carshark
Active Member
i swear if it isnt one thing its another.....so i had an ich outbreak in the tank in the process of medicating it and today i look and my starfish is dead....now i know what your thinking, no im not using copper (malachite green/formeldhyde instead) anyway, so this is my second outbreak in 6 months, and i havent lost anyone to it yet and the product i used last time killed it(ich) which is what im using now, and anyway so my ph dives, my other levels are fine, but the alk and ph is obviously low(ph is about 7.8-8.0) im hoping that was a result of my star dying but who knows...so anyway i have 24 gallons of new water ready to use to do a water change before i administer another treatment, ive done every thing i know or have been told to do, its getting to the point where it isnt even enjoyable anymore its just fixing errors. now i do have a healthy foxface, percula,diamond goby,coral banded shrimp, clean up crew(10 red legged hermits, 5 astrea, 2 turboes) and a blue hippo which has the ich (newbie about 6 days) my tank set up is as follows:
75 gallon, 20lbs of beautiful purple fiji rock (50 more cycling with new QT tank), 90 lbs of substrate(40 lbs of aragonite, 50 lbs of fine grade sand), misc base rock/lava rock, emporer 400 bio wheel(used for about 2 years on freshwater), CPR bakpak skimmer, 300 watt heater, 2 40W 18,000K flourescents, two powerheads(penguin 1140, and a penguin 550)(not including ph for skimmer) always used real ocean water brand water as opposed to mixing (it works well during water changes)
water parameters:
temp.-77-78
salinity-1.022-1.023
ph-7.8-8.0.....uuggh what the heck its been 8.2 since i could remember
ammonia-0
nitrite-0
nitrate-0
alk.-ideal range but lower than usual
the other thing is when i started using RO water from a grocery store, it started this low ph epidemic or maybe it was coincidence...
oh while im in this medicating stage my active carbon is taken out and my skimmer is off.
so what can i do to better my system within not much of a budget right now?
or should i tear down the whole deal and start over? :scared:
75 gallon, 20lbs of beautiful purple fiji rock (50 more cycling with new QT tank), 90 lbs of substrate(40 lbs of aragonite, 50 lbs of fine grade sand), misc base rock/lava rock, emporer 400 bio wheel(used for about 2 years on freshwater), CPR bakpak skimmer, 300 watt heater, 2 40W 18,000K flourescents, two powerheads(penguin 1140, and a penguin 550)(not including ph for skimmer) always used real ocean water brand water as opposed to mixing (it works well during water changes)
water parameters:
temp.-77-78
salinity-1.022-1.023
ph-7.8-8.0.....uuggh what the heck its been 8.2 since i could remember
ammonia-0
nitrite-0
nitrate-0
alk.-ideal range but lower than usual
the other thing is when i started using RO water from a grocery store, it started this low ph epidemic or maybe it was coincidence...
oh while im in this medicating stage my active carbon is taken out and my skimmer is off.
so what can i do to better my system within not much of a budget right now?
or should i tear down the whole deal and start over? :scared: