KOgle's 180 diary

What levels do you run the DKH and Ca and Mag at and where does the P.H set most time on average ? You have a simple case of the species Polysiphonia of algae and they don't like clean hard High DKH water. Burn their cells up. Get the skimmer cranking abd bump the P.H using the laundry soda and it will burn it right out. You Lucky **&^&*#@####%% I'll trade you

 

I haven't tested in over two months but the calcium was at 440, alk was at 16, ph was at 8.2 - 8.4 sometimes hard to tell. Have not even opened the mg test kit yet. I'll test everything tonight since the tank has had a day to settle down the from mess I made last night. I'm also going to get some baking soda and epsom salt while I'm out tonight. I've got some Kent Dkh buffer but I'd rather not use that.

 

If you want to mix your own buffer ? then also get some 20 Mule team laundry booster to mix with the backing soda Bicarbonate alone is not a good buffering agent . It will actually cause the P.H to start falling off like a rock once all the carbonates are exhausted the Soda is a bit acidic .

 

Looks a lot better now! Along with what Tangster already mentioned, get thee some snails stat!

 

20 Mule Team® Borax is made of 100% Borax, a naturally occurring mineral composed of sodium, boron, oxygen and water. 20 Mule Team® Borax is not harmful to washing machines, plumbing or septic tanks and does not contain phosphates or chlorine.




Is this what you're talking about?

 

Thought I'd update this since I haven't posted to it in awhile. I think my algae problems may be going away. It's not growing back in a week like it was. No measureable phosphates. I added a large powder blue tang and a small powder brown tang. The only thing the powder blue is eating is the hair algea. Won't touch the food I put in there. The powder brown eats like a PIG though. Never seen a fish that acted so starved! ;D

 

Another update. I'll be short about this since I'm coming close to selling the stinking thing.

My algae problem is as bad as ever. I'm starting to think my rock is just soaked with nutrients. My powder brown tang gave the powder blue ich and then died. The powder blue is still kicking but he's covered in ich about as bad as any fish I've seen. Can't find my lawn mower blenny.

I think my next step is going to be taking every last piece of rock out of my display and fuge and nuking it in some bleach.

Does anyone have any recomendations on how I should handle the livestock part while doing this? Can I just leave everything in there fish wise and invert wise?

 

Have a smaller spare tank ? Anyone you know have a spare tank or large tub ?

 

Otty said I could use his QT tank (think he got it off you tangster) for the corals. I'm just worried about the fish and inverts having some place to hide without rock. I'm also worried about a cycle if I take all of the rock out of the tank, fuge, and wet dry. I'll still have the sand bed for filtration but I'll have to disturb the sand bed to pull the bottom layer of rock out since I put it directly on the glass.


next question, should I pull the ruble out of the wet dry a nuke it to?

It's going to be a couple of weeks before I can do this. I'm just wanting to have a good plan in place before I start.

When I pull all of this rock out I'm going to kill the lights on the tank the whole time the rock is bleaching and curing. If possible I'm going to try and cycle the tank the tried and true tangster way. I don't know if it's even possible since I've already had algae in the tank....

 

I'd remove what ever you wanted to save as for animals.. Then I would drain the saltwater refill with fresh and just add several Gallons (10 maybe) of bleach to the entire system to kill everything in contact with the pumps skimmer and all problem's and parts and then after circulating the bleach for a few days Drain this and then start over But the rocks will need extra work once out of the tank.. P/M or E/M me when ready I'll offer you more help if you want or need it . Several options for you to choose. But as for the storage of the animals just put a few rocks in there for them to hide in or I like sections of PVC pipe or fittings .. Save the sand and that can be reused if you want ? or not thats up to you.. Just the saltwater from the main system is all the rest is so little it won't make much difference As for rubble in a wet dry ? not sure where that idea came from but its no where as good as proper bio balls the oxygen works against the bacterias we use rock for.. where as the bio balls offer far far more surface area for the bacteria you want to use a wet dry for..