Trailermann

Good advice on GFO. I will be watching and managing the phosphate level much more carefully.

Yes, I knew his would be big news. Congratulations on this strategic move.

It might have been shocked earlier by a hot spot, but it has been down low for about 10 days now. The plug was just moved up to the top for the photo.

This is my "cat". Not as cute as yours. And yes, the cards look sharp and professional.

What is wrong here? All my water parameters have been mostly stable with two exceptions. My nitrate hangs close to 10 except after water changes bring it down to 5. My phosphate peaks at .09 and then drops to zero after using Phosguard. I have kept the frag in low light near the bottom. First photo is when I brought my newly purchased Red Montipora Cap home. Second image is now, one month later. The lighting and cameras were different for each photo, partially explaining the variance in color. Any help you can give me is greatly appreciated since I can't "read" the coral's health symptoms.

I am told that bleaching occurs where there is too much light. Can this happen in a matter of hours, or within a day, or more slowly? If the corals are bleaching, what else besides lighting could be the cause? At the other end of the spectrum, what are the signs of not enough light? When I have introduced new corals, I follow everyone's advice and start off at the sand bed. How soon do you start moving them up? What are the repercussions of leaving the corals on the sand bed too long? What signs do you look for when moving the coral up again?

Thanks, I guess that is why many are jumping off the sinking ship Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

I guess this is out of bounds since it really does not apply to aquariums, fish, water, etc. When viewing some of your posts, instead of the photo you stick on the page, I get this notice from Photobucket: "Please update your account to see third party hosting". Does this refer to my account (of which I do not have) or the posting person's account? Am I doing something wrong again?

OK, so I will just forget about PHotobucket or any other oddball photo management/storage system. Thanks.

This is all Greek to me. Is there a Forum Photo 101 course available?

Do I need to do something to view the photos? All I see is "Please update your account to see third party hosting".

Fantastic food spread including all the great ribs and all the fresh Dungeness crab you could eat. Many thanks to the hostess/chef team of Kim and Serena, the great crab catcher Jeremevans and all the many pot-luckers. I especially enjoyed talked with some of you. But it is frustrating that there are so many others I have not met. Guess I will just have to keep coming to meetings.

Made salt water with tap water (no RO) and got same results. Still experimenting!

good suggestion. I will try it.

I just wanted to clarify the preliminary results of my low test results as discussed in the "Can't raise magnesium" post. It seems the source of my problem lies within my home's source water or my RODI. Very frustrating to pin this down.

Can't wait to hang with all you super reefers. Rubbing shoulders with the best.

Update: Fritz salt is not the problem! I have zeroed into my BRS RODI unit that I have been using for about two years. That seems to be the culprit in spite of zero TDS readings. But still stumped. With Jorge's help, I ran my RODI with the BRS flush valve open (black valve in line with the tubing), my test numbers were good. But that means that I am flushing and not forcing as much water through the membrane. The good water production is much slower. So, I am now making up RODI water both ways to see the difference. My latest step in solving this puzzle: Change all the media/filters in the RODI unit. I just place the order and my fingers are crossed.

The different source of RO water did not make any difference! So, here is the email I just sent to the salt company's manager: Thanks for returning my call yesterday. The case of your salt I have been having trouble with is marked with lot #29162. I have measured salinity with two different refractometers, both adjusted with a calibration solution. I only used RO water with zero TDS reading. I have made mixes carefully multiple times, in varying quantities (30 gal, 5 gal, 2 gal) all with consistently low readings of kH, Ca, and Mg. The water temperature was between 70 and 75 degrees, and salinity from 1.023 to 1.026. I compared the testing results of my Red Sea test kit with those at two different retailers. I mixed two additional batches using crystals from a case that was being used (without problems) by Cuttlefish and Corals (Portland, Oregon). I even used a different RO source (LFS) and it made no difference. Unless you have another suggestion, I plan to take my salt to the LFS and watch while they mix up just a few gallons with their RO water. Is it possible that my mixing methodology is terribly wrong? Or is it possible that all my buckets, barrels, tubs etc have been contaminated by previous Red Sea/Kent salts, even though I thoroughly prewashing each with vinegar and fresh water? Wish me luck. Jeff at Cuttlefish has touted your product so strongly that I REALLY do want to use your products. Paul

cal solution. Latest effort to solve mystery. I just got a few jugs of RO water from Wet World, trying to see if possibly there is something funny about my RODI system. Testing salt with new water "as we speak".

I recently switched to Fritz salt mix. and got crazy low chemistry numbers. I learned that previous users of Red Sea salt mix had big problems with the change over. So for the next batch, I carefully washed out all my mixing barrels with vinegar and fresh water. The next 35 gallon batch still had low numbers: Kh of 5.3, Ca pf 320 amd Mg pf 1000. So I started dosing magnesium supplement in advance of Ca and kH adjustments. Based on previous adjustment for my 30 gallon nano, I tossed in 30 ml and the Mg number barely budged. So three subsequent additions of 40 ml only raised the Mg level to 1120. All this is in the salt mix barrel, not the display tank. I heard that raising Mg can be a bugger, but this is ridiculous. Should I just keep added supplement to get the number closer to 1350, or am I doing something wrong? Help me! btw, if I can ever get this batch adjusted prior to water changes, I will address why the Fritz is out of line with its specs. paul

Now I am trying to solve why the parameters of my salt water mix using Fritz Pro salt is so out of whack. All the readings are way low even though I carefully followed their mixing instructions. C&C gave me a sack of their fresh mix to try and I still have low readings. Can't wait to talk with the Fritz technicians in the morning. I suspect that I must be doing something wrong. RODI water with zero TDS. Proper salinity and water temperature. Refractometer recalibrated. Slow addition of salt crystals. Red Sea test kit confirmed by LFS. I am totally baffled.

and I have a purple tang about two inches, only asking $500. In other words, I am not ready to say goodby to my baby. I killed the first two I purchased, so this one is close to my heart.

and nice anthias (am I right).

Salt is 1.026 measured with refractometer. Temp is 76 degrees. Wow, the reef calculators show that I need a ton of supplement!

I recently switched to Fritz salt mix. and got crazy low chemistry numbers. I learned that previous users of Red Sea salt mix had big problems with the change over. So for the next batch, I carefully washed out all my mixing barrels with vinegar and fresh water. The next 35 gallon batch still had low numbers: Kh of 5.3, Ca pf 320 amd Mg pf 1000. So I started dosing magnesium supplement in advance of Ca and kH adjustments. Based on previous adjustment for my 30 gallon nano, I tossed in 30 ml and the Mg number barely budged. So three subsequent additions of 40 ml only raised the Mg level to 1120. All this is in the salt mix barrel, not the display tank. I heard that raising Mg can be a bugger, but this is ridiculous. Should I just keep added supplement to get the number closer to 1350, or am I doing something wrong? Help me! btw, if I can ever get this batch adjusted prior to water changes, I will address why the Fritz is out of line with its specs. paul