Turtle's Fairy Tale

[SashimiTurtle]

Ever Brandied your pecans? Oh that pic is killin' me!

I've never made them but I LOVE candied pecans. I'm not sure if that included brandy in the recipie or not... No true southerner doesn't like all things pecan.

Oh, that reminds me... I have unopened pecan whiskey still, and salty caramel in the freezer too. I think I know what I'm doing after eating with family on Thanksgiving.

 

[Katrina71]

I haven't tried Pecan yet. I'm gonna.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I haven't tried Pecan yet. I'm gonna.

Me either, saw it when I was up there and had to try it. Sadly, they discontinued the turtle whiskey. Or it just wasnt in production when I was there... altho, it was September or VERY early Octoberish when I was gifted a bottle last year. That was so good...

 

[Katrina71]

Me either, saw it when I was up there and had to try it. Sadly, they discontinued the turtle whiskey. Or it just wasnt in production when I was there... altho, it was September or VERY early Octoberish when I was gifted a bottle last year. That was so good...

I'll look here for ya.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Corals always pull equal parts. If one is getting depleted faster than the other, your tank is imbalanced and you need to get it back in balance. It's like a seesaw, if it leans too far one way then all the white jelly beans fall off (like what is happening in my tank).

From what I've read, to get back in balance you can do a large water change.

My red sea salt always tests around 410-420ppm Ca and 8.0-8.2dKH alk, which is balanced. I think 417 or something is perfect balance with 8.0... doing a large water change will get the tank back in balance, but when does anyone have time to do a large water change while working night shift leading up to Thanksgiving? I don't even get a chance to sleep Thursday morning, I have to make a pecan pie.

It is strange if there is an imbalance. The jelly bean analogy is excellent by the way. I am fairly new to reef dosing (but have dosed other things for freshwater). One thing I have noticed is my Alkalinity testing (Hanna, occasional Red Sea confirmation) seems more accurate than my Calcium testing (Hanna). I am satisfied the Calcium test gives me a ballpark, but I do not accept it as exact. For this reason I dose based on the Alkalinity result alone and follow with equal Calcium. As long as my subsequent Calcium tests seem reasonable, I am satisfied.

 

[Janci]

Uhh, let's see...

Imagine your tank as a jar of jelly beans. Each day your corals pull one white(calcium) and one blue(alkalinity) jelly bean from the the jar. Eventually the jar starts to empty and you have to refill it. If you add only white jelly beans, the jar will become imbalanced. Something else happens too. Those white jelly beans you added kick a few blue jelly beans out of the jar, so you become even further imbalanced.

Magnesium is your mom. The more magnesium available the harder it is for jelly beans to fly out of the jar themselves and elope, but that also means it is harder for corals to pull jelly beans out of the jar. High magnesium means your mom is paying closer attention to the jar, low magnesium means she's on the phone with her sister and you can sneak your hand in the jar and get a few jelly beans.

From what I've read, it to get them in balance you have to dose more of each in equal parts. My issue is I don't have much alkalinity consumption right now and I don't want to go over 9.0dKH. I've done a pretty good job of stripping phosphates from my water with GFO in my reactor, and high alkalinity with low phosphates tends to burn corals, especially SPS.

I'm going to see what dosing the extra calcium carbonate did tomorrow, then wait until my alk is down to 8.0dKH and start dosing equal parts to keep alk at that level. Calcium should balance itself out in time.

I eventually want to switch to the ATI Essentials 3 part, which is a complete foundation and trace elements 3 part suppliment that is designed to be dosed in a 1:1:1 ratio at an alkalinity of 8.0dKH.

It might be interested to see what happens if you dose Ca in equal amounts as Alk.
Probably your Ca will lower, but you will come to a certain balance where the Alk and Ca dose will be the same.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

It is strange if there is an imbalance. The jelly bean analogy is excellent by the way. I am fairly new to reef dosing (but have dosed other things for freshwater). One thing I have noticed is my Alkalinity testing (Hanna, occasional Red Sea confirmation) seems more accurate than my Calcium testing (Hanna). I am satisfied the Calcium test gives me a ballpark, but I do not accept it as exact. For this reason I dose based on the Alkalinity result alone and follow with equal Calcium. As long as my subsequent Calcium tests seem reasonable, I am satisfied.

I plan to dose based off alkalinity alone in the future. I too have had discrepancies with the Hanna calcium checker. I trust the Red Sea calcium test a lot more as I can clearly tell when the color changes. The Red Sea alk test throws me for a loop, but luckily I LOVE the Hanna alk checker. Very easy to test and I can duplicate my results by no more than 0.1dKH variance over and over.

I'm not sure what caused my imbalance, other than forgetting the dosing pump was still on after I lost a few SPS and demand dropped.

I'll check and see if I got calcium back up tomorrow. If so, I'll just test and dose for alk, and check calcium and magnesium monthly to make sure they are in check.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Speaking of SPS... we won another auction from the LFS. It's still new and there are only 300 people on the facebook auction page so there are some really good steals. I bid on this when it posted, and forgot about it until they commented that I won, for the starting bid price. I think it was about half normal retail...

ASL Irish Gold

And in my tank... these might be out of order because it's not giving me a preview because they were taken in pro mode with the vivid filter... but whites, blues and blues with orange safety glasses "gel filter."

View attachment 20181120_165402.jpg

View attachment 20181120_165434.jpg

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Oh and this continues to encrust the old skeleton. I think I've noticed some vertical growth too.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Oh and this continues to encrust the old skeleton. I think I've noticed some vertical growth too.

Love that it is recycling itself. Very efficient.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Love that it is recycling itself. Very efficient.

It's all over the epoxy on the back. Getting close to touching rock.

I think we need a little comparison.

 

[Brew12]

It's all over the epoxy on the back. Getting close to touching rock.

I think we need a little comparison.

Definitely looks better! That algae on the back is a bit worrisome.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Definitely looks better! That algae on the back is a bit worrisome.

You mean the little green tuft at the front all the dat au the bottom? GHA, I believe. I have a few little spots of it popping up. High phosphates for too long. GFO in a reactor is pretty amazing tho. It pulled them from 0.26 to 0.06 in 48 hours. Im going to keep a close eye so I don't completely strip them. I can unplug and plug it in as needed to control my phosphates.

My tomini has been keeping the algae mowed, hopefully I can keep it from going crazy now that I'm paying attention to the tank again.

 

[Brew12]

You mean the little green tuft at the front all the dat au the bottom? GHA, I believe. I have a few little spots of it popping up. High phosphates for too long. GFO in a reactor is pretty amazing tho. It pulled them from 0.26 to 0.06 in 48 hours. Im going to keep a close eye so I don't completely strip them. I can unplug and plug it in as needed to control my phosphates.

My tomini has been keeping the algae mowed, hopefully I can keep it from going crazy now that I'm paying attention to the tank again.

As long as he is eating it, I wouldn't worry about it either. That is impressive from the GFO, you must have quite the reactor to run it in!

 

[Scurvy]

Im sure you know this and I interpreted what you said the wrong way but ill say it anyway. Once you unplug the GFO reactor and it sits for a day or two youll want to clean it before plugging it back in. The stagnant water inside turns into bad news and you dont want it in your tank.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

As long as he is eating it, I wouldn't worry about it either. That is impressive from the GFO, you must have quite the reactor to run it in!

Nah, cheap Amazon reactor. First time I put GFO in with the carbon. I need more tho, I need a lot of supplies.

AquaTop MR-20 Multimedia Reactor... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GYG54O6?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Lol, forgot I took a picture before I stuck it back in the sump. I've showed it before, but still... pictures.

View attachment 20181118_171039.jpg

 

[Brew12]

Nah, cheap Amazon reactor. First time I put GFO in with the carbon. I need more tho, I need a lot of supplies.

AquaTop MR-20 Multimedia Reactor... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GYG54O6?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

Did you mix the GFO with the carbon or is there a divider in there that I can't see?

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Did you mix the GFO with the carbon or is there a divider in there that I can't see?

6tbsp GFO(around half recommended amount) and I think 1.5c of carbon mixed. Looks like a ton of GFO but it all went to the acrylic.

 

[Brew12]

6tbsp GFO(around half recommended amount) and I think 1.5c of carbon mixed. Looks like a ton of GFO but it all went to the acrylic.

It is normally recommended to keep them separate. The GFO is harder and if it rubs against the carbon it will grind it down and release carbon dust into your tank. Your GFO should also tumble in the flow and the carbon should be tightly packed. Next time you reload it, I would run the carbon between the sponges packed tight and put the GFO above the top sponge so it can tumble. Well, as long as the plastic end strainer will keep your GFO in. I know mine does. I run my GFO reactor without sponges.