratios you add will have no long term effect (thus you could add straight baking soda, but the short term pH shift will be a bit more stressful for your critters). Short term effect is a shift in pH of a few of tenths for a few hours. This is the only buffer I have used for several years, I'll let you be the judge on whether or not it works...

[ScubaSteve]

I used the same method for years. Works like a charm. If you can find calcium chloride (I might Even have some you can have) you can dose calcium the same way. This is called 2 part dosing. Dan's recipe is nice in that it buffers the pH, where using the components on their own can cause small pH swings up or down, depending on how much you use. I eventually gave up on two part and just started putting kalkwasser (pickling lime) into my ATO water bucket because I'm so busy I was never able to added the 2 part reliably on a daily basis.

This is a helpful tool for figuring out the amounts of each component you need for two part dosing: http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html