Almost Everything in Tank Dying/declining

[Big G]

just check at the water-level

Yep. Hold it just over the water. Try to develop a pattern: center, corners, etc. write the readings down for reference.

 

[Druinz]

Ah I should have mentioned that, sorry. Yes I use 3 stage RO/DI water.

 

[Druinz]

If it's of any use, InappropriateReefer from youtube uses the same light on his 10g nano reef. He uses whites and blues at 100% but has a custom diffuser made for his.
He shows it in this video @ 8:00

 

[MnFish1]

First thing that jumps out as me is your alk is pretty high. I don’t think that would explain all your issues but I would definitely try to get it down below 9.

With High Alk - you need lower light (measured by PAR) - AND perhaps higher flow. Can also be once one thing 'dies' it releases stuff - that affects the other things in the tank (if you don't remove it immediately)

 

[Druinz]

Should I lower my lights until I can get a lux meter, and slowly raise them as Alk goes down?

 

[jabberwock]

You could try doing daily micro water changes. My reef mentor says on his smaller systems (< 20 gallons), he scoops out a red solo cup of water everyday, and adds a red solo cup of prepared salt water every day. It is like dosing, and achieves similar water change percentages over a month, but with increased stability. I have a 32 gallon cube and so I change 64 oz of water every other day. Seems to be working well. I have been doing it for 3 months in my 6 month old system. I lightly vacuum the sand once a month. That changes an additional 3 or 4 gallons.

 

[garbled]

IIRC, IO salt had a problem where if you mixed it, and immediately used it for a water change, it would burn your corals, and the gills of the fish. Now mind you, this was like 15 years ago, but are you letting your mixed water aerate overnight with a heater in place? Also the reef crystals salt, while good stuff, is designed for higher-demand tanks. The idea is they overdose some of the trace elements and alk/calcium so it partially makes up for what your massive coral garden uptakes. But you don't have a massive coral garden, so in theory, those trace elements might be building up on you.

 

[MnFish1]

Should I lower my lights until I can get a lux meter, and slowly raise them as Alk goes down?

Honestly - no clue - Just saying - that with high alk you prob need to have higher flow and a bit lower light. Frankly - Im always amazed at the success people have with Pico and nano tanks (i.e. low volume) - because any little 'thing' can cause problems quickly.

 

[Druinz]

but are you letting your mixed water aerate overnight with a heater in place?

I mix the water in a 5g bucket with a powerhead, I don't always let it sit overnight though. In a few cases I've used it a few hours after.

 

[MnFish1]

Should I lower my lights until I can get a lux meter, and slowly raise them as Alk goes down?

PS - I dont know if it makes sense (monetarily) to buy a par meter for a 10 gallon tank. I dont know that much about that light itself either. was you alk always 13 - or did it jump quickly (which is more of a problem). If you have a salt mix that matches NSW - making large water changes is not a problem - if you use a salt that has high levels - of soda, etc (i.e. alk) - and you do large water changes it can be a problem

 

[Druinz]

I believe Reef Crystals does have high levels, as pointed out by garbled. I'll probably transition to standard IO for the time being so that my parameters stabilize at lower levels to match my low stocking. The par/lux meter may have to be a last resort, even if it'll be expensive (in the case of a PAR meter, lux meter is cheap).

 

[garbled]

I would mix up 5 gallons at a time, do the aeration and heater thing in the bucket, and then do what @jabberwock suggested and do daily red solo cup changes rather than big ones. Also, maybe switch to normal IO rather than IO RC.

 

[GoVols]

As far as the corals go, I'm just like the others.

You need to bring up your phosphates and nitrates.

You don't have enough corals to bring down the alk, but I'd cut back on the water changes and bring up your nutrients.

Might want to look into the Red Sea blue bucket down the road.
It comes in at about 7.8 dkh.

JMO...
For phosphates, get the Hanna ULR checker
For nitrates, get the Salifert.

Here's a "cheat sheet" for the Hanna ULR Checker

 

[garbled]

If you get a super cheap lux meter, some people will use the probe in a long plastic bag, so they can submerse the probe while keeping the open end of the bag above the waterline.

 

[lapin]

Late to the party but here is my thinking.
Low nutrients are an issue for corals, coupled with too much light and high alk will kill them.
Alk is way to high. If it has been that high for a long time you can have Ph problems. Have you tested the ph of the tank? Sea water has a ph of around 8.
This could explain the dead inverts and fish.

 

[Druinz]

I only have a low-range Ph test-kit for my freshwater, but that does sound very plausible!

 

[Druinz]

I've just mixed up a batch of saltwater using the plain IO I had, and I'm getting a reading of 11-12 kH from it. Using this won't really lower my kH, and with my minimal amount of corals, my kH won't really get used enough to lower it effectively.
My current idea is to lower lighting, feed Reef Roids frequently to raise nutrients, and basically stop all water changes for a while, monitoring kH.
Thoughts?

 

[HB AL]

I already posted and gave you some ideas, but I see a lot of advice on checking your lights to see if they are the culprit for your coral dying which is possible but I don’t think the lights would kill all the various corals you had, but you mentioned your fish died too and your lights definitely didn’t kill your fish. Like I said before something must be seriously wrong with your water chemistry to kill your coral and fish. Is water being oxygenated sufficiently?

 

[Druinz]

I've a koralia 240gph powerhead pointed to the surface as well as an AC30 I use with poly-fil to polish the water. That should be enough for gas exchange right?

 

[Fudsey]

It should be but how's the air in your house? Problem is you could have high concentrations of co2 in your house as well. How's your pH?