Newbie 75 gallon

[Llorgon]

So the one new space coral I got, the big green one is getting white tips.

I bought a alkalinity test kit today and my alkalinity is at 6.4. I think it needs to be at 7-8?

What is the best way to raise the alkalinity?

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[Llorgon]

Ok long needed update on the tank.


My water params had been way off and I was starting to see a negative effect on the corals. I think alk was down to 6 and calcium in the mid 300's and magnesium around 1100. With the help of Gregzz4, I have got my water params mostly under control. Still trying to nail down the dosing. My mag is stable and calcium is mostly stable I have been keeping it above 400, but alk is still a little tricky to find the perfect dosing. Seems like about 2 caps of brightwell is pretty good at keeping alk at 8.3.



I had another powerhead die on me. Not as catastrophic as the first one, but still annoying. It just stopped running. Taking apart and cleaning it solved nothing so I picked up a pair of jebao wave makers from another reefer. They work well, but are quite powerful. I now have 2 wavemakers and a powerhead. Anyone have suggestions on the best placement of these? I feel I still have lots of dead spots...


Also had my neptune ATK auto top off unit die. Did all of neptunes diagnostics, got sent replacement parts and nothing was fixed. Ended up sending them my entire unit and just got it back today. In total I have been out of a ATO for a little over a month. Turns out the issue was the high and low water sensors were labeled incorrectly and the sensors weren't pushed in far enough. This sounded a bit weird to me since it had been working fine for 6 months then stopped, but I have been told it works fine now. Overall neptunes support was very good. Most of the issues I had were with FedEx.


On the tank stocking side of things I have 2 clown fish, 1 royal gramma and 1 purple firefish. All the fish have been doing well. I did buy a flame angel, but I was never able to get it to eat and it eventually disappeared.



Corals, corals have been doing ok. Some have grown a bit, but most seem to just stay the same. Frogspawn, candy cane and hammer coral haven't grown at all. What can I do to encourage more growth?

Lately I have been struggling with algae in the tank. Taking over the sand, rocks even some on my SPS coral. I added some chaeto and a light to my fuge and lowered the amount and frequency that I feed the tank in hopes that will help. Also did a water change since I hadn't done one for awhile while sorting out my water params.



Anyone have good tips on keeping algae at bay? This seems to be something I really struggle with.


Overall the tank feels... well, not stable. Some days corals will look good other days for a few days at a time the candy cane, frogspawn and hammer coral will be closed up looking unhappy. Not sure what to do about that.

[gregzz4]

Give up on the liquid Alk additive.
If you follow the info I gave you and bake some baking soda, thus creating sodium carbonate/soda ash, you'll find it very easy to dose daily and maintain your desired alk level.
Use the spreadsheet I gave you on that usb. The chemicals page tells you how to weigh and bake the baking soda, and the chemistry page you'll use to calculate how much to dose.

Buy a couple kilos of arm and hammer man.
Just do it !