Hey guys i need some help!

[Adrianwtsn]

One of my freinds tanks is having issues. Im am trying to figure out what is going on. Heres a little background ill try to organise it the best i can.
Its a 200 gallon and i have installed a apex unit to get things under control. Pet world was managing his tank before me and had his alk at 5.0 i was suprised he was able to keep any coral with alk being so low. They were using catalina ocean water for changes. They bever did any testing or anything so i dont know how parameters have been managed before me. Mag is hovering at about 12-1300 calcium is jumping around at least the apex is giving numbers between 460-700 lol. It may need to be calibrated. Well we were trying to adjust his alk by switching his water. I had him buy an ro unit and red sea coral pro. We did a 50 gallon water change which brough his alk from 6 to 7.5. Before that his montipora was dying out, space invader was receeding but has now stopped and looks better. But his trachy after the water change started to bail. I cant figure out whats going on. Should we be raising the alk and how much can we safely raise it and how should i go about raising it?. We have a target of 9 dkh. I know im all over the place this tank is just stressing me out and idk where to start. What can i do to raise the alk. And will this cause problems in the future? If you have any questions please ask so i can be a little more on track as its so much to write i cant figure out how to organize what im thinking.

 

[saltyfishd]

Making changes slowly would help. Corals need to adapt to adjustments.


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[Adrianwtsn]

Ok so in changing the alk. What should i shoot for?

 

[saltyfishd]

8–9 should be good.


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[Adrianwtsn]

Ok so in changing the alk. What should i shoot for?

As in what is safe per week/ per day.

 

[Adrianwtsn]

As in what is safe per week/ per day.

Yea thats what im going for. And is the reason im using red sea coral pro ive had success with my personal tank using this salt. My aquarium has been maintained pefrectly with this salt. How much should i raise the alk at one time though. I would like the doser to do the work. What would be safe to set it too? If that makes sense

 

[saltyfishd]

0.5 dkh per day


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[Adrianwtsn]

Tha ks im gonna see how this works out.

 

[Emac909]

One question why isn’t the owner learning how to take care of his/her own tank?
Second question is the owner paying you to maintenance there tank?
Third thing is not a question but more of a fact
Yes I some times shop a PW but they are one of the worst examples of a LFS. A few years back I was trying to do some advertising for SCMAS. I asked if I could have them put some flyers for RAP and there register. There was a program SCMAS was doing with any of the LFS that were willing to sponsor RAP by posting the flyers it was something along the line the shop could win a cash prize if the fryer that was selected at RAP came from that shop. The shop had to do nothing but hand out the flyers.
When I asked Tom if he was willing to pass out a 100 or so flyers he told me “Nope, I don’t need any of my customers to go to these events and spend money there and learn how to take better care of there tanks, I don’t want them getting smarter”. No lie this was what I was told.
In 20 something years of being in this hobby I’ve seen this shop do so much shady ash shet.

Now if the owner has a trident then yea get a dos doser and have the apex slowly bring up the alk. I say go slow AF at raising alk I don’t like to have alk change more then a point a week. Also it will take about 1 - 3 months after the parameters are stable for the tank to start to recover and start looking good.
After you get the alk to 8ish I recommend using kalk/lime water in ato to help keep alk/cal stable if there’s not a high demand in the system

 

[Emac909]

Also I recommend getting an ICP test done. The icp will give you and the owner an exact analysis of what’s going on in the tank

 

[TwoFish]

If you have any 2-Part (i.e. Calcium Chloride and Sodium Bicarbonate), you can use the BRS reefing calculator to find out how much to dose of both to increase 0.5 dKH / day. For example, if you are hovering at ~6dKH and your target is 9dKH, use the calculator to input your volume (200gal), current dKH (6.0), and target dKH (6.5), which will give you a dose in mL for your 2-part. Can you also do water changes to raise your Alk? Yes.