 State
of the Tank (cont.) |
| But back to the
matter at hand… |
Throughout the rest
of the winter, I just kind of let the
tank settle down a bit, turning my
attention more toward my fish population
(More about the frustrations involved
there later on too). But it was also
about then that Dr. Ron Shimek's
article about the toxicity of heavy
metals in artificial sea salts was
published in Reef Central's Reefkeeping
online magazine.
See
it online here. |
| So as it would still
be another week before the new Maxim
would hit the stands, I figured what
the heck. |
| [Hey, if I may take
a moment to digress here, I have a
question: Am I the only person whose
deepest darkest troubles have always
begun by either thinking or uttering
the phrase, |
| "What
the heck?" I mean, at this age
I really ought to know better but somehow,
I will still default to the occasional "what-the-heck" moment
and inevitably, pay dearly for it.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Sorry.] |
| Normally,
mind you, I am not the type to be affected
by a single article or study but this
one really got to me. My tank is about
5 years old and as such seems a prime
candidate for the so-called "Old
Tank Syndrome".
As I've previously stated, I
had noticed an increase in cyano, etc.,
and had always wondered if these |
|
| Normally,
mind you, I am not the type to
be affected by a single article
or study but this one really got
to me. My tank is about 5 years
old and as such seems a prime candidate
for the so-called "Old Tank
Syndrome". As I've previously
stated, I had noticed an increase
in cyano, etc., and had always
wondered if these |
| I'd
been using a LOT of it lately;
preferring to fight cyano through
natural methods, which included
frequent water changes. Was I actually
hastening the demise of my own
reef by pouring more toxins into
a tank that HAD to be near the
saturation point already? |
| I had to act
now, I thought. So what I did was
switch to the salt that, according
to the article, was found to have
the least amount of these heavy
metal toxins: Crystal Sea Bio-Assay. |
| There. That
was simple enough. |
| Now
apparently, I was not alone in
doing this, as there was an unbelievable
run on this stuff in the days and
weeks following this article. My
first few boxes came directly from
the factory. And strictly adhering
to the advice of the article (and
my common sense; which picked a
fine time to show up then) I made
the switch very slowly. This was
especially good because initially,
the salt mixed up very cloudy.
It needed a day or two to clear
up for me. Then, I'd simply
match the parameters and add it
to the tank, at first, 20g, then
40g, then 60g at a |
|
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