BIG TROUBLE!! Need advice please.

[doch]

Originally Posted by Myka

I would believe Elos over Hanna, especially when it comes to calcium. There have been reports of inaccurate numbers with the Hanna calcium kit and people have been using the Elos for a long time with reliable results. 100-150 ppm calcium is hard to believe though...

Here's an idea...we know that bucket of IO salt will have calcium around 380 ppm at 1.025, so mix up some saltwater for 24 hours and test that with both Hanna and Elos. Since there is a 200 ppm difference between the kits you will be able to tell which one is out to lunch.

Don't forget to roll that bucket of salt before using it too!!

That's a good idea... I'll do that when I get home.

Roll the bucket.... uh... yeah.... won't make that mistake again! Trust me on that one.

[doch]

Well.... I overestimated how much water I'd have when I got home today, and it didn't work out for a full water change. By the time that I wake up this afternoon, I'll have a full WC tank with the IO salt and I can test the Ca between both test kits. For now though, things have definetly settled down from super catastrophic seath mode. There are 4 more pieces that I'm worried about, but we'll see what they're doing when I wake up. I've got a Rainbow Stylo, 2 Loripes, and 1 of 2 nubs on my Oregon Tort that are in STN mode. If they're worse when I get up, I'll dip the 2 that I can in H2O2 mix, and hope for the best. I should be able to frag 3 of 4, and the forth (oregon tort) still has another nub on the frag plug that is not attached and looking good.

In retrospect... I should have put this whole escapade in my tank journal. Is there any way that I can transfer it over? Probably not, eh?

[christyf5]

just copy and paste I think I have an oregon tort too, or maybe its a california tort, its some sort of tort, very blue

[doch]

Originally Posted by christyf5

just copy and paste I think I have an oregon tort too, or maybe its a california tort, its some sort of tort, very blue

Yeah... I thought of that.... pain in the butt though. Oh well.

As for the Ca test experiment... well, just my luck, I didn't really learn anything. The Elos came in at 250-300ppm, and the Hanna came in at 436ppm. Damnit! Oh well, I guess I'll just have to test usieng both and then average them out... lol.

[Myka]

Omg....stupid kits!! Looks like the right number is the average...don't like that!

[doch]

This is of course assuming that the IO bucket actually falls at ~380ppm. Can't win. lol

[doch]

And the plot thickens!! Unbelievable. I got my BRS order in, and in it was a Mg test kit to replace the one that I ran out of. I go and test the display for Mg, and it shows up at a heart stopping 2500!!!!! WTF?!?! Fortunately, at the time, I had a fresh batch of water ready to be put into the system, so I tested that. IO salt... it came in at 2400. Holy crap. Did I get a bad kit... or am I challenged in the test kit area of this hobby? I've never had troubles before... I don't think at least.

Anyways, crash seems to be over. I'm still losing 2 loripes, and I've got a Rainbow Stylo that's not doing all too good, but everything else has stabilized, so that's good. Last test for kH came in at 10.5. Ca is a little low... depending on which kit I'm going to trust... we'll call it 350.

And here are a couple before and after pics. Unfortunately, this won't show the whole extent of the damage as I had added a bunch of stuff after the latest 'before' pic, but here goes anyways.

Before:



After:




Try to ignore the hair algae everywhere... it's getting better now that I'm running the right amount of GFO. I'm surprised... the after pics don't look that bad in comparison to the befores. I pulled a lot of stuff out of there... more in the frag tank which was almost full before this went down, but quite a few in the display as well.

[Myka]

You had issues before the crash...you can see it coming with the before picture. How long before is that?

Why don't you put a 50 mL sample of water in a small glass jar and send it to me? I will test it for you. Prob cost you $15 to send it Express and I would have it on Tuesday I think.

[doch]

Myka... Hmmmm..... I might just do that. Thanks for the offer. I'll PM you.


On another note, I just counted the death toll... (shudder)

11 colonies base ball sized or bigger
Probably 20-30 frags
4 fire shrimp
2 cleaner shrimp
2 emerald crabs
I'm missing one of my dracula gobies which really ticks me off. Come to think of it, the whole freakin' thing ticks me off.



OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[doch]

Originally Posted by Myka

You had issues before the crash...you can see it coming with the before picture. How long before is that?

What do you see in that picture that I don't? Everything was super happy before the crash. Are you talking about the hair algae? That wouldn't crash a tank would it? Phosphates were a little high (0.2 for a short while), nitrates have always been low (I just checked with my elos kit... clear as can be). At the time of the crash, the phosphates were at about 0.10. The before picture of the display was probably 2 months ago or so... things got WAY better after that, and then BOOM!!