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03/30/2012, 11:02 AM | #26 |
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Interesting observations. In the past two months I've switched from using just red sea original to a 50/50 mix with original red sea and red sea coral pro and have been happy with the results so far. My water mixes to about 440 cal, 10.5 alk, and 1500 mag. I'll keep a much closer eye on the water now that you mention the problems with consistency.
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Steve - Retired from reefing, for now. |
03/30/2012, 11:06 AM | #27 | |
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here is the comparison i found on RC in another forum. Red Sea Coral Pro 490 7 1300 Marine Environment 480 7.5 1450 Aquatic Gardens 430 8 1240 Red Sea 400 8 1300 Oceanic 580 8.5 1650 Tropic Marin Pro Reef 450 8.5 1380 CoraLife 560 9 1380 Crystal Sea Marinemix 340 9 1050 Crystal Sea Marinemix Bio-Assay 340 9 1050 Tunze Reef Salt 420 9.5 1350 D-D H2Ocean 450 10 1380 OceanPure 510 10 1320 SeaChem Marine Salt 500 10 1400 SeaChem Reef Salt 540 10 1450 Tropic Marin 375 10 1230 Brightwell Neomarine 370 11 1140 Instant Ocean (new) 400 11 1350 Kent 540 11 1200 Reefer's Best 420 11 1200 Reef Crystals (new) 490 13 1440
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Water Quality: NO3 0,Phos 0,Cal 440,Alk 7.5,Mag 1300 "Reef Fast, You Crash, Reef Slow, You Pass" Mike's Reef 3:16 Current Tank Info: 350g DT,95g sump, 50g Frag tank, 4800gph return 4x Sea swirls. 6x AI Vega Color. 200# Pukani rock, dual recirculating skimmer, Biopellet, GFO Carbon rx's, Cal rx. Closed loop. 1.5hp chiller, genesis renew. Apex & RKE |
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03/30/2012, 11:47 AM | #28 |
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I am just going to get s small box of whatever I can find to do a water change this weekend. Anything has got to be an improvement. It could be another perfect storm too. Last month redid all rodi filters. Last weekend changed out the calcium reactor. Maybe it is a little bit of everything. Really sad at the coral losses. Then I think I will try the ESV B-Ionic. Stupidly, it never occurred to me to roll the buckets around -- a little bit tougher with the bags and probably would have to recruit my husband.
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Sherri Current Tank Info: 400g - 65g DT and 180g peninsula DT both drop into basement. 5 tanks plus a QT in the basement. |
03/31/2012, 01:42 AM | #29 |
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Those numbers aren't accurate anymore. Red Sea changed there values, and instant ocean doesn't get 1350 mag.. it's more like 1250.
This is what RS "should" mix to now As far as a previous post about RC having a bad rep. Years ago they had some bad batches of RC, and they changed the formula around a fair bit. IO seems to be more in line with what most people want (well even 11dkh is high in my books 9-10 is what I'm looking for). The best salt I've found is hW, but for the amount of water changes I do I found it was getting a bit pricey, however it's not to bad compared to D+D, or Tunze cost wise. IO seems to just work for me and you can find it for less then 40$ for 200 gallons. The only downside is having to buffer you mag (cause it's not giving me 1350!), and I can't do to large of a water change or my alk jumps. The other day I tried to change 30 gallons on my system and saw a .8dkh a jump which is to much for my liking so I need to just stick to smaller water changes until I add the new frag tank on and double my water volume.
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Reefin @ 8298' Current Tank Info: 105 Peninsula |
03/31/2012, 05:06 AM | #30 |
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I will probably get IO just to do some short term water changes. But I had bad luck with it before. I will try ESV as the last designer salt. If it doesn't work and give me stability, then I will go to IO or something cheaper and buffer it.
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Sherri Current Tank Info: 400g - 65g DT and 180g peninsula DT both drop into basement. 5 tanks plus a QT in the basement. |
03/31/2012, 11:00 AM | #31 | |
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Quote:
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Reefin @ 8298' Current Tank Info: 105 Peninsula |
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03/31/2012, 11:35 AM | #32 |
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I have been using red sea coral pro for years and have had no problems with mag! I love the salt! Tried Reef Crystals, coralife, sea cheam, and once i tried red sea coral pro never switched again!
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03/31/2012, 01:03 PM | #33 |
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I use red sea salt, not the pro. My salt mixes up to 400 cal 1270 mg and 7.5 dkh. I do roll the buckett around for 10 min or so. It's a good work out!
Sorry to here your bad experiences. I hope you can get things back to norm.
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211g Planet Aquariums Hybrid PVC bottom 48"x34"x30" and steel stand from CustomReefCreations - Reeflo Super Dart - OM 4way - SRO XP3000 External - ATI Dimmable 8x54w - Apex. |
03/31/2012, 01:56 PM | #34 |
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I think I just have to start testing all of my water before changing it. Everything looks better today and I have done nothing. Go figure. Hmmm.
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Sherri Current Tank Info: 400g - 65g DT and 180g peninsula DT both drop into basement. 5 tanks plus a QT in the basement. |
04/01/2012, 04:05 AM | #35 |
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I was curious about my parameters as everything was looking better and here's what I got. Salinity is 1.025, Calcium is 550 (Elos), Alk is 11 (Elos)and mag is 1600. So I think everything was just too high as all of these probably came down a bit. I have decided to do 50-50 with the RSCP and IO. I have also dialed the reactor back.
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Sherri Current Tank Info: 400g - 65g DT and 180g peninsula DT both drop into basement. 5 tanks plus a QT in the basement. |
04/01/2012, 05:04 AM | #36 |
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Just ran a small test on RSCP (which I got 2 full buckets left) and mag came to around 1600 & Ca 520, bit too high for my liking (:. I am in the process of setting up 60g cube and may dump the RSCP and try something else!! IMO, I would spread the water change with25% ratio over next few days.
Tahir
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Tahir Iqbal Manchester UK Current Tank Info: 56cm x 56cm x 56cm |
04/01/2012, 09:50 AM | #37 |
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Hi Tahir -- I have got 400g total water volume and am changing about 30g -- so won't have a huge impact.
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Sherri Current Tank Info: 400g - 65g DT and 180g peninsula DT both drop into basement. 5 tanks plus a QT in the basement. |
04/01/2012, 10:27 AM | #38 |
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Metal1,
So sorry to hear about your issues and hope you can get things back on track. This is the second thread today I have read with Red Sea salt issues. I use IO RC and do not intend to change. It works for me so I'm not going to fix it.
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Sport If you do not test for it, DON'T dose it. Indiana INDMAS Member |
04/01/2012, 12:24 PM | #39 |
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Thanks sport. I guess I get to design a new tank.
Just don't get lazy and assume you are okay. Make sure to measure your make up water. Every salt settles and can destroy your tank if you are not attentive.
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Sherri Current Tank Info: 400g - 65g DT and 180g peninsula DT both drop into basement. 5 tanks plus a QT in the basement. |
04/01/2012, 12:46 PM | #40 |
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I had issues with RSCP alk burn and RTNs.Lost a few acros as well.
Although I was mixing at 1.023 to counter the ALK on a 136 gallon tank while doing WC of 10-15% my issue was manily Mag and Cal with low readings.Now I mix 75-25% RSCP and seachem,things are slowly falling back in place.I use a cal reactor but dont add any trace elements.
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04/01/2012, 02:25 PM | #41 |
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Okay -- just tested my mixing barrel. The IO has been mixing since last night with a pump and air, no heater. I have a brute barrel and am guessing about 30g. I added RSCP today and brought salinity up to 1.025. Just tested calcium and it was 500 and and alk was 11.5. So many corals in my tank have just been burned. I can't imagine what it was at full strength RSCP. I am a very unhappy person. I don't have a new mag kit so don't know where that is. Really frustrated. I thought cutting it 50-50 with IO would have had a different result. I just underestimated how far off it was...
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Sherri Current Tank Info: 400g - 65g DT and 180g peninsula DT both drop into basement. 5 tanks plus a QT in the basement. |
04/02/2012, 03:33 AM | #42 |
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Having problems with the red sea pro salt as well. Alk is at 250pp, calcium 430ppm and 1.024 SG. Really high alk. Goin test again tonight.
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04/02/2012, 04:33 AM | #43 |
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Well, I have a separate tank that I breed feeder fish in so I did a big water change on that tank using the newly mixed water, added more ro water into the barrel, and got salinity back up using IO. I just tested alk and it was down to 10 so hopefully the ca was down as well. I think I will make up another batch and do an extra water change. This time it will be 75% IO and 25% RSCP.
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Sherri Current Tank Info: 400g - 65g DT and 180g peninsula DT both drop into basement. 5 tanks plus a QT in the basement. |
04/02/2012, 03:03 PM | #44 |
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Remember ELOS alk kits read low when compared to Salifert & Hanna (about 2dkh)
This is fine though if you only use ELOS.
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Reefin @ 8298' Current Tank Info: 105 Peninsula |
04/02/2012, 03:11 PM | #45 | |
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Quote:
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Sherri Current Tank Info: 400g - 65g DT and 180g peninsula DT both drop into basement. 5 tanks plus a QT in the basement. |
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04/02/2012, 08:33 PM | #46 |
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The numbers for the Red Sea products don't list the SG... Here's a link to a page that shows the results along with the SG:
http://www.redseafish.com/uploadimag...2010%20Eng.pdf If you're targeting 1.0264 SG, the numbers are different.
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04/03/2012, 01:03 AM | #47 | |
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Quote:
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Sherri Current Tank Info: 400g - 65g DT and 180g peninsula DT both drop into basement. 5 tanks plus a QT in the basement. |
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04/03/2012, 08:43 PM | #48 |
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Yes, 35 ppt 1.0264 are the same at a reference temperature of 25 C, but I need remedial communications classes. The numbers given in this thread are different from the numbers in the link that I posted. Sigh!
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05/07/2012, 05:33 AM | #49 |
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I thought it is only fair to Red Sea to come back to this thread and explain what I believe happened in my tanks. I did a fresh water dip on a Copperband butterfly a week ago and tested the pH of my RO water as part of that process. It was 8.3 -- I was shocked. I believe what happened is that something affected my well water causing it to become very alkaline, then with the heightened parameters of the Red Sea salt, I believe that my pH in my tank could have been as high as 8.8. I do have a pH monitor on the tank, I did see it high, I had just calibrated it, but I thought it had gone screwy for some reason and stupidly, did not investigate it. So I believe the cause of the SPS and euphyllia deaths in my tanks is due to the extremely high pH. So everyone is recovering, I tested my ro well water and it is back down to normal at 7.5. Still do not know what caused this but I will keep an eye on it from now on. Oh -- I am going to switch salts anyway -- going to ESV...
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Sherri Current Tank Info: 400g - 65g DT and 180g peninsula DT both drop into basement. 5 tanks plus a QT in the basement. |
05/07/2012, 05:47 AM | #50 |
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8.3 is not high. I am using red sea i havent seen any problems with my ph
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