Corals dying after tank upgrade and water change - ALK finally lower at 13 but Ammonia is 4! HELP!

[Kensington Reefer]

Glenn
pay the fee. Get with the program!

 

[eldiablosrt8]

Trust me best 20$ ever spent.....

 

[Batiatus]

Glenn
pay the fee. Get with the program!

I will pay the $20 tonight when I get home

Erin thanks for your time

Also I currently have a sea clone protein skimmer in my sump and wondering if I should upgrade to euroreef or the E.T.S.S. PROTEIN SKIMMER

Thanks

 

[Batiatus]

To everyone who replied to this post, I need your help. Will just dropped by to check my water and we found out that our alkalinity is 17!!! HELP!!!!

p.s. Thanks WILL!

 

[zepplock]

17 what? mg/L or dkh?

 

[iani]

My guess is dkH, because it would be almost impossible for it to be that high if it were meq/L. BTW did you check your water change water? If so, check it and see what your dkH of that is. I would start by doing water changes if your make up water is good. Maybe go and find oceanic salt. The dkH on oceanic is around 6.

 

[Batiatus]

My guess is dkH, because it would be almost impossible for it to be that high if it were meq/L. BTW did you check your water change water? If so, check it and see what your dkH of that is. I would start by doing water changes if your make up water is good. Maybe go and find oceanic salt. The dkH on oceanic is around 6.

The test was done by Will (who was so kind enough to drop by and test our water and look at our dying corals) so im not really sure but i believe it is dkh. The water change that we used today was natural saltwater (ocean water -20gal) as advised by many to help stabilize the water. Prior to this we used filtered tap water and instant ocean salt. our calcium is 400.

As advised by Will, we are buying turbo calcium kent tomorrow to add in the water and hopefully help reduce the alkalinity. Any other suggestion and advice is really appreciated. My corals are dying by the day. They are looking really bad.

 

[Gomer]

"ocean water" is largely regarded as poor quality because of the quality of the source point in our area. I'd mix your own. Try not to change too much too fast (with calcium).

BTW, turbo calcium is likely to be really expensive compared to "2part" calcium from places like Neptunes or Aquatic Collection (or Hardness Plus from Leslies pool supplies)

 

[CookieJar]

Glen- nice to see you here on BAR. I'd consider getting your water tested at an LFS to be sure what the readings are, at least for Alk so you'll know where you're at otherwise there's no sense in adjusting anything. I agree on frequent water changes + carbon,

 

[Batiatus]

17 what? mg/L or dkh?

Not sure. all i know is that he put 34 drops and it turned yellow. and he said 34x.5

 

[zepplock]

17 what? mg/L or dkh?

Not sure. all i know is that he put 34 drops and it turned yellow. and he said 34x.5

That sounds like meg/L test that I have, but I never had dkh tests so I'm nor sure.

Anyway, instaead of buying expensive chemicals which only temporarily fix something - buy a good RO system to purify your water.
It's not very expensive, only $100 or so on ebay.

 

[Roc]

I would try to move your corals to someone else tank while you get this figured out, where are you located?

 

[iani]

17 what? mg/L or dkh?

Not sure. all i know is that he put 34 drops and it turned yellow. and he said 34x.5

That sounds like meg/L test that I have, but I never had dkh tests so I'm nor sure.

Anyway, instaead of buying expensive chemicals which only temporarily fix something - buy a good RO system to purify your water.
It's not very expensive, only $100 or so on ebay.

It really can't be meq/L. If it were it would be about 48 dkH. I don't think our tanks can get that high.

 

[bookfish]

Hobbyist level test kits can be extremely inaccurate. I only use them anecdotally to map trends and don't rely on their absolute accuracy at all. I would certainly never add anything to the tank based on a single test result from a single mfg's test kit. Using a 'standard' gives some added measure of accuracy. Overall, any good quality salt mix should allow you to do water changes that begin to move the tank towards better parameters. When I get test kit readings that don't make sense (i.e. DKH of 2 in a tank where acros thrive and the ph doesn't wander) my first response is to doubt the test results.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

I agree with Jim

 

[Coral reefer]

Tropic marine makes a product I found at ocean treasures that reduces alk. Think it was called alka balance or something...

 

[Batiatus]

I would try to move your corals to someone else tank while you get this figured out, where are you located?

I live in cupertino. I thnk out of all my group of frineds and relatives we are the only one who has a fishtank. most of them have dogs. lol

 

[Batiatus]

17 what? mg/L or dkh?

Not sure. all i know is that he put 34 drops and it turned yellow. and he said 34x.5

That sounds like meg/L test that I have, but I never had dkh tests so I'm nor sure.

Anyway, instaead of buying expensive chemicals which only temporarily fix something - buy a good RO system to purify your water.
It's not very expensive, only $100 or so on ebay.

It really can't be meq/L. If it were it would be about 48 dkH. I don't think our tanks can get that high.

I will ask Wil (modern reefkeeper) what kind of test it was

 

[Roc]

I would try to move your corals to someone else tank while you get this figured out, where are you located?

I live in cupertino. I thnk out of all my group of frineds and relatives we are the only one who has a fishtank. most of them have dogs. lol

theres a large group of "friends" right here on the site, hell when my tank crashed a guy screennamed "Chicken" offered me a 200 gallon container filled with SW so I could set the tank back up right away, and I had never met him nor conversted with him on the forums piror to that....All you gotta do is ask.

If Will is coming over ask him to take them to his shop

 

[eldiablosrt8]

I met an old school pal n new friends within hours of joining this place is a huge helpful family