too confident + lazy = problems

[aLittletank]

hi I am new to your forum but not to RC. after browsing I must say what a great resource this is for hobbyist.

my story
tested early on for ph alk calcium nitrates then somewhere over the last two years I convinced myself that my reef was "bullet proof" :rolleyes:
that led to shoving about 150 mushrooms into my tank at once which led to a catastrophic event to include a fish death, gorgonian death and xenia so stressed I fear for it as well. (ever do something so stupid you just look at your self in the mirror and say what were you thinking?)

needless to say I have found new inspiration to monitor closely and have the following so far. pinpoint monitor, refractometer, salifert calcium test, and nitrate test, alk is on order.

calcium is low -340 seems to stay ar this no matter how much TM bio calcium I add. drops if I dont add regularly
ph is low - 8.05 at mid afternoon
nitrates are not detectable
salinity - 1.025
alk- ?

I have the arm and hammer buffer on hand (6-1 ratio) and mrs wages pickling lime, and tropic marine bio calcium.


questions

what else would you recommend to test for?
what would you do if anything to raise the PH
what do you recommend to boost calcium?


of course I would love other ideas that come to you as you wade through my post as well. :)


thanks
Allen

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Allen:

<< ever do something so stupid you just look at your self in the mirror and say what were you thinking?) >>

All too frequently:(

I hope my treatment of my tank as bullet proof is not going to be one of them. I've begun to treat it very casually, going away for 1-2 weeks and leaving it totally unattended....


<< what else would you recommend to test for? >>

Alkalinity is the big one, of course. It might be why you hit a calcium ceiling.

Temperature, but I assume that you just forgot that one.

nothing else seems crtitical unless you are diagnosing a problem such as algae. Then I'd add phosphate and silica. Maybe ammonia and nitrite if you decide to do another mass animal addition.

<< what would you do if anything to raise the PH >>

The lime will do it.
If you use the baking soda/washing soda, just up the washing soda until you get the pH that you want. Doubling it's portion will up the pH substantially. There's nothing inherently wrong with adding pure washing soda, if you don't let the pH get too high (as with limewater additions).


<< what do you recommend to boost calcium? >>

I recommend limewater, CaCO3/CO2 reactors, or the two part additives. I personally use limewater, and sometimes B-ionic.

[aLittletank]

when I get the Alk test I will see if that is the problem

I do have a roncho temp controler that keeps everthing at 80 F :)


thanks for all the tips


Allen