trippclark
Member
This post is related to my earlier post "Unhealthy Soft Corals - HELP!" located at
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/199667/unhealthy-soft-corals-help
I have been really putting the time in on my tank (2-3 hours per night and more on weekends) doing water changes (RO/DI), daily testing (sometimes with 2 different brand kits to double check readings). Over the course of the past four to five weeks, I have done 70+ gallons of water change in a 55 GAL tank with approx 10 gal sump & fuge.
Several things remain issues:
* Soft corals remain retracted (my biggest worry)
* Snail deaths seem abnormally high (my NEXT biggest worry)
* Halimeda (Money Plant) is growing like mad
* I cannot keep Calcium level above 380 in spite of massive dosing
My present theory is that the halimeda is sucking up all of the calcium as fast as I can add it . . . and the faster I add it, the more the halimeda grows!
To give some idea of the rate of Calcium addition, over the past weekend I topped off with a constant drip of 3 gallons of RO/DI water with 2 tsp Kalk per gallon (6 tsp Kalk total). I also added Kent liquid calcium morning and night, 4 tsp per day. I also added Kent Pro Buffer dKH once (1 Tablespoon). Throughout this weekend I took measurements three times. dKH stayed between 8 and 9. CA went from 380 to 400 then back to 380.
Halimeda, which all of my reading describes as a slow growing calcium hog that is good in a display tank, continues rapid growth (visible growth daily). I pulled out almost all of it two weeks ago and now it is back almost as much as before.
All other readings that I have kits for are ideal (I don't have kits for Magnesium, Strontium, or Iodine).
Could low Calcium alone account for the snail deaths and retracted soft corals? Should I continue to pull out the halimeda, or is that not the culprit? If it is the culprit, is there anything that eats halimeda so I can come up with a natural way to keep it in check?
I really like the looks of halimeda, I just don't like how it is taking over my tank.
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/199667/unhealthy-soft-corals-help
I have been really putting the time in on my tank (2-3 hours per night and more on weekends) doing water changes (RO/DI), daily testing (sometimes with 2 different brand kits to double check readings). Over the course of the past four to five weeks, I have done 70+ gallons of water change in a 55 GAL tank with approx 10 gal sump & fuge.
Several things remain issues:
* Soft corals remain retracted (my biggest worry)
* Snail deaths seem abnormally high (my NEXT biggest worry)
* Halimeda (Money Plant) is growing like mad
* I cannot keep Calcium level above 380 in spite of massive dosing
My present theory is that the halimeda is sucking up all of the calcium as fast as I can add it . . . and the faster I add it, the more the halimeda grows!
To give some idea of the rate of Calcium addition, over the past weekend I topped off with a constant drip of 3 gallons of RO/DI water with 2 tsp Kalk per gallon (6 tsp Kalk total). I also added Kent liquid calcium morning and night, 4 tsp per day. I also added Kent Pro Buffer dKH once (1 Tablespoon). Throughout this weekend I took measurements three times. dKH stayed between 8 and 9. CA went from 380 to 400 then back to 380.
Halimeda, which all of my reading describes as a slow growing calcium hog that is good in a display tank, continues rapid growth (visible growth daily). I pulled out almost all of it two weeks ago and now it is back almost as much as before.
All other readings that I have kits for are ideal (I don't have kits for Magnesium, Strontium, or Iodine).
Could low Calcium alone account for the snail deaths and retracted soft corals? Should I continue to pull out the halimeda, or is that not the culprit? If it is the culprit, is there anything that eats halimeda so I can come up with a natural way to keep it in check?
I really like the looks of halimeda, I just don't like how it is taking over my tank.