ATI results, need advice

silvernblackr35 · Apr 30, 2018

http://lab.atiaquaristik.com/share/efb182c95ca82552c928

Hey all, just received my ATI water report test back for my 180g and I have a few concerns. What prompted me to do a test was noticing a few of my corals going downhill with slow tissue loss, mostly lps and sps. Some seem completely unaffected (including acros) and it kind of has me baffled.

My nitrates are extremely high and that's a correctable issue and one I figured I would have because I took my refugium down temporarily during a battle with dinoflagellates to try and beat them with nutrients. It's been 3 months now and they haven't returned so I'm thinking I definitely need to get the fuge back up so I can get these nitrates down. I also suspended my water changes during this time, about 20% per month. I did have the same issues with coral while having lower nitrates (10ppm) and the fuge running so I figured it was just the dinos, they always seemed to bounce back though... Now, not so much.

I'm just not sure what to think about the other results like high molybdenum and barium. Could these cause issues? How do I remove them if so? I've checked magnets and pumps and found no rust. Also not too sure about iodine dosing, I know our tests are not the most accurate for it so I'm not so sure I want to dose it. Would dosing iodide be a safer solution?

If anyone sees anything else that jumps out at them feel free to let me know. Still waiting on my rodi results. I do use rox carbon and Purigen, used marinpure in the past but took it out over a year ago an replaced with live rock.

Reefltx · Apr 30, 2018

I don’t know, but your nitrates is extremely high!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 30, 2018

I'd have to say it is a very good looking report and I don't see anything that I'd attribute a coral issue to. The nitrate is high, but I've seen great SPS tanks with that level.

I think iodine is an unlikely issue, but it is easy enough to experimentally dose since it usually rapidly depletes as algae takes it up, and folks do not usually get overdose issues.

silvernblackr35 · Apr 30, 2018

Will gfo remove molybdenum and/or barium? How do I get them down?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 30, 2018

silvernblackr35 said:
Will gfo remove molybdenum and/or barium? How do I get them down?

I do not think barium is any concern at that low level.

Molybdenum is probably also not a concern, but I'm not sure how to best remove it aside from removing the possible source. It can bind to GFO surfaces, unlike most metals, but I'm not sure how efficient that is in seawater.

silvernblackr35 · May 3, 2018

http://lab.atiaquaristik.com/share/55394340cbd62208d7cd

Rodi came back with good results

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 3, 2018

Doesn't get much cleaner than that.

silvernblackr35 · May 3, 2018

I did a 60gal water change, I have approx. 200gal of total water volume, maybe closer to 210. How much would that have dropped nitrates? Unfortunately I just realized my test kit is expired. I'm thinking just doing about 30gal a week from here on out for about a month or so.

SashimiTurtle · May 3, 2018

I don't see any of the metals that are plaguing my tank elevated in yours... Vanadium and Nickel are the most prevalent with Molybdenum behind them in my system. I'm going to PM you with a question on the RODI results. Don't want to hijack your thread.

silvernblackr35 · May 3, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 3, 2018

silvernblackr35 said:
I did a 60gal water change, I have approx. 200gal of total water volume, maybe closer to 210. How much would that have dropped nitrates? Unfortunately I just realized my test kit is expired. I'm thinking just doing about 30gal a week from here on out for about a month or so.

30% drop in nitrate. Might be hard to see with some kits.

silvernblackr35 · May 3, 2018

The whole situation is just strange, I first noticed all montiporas were turning pale and had splotches of dead tissue, then I started losing brain corals and birdsnests and stylos started the same symptoms the montis had. It's slow losses of tissue too and it's patchy, not like the work of a pest.. Acros are unaffected, my nem and frogspawn look great too. It's gotta be the nitrates or iodine at this point. I did have a really hard time getting chaeto to grow, and rarely cleaned my glass compared to the other setups I've had, even now with the nutrients being elevated.

KIRBLIT · May 3, 2018

silvernblackr35 said:
The whole situation is just strange, I first noticed all montiporas were turning pale and had splotches of dead tissue, then I started losing brain corals and birdsnests and stylos started the same symptoms the montis had. It's slow losses of tissue too and it's patchy, not like the work of a pest.. Acros are unaffected, my nem and frogspawn look great too. It's gotta be the nitrates or iodine at this point. I did have a really hard time getting chaeto to grow, and rarely cleaned my glass compared to the other setups I've had, even now with the nutrients being elevated.

I would lean toward nitrate. I run an extremely high nutrient system, my nitrates pretty much stay around 60 no matter what I do. It's an sps system and everything looks great most of the time and no algae ect, ect. I do use my montipora as indicators to me with my nitrates. If they get above about 80 or 90 I notice polyps start to close on my Monti and they just don't look right, my blastos and Acans will show similar stress. Acros look fine, zoas, ect. I know I need to do a waterchange when I notice the Montis looking weird. After the waterchange ( usually about 40%) they will be fine again.

silvernblackr35 · May 3, 2018

Oh and the coralline algae on my back wall bleaches in spots then comes back and does it again.

KIRBLIT · May 3, 2018

silvernblackr35 said:
Oh and the coralline algae on my back wall bleaches in spots then comes back and does it again.

This is usually alkalinity related in my experience. Do you get alk swings when this is occurring?

silvernblackr35 · May 3, 2018

No, it's pretty stable around 9. I dose 2 part. The corraline issue just started about a month ago, that's when things really started accelerating. I'm with you though, I gotta get those nitrates back down.

I also did some reading on your article about Iodine Randy and I was using mostly gracilaria in my fuge. It outcompeted the chaeto big-time. Looks like it's loaded with iodine compared to most macros!

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 4, 2018

I could never get the gracilaria to grow well, even when dosing iodine. I wish I could have since it’s more attractive.

silvernblackr35 · May 11, 2018

*Update*

I've done 90gal in water changes since making this post, nitrates are 40ppm. Not seeing much response in anything, corraline is still slowly bleaching. I'm getting quite a bit of cyano and green and brown algae on the glass now.