Somethings wrong with my tank please help!!!!
 

i dont know if its anything too bad, but i have 24g aquapod and i have about 1 1/2 pound per gallon of sand and i have about 35-50 pound of rock not to sure what i have i may have about 60lbs for all i know. my ph is 8.0-8.2
nitrates 0
nitrites 0
calcium is way high im not sure if this is the reason but the test kit said 26 drops was about 500 and i went all the way up to 34.
phos. are at 0
sorry this is taking awhile... but my problem is that my frogspawn and xenia isnt doing good either but my frogspawn is bleached and doesnt look good can anyone tell me why? and i do about 3-5g water changes of catalina water and always top off when needed with rodi water. whats going on? everything else looks healthy and doing good:) i think

check water temp. my xenia always do bad when my temp raises.

how long has this tank been running? how long are your lights on per day? also what is your salinity at (also mention what you used to measure)?

how bout salinity ???

sorry i knew i forgot something my salinity is around 1.024 where i normally keep it. my temp i normally keep it around78-80 sometimes 82. tank has been up for about 3 1/2- 4 months frogspawn has been in there about 2 months was doing great then it all the sudden got really bleached out and looks bad. thanks for the response.

how do you measure salinity... did you calibrate it?

how long is your light period?

what about heat...water temp...

post a pic if you can, that would help. What is your alk?

my lights are on about 10 hours a day give or take sometimes less sometimes a little more. ammonia is also at 0

i agree with faded...check the salinity..."catalina" water usually runs a bit high

could frogspawn kill off my tank if it dies or will everything be ok if he doesnt make it? oh and does it matter if my calcium is too high?

i test it with a Hydrometer and i keep it around 1.024.

no it should not

too high could be bad

eww a Hydrometer...check it against a refractometer

how do i lower my calcium and thats good to know about the frogspawn i will leave it and see if he can make it through then. but i know the hrdrometer i use isnt to off i have had it tested with the refractometer not much of a difference.:)

i will try and post a pic tomorrow thanks and if anyone has some more advice please help me out thanks.

personally i would either dilute it or stop dosing...it will eventually be dissolved

dang. water change. i have 5 gallon io water made. you can come borrow my refractormeter

i did about a 5-8 g water change last night and i havent dosed for about 3 weeks and the only reason i dosed was to get my coraline growing faster. i only dosed every 2 weeks and only a capful of kent calcium.

like others ahve said, you need to double check the hydrometer... they are most likely wrong. mine, you have to add 4 points... which is alot...

it could also be there was a spike you didn't know about...

first start with the hydrometer and go from there...

i know my salinity is fine... but i dont know what else could be wrong.

What is your alkalinity level. My bet is it is low. If you dose buffer it will lower you calcium levels but you need to know what your at before you do as you could make the problem worse.

ok thanks. im not sure what you mean by alk... i cant remember what that is or why its bad??

are your lights on a timer?

what kind of lighting?

flow in the tank?

what are you feeding it?

post a picture. photobucket is great for that.

Carl

there is a good amound of flow in the tank i think that it has about 350gph maybe be around 260mph... but a good amount. i also have a hammer head in there and a lot of zoo's and a few other corals but they seem to be doing really good. oh also the lights are on a timer i have it set from 12pm-10pm but sometimes i shorten it and sometimes i let it go a little longer. for the pic i will post it up later today thanks oh and i have just the dual lighting that you can put in your aquapods they are about 64watts maybe they equal 72watts but around that area.
-sam

alk = alkalinity / KH level.

From the MD site,
[url]http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem.aspx?idproduct=SF1123[/url]
The total carbonate and bicarbonate concentration is also called alkalinity or carbonate hardness and for a stable system the alkalinity should not fluctuate by more than 5% from the optimum level of approx. 2.8 meq/L i.e. a maximum fluctuation of 0.14 meq/L.