Having a nightmare!

Hi All

1st i wanna say sorry i have not been about, had a ruff past 6 months with kids being really ill, operations & meningitus i havnt had time to breath And now to top it all of i woke up this morning and my flame angle ( the biggest fish in my tank) has gone missing with out a trace! He was fine when i went to be last night!:-/

I did my params 1st thing :

Ammo 0
nitrate 0
nitrite 0

mag 1350

PH 7.9 :-/
KH 70-80mg :-[

Now i have really been struggerling with my KH! I tried to raise my mag as it was 1200 so after many bottles of stuff i got it to 1350 then stopped as it was costing soooo much money & not really raiseing like it should.
I then went on to try & raise my Kh by adding seachem reef carbonate 3-4 bottles & again it hardly touched it! it went upto 90-100 and then crashed back down again..............I added this over 2-3 months.I beleive it should be around 120mg?

Now my ph is outta wack................last month it was high 8.5 but now its really low7.9 I didnt Know if this was the natural daliy cycle..low in the morning , high in the evenning or if its gone to pot! it was at 8.3 for a year......so i guess i have ansered that one myself!

Would theys params kill my flame?

What should i do..................im so stressed


Thanks for any advice, i could really do with it

Kiarah x

 

kiarah

you dont mention your calcium level? or your SG

Im going to paraphrase Inwall75 who was paraphrasing someone else when he gave the following easier to understand relationship between the trinity - Magnesium, Calcium and alkalinity

your SG defines how many ions are in solution - so think of the SG as a bowl
think of your Magnesium as sticky marbles (red) and these bind and hold the others in solution
think of your calcium as blue marbles
and your alk as yellow marbles

you can only have so many marbles in the bowl - ( a higher SG means the bowl is bigger)
if you dont have enough sticky marbles in the bowl what happens is
every time you add a blue marble, a yellow marble falls out the bowl

for every 20ppm of calcium you have in excess of what the SG and Mag can hold
you lose 1 DKH
when you try and add Alk if the Mag is not high enough to support it, it falls out of solution (precipitates)

(Its like a game of rock, paper and scissors IMO )

if your using a PH test kit always test late afternoon after lights have been on a long time and always test at same time each week.

now the low PH could be connected to the low alk - but as your in UK and its been very cold recently - you may also be experiencing low PH due to build up of CO2 in your home

If you want to find out if CO2 is your problem , take a cup of tank water, measure the PH
then add an air stone, air pump combo for 1 hour, then test again- if PH is higher on second test - CO2 in your tank is problem

then take cup of water outside (you need a long flex or a battery powered air pump) leave it being aerated outside for 1 hour, and test again , if the PH is higher again CO2 in your home is the problem

I have no idea where your flame angel is , sorry

I hope the above helps with the chemistry aspects

Steve

 

HI ya Steve my calcium is off the scale high & has always been high. And there is loads of air in the tank as my skimmer is bubble crazy! salt is 1.026

Thanks Steve

p,s what would you suggest the mag should be sitting at? is 1350 tp low? and if so what is the most cost effective was of raisein the mag? I used a product that cost aprox £12 a bottle and two bottles only raised it by 0.150................

Thanks again!

 

well of the scale high is the reason your ALK is low Kiarah

magnesium supplement on the cheap = epsom salts = you need to go to a health shop
or decent supermarket
you want non perfumed, no additives epsom salts , which is pure magnesium and sold for adding to bath water (thats why you need make sure its not perfume}

are you supplementing calcium - purple up for example can give calc levels off the scale

I would want my mag at 1500 when my calc is 480 and my DKH is 9 and my SG is 1.026

but calc of 420 -440 and mag of 1450 with dkh of 9 would also be good targets IMO

Check out the 3 reef calculator - mess with it - it will tell you the balanced calc and alk levels when your changing one or the other

Steve

 

epsom salt = mag^ cheap
mrs. wages pickling lime "cheap" = KH^ PH^ or kalkwasser mix if cant find mrs. wages like me.

 

Ok thanks guys.

Now i do have one last Q but please dont lol when you read this as i no its probably a silly Q but would epsom salt have a effect on the SG? shorly adding salt will raise it & its already 1.026........................

Thanks!
K

 

Nope! Epsom salt won't effect SG

 

Hope this helps you out.

 

Jumped out maybe ? I have lost a few flame angles to jump out over the yr its not uncommon

 

Thanks uncle Jed,
All kids are getting better by the day.........just hope it stays that way.

I have to admit with all thats been going on i have not been looking after my params as i should be, but i will get them back on track & with any luck ( which i feel i do deserve at the mo!) have my tank back upto scratch.

I found the online cals a great help with so thanks for telling me to give them a go Steve.

My mind is just in another place at the mo with the stress of my kids being unwell getting to me im really struggerling to figure this out but with all your help im sure ill come right in the end!

Thanks again! x

P.S Thanks for not taking the mick out of my epson salt & SG Q

P.P.s Hi Tangster I have checked all around the outside of the tank & cant find a thing! I just cant get my head round how a really healthy fish of that size can just dissapear...............Its starting to really wind me up that i cant even find a fin or just somethin!