Long Brown Strings all over gorgonians after dosing Sodium Bicarbonate

[Larry101]

My alkalinity was at 6.7 last night so I decided to use some sodium Bicarbonate to raise my alkalinity. I put 1 cup and 2 tbs into a 1-gallon jug full of rodi and mixed it really well and then dosed 2 teaspoons to the tank. I tested my alk this morning and it is at 7.6. I want to do another dose of the sodium bicarbonate as I want my alk to be at 8.5 DKH, but I have found that there are these really long brown strings that are attached to every single gorgonian I have in the tank. At first, I thought this was a massive outbreak of dinos that came out of the blue, but upon further inspection of the strings, I don't think they are dinos because I have had dinos in this tank before and they weren't nearly this long and they didn't come all in a single night. Furthermore, these strings don't have air bubbles and aren't green. They have these weird mucus-like balls on them and I have no idea what this could be. Is this from the sodium bicarbonate?

 

[Reef Guy Ronnie]

Have you tested Phosphates to rule out the possibility of Dinos?

 

[Larry101]

Have you tested Phosphates to rule out the possibility of Dinos?

My phosphates are at .05ppm

 

[Larry101]

Have you tested Phosphates to rule out the possibility of Dinos?

I have had a dino outbreak before and it was the long string type, but I can assure you this isn't a dino outbreak. These strings are way thinner and longer, aren't green, and don't have the air bubbles that my dino outbreak had. Furthermore, it is only on the gorgonians and not the rocks which leads me to believe that whatever this was they were in my water column as my gorgonians catch literally anything that is in my water column.

 

[LegendaryCG]

Not sure but that might be the polyps reacting poorly to the change. Anytime something gets messed up in my tank I get something that looks like that

 

[Dkmoo]

Sodium carbonate is much more effective at raising PH. If your sodium bicarbonate source is simply baking soda then you can easily make sodium carbonate out of it by baking it to make soda ash. Basically preheat ur oven to 300 and bake the soda in a baking sheet for 1 hour. BRS has a calculator for how much you need to raise the level of DKH you want so basically mix with rodi and dose slowly.

 

[Larry101]

Sodium carbonate is much more effective at raising PH. If your sodium bicarbonate source is simply baking soda then you can easily make sodium carbonate out of it by baking it to make soda ash. Basically preheat ur oven to 300 and bake the soda in a baking sheet for 1 hour. BRS has a calculator for how much you need to raise the level of DKH you want so basically mix with rodi and dose slowly.

I know soda ash is better for dosing overall due to the ph benefit, but due to the fact that I want to do a bigger alk change (from 6.7 DKH to 8.5 DKH), using sodium bicarbonate is better because it won't mess with my ph as much for the large change as soda ash would. Do you think this could have come from the baking soda? (I used arm and hammer)

 

[Dkmoo]

I've been using arm and hammer to make soda ash for a few month now and haven't seen those kind of reactions. Usually as it is a food grade product it shouldn't be too bad unless your specific box is contaminated with something (unlikely) .

Gorgs are sensitive creatures so maybe the change you did last night was too much at once? Probably something secreted by them due to the change.

Maybe try only half the amount for your next dose?

 

[Dkmoo]

Also, just reread your first post, I misread and thought you had 6.7 ph that you are trying to raise to 8.5. That's why I suggested carbonate. For Alk agree bicarbonate is better for larger 1 time changes.

While on the topic how much did PH change from the old alk level to now?

 

[Larry101]

The ph didn't really change as far as I can tell, I just tested and it is at 8.3