Help! High dKH / Calcium - Corals not looking good!

B

bjedwards27616

Reefing newb
Hello,

I need help, I have a 55gal reef tank with 3 leathers, kenya tree, a couple montipora and a sea fan. I have a wrasse and a chromis and plenty of snails and crabs. A couple of weeks ago I had an outbreak of red slime algae and since then my tank has not been doing well. The algae is gone but nothing is bouncing back. I have tested my water and was told that my calcium and dKH were high, I bought some tests and confirmed that they are off the charts. My salinity is 1.027, ph is 8.8. In the past my water has always been perfect. I upgraded my lights a few weeks ago to T5's, I dont know what else to do!!

Please help, how do I get my corals to grow and expand! They don't look bad but are not growing and expanding like they did at the farm when i bought them. My montipora is bleached white.


I dont know what else to do!!
 
So what exactly are the numbers here? If you can list all of them, not just Calcium and DKH, but all that would be of great help. I can tell you that if those 2 specifically are high, the best way to reduce the numbers is to do water changes. However, that begs a second question. Do you buy salt water, or make your own? If you make your own, what salt are you using?
 
How many bulbs of T5s does your light have? What kind of light did you have before? If you had insufficient light before, that could have caused the corals to bleach.

Are you dosing anything to get your alkalinity so high? If so, you should stop.

Also, what is "perfect"? What is the exact number you are getting for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates?
 
Okay - last water test was a week ago: nitrate=0, nitrite=0, ph=8.8, dkh=15, calcium=580, salinity=1.027
lights before=2 arctic T8, 1 sun T8
lights now=2 arctic T5, 2 sun T5

typical put in trace elements, strontium molybdenum, microvert, super buffer

using RO water now, before mixing our own salt using Instant Ocean - it's about 50/50 now
 
1.027 is not high enough to do any harm.

I would stop dosing everything but the microvert (which the sea fan will use). The salt mix contains all those other elements in the correct balance. Most people do not have to dose all that stuff -- and most importantly, you don't have much in your tank that is using it up. You shouldn't dose anything without testing for it, because you may be overdosing your tank and not even know it.

I would do water changes to get your alkalinity down. And stop dosing! ;)
 
We usually keep it around 1.026-1.027, pertaining to everything i have read, this is normal. are you saying this may be why my corals are doing as well as they should?
 
I keep mine at 1.026 constantly. I also dose Mag, Cal and Alk, but I test before hand so I know if and how much to add.
 
1.027 is not high enough to do any harm.
with every point of salinity you inch up the scale problems become multiplicative not additive.nitrates ammonia everything becomes more of an issue.A touch of ammonia at 1.021.is no big deal but the same touch can be a lethal dose at 1.027.The higher the salinity the harder it becomes to balance calcium magnesium and alkalinity
 
Salinity of 1.027 would not be harming leathers and kenya trees. No way. No how. He has no ammonia or nitrites. Salinity is not the issue here.
 
Also, I would suggest using r/o right instaed of the ph buffer. You really cant overdose with r/o right, but I have sometimes used ph buffer in the past and the ph went past my 8.8 tester.
 

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