A little SPS help from the experts..

[ihavecrabs]

@markalot @vetteguy53081 @Foothill Corals #reefsquad

What do you guys think. Funny enough, I raised my Iodine a few days back and the Forest Fire digi seems to be perking up a bit (although still rough). Nothing else stands out much, but the Na and Cl being out of proportion seems indicative of a potential problem, just unsure..

 

[Foothill Corals]

I’m not sure what to think about that. Did you change anything else?

Did you end up turning down your lights?

How old is this tank?

Are the affected corals getting good intermitant flow?

 

[vetteguy53081]

@markalot @vetteguy53081 @Foothill Corals #reefsquad

What do you guys think. Funny enough, I raised my Iodine a few days back and the Forest Fire digi seems to be perking up a bit (although still rough). Nothing else stands out much, but the Na and Cl being out of proportion seems indicative of a potential problem, just unsure..

I use iodine 3x per week. Does work

 

[rkpetersen]

@markalot @vetteguy53081 @Foothill Corals #reefsquad

What do you guys think. Funny enough, I raised my Iodine a few days back and the Forest Fire digi seems to be perking up a bit (although still rough). Nothing else stands out much, but the Na and Cl being out of proportion seems indicative of a potential problem, just unsure..

Overall I would say those results are not bad at all. High Si which is usually due to silica SiO2 breaking through RODI water used for saltwater and topoff. Mild aluminum elevation typically from PhosGuard or Marine Pure. Gallium and tin elevations, others, could be real or spurious. I don't concern myself with Na and Cl numbers particularly; someone else might want to address that. Also, any detectable iodine is enough imo.

 

[ihavecrabs]

I’m not sure what to think about that. Did you change anything else?

Did you end up turning down your lights?

How old is this tank?

Are the affected corals getting good intermitant flow?

Turned the light intensity down a bit as mentioned above. Still the same duration.

I did get a calibration solution for refractometers for my Milwaukee digital refrac. It read it high (1.028) which I'm guessing could mean my 1.026 is actually 1.024 so I did add a bit of salt to the ato. No time for that to take effect yet.

Tank was a year old in January. Rock was cured and cycled 3 months prior to the tank starting.

The thing that has me confused is I have acropora taking off like crazy but a montipora digitata strugglong.. and a green slimer struggling! These things should be growing like weeds!

Flow is high and variable.

 

[ihavecrabs]

Here is an example of my flow:


Two MP40s on a variable program controlled by Apex and a PP8 and PP16 controlled by a random program by Apex that alternates right/left/both/none/pulsing.

The separate programs are nice because whole I know flow will be higher during the day than at night, the flow is always different based on the programs being random for the jebao and separate from the MP40 program

 

[ihavecrabs]

Also, if you want to see some of the growth and variety of sps www.myreeflog.com

The sunset acro is probably the best grower but others are doing incredibly well like the BC Glowstik and Anacropora (slimeball)

 

[madweazl]

Plugging your ICP results into a salinity calculator (posted by JimWelsh here on the forums) indicates a salinity of 33.03 (your Milwaukee appears to be reading high like you suspected).

 

[ihavecrabs]

Plugging your ICP results into a salinity calculator (posted by JimWelsh here on the forums) indicates a salinity of 33.03 (your Milwaukee appears to be reading high like you suspected).

Thank you for confirming my suspicion! That calculator is what I spent hours looking for last night!

 

[Foothill Corals]

I do regular water changes and do not dose iodine (maybe I should). I suspect your upswing is more due to turning your lights down. Could it be that 350 par from leds is too much for the Monty? I ask because I do not use leds myself.

You mentioned the Monty did this once before? That could be a clue if there was something different done at these times.

I see nothing wrong

 

[ihavecrabs]

I do regular water changes and do not dose iodine (maybe I should). I suspect your upswing is more due to turning your lights down. Could it be that 350 par from leds is too much for the Monty? I ask because I do not use leds myself.

You mentioned the Monty did this once before? That could be a clue if there was something different done at these times.

I see nothing wrong

I really enjoy doing minimal or no water changes and managing the trace elements with ATI essentials. I'm hoping the Pro version provides more iodide (I dont think you want to dose iodine itself) but we'll see.

Yeah, the montipora digitata did this once before. That whole side is the "shaded side" which is why I didn't think it was from high light. The side that is getting blasted looks totally normal. Go figure.

Hopefully getting salinity in line will be the solution. More updates to come in 4-6 weeks (or before if things improve more quickly)

 

[madweazl]

I dont think your salinity is so low that it would be an issue in and of itself. Iodine in our acropora dominant tank is always low, I've had four ICPs done with the following results: 0, 11, 0, and 25.9. I know some swear by it and others state they notice no difference; I fall in to the makes no difference category.

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

I have had these type of symptoms appear 2 times in my current tank. The first time, I increased lighting too fast, and started burning tips. (using Radion T-5 hybrid). I simply reduced the lighting and let things heal, then increased intensity at a much slower pace. The 2nd time I saw these types of symptoms was around Christmas. I figured it was light related again so I reduced the intensity and waited for things to heal, but they didn't. It kept getting worse, so I tried everything I could think of, ran carbon, added a poly filter, did WC's, sent in ICP test which showed nothing obvious, checked for stray voltage, checked all equipment to make sure it was functioning and in good shape. Nothing helped and things slowly got worse. After pulling my hair out for a couple of weeks, I did a careful inspection of my sump, and in the process realized that I had never looked at my magnetic probe holder to make sure it was in good shape. I removed it, and low and behold, the magnet had broken through the protective coating and rusted. I removed it, did a couple of WC's and within days things stabilized. Now 6 weeks later most corals have healed, and are regaining color. PE is back to normal, and my Alk consumption has also increased. This may not be your problem, but I urge you to inspect all magnets that are in the water to make sure they are fully intact and have not started to rust. Good luck fixing this. I know how frustrating it can be!

 

[madweazl]

Same thing happened to me back in August.

Other side

 

[ihavecrabs]

I have had these type of symptoms appear 2 times in my current tank. The first time, I increased lighting too fast, and started burning tips. (using Radion T-5 hybrid). I simply reduced the lighting and let things heal, then increased intensity at a much slower pace. The 2nd time I saw these types of symptoms was around Christmas. I figured it was light related again so I reduced the intensity and waited for things to heal, but they didn't. It kept getting worse, so I tried everything I could think of, ran carbon, added a poly filter, did WC's, sent in ICP test which showed nothing obvious, checked for stray voltage, checked all equipment to make sure it was functioning and in good shape. Nothing helped and things slowly got worse. After pulling my hair out for a couple of weeks, I did a careful inspection of my sump, and in the process realized that I had never looked at my magnetic probe holder to make sure it was in good shape. I removed it, and low and behold, the magnet had broken through the protective coating and rusted. I removed it, did a couple of WC's and within days things stabilized. Now 6 weeks later most corals have healed, and are regaining color. PE is back to normal, and my Alk consumption has also increased. This may not be your problem, but I urge you to inspect all magnets that are in the water to make sure they are fully intact and have not started to rust. Good luck fixing this. I know how frustrating it can be!

Luckily there is only a few items with magnets but I will definitely do this. I figured icp would pick up on a high amount of metals related to magnets being compromised.

Thanks for the advice! We seem to be on the same path.. carbon, poly filters, etc.

 

[ihavecrabs]

Same thing happened to me back in August.

Other side

Ugh that is crazy

 

[madweazl]

Ugh that is crazy

I hadn't run an ICP since Dec 2017 so it may well have shown up on something had I done one between that period. I'd like to start doing them every four months but I typically forget (also like to believe I'm diligent enough to catch these things as they happen but that obviously wasn't the case).

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

Luckily there is only a few items with magnets but I will definitely do this. I figured icp would pick up on a high amount of metals related to magnets being compromised.

Thanks for the advice! We seem to be on the same path.. carbon, poly filters, etc.

I figured ICP would show something too, but on mine it did not. Everything looked good, but since I removed that rusted magnet, the improvement has been outstanding.

 

[markalot]

Hi crabs,

I rarely dose iodine and haven't done a water change in over a year. A lot of these elements are provided via the food we feed, and while things might do better with elevated levels I don;t think it's needed. I suspect the lights is the big change, just a little reduction can do a LOT of good sometimes.

 

[rkpetersen]

Luckily there is only a few items with magnets but I will definitely do this. I figured icp would pick up on a high amount of metals related to magnets being compromised.

It generally will. Elevated tin in particular is commonly caused by something rusting.