Just when you think you have it figured out....

[MarieK]

Please explain dKH one more time- Mine is low at 5 and I never have quite understood what it means so I can change it. I know it has something to do with buffering capacity but not sure what parameter to change to work on it. I don't usually check this parameter, but am having a brown stringy algae outbreak (1 week now)on the live rock in one tank that my xenia does not like( He is limp, I moved him to another tank and hope he will soon perk up). One acropora is upset and has some partial die off on the inner branches- darker brown than the coral but not slimey, some has turned into a white skeleton, I did a fresh water dip and put him in a hospital tank for now. Other acroporas and softies all look ok.
temp- 79( had problems with the heat in the house and this dipped to 76 for a couple nights)
pH 8.2
nitrates-5
phosphates-.5
ammonia badge- in the yellow-good
salinity-1.024
silicates-0
calcium- lost my titration sheet; will need to get new kit
I have a calcium reactor (1 yr old, that still has co2 on the bottle guage and has a normal ph reading); protein skimmer is working.
This tank is a 150 connected to a 180 with about a 40 gal sump. Live rock with deep sand bed. The both tanks are @2 yr old with no problem in the 180 even though they are connected. No new corals or anything for about 3 months. The lights are different- the 150 (the problem tank)has 3- 65K/125W metal halide and one actinic, the 180 has 3 10K/125W with 1 actinic. The 65K are almost 1 yr old.
Nitrates are alittle high, may be related to heavy feeding of the spawning clowns- but this is not the tank with the algae problem. Any ideas? Is the problem related to the dKH , temperature fluctuations or lights? I mixed up water for a water change tomorrow and would appreciate any input.

[NaH2Ofreak]

What kind of substrate and what kind of clean-up crew? Also, what is the circulation in the tank? What is the "normal" ph of your reactor's effluent (output)? Are you saying, by talking about the ammonia wheel, that you have ammonia in your tank (there should be 0)? What do you do for water changes? Sorry all questions. They might help someone figure it out

[MarieK]

Thanks for responding- the ammonia badge is in the good range, the substrate in the tank is a 4 inch sandbed- crawling with critters- bristle worms, ministars,mysis- don't see as many copepods as I normally see. The cleanup crew is many trochus snails, limpets, a couple red legged hermits and baby queen conches(anyways I think they are queen conches). The effluent is 7.7- I will increase the bubbler and see if that can be lowered. The reactor is a Knopp with oolitic sand as a substrate. Hmm, I can't remember with the bubbler- do you actually see bubbles? I'm not seeing bubbles but can't remember if that is normal or not- my husband usually takes care of that and he can't remember either. (I guess we are both getting Altzheimers.) The flow rate is the same as it has always been in the tank- difficult to measure without taking apart the returm pipes.

Marie, I dont run a calcium reactor but isnt oolitic aragonite a little fine grained to use in them? I thought they used larger size to get better circulation thru it. &+ on the efluvent side seems kinda high, I thought the pH should be around 6.5 comin out. I know someones running a reactor, what do you think reefers?

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I thought I was me, but we were wrong
email: geeflipr@internetcds.com

[MarieK]

The effluent is 7.7 the tank pH is 8.2, I know its supposed to be 6.2-6.5. We were told oolitic- hopefully someone can confirm/ deny this? We are also going to get a new co2 cannister just in case the guage is lying to me.

[TheAquaman]

Good question! I never could quite figure out the difference between DKH and alk levels, if there is even one.

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www.magicnet.net/~jwhite/aquamans.html

You may be capable of great things,
But life consists of small things.

I think alk is expressed in milequivalents per liter. You multiply that reading by 2.8 to get =DKH

------------------
I thought I was me, but we were wrong
email: geeflipr@internetcds.com

[TheAquaman]

So there is no difference other than the way the waters alkaline level is calculated.

------------------
www.magicnet.net/~jwhite/aquamans.html

You may be capable of great things,
But life consists of small things.

Basically its the same thing just using a different reference scale. Kind of like converting miles to kiometers, the distance doesnt change just the way you express it
check out this link for a little more easier to understand info http://www.aquariacentral.com/articles/calcium.shtml
------------------
I thought I was me, but we were wrong
email: geeflipr@internetcds.com

[This message has been edited by geedoug (edited 01-04-2001).]