Mrmole
06/05/2012, 08:06 AM
Dear you all,
Last week I just came back from my 1 month vacation to Europe and came back to find out that my tank had several changes. A colony of byrd nest and acropora was severely bleached and green hair algea was about an inch thick. Fish are looking fine and are all alive. All critters are doing okay.
So I went rapidly to check on my parameters and all the hardware and found out that the pump to my bio pellet reactor was not working. The dosing pump channel 2 dosing calcium was dead and the containers, which were filled equally when I left, are now half equal favoring the Calcium. => Alk was dosed all this time but not Ca (motor broke)
My sump is now full of sea grapes which I only planted about several branches when I left.
I was thinking I had a No3 rise therefore quickly replaced the reactor pump and shut off all dosing. Now I have the following parameters:
Alk 11- 2 days ago when I came back was at 13.
Calcium 415
Mg 1600
Salinity 1.028- It was 1.026.
No3 looks like zero with salifert No3 test, showing no color.
Po4 0.3 on a hanna phosphate checker.
My question is, why my MG rose so much I left it at around when I left 1400. My cousin who was taking care of the tank when I wasn't home claims that there was a problem with my ATO and the sump got half empty.
My guess would be that ATO wasn't pumping so the salinity rose but:
1) why MG is so high?
2) Should I and how do I reduce MG back to 1400?
3) Also, is there a relationship between salinity and mg?
4) Can rise in salinity cause rise in MG since MG is also a salt?
5) Can I resume dosing Calcium and alk?
and lastly 6) What do I do with the 1 inch thick hairgrass? lol
Thanks you all!
Last week I just came back from my 1 month vacation to Europe and came back to find out that my tank had several changes. A colony of byrd nest and acropora was severely bleached and green hair algea was about an inch thick. Fish are looking fine and are all alive. All critters are doing okay.
So I went rapidly to check on my parameters and all the hardware and found out that the pump to my bio pellet reactor was not working. The dosing pump channel 2 dosing calcium was dead and the containers, which were filled equally when I left, are now half equal favoring the Calcium. => Alk was dosed all this time but not Ca (motor broke)
My sump is now full of sea grapes which I only planted about several branches when I left.
I was thinking I had a No3 rise therefore quickly replaced the reactor pump and shut off all dosing. Now I have the following parameters:
Alk 11- 2 days ago when I came back was at 13.
Calcium 415
Mg 1600
Salinity 1.028- It was 1.026.
No3 looks like zero with salifert No3 test, showing no color.
Po4 0.3 on a hanna phosphate checker.
My question is, why my MG rose so much I left it at around when I left 1400. My cousin who was taking care of the tank when I wasn't home claims that there was a problem with my ATO and the sump got half empty.
My guess would be that ATO wasn't pumping so the salinity rose but:
1) why MG is so high?
2) Should I and how do I reduce MG back to 1400?
3) Also, is there a relationship between salinity and mg?
4) Can rise in salinity cause rise in MG since MG is also a salt?
5) Can I resume dosing Calcium and alk?
and lastly 6) What do I do with the 1 inch thick hairgrass? lol
Thanks you all!