sun2000

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Interested in the Jebao dosing pump. PM me please thanks

Why continue Mg dosing. The amount of Mg needed is quite low and with your low stock 4 fishes and feather and hammer it would not demand too much Mg at all. What is your current Mg level and what are you dosing for Mg. Epsom salt alone may cause ionic imbalance too. Low Ph could be due to poor circulation or high CO2 in the surrounding area. No idea why your levels are dropping so fast. A daily drop of 1dKh is what I have and I'm dosing around 16g of CaCl a day for my 188 gal tank to keep it stable at 8.9 dKh. Will be interested to know what is causing your problem as well.

Balance Kh for Ca level of 430 is around 8.9. Is that what you are aiming for? I'm also struggling with 2 part. Recently had unusual high Ph and did several water changes and now back to normal. Kh always fluctuates between 8.5 and 8.9 but dose only 12g of Sodium bicarb a day much lower than your dose. Maybe time for a major water change

90g of Sodium Carbonate is a lot to dose. What is the size of your tank? Low Mg makes it difficult to maintain Kh/Ca in solution. Check your Mg level.

Yes I mean 7.3 dKh and I have stopped my dosing for over a week now and original dKh was 8.9 and continue to drop by 0.3 daily but Ph remains high.Lowest in a day was 8.2 and that is early morning and then evening 8.5 to 8.6 varies a bit. This is without dosing Sodium Bicarbonate. If I dose 15g (diluted in 500ml) thru the day( 50ml each time via dosing pump) the Ph goes even higher to 8.6 and above so had to stop. Not sure which is worse low Kh or High Ph.. Will continue to monitor but if dKh drops to 7 I'll do water change and see.

Thanks everyone for your inputs. I am using Skimz salt and changed over from H2O a few months back. It has been fine for a while ( 6 months at least) but problem only came about 1 month ago. Not sure why. A lot of Calcium precipitation in the tank on on my pumps and skimmer as the Kh dropped and could not hold the Calcium level in the tank steady. Killed my Skimmer and had to change the impeller. I've just gone thru cleaning all my wave makers and return pump and piping( Calcium deposits) and calibrating my Ph meter as well as bought a new batch of test kits to ensure the problem was not due to a measurement problem. I start the morning and Ph is already at 8.2 and this will climb slowly to 8.5 and sometimes beyond. At 8.5 you can see the Hammer, Acans and Zoa all not happy ( not extending fully) and SPS still showing some PEs, no visible problem but I notice the PEs are less. Obviously stressed but still hanging on ...but for how long. Want to know how to increase KH from 7.3 to above 8 and reduce Ph to around max 8.3. Adding Baking Soda or Sodium Bicarb increases Kh but also increases PH.... I need to balance first before I can increase. Right now no idea how. Looking for advise from anyone.

My tank is suffering from unusually high ph (8.5 measured with calibrated probe) while my Kh is getting lower and lower (measure 7.3 dkh using Salifert (new)). Calcium is OK 400 and Mg is OK 1400. NO3 0 and PO4 0 measure using Salifert. Done 2 water change (120l each time) but problem still there. Ph will come down but after a while it will climb back up. During night Ph drops to 8.2 only. Took a sample out and ran an air pump thru it to see if Ph will come down but after 1 hour the drop is negligible. If I dose Vinegar to bring it down, it impacts my Kh even further. I am dosing 2 part CaCl and NaHCO3 but stopped for over a week. Tank is lightly stocked ( 4 anthias and 1 flame angel) for 5ft x 2 x 2.5 ft and mixture of LPS and SPS and several RBTA. . I am in a tough situation . If I dose Sodium Bicarbonate to raise my Kh to 8.9, my Ph goes off the chart. If I leave it as it is, My Kh keeps dropping and at 7.3 I am worried it is too low. So to anyway to raise Kh while not raising Ph or lower Ph without impacting Kh? Appreciate any help from the anyone here with experience on this thanks

Congrats to a wonderful tank

Having seen it first hand, it looks even better in real life. Impressed yeo

No problems as long as not soil in the potting. Charcoal, Spagnum moss or bricks are OK. Done it a few times for platyceriums no issues.

Price tagging is just good practice and can help avoid misunderstanding in case of dispute in pricing( ie over charging not only life stock but also equipment and additives). At the end of it, it is all up to the lfs if they want to display prices and if we will patronise them if they do not. I understand that sometimes, they are so busy when shipment arrives that there is no time for price tagging but there should be no excuse for equipment and the regular items which they have on display all the time.

Having a cooled greenhouse gives more options on the type of orchid one can grow. Does the greenhouse only control temp or can it also control humidity. I guess mimicking South American climate can be a challenge in Singapore. The cost must be prohibitive. Looking for p. bellina as I like the fragrance and color. Could not find any at the recent show which had mostly x breed. Will see if SGF pasar malam may have some or else wait for the next hort park bazaar. No patience for trying to cultivate from flask. At the end not sure what you get, some flower and some don't and may not even get the color and shape that you want. End up whole garden filled with one or two type of phals... best to mix it up and among them some should be flowering and make things not so boring.

Sterile flask needed to avoid fungus growing I guess. Anyway I just buy what I like in terms of color and shape from the shop as I have limited space in my garden and too many also don't know what to do with it. I guess people do it for the challenge.

Size of the bloom can be related to fertilizers we use.We need some of the micro nutrients to help to flower develop( heard some people use Seachem Flourish to top up micro nutrients) so when the bud appears we need to change fertilizer to the high P and K type. As for the declining industry it is quite normal I think but growers are more focused on cut flowers which will be the main money maker. For hobby people like us the poison is from new hybrids. There are also people who do their own cultivation in flasks but these are hardcore much like our SPS frag growers and less for the past time people like me

Looks like a good LED set you got there.( Maxspec copy?). Wonder how to handle the warranty? Can you later upgrade the individual LEDs? Maybe can mix and match color combo for best effect. We may have better LFS in Sg while HK may have more livestock but I pity the fishes and the conditions that they are kept in. So cramped. Maybe that is just like HK...so starved for space. I bought tonnes of test kits and calibration fluids on my last trip in May to last me quite a while but did not buy equipment b'cos of warranty. Could not find a Jebao DC 12000 pump cheaper than SG ( damn why fishstreet.com don't have a shop on HK fish street???)

Phals are really beautiful. The Taiwan variety is more impressive in size. Looking for a p. bellina at garden show but saw only x breeds mainly. Ended up spending over $200 on a whole lot of rojak phals and dendrobiums. Dare not buy the Cattleya as not successful in getting them to bloom. Temp drop happens during year end monsoon so hope to see some flower then.

I would buy Salifert test kits, They are cheaper than in Singapore for sure. I looked for equipment on my last trip in May but found them not much cheaper and since without warranty did not buy any. One more thing, the reagent for calibrating the checker were cheap too. Happy shopping

Phals are easy to grow but hard to flower. Those Taiwan Phals especially. Beautiful but flowers perhaps once a year. Just don't over water the plants. Cooled glasshouse will be great, can then also do some temperate flower like tulips, daffodils and even strawberries.

Looks good. A raw market prawn to kick start the cycle would be good or dosing bacteria. Test ammonia should spike and then return to zero as bacteria starts. Same time should see Nitrates rise. Indicating cycle on going. Cabinet from Ikea be careful. Compressed board will not go well with water(worst for salt water) but if you get the solid wood type ..maybe ok but from what I see at Ikea, they are not very strong and may not take a heavy load. cheers

Actually I think they are some sort of calcified algae similar to coralline algae and not pure calcium deposits. We see this on rocks as well as our pumps and in fact all surfaces in our tanks. Can't see how to control this without impacting your corals and lifestocks. I guess the important thing is to ensure it does not prevent our pumps ( impeller) from functioning by clogging up the intakes etc. as well as block our view ( ie the glass surface). No choice but to do regular cleaning. Similar to coralline algae sometime growing all over in some tanks.

It looks really bad and I would remove it before it disintegrates further and crashes your tank.

Welcome to SRC. I suggest you stock your tank slowly. Your tank need time to stabilize its parameters. I think your cycle is not complete and you have not gotten your test kits, skimmer etc ready. Adding fishes now is a bit risky. Also you have an anemone inside and if it dies, it will crash your tank. This can be very discouraging when you are new to a hobby. It can be very tempting to keep adding fishes but that is part of reefing..patience. Read up more and get your basics right before adding more livestocks. cheer

I assume it will work as well on aiptasia. Will try this as well on the spot area with problem bryopsis. Difficult to get rid. Thanks for the info on peroxide.

Ah Bac has 2 pellet feeding golden angels as of yesterday afternoon.