notpennysboat Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 as the title says, this is my question. I have had my duster for about 2 weeks now and it still wont open, (or come out) nor have i seen any signs of it. When i bought it from my LFS it looked great and closed up during there feeding times and everything. What is going on? do i need to do anything? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 What are your water parameters? I think Nitrates would have the biggest impact on this but could be others also. Do you have any shrimp in the tank? Some peppermint shrimp eat them and some fish may pick at them and keep them from opening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted December 12, 2010 Share Posted December 12, 2010 Feather duster dont open on there own, ya gotta pull the plastic sheeth thing down, I like using a swiffer duster, collects the dust, dosn't spread it around. (laugh) Ya, I crack myself up sometimes (whistle) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notpennysboat Posted December 12, 2010 Author Share Posted December 12, 2010 What are your water parameters? I think Nitrates would have the biggest impact on this but could be others also. Do you have any shrimp in the tank? Some peppermint shrimp eat them and some fish may pick at them and keep them from opening. Nitrate .20 nitrite .00 ph 7.8 (i know its low) amoni 0.0 spec grav 1.023 no shrimp, just crabs (blue hermit), snails and fish. the post down below talks about pulling of a "plastic" type membrane. not sure what that is or why it would not be there at my LFS and its back on when i put it in my tank. Thanks for the help guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted December 12, 2010 Share Posted December 12, 2010 Nitrate .20 nitrite .00 ph 7.8 (i know its low) amoni 0.0 spec grav 1.023 no shrimp, just crabs (blue hermit), snails and fish. the post down below talks about pulling of a "plastic" type membrane. not sure what that is or why it would not be there at my LFS and its back on when i put it in my tank. Thanks for the help guys How about alkalinity? What lighting and schedule are you using? Where in the tank did you put it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReeFit Posted December 12, 2010 Share Posted December 12, 2010 Check to make sure its head didn't fall off. they will do this from time to time and grow a new one back. your sg seems a little low. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgf86123 Posted December 12, 2010 Share Posted December 12, 2010 How old is your tank? An your PH is pretty low too.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanktop74 Posted December 12, 2010 Share Posted December 12, 2010 the post down below talks about pulling of a "plastic" type membrane. not sure what that is or why it would not be there at my LFS and its back on when i put it in my tank. Thanks for the help guys Ummm dude... Reef165 was joking around... the old feather dusters our grandparents use to use to dust had a plastic sheath.... He was makin a joke! BTW... salinity and pH is low, so I am guessing you alk is low too.... when did you do your last water change? How much do you do at a time. How old is the tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notpennysboat Posted December 12, 2010 Author Share Posted December 12, 2010 Ummm dude... Reef165 was joking around... the old feather dusters our grandparents use to use to dust had a plastic sheath.... He was makin a joke! BTW... salinity and pH is low, so I am guessing you alk is low too.... when did you do your last water change? How much do you do at a time. How old is the tank? water change was a day ago, and in my 35g tank i do 5g water changes about every 2weeks. Ive been trying to once a week to get the nitrates down. My tank is almost 2 yrs old. About lighting and placement... i have a T5 light w/ 4 39w (2 blue, 2 white) FD is in the 2" sand bed. Should i have it somewhere closer to the lights? I have my lights on from 12pm to about 11pm ish. as far as my alkalinity, i dont have a test for that and will get that right away. What is a good alkalinity measument to have? I do know that my ph is low and am trying to get it up. This has been the first ttime since i started the tank that it has been below 8.4. not sure why the sudden drop(scratch) ....a joke.... thats great! DOH! like i said in my introduction post here at pnwmas im still very much learning all the time and i guess im gullable right now. (laugh) thanks so much for all your help, i hope i get this right soon.. and please any other advise would be very much helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoobtoSalt Posted December 12, 2010 Share Posted December 12, 2010 What type of salt are you using? If you are not putting back enough nutrients back into the tank since it sounds well established your parameters could be off from that as well if your not dosing. Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notpennysboat Posted December 12, 2010 Author Share Posted December 12, 2010 What type of salt are you using? If you are not putting back enough nutrients back into the tank since it sounds well established your parameters could be off from that as well if your not dosing. Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk im using the instant ocean brand. Is there better ones out there? i have been using the same brand since i started also... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadReefer Posted December 12, 2010 Share Posted December 12, 2010 How are you trying to get pH up? The only way you should is by controlling alk and make sure there is good gas exchange. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notpennysboat Posted December 12, 2010 Author Share Posted December 12, 2010 How are you trying to get pH up? The only way you should is by controlling alk and make sure there is good gas exchange. Well since i just found out how low my ph has been all i was doing was some research on how to get it up. is there additives you can add to do such a thing?. Also i was reading on other post about ph here was adding some air hoses to your skimmer.. I dont have mine set up yet so i cant do that. I am running an open top tank, Could that be causeing the problems? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadReefer Posted December 12, 2010 Share Posted December 12, 2010 Open top is great. Is a power head moving the water around so you see ripples on the top of the water? Other than that, don't worry too much about pH. Just get your alk tested and add baking soda solution/alk additive if needed. I suggest you buy an alk test kit. You should know how to maintain these: temperature specific gravity/salinity alk cal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gill Posted December 12, 2010 Share Posted December 12, 2010 the post down below talks about pulling of a "plastic" type membrane. not sure what that is or why it would not be there at my LFS and its back on when i put it in my tank. Thanks for the help guys I think that was a joke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notpennysboat Posted December 12, 2010 Author Share Posted December 12, 2010 Madreefer, thanks for your help. I am getting a new powerhead this wednesday and ill make sure its doing what your talking about. So it sounds like i need to get two more test kits; ALK & Cal. Thanks. What are good ratings for those for a reef tank? (or what are you running yours at)? I currently test for PH, Nitra, Nitri, Amonia, and SG. Do you think the ALK and Cal are affecting my Feather duster? Or is it the PH? or should i move it somewhere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadReefer Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 I run alk at 8-9 dKH. Cal about 350-450 If the alk is low, the pH will be low. This will start dissolving stuff in the aquarium. Also it will make it hard for animals to build things like shells and skeleton. So it could be part of the problem with the feather duster. Honestly I've heard mostly bad things about feather dusters, such as they die slowly unless they have a lot of tiny food that can be supplied by a big refugium. So in a small tank like yours, I'm not sure how good the idea is of having one at all. Hopefully others with more experience with feather dusters will chime in with more information specific to their care. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReeFit Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 larger feather dusters can be finicky. it took me 4 before i got one that lived, now its easily 6 months old. it may just be one of those ones thats not going to make it no matter what you do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 I agree with the above. Don't try to get PH up with additives unless you know what the alk is. Even when the alk is good ph can be low depending upon the environment. (Newer construction homes tend to have elevated CO2 levels which drops the PH) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notpennysboat Posted December 13, 2010 Author Share Posted December 13, 2010 It looked great when I bought it and fed great. I hope it pulls through. Also any other advise would be great. I have an API testing kit now and was told today there not too accurate, but I know I need to get a test for alk and cal this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notpennysboat Posted December 14, 2010 Author Share Posted December 14, 2010 So today I tested Ky KH and cal. It seems like the number is low. KH was 15.0 and cal was 375. I used the salifert kit. Any suggestions to get those up. Should I dose. Also is that why the duster may not come out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notpennysboat Posted December 16, 2010 Author Share Posted December 16, 2010 help? i do have some questions if someone could help. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgf86123 Posted December 16, 2010 Share Posted December 16, 2010 It's always easier to ask the questions then wait for the people to answer.... Might take til morning, but if you ask them now, you should have them answered by lunchtime LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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