water chemistry

[Reptoreef]

Ereefic, I've heard of the dolomite method... after you get all your info, please be sure to share. As for salts, I use Red Sea and Oceanic. Both seem very good and there doesn't seem to be any reall neg effects when occassionally switching from 1 to the other.

[ereefic]

IO has always read 1100 ppm Magnesium.

Repto, I will, may be awhile though. Wanna get the whole reactor thing figured out well before I start messing with the Dolomite. The reactor media alone may help keep things enough to still use supplements, but not in the big volume that I do now.

[Reptoreef]

Cool. I use no suppliments with the salt I use for water changes, the ca reactor I use and everything looks to be thriving... dialing in the reactor is kind of a pain. Fact is, I also run with a kalk reactor as well... PH remains pretty stable.

[davejnz]

Has there been any studies of Magnesium playing a role in calcification?Has anyone noticed slower growth from low levels?

[Reptoreef]

I have witnessed the effects that occur in the balance of the ca/alk(mag plays a serious role)... IMO, the answer is a definite "YES".

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

I just tested everything and all is well.
Everything is perfect actually. Even my nitrates are finally 0!! Calcium is up to 400.
Now all I have to do is figure out why I have hair algae.

I have a 40 gal sump packed with chaeto. I just ordered a clean up crew and added a lettuce nudibranch to the order. It will be here on Friday. ( have to wait for the special order nudi.) Anyone else close by that has a hair algae problem? From all that I have read the nudi will starve once all of the hair algae is consumed. I'd be willing to pass it around so it doesn't run out of food.
Let me know.

Angie

[Whoyah]

I have been battling a hair algae problem as well. I beefed up my clean up crew recently and that is certainly having a positive effect. I also manually remove as much as possible. There is still some in there but I am gaining ground on it.

I am not sure what is causing the problem though. I ordered a Saliferts Phosphate kit but it is on back order so that will have to wait. I purchase RO from the grocery store and I am wondering if that might be coming that way.

I would think a 40 gallon fuge would have enough stuff for one little old lettuce sea slug to eat. I have one as well, pretty cool little guys.

[Reptoreef]

Crop what HA you can by hand and completely remove from system... lower or eliminate your light cycle(how old are your bulbs??) for 2-3 days and observe for any natural HA recession. Next, don't feed or add ANYTHING(suppliments, food, phyto, etc)... try all of this, at once(starting now) and observe for any positive effects before adding the janitorial staff. Whoya, any chance that another local would have a TDS meter you could use?

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

All of my hair algae is in hard to get to spots. (bottom of rockwork) it isn't really long enough yet to pull out by hand....but it's getting there. Not too long ago I emptied every rock out of the tank and scrubbed each one with a tooth brush and a nail brush. (PITA and an all day job to boot!) No more hair algae for about 1.5 - 2 months. Now I noticed it's back. I have so much chaeto in my sump that it looks like one giant brick, lol. I'll have to take some out soon.

How often should MH lights be replaced? (250w 20k)

Thanks,
Angie

[Reptoreef]

Depending on quality and hours used... 9-12 months is usually safe.