kittenbritches' Reefing Journey

[jgirardnrg]

Blessed sabbath, cats and kittens.

Just giving my arm a quick break from manually removing cyano...

The reef gods are determined to throw every hard lesson at me in as short a time frame as possible.

 

[kittenbritches]

Is this, ato bucket? manually removed evil bucket? Or some form of extra terrestrials using your reef to reproduce evidence bucket?

Definitely the last one. Manually siphoning cyano with a turkey baster is a special kind of hell. I filled that tub three times.

 

[kittenbritches]

For posterity, and potential insight...

I haven't done a water change since 10/12/21, and hadn't tested parameters since 10/25/21. I feed two cubes of frozen food a day, plus the occasional pellet treat for the little guys. I think I've only target fed corals once in this time period, and have probably dosed live phyto ~15 times.

I'm doing a 20-gallon water change this evening, and will likely do a blackout for the next 2-3 days.

Parameters:

Temp: 78.1° F
SG: 1.027
pH: 8.0
KH: 6 dKH
NH3: 0 ppm
N03: 20ppm
PO4: 0.015 ppm (barely detectable on test)
Ca: 500 ppm
Mg: 1080 ppm

Magnesium is obviously a bit low, and alkalinity tanked, but on the whole things have held pretty dang stable.

I have a Fluval Aqua Pro Vac coming this week to get the rest of the cyano off of the sandbed and may do an additional water change this week. Since I'm planning on tweaking the scape when I transfer the live rock over, I'm thinking I may pull the dry rock that's in there now and give it a good scrub to get rid of the rest of the cyano and the tiny bit of algae that's been hanging out.

In some good news, the SPS corals that were starting bleach under the NPs are recovering well back under the Maxspects.

In some glad-I-pulled-the-plug-when-I-did news, that bit of "hair" algae in the 40B -- it is full-on, strangle everything to death bryopsis. I dodged a bullet there for sure.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Is 6 DKh correct?

 

[kittenbritches]

Is 6 DKh correct?

Yeah -- I was really surprised. I have no idea how or why it dropped so low -- it's always been a steady 9.5.

I think I'm going to test again right now.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I would double check that measurement for sure. That would make you nervous just to do a large water change from the pH bike.

 

[kittenbritches]

I would double check that measurement for sure. That would make you nervous just to do a large water change from the pH bike.

Yeah...it's 6.

12 drops in 10mL

 

[attiland]

I would fix that alk before water change but that is just me and do the water change next week

 

[kittenbritches]

I would fix that alk before water change but that is just me and do the water change next week

I've never had to deal with low alk -- from what I've read and remember, don't you essentially just add x sodium bicarbonate per y-gallons of water? If that's the case, wouldn't it make more sense to do the water change, retest alk, and then dose accordingly, since the fresh SW will have a higher dKH?

 

[kittenbritches]

From BRS: Cyanobacteria grow faster in warm water, it has been known to grow when alkalinity is low.

Mothertrucker.

 

[Garf]

Reef Chemistry Calculator

 

[danieyella]

I've never had to deal with low alk -- from what I've read and remember, don't you essentially just add x sodium bicarbonate per y-gallons of water? If that's the case, wouldn't it make more sense to do the water change, retest alk, and then dose accordingly, since the fresh SW will have a higher dKH?

Depends on the difference and how much of a wc you're doing. You don't want to raise it too fast because that causes problems too. Been there

 

[kittenbritches]

Depends on the difference and how much of a wc you're doing. You don't want to raise it too fast because that causes problems too. Been there

I was planning on 20 gallons. That's how much I'm mixing -- I could always do a smaller WC. My fresh SW mixes at 9.5 dKH. What do you think? I need guidance.

 

[jgirardnrg]

I wouldn't raise it more than 1dkh a day. Do 10g water changes over the next few days and keep testing.

 

[kittenbritches]

I wouldn't raise it more than 1dkh a day. Do 10g water changes over the next few days and keep testing.

Thank you -- will do!

 

[danieyella]

I wouldn't raise it more than 1dkh a day. Do 10g water changes over the next few days and keep testing.

This sounds like a good plan to me.

Since you're fighting cyano too, be careful to not drop your nutrients too low with the water changes. I had a harder time knocking it out from that. Lots of good bacteria & a stable phos/nitrate balance worked a charm. I'm a big fan of rebiotic and prodibio biodigest.

 

[kittenbritches]

Unrelated: Leonard has been listening to the Sex Pistols too much.

 

[OU812Reefing]

Update: Once I added a HOB refugium to my sumpless 40B, it was game over. The tank started leaking within a week because the extra weight pulled the tank too far out of level.

As such, I upgraded to a Red Sea Reefer 250. If you'd like to start there, click here. If you'd like to read through my learning journey leading up to The Great Leak, carry on.

---

Hi all! I'm new(ish) to the hobby. My ex-husband had a saltwater tank while we were married (we split nine years ago), and I recently decided that I want to do a build of my own.

I'm nearing the end of my fishless cycle (Day 22, ammonia zero, still waiting for nitrite drop off) and trying to moderate my desire to stock like crazy once it's done. Salinity is stable, but a little high with the water I started with (1.027), so I'll adjust with the post-cycle water change. Cycling with lights off at about 78° F.

Started with Imagitarium Pacific Ocean water, and have since purchased an RODI system and will be mixing my own saltwater.

Started with base rock and "life" rock — about 40-50 lbs worth, and 40 lbs live sand. I've got a cheap Amazon light for now. I'll upgrade once I'm ready to add corals. Ignore the Marineland pump — it's too strong as a pump or powerhead, so I'm relegating it to the mixing bin.

I'm a pretty big data nerd, and my nitrogen cycle doesn't look like what I've seen online, but I'm confident it's doing what it is supposed to. I'm testing with the API kit. Some people have told me it's trash — I'd love recommendations for the best kits for testing water parameters.

My game plan is slow and steady. I'll learn and adjust as I go. Always open to encouragement and feedback!

Great looking rock scape

 

[gsjr]

Update: Once I added a HOB refugium to my sumpless 40B, it was game over. The tank started leaking within a week because the extra weight pulled the tank too far out of level.

As such, I upgraded to a Red Sea Reefer 250. If you'd like to start there, click here. If you'd like to read through my learning journey leading up to The Great Leak, carry on.

---

Hi all! I'm new(ish) to the hobby. My ex-husband had a saltwater tank while we were married (we split nine years ago), and I recently decided that I want to do a build of my own.

I'm nearing the end of my fishless cycle (Day 22, ammonia zero, still waiting for nitrite drop off) and trying to moderate my desire to stock like crazy once it's done. Salinity is stable, but a little high with the water I started with (1.027), so I'll adjust with the post-cycle water change. Cycling with lights off at about 78° F.

Started with Imagitarium Pacific Ocean water, and have since purchased an RODI system and will be mixing my own saltwater.

Started with base rock and "life" rock — about 40-50 lbs worth, and 40 lbs live sand. I've got a cheap Amazon light for now. I'll upgrade once I'm ready to add corals. Ignore the Marineland pump — it's too strong as a pump or powerhead, so I'm relegating it to the mixing bin.

I'm a pretty big data nerd, and my nitrogen cycle doesn't look like what I've seen online, but I'm confident it's doing what it is supposed to. I'm testing with the API kit. Some people have told me it's trash — I'd love recommendations for the best kits for testing water parameters.

My game plan is slow and steady. I'll learn and adjust as I go. Always open to encouragement and feedback!

HI, Very nice tank! BTW- I also have a hard time refraining from stocking like crazy. I think with a water change your nitrites and nitrates will start coming down. The good thing about the nitrate level is that is means the beneficial bacteria in your filter are first of all present, and doing what they should...converting nitrite to nitrate. So yeh, patience and water changes. I use the API test kit and so far it seems to be accurate. When I'm in doubt i take a water sample to my LFS and their result has so far matched mine so I'm happy with it at this point... Good luck!

 

[attiland]

Unrelated: Leonard has been listening to the Sex Pistols too much.

Unrelated: Leonard has been listening to the Sex Pistols too much.

time for Metallica I guess.