ca 460, never below 400, and 12 clams at present.
dKh in tank 8.8 on hanna checker
dKh from the ca reactor effluent 15
ph always 8.1+
10 bubbles/minute
phosphate .02 on hanna, never above .06
0 tra/trites
0 ammonia
1.0255 sg
temp 77
feed every other day.
145 gals total 12 gals w/c every other week.
been running a ca reactor with no controller now for 6 months or so. i am extremely happy. no daily dosing. have added sodium carbonate twice in that time to raise the dkh. not that i recommend it this way, i’m just reporting the test results. on the second co2 tank in all that time.
but numbers aren’t everything. i have lots of non-hair algae and as i posted in the questions for next mtg, i cannot keep pods, snails, or hermits.
jon, i know is way against no reactor b/c of the co2 dumping possibility.
Do you have a copper test kit?
no craig, i don’t
+1 on the copper call… also have you ever used interceptor in the tank? that’ll destroy all crustations.
never used interceptor. is the cu kit to determine if there’s cu in the tank which would be killing snails and pods, or is it why there’s algae? i have plenty of shrimp of various types–cleaner, blood, anemone, and pistol-- and they are fine. confused as to the copper call. pls explain a bit more.
Copper at almost any level in a tank can kill inverts and the deaths usually cascade into bigger problems. Also once you get copper in the tank, its nearly impossible to remove as it binds with the live rock and glass and slowly leaches back out. Bring some in to Charlie at DPA and have him test it for you!
This is one of the main reasons for pre-filtering any water for your tank, removing metals and other minerals.
[quote=“TimH07, post:6, topic:5058”]
Copper at almost any level in a tank can kill inverts and the deaths usually cascade into bigger problems. Also once you get copper in the tank, its nearly impossible to remove as it binds with the live rock and glass and slowly leaches back out. Bring some in to Charlie at DPA and have him test it for you!
This is one of the main reasons for pre-filtering any water for your tank, removing metals and other minerals.[/quote]
but i have all those shrimp, and not all snails or crabs are dead, just the vast majority. i may have 2 dozen total
I had a similar issue at one time, I could keep shrimp and blue leg hermits but snails and scarlet hermits would only last a week or so, mine was caused by dinoflagellates, and after fighting it for months it came down to having to take all my rocks out and scrub them, twice and replace all my sand, that done I have been free of the stuff for over a year now and last snails added are over 8 months old and still doing good.
Is there a related thread you can link here?
[quote=“moliken, post:1, topic:5058”]
but numbers aren’t everything. i have lots of non-hair algae and as i posted in the questions for next mtg, i cannot keep pods, snails, or hermits.[/quote]
Can you define the, “lots of non-hair algae”? Images? Video? Slimy? Brown? Green? On glass? Often identifying what your fighting can make things a lot easier. There could be something reef safe that goes after it or it could be something specific you can adjust chemistry wise that could be an instant solution.
Skimmer pulling out tons of junk?
Something that could help with the pods, and in my opinion the overall health of the system is dosing various types of planktons. If your numbers nutrient wise seem to be fine you may try trace(tiny) amounts of some planktons, but if you are fighting algae identifying and treating that may be step one.