sea n life
Member
i just tested phosphate and its o the calcium is 440 and everything checks out ok and my tank is about 5 years old and i have a sand bed at the bottem.....this is prolly a dumb question what test kit do you have for alk?
pink birdsnest help
- Thread starter sea n life
- Start date
sea n life
Member
heres another thought when i was on vacation about a month ago my friend was watching me tank and the fuge got low and pumped a million little bubbles in my tank it was covered with them would that help the algea grow?
chilwil84
Active Member
the low fuge didnt cause the problem. with a tank of ur age the rock and sandbed can slowly leach phosphates back into the tank. it is good that your test kit read 0 if it was a normal liquid bottle method like other tests. a photo meter like the one from hanna would provide a more accurate reading. more than likly the algae is absorbing it better than your test kit can check for it. this would explain the cyno but not necessarly the total reason for the brownout(probably part of the reason) if your having alk swings you have added another stressor to your birdsnest wich would cause it to brownout. i use both hagen and api to test for alk. they give me consistantly one number different with the hagen giving the lower number. if you can drip some kalk with some water to make up for evaporation you can stabalize your alk and salinity at the same time. as for phosphates you should run some gfo. remember to start with about quarter of the recomended amount cause it can cause your alk to drop quickly, and work up from there. with rocks as old as yours cycling some fresh rock will help with the rock leaching the phosphates and will also add some new benificial creatures back into your system. you can also make up some fresh saltwater and heat it to your tanks temp and then swish some of your rocks in it to help remove some of the deterious that has accumulated in the crevisis of your rock(this deterous is what leaches the phosphates back out)
sea n life
Member
thanks i will do it all ill keep you posted its just weird onlythe birdsnest is turning brown look at these others
sea n life
Member
guess i need to attach them huh hahaha
sea n life
Member
yup everything else i got looks better now and is growing very good except the pink birdsnest it has grown good but browned i guess time will tell