Quick update on tank happenings over the last two weeks...
I haven't pulled any rocks out yet to kill off the encrusting coral. I did begin to scrap off the encrusting monti away from some acros. So, a little death in the tank, but it didn't spike an ammonia reading at all. Others are having the same problem that I am, you can read more about it here:
Removing Sps
Last weekend I did do some trimming back of corals. Now the gorgonian has room to sway in the surge of the wave maker. And the tips of corals that were touching other corals and thus died and were growing some algae, those tips got pruned back. I also pruned corals that (in another week or so) would be touching other corals.
It is time for some bulb replacement, so maybe tomorrow I will dig into that a bit. I also have an acan cluster that my clowns keep burying in sand, so I need to figure out a new location for it.
Some of the corals weren't looking too hot a day ago, so I poked around and found that the Ca 1g jug was empty. I'm not sure how long it had been empty for, but long enough that the tubing on the dosing pump was completely dry.
I mixed up another gallon and over three hours poured 100mls of Ca into the tank and set the rest on the dosing pump. The pump dosed another 50mls from 1-3am. The next next morning all the corals looked back to normal. Truthfully, I hadn't tested Ca and Alk in a couple of months, as I had gotten the tank fairly stable dosing 50 mls each daily w/a 20% water change every 3rd week.
With the recall on Hanna Alk reagent, I am unable to test it and determine how off the Ca is to the Alk. Ca and Alk are linked and if I add too much Ca I can drive down Alk (causing precipitates). So, considering I added one 3x higher than the other, I have to be careful b/c I can really throw off the balance. With these chemicals it is not a matter of adding one to get its level up.
I think I will do another water change tomorrow to be on the safe side of getting the parameters back in order. All the corals look fine, no pouting or showing distress issues, so I'm not too worried right now. The dosing pumps are dosing equivalent amounts of 50mls daily. Hopefully by early next week I will have new Alk reagent and can do some testing and see where I need to make some changes.