ReefKeeping Adventures Minus the Sump by Tyson Lee

Third Month (November 26th - January 7, 1997)

Feel free to mail me comments or suggestions: mailto:tyson.lee@telecheck.com

Well, unlike last month, this month was terrible due to a tragedy near the end of the month. All was going well up until the last week or so of December. The first few weeks, all corals appeared fine. I did battle a little of red algae, but looked forward to the UV wrapped under the X-mas tree to take care of that. Anyhow, about the last week of December, the corals and inhabitants, save for the fish, displayed less than normal behavior. Leathers were not as large and open, brains were not swollen and expanded, clams appeared to be gaping and not reacting to external stimulii. I shrugged it off thinking it was nothing much. Boy was I wrong. About 3 or 4 days after X-mas(when I had hooked up the UV), all appeared even worse. I broke out the test kits only to find that the alkalinity was through the roof. And when I say through the roof, it really was. I use the SeaChem test for alkalinity and the color never turned from blue to yellow. The blue only got darker and darker.

It appears the SuperBuffer I was using to raise the Ph in water changes and in the tank directly over the previous month, had upped the alk to something rediculously high. I never ever thought the alkalinity would affect the corals in such a way. Call me naïve, but I have learned a great lesson.

Worried sick, I began the water changes. I began doing as many water changes as I had time for throughout the day. Being the holidays and all this made it even tougher. Over the course of the next week, I had to conduct water changes in order to keep water parameters intact. Due to the high alk and die-off of animals, water quality suffered. Throughout about a 10 day period, I lost 3 animals.

 

Date

S.G.

PH

Alk

WC

Ca

Trace

Stron&Moly

Kalk

Iodine

Misc Notes

12/1/97

1.024

8.2

Y

Red slime back a bit on gravel.

12/2/97

1.024

8.2

12/3/97

1.024

8.2

Y

Y

12/4/97

1.024

8.2

Y

Y

12/5/97

1.024

8.2

Y

Y

Y

12/6/97

1.024

8.2

Y

Red slime seems to be disappearing.

12/7/97

1.024

8.2

Y

Y

Y

12/8/97

1.024

8.2

Y

12/9/97

1.024

8.2

Y

Y

12/10/97

1.024

8.2

Y

12/11/97

1.024

8.2

Y

Y

Y

12/12/97

1.024

8.2

5

Y

Red slime diminishing quite a bit.

12/13/97

1.024

8.2

Y

Y

Y

12/14/97

1.024

8.2

Y

12/15/97

1.024

8.2

Y

Cleaned skimmer and cup.

12/16/97

1.024

8.2

Y

12/17/97

1.024

8.2

Y

Added 20 hermits.

12/18/97

1.024

8.2

2

Y

12/19/97

1.024

8.2

Y

Y

Red Slime Gone.

12/20/97

1.024

8.2

Y

Y

Cleaned FLUVAL thoroughly.

12/21/97

1.023

8.2

Y

12/22/97

1.023

8.2

Y

Y

12/23/97

1.023

8.2

Y

Y

Some brown appearing on substrate. (No more Stron & Moly)

12/24/97

1.023

8.2

2

Y

12/25/97

1.023

8.2

Y

12/26/97

1.023

8.2

Y

Installed UV Sterilizer 15w Aquanetics

12/27/97

1.023

8.2

Y

Y

12/28/97

1.023

8.2

Y

Added Small Mushroom anemone.

12/29/97

1.023

8.2

Y

Y

Cleaned skimmer and powerheads.

12/30/97

1.023

8.2

Corals not looking good at all. Semi-closed. Clams gaping.

12/31/97

1.023

8.2

10

Discontinued all chemicals. Alkalinity is undetectable.

Date

S.G.

PH

Alk

WC

Ca

Trace

Stron&Moly

Kalk

Iodine

Misc Notes

1/1/98

1.023

8.1

15

Cleaner shrimp died. Continued water changes.

1/2/98

1.023

8.1

10

Coral Banded died. Water changes appear to be helping the clams a lot.

1/3/98

1.023

8.1

5

Brain Corals look better. Bubble looks terrible.

1/4/98

1.023

8.1

10

1/5/98

1.023

8.1

5

1/6/98

1.023

8.1

5

Toadstool finally opening polyps.

1/7/98

1.023

8.1

Additions

Corals and Inverts

None. Only subtractions I must report. I lost the following in the silly alkalinity mishap.

 

 

 

Rock and Equipment

Aquanetics 15watt UV Sterilizer. Placed the Sterilizer on the return of the Fluval 303. The 303 pumps a rated 222gph, but I would assume the 160gph is met with the foot height in order to meet flow requirements.

Maintenance

Routine water changes and filter maintenance.

Attempt at pictures

None this month. Next month, I hope to have many.

 

Conclusion

 

Things are finally looking better. The clams are doing much better and so are all inhabitants. I have definitely learned a lesson over the past month. Be very careful when using buffer to adjust water parameters. Be sure to test at least weekly and make sure the alkalinity is not creeping up. I believe having the Carib-Sea substrate led to my demise since I really did not need the buffer. I simply wanted my Ph to be like everyone else's(8.3-8.4). However, I will now not worry about the 8.0-8.1 Ph I had controlled before. It seemed to make my corals happy, and Lord knows, it made me more happy. It was a discouraging time, but I forge on only to learn more. Till next time........keep on REEFIN!!