Bizarre, Clueless & ******!

[specialk]

Hey to all the genius on here! Hoping you can help me out with this ... I have a 90 gallon mixed reef. Metel Halides. Been up and running for about 8 months now with no problem. I keep up with all water changes and change out 30% roughly every month. All of a sudden my sps are starting to get stressed and bleach out. All my lps are fine and no problems. All of a sudden this morning now my powder blue tang is going down and about to die. Also lost an anthias last week too. All the other fish I have in there are eating and acting fine. My water parameters showed recently that my Calcium/ Alk / Mag were low. So I started using some B-ionic as well as a magnesium supplement to get the levels back up. Started coming back up slowly and things looked promising. Then it just stopped and remained low. So I was due for a water change anyways so I did a water change using a high quality salt and changed about 30-35% of the water. Checked the parameters again this morning -- 2 days after the water change -- and the Alk: 9.8/3.5 Calcium: 400 ppm Magnesium 1280 --> obviously low. STILL So I have no idea what is going on and where to go from here. Im dying to figure this out and find out just what the heck is going on ... :tape:

 

[_Alex_]

Depending on the number of Sps you have, you may need o start daily dosing. Which will need to you test daily and dose daily at about the same time. Sps consume alk, cal, and mag fairly quickly once they start growing. And any swings in these parameters can stress Sps out. Stability in parameters is key for Sps and of corse all corals.

Maybe try doing water changes every 2 weeks


-Alex-

 

[specialk]

But what would cause it to all of a sudden, after 7 months of a perfect tank, to start acting up? I have done nothing different. Nothing has changed. All of a sudden I just noticed that they looked stressed. I only have about 4-5 small sps frags .. nothing crazy

 

[bknapp]

The most important thing would be to make any and all changes slowly and be patient. Corals especially SPS don't like quick changes. How often do you do water changes and the sizes? And the halides are close to needing changed out and probably have started to shift spectrum and lose intensity.

 

[gonpostal]

Have you checked for nitrate and phosphate? How many fish do you have and how much do you feed? Do you have an ATO? If not, do you top off daily? What is the SG of your water? As the others have said SPS need stability, try not to let your parameters fluctuate too much.

 

[Bluewater04]

I would check the sg when dosing alk and cal the sg can rise an if you are doing changes once a month it could raise a lot.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 4

 

[tigrtraps]

Have you checked for nitrate and phosphate?

^^What he said^^

Sounds like the tank finally hit it's nitrate and/or phosphate limit. I lean towards nitrate if fish are dropping.

 

[specialk]

Thanks for replies -- I top off daily. My salt is between 1.023 - 1.024. My nitrate is at 40 ppm. As for fish -- some chromis (5) atlantic blue tang, small hippo, powder blue (well HAD a powder blue) a lawnmower blenny, 2 skunk clowns and an anthias. I also def had plans to get 2 more lights as I knew I had to get those replaced.

 

[specialk]

I also feed twice daily

 

[Reefing Madness]

Ok, gotta get those Nitrates numbers down, SPS do not like that, LPS on the other hand are slightly better with them a bit higher, but if left that high, you would see them start to die also.
You said your tank has been set up for 8 months, that doens't mean you've had SPS and LPS in ther ethe whole time. Im betting you've had the Corals in there for only a few months, now they've start to grow, and are gobbling up your ALK and CA. Now of which you need to dose more often or do more frequent water changes to keep them up.
Lights ofr Halides should be changed out every 9-12 months. But that would cause you algae issues also, so you'd have another problem to contend with.

 

[Shadow1]

Need to get nitrates down SPS do not like nitrates. 50% water change should drop nitrates to 20 that's a start.
Cut feeding in half. Got to find the source of the nitrates, I presume you are running a skimmer.
What are your phosphate levels?

 

[specialk]

My phosphate levels are good. My skimmer did just take a dive on me about 2 weeks ago and I am picking up another one tomm. (problem started before this skimmer melt down) ...also I gradually added the corals in there, they were not all placed in at one time. I will cut the feeding down also and I will also do another water change. Im also assuming the lack of skimmer right now is most def not helping anything

 

[specialk]

And yah just tested my nitrates again (and this is after doing a 30% water change just 3 days ago) and my nitrates are 40 to 50 ... I am assuming then I need to obviously do yet another water change right away to take care of that.???

 

[Reefing Madness]

Yea, pretty much. The skimmer will help, but you should be doing 50% water changes now to drop those numbers in half.

 

[lakeviewink]

Skimmer, live rock, and macro algae would be a good way to bring down nitrates. You could look into carbon dosing. Educate yourself first though before you start carbon dosing.

 

[specialk]

This is absolutely amazing!! So I did a water change and my nitrates are STILL high,.. in fact they look even more high then last time! No Joke! I have no idea what is going on here .. I am using RO water straight from a bad *** 6 stage system, this has been the 2nd change now in 5 days (changed 30% each time) and still nothing. In fact my powder blue just dropped the other day!I have no idea why or what is going on .. the one thing I thought -- what about any build up of garbage of bad algae in my overflow? Could that be where the nitrates are coming from?

 

[bknapp]

Which salt mix do you use? Mixing container? How old are your RO filters and DI resin?

Some salt mixes are known to contain nitrates. Test a fresh batch of water both straight RO/DI and salt. If there is nitrates in those then you have at least part of your problem.

 

[specialk]

For this last change I used the instant ocean reef crystals. ?? (hope that's not bad) Quite possibly my mixing container... I had no idea that the container could contain nitrates.... what is the best way to clean that out? ... and then I will go ahead and make some RO water and simply test that for nitrates? Then also test again with the RO water and then the salty mixed in ...? (thanks just wanting to make sure I am following perfectly here!) ... thanks thanks thanks!!

 

[bknapp]

Which kind of mixing container do you use and how old is it?

Yes, test both fresh RO water and fresh mixed salt.

What type of filtration are you running to help remove nitrates and phosphates? Personally I run bio pellets and an algae scrubber

 

[beaslbob]

Just some random thoughts.

You're doing a 30% water change (1/3) each month. And nitrates are at 40ppm just before a water change.

It takes several months for water changes to reach the point where the environment is constant water change to water change.

At that point this equation applies:

before water change=(replacement water value) + (change between water changes)/(fraction of water change)

so with 40ppm and 1/3 water change the tank is building up about 13 ppm each month between changes.

And that applies to everything that is a linear measure.

IMHO in order to get that 40ppm down you have to increase the nitrate consumers.

With problems with your livestock I highly recommend you add or increase the macro algae in a refugium or add an algae turf scrubber.

That should help balance out and stabilize all parameters not just the ones we can easily measure.

Plus it will decrease the co2 and add o2 as well.

Not to mention adding pods (and larva) to feed the corals.

As as mentioned I would start doing the diy 2 part to maintain calc/alk/mag

still just my .02