do not experiment

so i decided to experiment with xenia and ph.i discovered i can slow down xenia growth by raising ph up to 8.6.the cost of the experiment?some lps closed up and my toadstools.i bought a cheep alkalinity test kit by redsea $16.well the kit reads wrong and is indeed cheep.by the time i reallized something was wrong my magnesium was practicly nonexistant,so was my alkalinity according to my cheep kit so i go dumping alk in my tank every day just for it to go back down.i bought some b-ionic magnesium $18 after finding out ph,alk,calcium,magnesium all relate to each other,also picked up some seachem reef builder alk $8.tank was looking bad so i looked for a magnesium test kit and only found it in one store for $43 and had to get it cause everyones out.i also got a better alk test for $22 both salifert,oh and a calcium test kit $9.i did a 25% water change.why oh why did i not just leave things alone.my water is now balanced and corals are finally slowly looking better,i may have lost my trumpet coral but it was'nt anything special.my fish never looked stressed.i'm don't with experiments.for now on i'm sticking to my 15% monthly water changes and lots of testing.learn from my mistake.

 

Lesson learned. Remember ziggy, " If it aint broken, dont fix it " Im glad you didnt lose anything;D

 

Whats with you today Lunatik? I mean, first your not as smart as a ninth grader and then you say "Im glad you didnt lose anything" when he CLEARLY stated that he may have lost a coral, GOSH!


Im J/K, your still smarter than me

 

lol aquaboy.i may have lost a trumpet but no biggy.i have 4 echinophylia or cup corals half bleached and one badly receded.open brain shrunk but coming back.star polyps closed for 2 days but i'm certain will open soon.certain mushrooms are shrunk but look fine.the xenia almost died yesterday but are rapidly coming back and a superman monti is bleached on one side.i see everything but maybe the trumpet and one rainbow echino coral coming back.

 

I went through something similar not to long ago. I was reading how alot of ppl keep their parameters really high ie; Cal-500 Ph-8.4-8.6 Mag-1500-1600 Dkh-16+ Alk-5+. I thought, man, Im missing out, maybe Im doing something wrong. So I tried to reach all those numbers and it was a roller coaster ride to say the least. I would reach some #'s and others would fall and so on and so on. The only thing I achieved was to chase my own tail, pull out my hairs and spend money I didnt have. So I left the numbers alone and they all went to normal levels. My tank has never looked as it is now. Moral of the story, " If it aint broken, dont fix it! " Luna

 

I had a similar problem with my corals but salinity was the culprit.

 

well i hope lots of people read this

 

I had a bad ALK test kit from Salifert that had me chasing my tail and took Jason's advice and got a Elos kit and they are the bomb, and not that expensive.

 

To many things going on in my mind. My brain capacity is only 1GB and Im going on 2GB. Overload

 

but salifert is the only brand i've found magnesium kits in.