15 year old. 4 inch sand bed

[Scubabum]

I've had my tank running for 15 + years. I have had several of my corals, mushrooms, zoa's, xenia, Green brain and a few others, just as long and all seem to do well. Lately I have been trying to add Duncans, Torch, frogspawn, and a few SPS and they all seem to do well for a few days then they slowly retract and die. My water parameters are super stable,PH 8.1 salinity 1.026 (refractometer) ca 440, alk 8-9, mag 1360, phos 0 (I use carbon/GFO mix) and I never register Nitrate. All test are API and Red Sea, with a Hanna for phos. Flow is two Vortech MP10's in Reefcrest mode. Lighting has been ATI Sunpower 6x39 and I recently got the Kessil AP700 . As stated in the title my sand bed is 15 plus years old and is 4 inches deep. I hardly ever disrupt the sand bed, with the occasional vacuum of the first inch of the sand bed. I have heard people talk about "Old tank syndrome" and also having Water that is too clean (Stripped of Nutrients). I don't know how the chemistry works but could it be possible the DSB has anything to do with my problem? Should I ditch the "Berlin Method" deep sand bed and start over? Thanks in advance for all input and suggestions.

 

[Wiz]

I'm not 100% but no way. I run a fuge with 6" of oolitic sand for almost a y ear now and I have all those corals. I love dsb and will never change it. I dont even run gfo anymore. Just skimmer and carbon. So i say no!!!

I've had my tank running for 15 + years. I have had several of my corals, mushrooms, zoa's, xenia, Green brain and a few others, just as long and all seem to do well. Lately I have been trying to add Duncans, Torch, frogspawn, and a few SPS and they all seem to do well for a few days then they slowly retract and die. My water parameters are super stable,PH 8.1 salinity 1.026 (refractometer) ca 440, alk 8-9, mag 1360, phos 0 (I use carbon/GFO mix) and I never register Nitrate. All test are API and Red Sea, with a Hanna for phos. Flow is two Vortech MP10's in Reefcrest mode. Lighting has been ATI Sunpower 6x39 and I recently got the Kessil AP700 . As stated in the title my sand bed is 15 plus years old and is 4 inches deep. I hardly ever disrupt the sand bed, with the occasional vacuum of the first inch of the sand bed. I have heard people talk about "Old tank syndrome" and also having Water that is too clean (Stripped of Nutrients). I don't know how the chemistry works but could it be possible the DSB has anything to do with my problem? Should I ditch the "Berlin Method" deep sand bed and start over? Thanks in advance for all input and suggestions.

I

 

[Scubabum]

I'm not 100% but no way. I run a fuge with 6" of oolitic sand for almost a y ear now and I have all those corals. I love dsb and will never change it. I dont even run gfo anymore. Just skimmer and carbon. So i say no!!!
I

After I re read my post I realized that would be way drastic! I have stuff that is thriving and has been for a while. Just cant figure out why all my new additions are dying.

 

[Scubabum]

I'm not 100% but no way. I run a fuge with 6" of oolitic sand for almost a y ear now and I have all those corals. I love dsb and will never change it. I dont even run gfo anymore. Just skimmer and carbon. So i say no!!!
I

Nice tank !!!!

 

[Wiz]

Yeah its wierd. What size tank?

 

[Wiz]

And thanks

 

[Nano sapiens]

Something like this can be difficult to pin donw, but the first thing that comes to mind is possibly allelopathy. The corals that you have had for a long time may be habituated to whatever compounds are present, whereas new arrivals are negatively effected. Do you use GAC (granular activate carbon)? If not, might be worth a try as well as regular water changes to reduce, or eliminate, this possibility.

Having water that is 'too clean' should not seriously effect healthy corals that are placed in the system after just a few days.

For historical reference, the 'Berlin' system originally used a shallow calcareous rubble bed, not even sand as we do today as that came later...along with DSBs.

 

[Scubabum]

Yeah its wierd. What size tank?

It's a 58 gallon

Something like this can be difficult to pin donw, but the first thing that comes to mind is possibly allelopathy. The corals that you have had for a long time may be habituated to whatever compounds are present, whereas new arrivals are negatively effected. Do you use GAC (granular activate carbon)? If not, might be worth a try as well as regular water changes to reduce, or eliminate, this possibility.



Having water that is 'too clean' should not seriously effect healthy corals that are placed in the system after just a few days.

For historical reference, the 'Berlin' system originally used a shallow calcareous rubble bed, not even sand as we do today as that came later...along with DSBs.

I do run GAC , water changes about 15 gallons every month or so. I do notice my Old Corals aren't happy after water changes. Using Reef Crystals. RO/DI 0 TDS

Thanks for the info. Learned something new.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I agree it may be hard to pin down the problem.

I'd try adding a bit more food (or less export) to raise the inorganic nutrients a bit. That's a lot easier than most actions (like removing sand).

How do you make your top off water?

 

[Scubabum]

I agree it may be hard to pin down the problem.

I'd try adding a bit more food (or less export) to raise the inorganic nutrients a bit. That's a lot easier than most actions (like removing sand).

How do you make your top off water?

Hey Randy I'm using R/O with a sediment filter and 2 carbon blocks and finally through a DI resin. 0 TDS.

 

[Reefrookie220]

Ever added copper strait to the tank in 15 years? Add any new rock recently from a new source? Any (even small) changes to routine?

 

[Scubabum]

Ever added copper strait to the tank in 15 years? Add any new rock recently from a new source? Any (even small) changes to routine?

No Copper EVER added to my Display tank. The only changes to my routine was about 6 months ago My Live rock was overtaken by mushrooms. I removed a few and scrubbed and pruned and had a small Cyno outbreak that cleared in about a week. I was a little low on Ca, mag and Alk but got those numbers in check way before my new additions. At this point I'm starting to think I just got unlucky and got a few bad frags. They did look freshly cut so maybe just too much stress. Curious to know if you buy 10 frags what's the average survival rate for most people. Maybe its time to just add another frag and see what happens.