Surprisingly Effective Aptasia Killer

[DaveK]

Originally Posted by ricosuave

I've decided to do a little experiment inspried by Chuck's comments. I'm goning to stop dosing Purpleup and see if they come back. If they do I'll start dosing again and see if they go away again. Not very scientific but it'll get results...I hope.

Good idea! It will show if they went away because of or in spite of the treatment.

[ChuckG]

Can anyone shed some light on the thought I had of high calcium fusing the substrate together?

[ricosuave]

From Keith @ Marine Depot:


Generally you will find substrates clumping togther when you have a combination of high alkalinity (generally above the recommended levels of 9-12 dKH) combined with a high pH level. This combination allows for the fomation of calcite crystals. That is one possiblity of what is happening to your substrate.

You can also find if you have high organic levels in the substrate these can cause it to clump together. Alga and detritus can cause something called "organic bonding".

Lastly if you have high phosphate levels it is possible they are precipitating out in the substrate and causing the substrate to bind together.

Double check your alkalinity levels to make sure they are where they should be, make sure you pH is not going above 8.4 and if it is a chemical binding of calcite taking care of those two water parameters should help. If it is organic bonding siphon cleaning the substrate about every 2-3 weeks should help out along with nutrient control (not over feeding). If it is a problem with phosphate binding, then using a phosphate remover media such as Rowaphos or Phosban to help pull the phosphates out of the water will help.



Chuck, I think this what you were asking for.

[ChuckG]

Yea except that a high calcium level wasn't mentioned. Just about everything else BUT calcium seemed to mentioned though. Maybe is was the high Alk I was thinking of.

[ricosuave]

Here is what Drs F&S says:

Reef Aquariums: Calcium Supplements in Your Reef Aquarium

My alk is 10.5 and ph 8.28

I have no way to check KH.

[ChuckG]

Is your mom OK?

[ricosuave]

I almost thought that was one of those bad jokes like "Does your mom still smoke after sex?"

I should have known that my wife would email yours about it. Yeah she is OK for now. Thanks for asking. The doctors said she had a "mild cardiac event". An MI with only trace amounts of the cardiac enzyme. Luckily this time she had the nitrate pills to take as soon as it started so very little damage. I guess it will never get better but hopefully it won't get any worse.

[ChuckG]

Good to hear she is ok.

It'll be interesting to see if you aptasia come back. Of course you can't put anything else in the tank right now or you might bring in a hitchiker. That would nullify your study.

[Thomas]

Do you have corals in your tank? Was there any adverse affect on them? Or the fish, Inverts?
It says in the directions not to exceed a calcium level of 420. Did you exceed this?

[ChuckG]

He mentioned above that his CA level is like 650.