esacjack

would you be willing to part with like 20lbs of it or so?

those appear to be nuclear/atomic green paly's.

sounds liek the leather is either sloughing off tissue/detritus or its starting to grow some algae. Another possibility is stray food falling onto it, the hermits would readily take it.

start with a few turbo snails 2 or 3 at most unless the algae is wide spread.. Turbo snails are workhorses.. (work-sea-horses?)

hmmm that does look more like bryopsis. But there are hundreds of species of bryopsis, and hair algae is one of them. If your CUC is eating it/picking at it, I would monitor it, but let them go to town. Do you have any turbo snails in the tank?

looks like cladophora to me.. not bryopsis, give a strand a tug to see if it breaks off into segments easily. Bryopsis : Cladophora:

why not grab a 7.5 mr.aqua instead? easier to move around.. If I didnt have another expenditure just around the corner, id greedily snatch it up..

so what were the results of your phosphate test? It doesnt sound like bryopsis. Emerald crabs generally don't care for it. Aggressive fresh carbon, minimizing light, and allowing the tank to progress through its initial algae phase, are key in freeing yourself of bryopsis. However, it sounds more like hair algae, turbo snails are known to eat it, and I generally have great luck with them. Is there a possibility of a picture? Are you certain it isnt diatoms?

have you tested for phosphates?

Im wondering if its their method for slow release of the solution, to 'safely raise your ph to 8.4'....

I dont dose anything aside from the seachem. My mag and ca are generally high because of my salt mix.

So, for science. I performed a small experiment. I took 4 50ml acrylic containers. I filled three with FSW and one with RODI. container 1 will have 1m/l of Seachem eight.four added to 49ml of FSW. (Salt used - Red Sea Max Pro / 1.025 / 81.3 degrees) container 2 will have 1m/l of Seachem eight.four, plus 1ml Mg, to 48ml FSW container 3 will have 1m/l of seachem eight.four added to 49ml RODI container 4 will be a control Note: Redsea max coral pro salt mixes to these values at 1.025 35.0 ppt 8.2 - 8.4 12.3 - 12.7 455 - 475 1360 - 1420 390-410 First off, my objective was only to find out what was causing the strange precipitation in my tank. Even though the parameters 'came back fine', something was still irritating my corals. I was surprised to find out that it was in fact due to the magnesium to calcium balance when adding 8.4. Too high of either, and you end up with a cloudy mess. Which only stabilizes once its hit 400ish. (This was the magic number for my frag tank to clear up as well) This first image is of the containers before adding the seachem 8.4, and the magnesium. I know the container is marked with 2m/l, but it was supposed to be a '1', as 1 was used as the dosage of 8.4 The next image is after adding 1m/l of 8.4 to my current salt mix. The last image is of all four containers after 24 hours of settling. Somehow I omitted to take pictures of the container with magnesium, reacting to the 8.4. In order: Control, 1ml Mg + 1 ml 8.4, 1ml 8.4 / FSW, RODI First Observations: In SW+8.4 : Immediate precipitation in the form of a fine mist, quickly forming a clumpy cloud like mass. Lack of flow evident, as mass immediately forms globules, and falls to container floor. Within 20 minutes, container was fairly transparent across top third, bottom half ranging from semi opaque, to completely white. After 1 hour mass at bottom is strikingly similar to viewing clouds from above. SW+8.4+Mg : Precipitation slower, thinner. More featherlike. Appears to carry more momentum as the clumpy mass fails to form. Fine feather like objects forming on inside of container within 5 minutes. Water still appears to be moving around slowly as the precipitate reacts with the magnesium. A fine mist has begun to form in the container. After 1 hour, calcium particulate visible to the naked eye, and roughly the size of fine sand apparent on bottom of container. The container has taken on a stained/frosted glass like appearance. Precipitate appears to cling to the inside of the container, forming calcium formations. RODI : No visible change Control: No visible change 24 hour observations: The 8.4 solution is still a mass of goo at the bottom of the container. Top 3/4 of water crystal clear. Tested surface water (clearest) for salinity (1.025) and calcium (400). The Mg+8.4 solution has settled out into about a hundred small pieces of sand like substrate on the bottom of the container. The container is stained white, and has strange calcium formations along the inside. Tested surface water (Clearest) for salinity (1.025) and calcium (300), The control container still tests at calcium 475, salinity 1.025. Im not sure exactly what else this data is good for, but to me it proved that my calcium/magnesium levels were already high. And by adding the eight four the immediate reaction was to form into precipitate. Under a low flow condition, this would probably settle out in a few hours, but in a high flow tank, its just a mess. Diluting the solution in saltwater allowing it to settle, then skimming the top (similar to kalkwasser) seemed to be the only resolution. And for that kind of hassle, you may as well just use kalk! One thing 8.4 claims to do, is to raise your pk to 8 as well (as well as ph/alk) Im wondering if a ton of filter floss would have cleared up the precipitate? hmm...

p.s. I dig the open look! much nicer than a pile of rocks!

look at you...all fancy...

what about using a venturi to keep the media tumbling? or some kind of air bubble injection?

and aww crap you just made me realize why I hadnt gone with the brs pumps in the past... but isnt the bubble magus a rebranded aquamedic? or the same company that mfg's for both companies?

I may take you up on that actually. I'd really hate to lose this chalice. I was lucky to score one from AAF, and have yet to see another one like it. Im thinking about moving it to my garage frag tank. The only hesitation I have there is that the tank regularly sees 83 degrees, but rarely over. Everything I put in that tank seems to do fantastic. But it's pretty heavy flow, with 2x39w ATI T5 HO's 10k/Actinic. It started as my rock tank, and became a zoanthid grow-out tank, because of its ability to make my zoa's look healthy. I honestly believe the Kessil is overkill for my tank size. So when I upgrade to the 40gal breeder frag tank, I'll probably go straight t5's and sell my a150. I just realized how ADD i just went..

all params are stable again.. thankfully. I quit the dosing, and intend to pickup 3 of the BRS dosing pumps and MG/CA/ALK eventually. For now, since its a 10g, I'm using water changes to keep things in check. I am encountering a problem with my favorite chalice.. which apparently i cannot replace! It has two mouths, and the tissue has been slowly receding . I'm getting a bit pissy about it, because its my absolute favorite coral in the tank. Currently, the mouths on ALL of my chalices are wide open. Does this mean they're hungry? or is this a sign of a dying chalice? What can i do to help revive my chalice? Dipping?

i'll need to refer to my 'reef journal' to see the trends. I try and record every test result, even if they're consecutive. I had the number in my head earlier, but it escapes me currently.

One thing to remember about aiptasia is that the more you fiddle with it, the more likely you are to spread it. I would get the rock out, frag your coral off the rock, and toss the rock to dry out in the sun. Also, peppermint shrimp are awesome, but sometimes can die pretty easily. Lastly, they've been known to pick at/eat other nems and mushrooms. So be careful with it! I have a pepp in my fiances tank now, that keeps picking at her ric garden.

To be honest I'm not totally sure. Initially i thought since there was very little live rock in the tank, that removal of the original bag caused an ammonia spike. But within 24 hours of adding carbon, the cloudiness went away. The corals still look a little less than happy. I never registered a mini-cycle in my testing (salifert and red sea). At this point I suppose it could be a number of things. 1. I triggered some kind of precipitate due to a fast alk swing with high mag and high ca by using eight.four (overdose) 2. I triggered a mini cycle, and the 'haze' was a bacteria bloom 3. I've discovered albino phyto or nano unicorns. So I guess its back to the drawing board on dosing. Im leery going back to using eight.four. But what other options are out there? Especially for a tank this small? Any recommended reading?

Just out of curiosity, have you removed the chemipure? Chemipure is out, pure GAC back in. Tank cleared up overnight, but corals still look rather angry. I'm sure it'll take a few weeks for them to relax. In the meantime, I'm going to revert to water changes, instead of dosing. I guess this is why people buy the 3 part dosing pumps? I guess I'll have to pencil a dosing pump in with the rest of the parts needed for my frag tank upgrade This all really started because I had a few acros that werent coloring up at all. My ph was 8.0 and my alk was constantly on the low side of average.

once you go gac...you never go back

I started an airstone last night and performed another 10% this morning. Will venture out for some pure activate carbon. Unless chemipure cuts the mustard.

ok so I"m 80% certain the addition of the aquavitro 8.4 has caused this cloudy water. What I'm unsure of, is how to make it stop. I have stopped all dosing, and have been performing water changes. I've removed my carbon filter in an attempt to get the turn over rate up. Took some water samples to Aquadome and Hunter and the brunette, (I can never remember her name), ran the full battery of tests on them. Current results : mag 1240 Ca 300 Nh3 - .1 No2 - 0 No3 - 0 Po4 - 0 Kh - 9.8 Sal 1.026 ( this seems to slightly conflict with my hydrometer and my fracto) Ph 8.0 ( as you can see my ph dropped back down to 8 after all of the water changes and dosage halting) Lost... no idea whats going on. Although the little spike in ammonia could be the sps dying off one by one (son of a beechnut) So in the sake of science. I did the unthinkable. Last night I dosed a spare 20gallon I was cycling to use for temporary housing. Guess what? This afternoon, the water began to turn cloudy. The only similarity between the two tanks, is they both run chemi pure elite. But currently, the 10 gallon isnt running any mech filter. Just skimming. So that leaves the aquavitro 8.4. My Kh reading was also a bit different than hunters, it was .50/7.7/2.73 (ml/dkh/mgl) My low resolution reading was : dkh 8.3