F&Fmgr

I used to, in a 5 gallon bucket, add hot water, bleach and filter socks. I would stir the bucket with a 1" x 18" PVC piece. Leave sit over night. RInse the next morning then soak in Prime for half a day, stirring at least once. Then rinse and reuse. Interestingly enough Ive found that using a dechlor like prime really whitens them up.

Also just thought of this. Is that eggcrate new? If so try putting in your sump where theres no light long enough for the eggcrate to develop b a bio film and possibly calcareous algae prior to having high powered lights beam down on it. new eggrate is amagnet to dinos and GHA.

IME it also helps to shut off DTL( daytime lights) for a couple days to limit the algaes growth potential. Keep on the kalk DRIPPING, and if you can position the kalk effluent to be processed by your skimmer prior to recirculation. I hate dinos. You can beat them, just have to be a little persistent. Healthy corals aren't usually affected by algae, but algae is usually an indicator that your current levels are more conducive to algae growth than coral growth. if you've recently started using a new food be sure to rinse the packaging oils off of the food. In one of my old systems, Dinos were how I knew to recharge my Kalkstirrer. Good luck!

Tom= " the voice of reason" the science behind raising Alk or dKh is as follows. Your fish are constantly breathing O2 out of and CO2 in to the water column. Therefore giving you a steady supply of carbonic acid. Carbonic acid is detrimental for 2 reasons; algae food(energy) and a softening (neutralizing) of hard water by reacting with carbonates. This is literally what is meant by "buffering your pH"; to have more carbonates input to your aquarium than you have carbonic acid produced on a daily basis. Dripping kalkwasser into your sump is aproven method of growing coral and eliminating algae growth by neutralizing carbonic acid and improving saponification in your protein skimmer. Not to mention that Calcium Hydroxide causes PO4 to precipitate on a small level as well. HTH Sean

Dripping kalk is bad now? lol There are likely a lot of reefers that would disagree with that statement.

Dinoflagellates raise alk to 10-12 deg until gone. Kalkwasser works best for this

darn Francis. Hang in there, just salvage and reset then rebuilding will come with time.

Scale distension can be a sign of external parasites, or one of the digeneans life stages. If the healthy scales lay flush, un unhealthy scale looks akin to a ruffled feather. I wouldn't use prazi in a tank with inverts as Ive never tried and wouldn't advise it; molting crustaceans might have sensitivity to the meds. Corals would rerspond defensively, causing stress but I don't think theres toxicity. Seahorses should be fine, but I would check with a seahorse authority, bc I am not. For external parasites buffered FW dips are effective. But only against the larva attached to the fishes epithelium. This addresses only one stage in its life cycle. For example when treating digenean flukes in my previous location, I would first acclimate the fish to hypo salinity ( 1.009 ~1.012). Then I would administer Copper sulfate; I liked copper power because it had long term water solubilty unlike cupramine. The for the two weeks they were in treatment I would administer praziquantel solubilized in cheap vodka and administer a bath. The length of the bath was different depending the type and severity of infection as well as overall health of the fish during treatment. Hypo eliminates a majority of the larva, copper sulfate eliminates the remainder of the larva and young adults, while the prazi once in the fishes system will cause adults to drop off. Point being there are several treatment methods available, just be cognizant of which life stage you are targeting with your treatment and which may still pose a threat.

any white strings in the feces or pock marks or scratches from flashing? IME flukes can cause this from distension; watch for adult parasites to be discharged in the feces (white string). Praziquantel is a harmless prophylactic that will cause the paraites to exit en masse. DO NOT USE PRAZI PRO. If it is swimm bladder, difficulty swimming does not conclude it to be so exclusively; if swim bladder was the culprit then a loss of equilibrium would be evident as well. If it is iz intestinal parasites, then reducing the feeding can also cause the adult stage parasites to evacuate to find another host. HTH Sean

all the "Old heads". Good to see you all still have the fever. Now just waiting for Rob the troll to come say hi; its raining today so he might be out from under his bridge....

Selcon is super contentrated amino acids; which means tons of available Nitrogen. Not to mention too much selcon will cause claoudy water in smaller tanks that aren't afforded any protein skimming. try feeding without the selcon for a week or two and see if the bloom diminishes.

haha. I have to pinch myself everyday to make sure I'm not dreaming.

hope everyones tank is doing well. I have been enjoying the last few years of dry feet and dry shirts . Any older heads left on the boards? I have retained most of my knowledge with regards to pathology, and will help with fish disease and QT questions. I don't think I'll be getting back into the hobby, industry or business just yet as I am happily employed outside of the industry. If any of you have generators or are contemplating the purchase of one I may be able to help with purchase, install and yearly maintenance. Tom, if this is inappropriate I'm sure someone will get you to nudge me cheers, Sean G

check your in and out connections.