I have been adding all the nitty gritty details to the ReefCon Pro software instead of using this. Guess I need to figure out what I am going to do...

The QT tank is up and running. I added the Percula I think on the 26th and it was doing fine. I added the Purple Tang on the 27th but it got badly stressed within 6 hours - when the nitrites went up to 0.1. So I took both fish out and back in the main aquarium.

Yesterday I bought 10kg of Malaysian LR and added that to the tank. I also added some Vodka and Ammovec biostarter. Hopefully I’ll get the cycling process sped up.

I installed the QT tank today. The new RO/saltwater mix was not enough for both a water change on the main tank and filling up the QT, so the QT is about 90% full of main tank water and I am preparing some new RO/saltwater to add to the QT tank to get the sump full.

It took me 4 hours to catch the Yellow Tang. I decided I am going to give it back to Exotic since they were stressed beyond belief. Eventually after tearing down part of my reef I managed to catch him.

I have started feeding the fish a frozen vegetable diet and new SeaVeggies strips.

Got my QT tank yesterday and between today and tomorrow will be setting it up.

Ok I finally got my Calcium Reactor set up and running (the baking soda did not work). It was quite a mission to find a CO2 gas bottle. It is running at one bubble CO2 per second, and about 2-4 drops of output water per second. Will closely monitor water parameters.

I made a huge mistake initially since I never rinsed the media before use - so I flooded my tank with a cloudy powder. Through experience is the way I’ll learn it seems... Grrr...

Since I want to target pH 8.2-8.3, 8.5dKH and 420-440 mg/l Calcium, and currently my values are pH 8.4, 7.5dKH, 420mg/l Calcium, I need to tred carefully not to have too high pH values. Since I had been adding dKH buffer the past week to raise the KH and stopped adding kalkwasser to lower Calcium (which is working by the way), I have been getting closer to these values. I am however now at a point where I cannot move forward as I used to, since it will push the pH above 8.4. The reason is this:

It is clear that with a pH of 8.4 and Alkalinity of 7.5 (2.6meq/l) I seem to have a lower CO2 value in my tank that I should have. So to fix this (without adding a CO2 reactor) I am going to stop adding dKH buffer and instead use Baking Soda for the next two-four days (and closely monitoring pH, Alkalinity and Calcium). Theoretically baking soda will not increase pH dramatically but will increase alkalinity. Once I have reached my target values, I’ll start adding kalkwasser with white vinegar (4ml / litre of kalkwasser). This should raise alkalinity without impacting too much on pH.