Heartbreak hotel

[Quagmire]

Originally Posted by reef_raf

As I said offline Tony, every time I put my hand in the tank, I'd get heavy infections in any open wound. I spoke with my doctor who agreed it could be a strain of vibrio (not flesh eating disease ) and that the broad spectrum antibiotic could help. Being the idiot I often am, I used all th emeds on my tank instead of me, and the tank did clear up after treatment. I also stopped getting infections from scratches on the rockwork. Vibrio?? Who knows, but the antibiotic did resolve whatever was sloughing my acros. No science here, just experience...

So Brad did you notice any sort of cycle after treating the tank? I curious what effect the antibiotic would have on the bacteria in the rock.

UV sounds like a good idea,it would clear up any free floating bacteria or viruses,maybe stop it from spreading.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Quagmire

So Brad did you notice any sort of cycle after treating the tank?

No, can't say that I "noticed" one, but I never tested anything. Everything was doing much better than before treatment, so that was good enough.

[Delphinus]

Buh ,, ... so, just in case anyone was wondering ... Zeovit wasn't the saviour I hoped it would be. 5 frags down the tubes this week, same thing, starts with a loss of colour, then recession from the tips. Seen this before so I know what's next.

I've changed my signature to include a nice little Haiku-ish poem for now.

Ugh,.. this has been going on for far too long. I hate that I can't grow SPS anymore.

[Pan]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Buh ,, ... so, just in case anyone was wondering ... Zeovit wasn't the saviour I hoped it would be. 5 frags down the tubes this week, same thing, starts with a loss of colour, then recession from the tips. Seen this before so I know what's next.

I've changed my signature to include a nice little Haiku-ish poem for now.

Ugh,.. this has been going on for far too long. I hate that I can't grow SPS anymore.

Maybe it's the reef gods telling you...and catherine. Stop focusing on anything but the big tank, then i will let you have sps again

[BMW Rider]

I quit using the Reefresh system about ten days ago, and started dosing some potassium suppliment to my tank. Thus far, all my sps are looking much better and the glass is not turning opaque green in eight hours like it had been. I can actuall go three days between glass cleanings and even then its not horrible. Some of the SPS frags and colonies that had been receding have shown new growth, and colour is improving on all of them. Polyp extension is also better. Not sure which change is helping, but I don't care, I'm going to maintain this routine at least until I've used up the bottle of K suppliment. I'd like to find a test kit for it, but so far haven't been able to track one down.

I don't know if you can derive any conclusions from this for your tank or not, but htought it may give you something to consider.

[Delphinus]

Potassium is one of the last frontiers for me. Tell me about your dosing regimen .. I'm a little hesitant to dose anything without testing. I do have a Potassium test kit (this one) but it is inordinately the most difficult test kit to read. Basically, you're guessing the value based on how opaque the liquid is. I thought comparing colours was a subjective guess, this is worse!! Basically if in the end you're just guessing the overall value you can just guess without spending the cash. However, I think it's more or less the only test kit for K and if you're anything like me, it's just a more comfort zone knowing you can test when you're actively dosing something (because it's generally imperative to know when to stop, IME).

Right now I am cleaning the glass every day. If I don't do it every day, it gets harder to clean with every day that goes by.

I do wonder about the K thing. It's just that I tested it and .. well, I think the end reading was about 400 (top of the scale). So either I guessed wrong, or K isn't really the issue.

[Pan]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Potassium is one of the last frontiers for me. Tell me about your dosing regimen .. I'm a little hesitant to dose anything without testing. I do have a Potassium test kit (this one) but it is inordinately the most difficult test kit to read. Basically, you're guessing the value based on how opaque the liquid is. I thought comparing colours was a subjective guess, this is worse!! Basically if in the end you're just guessing the overall value you can just guess without spending the cash. However, I think it's more or less the only test kit for K and if you're anything like me, it's just a more comfort zone knowing you can test when you're actively dosing something (because it's generally imperative to know when to stop, IME).

Right now I am cleaning the glass every day. If I don't do it every day, it gets harder to clean with every day that goes by.

I do wonder about the K thing. It's just that I tested it and .. well, I think the end reading was about 400 (top of the scale). So either I guessed wrong, or K isn't really the issue.

Here is another one for you Tony.
http://stonyreef.com/blog/2008/potas...lium-test-kit/

[Delphinus]

That one does sound better, thanks for the heads-up. Haha, now to find one..

[BMW Rider]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Potassium is one of the last frontiers for me. Tell me about your dosing regimen .. I'm a little hesitant to dose anything without testing. I do have a Potassium test kit (this one) but it is inordinately the most difficult test kit to read. Basically, you're guessing the value based on how opaque the liquid is. I thought comparing colours was a subjective guess, this is worse!! Basically if in the end you're just guessing the overall value you can just guess without spending the cash. However, I think it's more or less the only test kit for K and if you're anything like me, it's just a more comfort zone knowing you can test when you're actively dosing something (because it's generally imperative to know when to stop, IME).

Right now I am cleaning the glass every day. If I don't do it every day, it gets harder to clean with every day that goes by.

I do wonder about the K thing. It's just that I tested it and .. well, I think the end reading was about 400 (top of the scale). So either I guessed wrong, or K isn't really the issue.

I was a little hesitant on dosing without testing too. I based my decision to go ahead with it based on anecdotal evidence that I found in several threads on various forums. The symptoms seemed to match the low K experiences of others. Tony, you are not the only one who has indicated uncertainty with the test kits, it seems that most of them are pretty subjective to get results and are therefore somewhat unreliable. Still, I'd like to know what my K levels really are.

I have the Pohl's K Balance Strong. The directions for dosing are 1ml per 25 gallons daily, so based on that, I'd dosing 6ml every morning. From what I've read, you'd really have to go crazy with this stuff to OD it, but yes it is a concern to not go overboard with it just the same.

Just wanted to add to this: I don't have the low Mg issue like you. I have been dosing additional Mg and have had reasonably stable wter parameters for Ca, Kh and Mg, so it is still possible that your situation is from other factors than low K or perhaps in addition to it.

[Jason McK]

Not sure about your Salt Tony. I've never heard of Aquamedic salt. I'm wonder what buffer they use. I know a lot of salts have been boosting ALK with Boron and it is rally a false buffer.
I'm current;y using RBS and Love it. But Seachem salt is also rated in the 360 -400 for Potassium

J