Cali Kid Corals

SPS dieing help!!!!!

Let's start at the beginning. What was your tank sitting at Alk/Ca wise and how much consumption was there?

Before you started dosing that is.


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Heres what I aim for. Big range but i pick something between there and try to hold it.

400-450ppm calcium
8-9 dkh alkalinity
1300 ppm magnesium

Quick alkalinity changes will kill some corals, so I try not to change too much too fast.

Remember stability is most important for acro and this will be difficult for beginners.

Never dose anything unless you can test and track the levels.
 
I don't know what my alk and ca where before I started dossing I started to get coral and the owner of the LFS told me I needed to start dossing and told me I needed to put in around 10 ml each every other day and say to come back to him in a month and pay $10 for him to test me water so I started dosing and decided to spend $60 of a dosing kid what I can test over 100 times rather then giving him all my money. So il only been dosing for 1.5 months and strayed testing about 3 weeks ago. I'm young and have been making plenty of mistakes. I think my biggest mistake was lissoning to my LFS owner he also told me I could have a yellow tang and a Mandren goby in my 55 gal so i never went back to him. So to be honest I'm not really sure what my parameters were before i started dosing.


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Ok. Stop dosing and start taking measurements everyday around the same time for a few days.

Use either an Excel sheet or Aquaticlog to log the test results.

Test for Salinity, Alk, Ca and Mg.

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What testing kit did you get?

"API" is not a reliable/accurate test kit for alkalinity/calcium

Salifert/Red Sea/Elos are common brands that people like. I personally like Salifert.

If you ask a LFS owner/employee something, the first thing they should do is ask YOU questions about your tank. Because each tank is different and alkalinity/calcium usage varies by tank. How much corals do you have, what kind, whats your salinity, what size tank.

Brand new tanks aren't going to use up calcium/alkalinity as fast as a mature tank with coraline algae, growing corals. So dosing might just increase the levels even more.

Also take it slowwww, you're rushing into a lot of things. Ask us questions if you have them related to dosing, maintenance, etc. We all started where you are and had questions just like you. That's what we're here for lol.
 
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Sounds like a plan. And I'm testing to see how much alk ca and mg is being consumed every day correct and how much salt lose I have correct and I go from there.


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Correct. Except the salt part. You don't really loose salt unless you are pulling saltwater from your tank for some reason. You do loose fresh water through evaporation which will affect your salinity.

And salinity levels will affect your Alk/ca/mg levels.


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I'm partial to the Salifert kits. I use Salifert brand for Alk, Ca, Mg, nitrate, and phosphate. I never have had good luck with the API kits and the Red Sea kits are great for a while, but as they age, the color change becomes less distinct and it becomes hard to accurately figure out your readings. I have no complaints with the Salifert kits.
 
Btw, how are you measuring your salinity? Are you using a swing arm hydrometer or a refractometer? The hydrometers can be very inaccurate, so your salinity could be swinging without you realizing this. If you're going to be keeping sensitive corals like SPS, you should be using a refractometer to measure salinity. You can get a good one off ebay for $30 or less. Also, how are you topping off? As your water evaporates, the salinity will rise, and if this is a big swing, that could stress out the SPS. You should be topping off with fresh (not saltwater) RO/DI water to keep your water level stable. Depending on your evaporation, you may need to do this every day or a couple times per day. If you want to keep your salinity very stable, the best way is to get an auto top off system, which will top off with fresh water automatically as needed.
 
I assume March was a typo. I can try to help a bit if its after May. I was the one who ran the last one, so I can at least help with ideas and let you know how I set it up before.
 
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