Hey All - Over the last two months my acros have been dying. I have a 112 gallon system redsea 425XLI attached my ICP test and some pictures. Here a coupe of things have suspected and addressed:
1. My phosphates were running high for a while at around 2.5 and I brought them down to about .08 where they are currently
2. A brown algae layer has been covering my equipment and glass. It didn't look like dinos so I let it go a while and just kept cleaning the glass everyday. I did finally bring out my cheap microscope and could not find any dinos. I did find diatoms and some weird little round organisms which showed up as blue in color and had a fine short hairlike layer the outside for movement. May have been some sort of dino that I could not identify from other pictures. I did do the coffee filter test with some tank water shaken up and did find that the algae regrouped and clumped up once I played in sunlight. So I did a 48 hour black out and dosed some hydrogen peroxide and Macro7 for a couple days along with phytoplankton. I have the blue only light on at about 10% and am ramping up. Result - Algae gone but across looking worse than ever.
3. My ICP test shows low Iodine. I dined the recommended amount and has to helped.
4. Added some carbon to my sump in case it had something to do with toxicity from my pays or toadstool. Also a 20% water change. Did not help.
My alkalinity did dip to under 7% when the problem was first happening. I have since adjusted the alkalinity and am at 8.5 now. Alkalinity does seem to fluctuate more and I have had a hard time nailing it down. But I do dose over 15 hours with my Apex. I track with the trident.
5. I did switch from a two part ATI tossing regime to the triton method about 6 months ago. Worked fine at first but maybe that has something to do with my problems keeping all in check. I had a similar problem when I switched to Triton method on my last tank a few years ago.
6. Maybe I have some spare wattage leaking into the water? I plan to take my UV off and check it. It is mounted to the back of my tank and hard to get to, so I have been putting that off.
7. I did get some corals from a source who has had some problems with pests in the past. I dipped the corals three times in three different brand dips but did not quarantine. Stupid me. Maybe that is what I have?
8. I always suspect lighting. But I have two Kessil 380X with 4 T5's as a hybrid. Pretty basic and it was working before with minimal changes since the problems began.
9. I switched to a macro algae nutrient export when I switched to Triton. I had a hard time keeping the CHaeto growing so I switch to fern calurpa. The calurpa did not do a great job of exporting phosphate so I supplemented with Roa Phos, chemipur and some Phosban. CHaeto is now growing so I am weening off the phosphate removers.
I am out of ideas and appreciate any input. Thanks all.
1. My phosphates were running high for a while at around 2.5 and I brought them down to about .08 where they are currently
2. A brown algae layer has been covering my equipment and glass. It didn't look like dinos so I let it go a while and just kept cleaning the glass everyday. I did finally bring out my cheap microscope and could not find any dinos. I did find diatoms and some weird little round organisms which showed up as blue in color and had a fine short hairlike layer the outside for movement. May have been some sort of dino that I could not identify from other pictures. I did do the coffee filter test with some tank water shaken up and did find that the algae regrouped and clumped up once I played in sunlight. So I did a 48 hour black out and dosed some hydrogen peroxide and Macro7 for a couple days along with phytoplankton. I have the blue only light on at about 10% and am ramping up. Result - Algae gone but across looking worse than ever.
3. My ICP test shows low Iodine. I dined the recommended amount and has to helped.
4. Added some carbon to my sump in case it had something to do with toxicity from my pays or toadstool. Also a 20% water change. Did not help.
My alkalinity did dip to under 7% when the problem was first happening. I have since adjusted the alkalinity and am at 8.5 now. Alkalinity does seem to fluctuate more and I have had a hard time nailing it down. But I do dose over 15 hours with my Apex. I track with the trident.
5. I did switch from a two part ATI tossing regime to the triton method about 6 months ago. Worked fine at first but maybe that has something to do with my problems keeping all in check. I had a similar problem when I switched to Triton method on my last tank a few years ago.
6. Maybe I have some spare wattage leaking into the water? I plan to take my UV off and check it. It is mounted to the back of my tank and hard to get to, so I have been putting that off.
7. I did get some corals from a source who has had some problems with pests in the past. I dipped the corals three times in three different brand dips but did not quarantine. Stupid me. Maybe that is what I have?
8. I always suspect lighting. But I have two Kessil 380X with 4 T5's as a hybrid. Pretty basic and it was working before with minimal changes since the problems began.
9. I switched to a macro algae nutrient export when I switched to Triton. I had a hard time keeping the CHaeto growing so I switch to fern calurpa. The calurpa did not do a great job of exporting phosphate so I supplemented with Roa Phos, chemipur and some Phosban. CHaeto is now growing so I am weening off the phosphate removers.
I am out of ideas and appreciate any input. Thanks all.
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