Bifferwine
I am a girl
Does kalk go bad after a while?
In my continuing fight against dinos, I started dripping kalk into my tanks for top off water last night. I followed the instructions, and mixed about 2 tsp per gallon into a 5 gallon bucket of RO water. Then I started dripping it into both my tanks (I tied knots in the tubing).
Within a couple hours, my 10 gallon contest tank was completely white. Every ricordea had spilled their guts out and had changed to a brown color. Obviously I stopped the drip immediately. I tested the pH -- it was 8.8 or higher. I didn't have any new water made up, so I started changing out that water for the water in my 90, thinking at least it would be diluted out in the 90.
After turning over 100% of the 10 gallon tank's volume, the pH was still 8.8 or higher, so I added some vinegar. I tried not to add a lot, but the pH dropped to 7.2.
In the meantime, the same thing happened to my 90 -- the pH was testing at 8.8 or higher, and I added vinegar, and it dropped too low.
I didn't have any baking soda at home, so I added a whole bottle of 8.2 pH buffer to both tanks, which didn't even budge the pH.
So then I ran out to the 24 hour pharmacy and bought two boxes of baking soda. First I brought the nano back up to about 8.0, but even after using both boxes of baking soda, the highest I could get the 90 was 7.8 (and that took about 2 hours).
The animals in the 90 looked bad. The fish (the ones that I could see) were on the bottom breathing heavily. All the corals had stringy mucous coming off of them. The mini brittle stars and bristleworms in the rocks were all coming out. But nothing appeared dead (yet).
By this time, it was 2 am, so I said, "Eff it, I'm going to bed, there's nothing more I can do right now."
This morning, I got up early and tested both tanks. The 10 gallon is still at about 8.0 but is really cloudy and the rics look awful. The 90 is still at around 7.8 but the animals are looking better -- almost normal. I still haven't seen about half my fish, but the ones I did see looked better.
I couldn't figure out what went wrong -- so I checked the container of kalk. Which expired in 2006.
Was that the problem? Does the potency of kalk increase exponentially once it ages?
I was having such a nervous breakdown last night. I was crying so hard I was almost throwing up -- and my stomach still feels awful this morning. I felt HORRIBLE. I kept telling NDB that I am the worst pet owner in the world. I couldn't believe this was happening. I was in such shock, my hands were shaking so badly I could barely use the test kit. I only got about 3 hours of sleep because I wasn't able to rest. It was a VERY rough night.
Luckily NDB has today off. I'll instruct him to bring in the big trash can from the shed and start making new saltwater. I'll do a 100% change on the 10 tank (which is really cloudy) and change as much as I can on the 90.
I feel like crap. WHAT HAPPENED?
In my continuing fight against dinos, I started dripping kalk into my tanks for top off water last night. I followed the instructions, and mixed about 2 tsp per gallon into a 5 gallon bucket of RO water. Then I started dripping it into both my tanks (I tied knots in the tubing).
Within a couple hours, my 10 gallon contest tank was completely white. Every ricordea had spilled their guts out and had changed to a brown color. Obviously I stopped the drip immediately. I tested the pH -- it was 8.8 or higher. I didn't have any new water made up, so I started changing out that water for the water in my 90, thinking at least it would be diluted out in the 90.
After turning over 100% of the 10 gallon tank's volume, the pH was still 8.8 or higher, so I added some vinegar. I tried not to add a lot, but the pH dropped to 7.2.
In the meantime, the same thing happened to my 90 -- the pH was testing at 8.8 or higher, and I added vinegar, and it dropped too low.
I didn't have any baking soda at home, so I added a whole bottle of 8.2 pH buffer to both tanks, which didn't even budge the pH.
So then I ran out to the 24 hour pharmacy and bought two boxes of baking soda. First I brought the nano back up to about 8.0, but even after using both boxes of baking soda, the highest I could get the 90 was 7.8 (and that took about 2 hours).
The animals in the 90 looked bad. The fish (the ones that I could see) were on the bottom breathing heavily. All the corals had stringy mucous coming off of them. The mini brittle stars and bristleworms in the rocks were all coming out. But nothing appeared dead (yet).
By this time, it was 2 am, so I said, "Eff it, I'm going to bed, there's nothing more I can do right now."
This morning, I got up early and tested both tanks. The 10 gallon is still at about 8.0 but is really cloudy and the rics look awful. The 90 is still at around 7.8 but the animals are looking better -- almost normal. I still haven't seen about half my fish, but the ones I did see looked better.
I couldn't figure out what went wrong -- so I checked the container of kalk. Which expired in 2006.
Was that the problem? Does the potency of kalk increase exponentially once it ages?
I was having such a nervous breakdown last night. I was crying so hard I was almost throwing up -- and my stomach still feels awful this morning. I felt HORRIBLE. I kept telling NDB that I am the worst pet owner in the world. I couldn't believe this was happening. I was in such shock, my hands were shaking so badly I could barely use the test kit. I only got about 3 hours of sleep because I wasn't able to rest. It was a VERY rough night.
Luckily NDB has today off. I'll instruct him to bring in the big trash can from the shed and start making new saltwater. I'll do a 100% change on the 10 tank (which is really cloudy) and change as much as I can on the 90.
I feel like crap. WHAT HAPPENED?
