Some people don't deserve to keep sps (me)

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Macdaddynick1

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This is so someone can be reminded or learn from me. I've recently lost my favorite blueberry shortcake acropora colony, blue Milliapora and half of my prostrata and today I think I lost it completely. All to unknown at the time RTN .As they were wild colonies and I've had no experience with those. I did what I always do ,dose alk into my sump at night. I do have large colonies of acros that were never affected, long story short I checked my apex and my PH spiked 7.9-8.4 then back 8.2 . And I check my prostrata and it lost it's flesh again . F ah k . But now I know that wild colonies are extremely sensitive and I just wanted to share my experience with you guys so hopefully someone else can avoid doing the same thing . Don't dose alk so freely when you get new acros.



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Macdaddynick1

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I have a doser, but sometimes I manually adjust and add a little alk here and there . I use to have a small container with air hose attached and a small regulator valve at the end , I would get a cup of ro/di mix what I was dosing and pour it in there and let it drip slowly , never had issues , but then I got lazy. :/


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Msmith2813

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Boy if a.5 move is a spike then you don't want to see my tank haha I run my alk very low, and every time I do a water change it climbs over a full point. I haven't lost any sps yet as that's all I keep, but I also do not want to keep wild pieces.
 
BeanMachine

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Are you just observing the ph or are you actually checking the alkalinity? Also just curious why you are only dosing alk at night? What are you dosing?
 
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pirate2876

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Alk swings kill. If you are manually dosing, you may be increasing the alk too rapidly. Your PH will also rise when adding liquid alk buffers but, it usually go back to normal after a bit of time. I've killed a few corals misjudging alk and additives. I've learned a stable low alk/ph/cal is better than a swinging combo of the three. Sorry to hear about losing the mili.
 
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M3ace9

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A .5 swing in pH is not that bad. I have those all the time since I have been running a Co2 scrubber. I hold a rock solid 8.4 and then turn off my skimmer for a few hours while feeding and dosing bacteria and see it drop. Stability is definitely the key to keeping wild colonies but in my opinion a .5 swing in pH is not a factor.
 
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M3ace9

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One thing I can say is that there is less luck keeping wild pieces in lower nutrient systems. These colonies need to become healthy and used to the day to day imbalances of being captive.
 
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Macdaddynick1

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I think I made a wrong statement, I was reffering to my Ph going up as a result an Alkalinity spike. Which was deffinetly my fault no denying that. And yeah i have many acros that have no visible signs of stress but they arent wild either. Another reason im thinking was that those particular colonies were near the return which could also be the cause of alkalinity not being mixed well enough before it hit them.

"Are you just observing the ph or are you actually checking the alkalinity? Also just curious why you are only dosing alk at night? What are you dosing?"

Yeah My Alk is usually at 6.8-7 which is never a problem but i try to get it up to 8 (no reason) . I test at night usually after studying so I dosed some alk in my overflow. I manually dosed sechem Builder. My doser is on randy's two part.



"One thing I can say is that there is less luck keeping wild pieces in lower nutrient systems. These colonies need to become healthy and used to the day to day imbalances of being captive."

after our talk I've been feeding the tank zoo plankton and sometimes phyto, the corals have been responding pretty well. But im 100% with you on that stability part as far as the wild colonies go.
 
robert_ellis

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Macdaddynick1 said:
I think I made a wrong statement, I was reffering to my Ph going up as a result an Alkalinity spike. Which was deffinetly my fault no denying that. And yeah i have many acros that have no visible signs of stress but they arent wild either. Another reason im thinking was that those particular colonies were near the return which could also be the cause of alkalinity not being mixed well enough before it hit them.

"Are you just observing the ph or are you actually checking the alkalinity? Also just curious why you are only dosing alk at night? What are you dosing?"

Yeah My Alk is usually at 6.8-7 which is never a problem but i try to get it up to 8 (no reason) . I test at night usually after studying so I dosed some alk in my overflow. I manually dosed sechem Builder. My doser is on randy's two part.



"One thing I can say is that there is less luck keeping wild pieces in lower nutrient systems. These colonies need to become healthy and used to the day to day imbalances of being captive."

after our talk I've been feeding the tank zoo plankton and sometimes phyto, the corals have been responding pretty well. But im 100% with you on that stability part as far as the wild colonies go.
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You need to set up doser. A 1 point spike every night can be the reason. Either set up a doser or add your manual dose over 2-3 doses.
 
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xmas_one

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If you were dosing enough alk to cause a 0.5 pH spike, I think you might be doing something WAY wrong. I break my alk dose up into three different doses, the Apex shows less than 0.05 pH spike each time.
 
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