Can't keep acros, what am I doing wrong?

[Richards_reef]

What mag test kit are you using? I had a mag test kit that was bunk last year. Honestly I strive to keep my mag under 1400 I stopped dosing months ago and just from doing my weekly 15 percent water change it keeps my mag between 1360 and 1400. When I do my water change coralline fades away until half way through the week when the mag drops. I use red sea coral pro.

 

[mstockmaster]

Salifert, but really my mag has been somewhat variable, I dose when it gets low (1100 or under).

 

[Richards_reef]

How often and how many gallons are your water changes?

 

[Richards_reef]

If you want to perform a test you could try switching salt brands and if that doesn't work I would suggest trying a different light source. I ran leds (3 different major brands) for nearly 4 years with very limited success with soft corals and lps(nearly nothing for my sps). 6 months ago i picked up a used 4bulb t5 fixture for a hundred bucks, ever since then my corals got there color back and growth has exploded.

 

[jda]

Do you dry mix your RC, or use the whole bag at once? Like any salt, it settles in transport - don't believe any manf that tells you otherwise.

This can make for inconsistent results, but I don't think that this is why you cannot keep new montis alive or get the current one to grow. You will need to get this sorted before you get onto harder stuff.

 

[mstockmaster]

I mix reef crystals generally 25 gallons at a time. I typically have been doing 10 gallon or so water change twice a month. I've always used reef crystals and had good luck, my old tank was successful with it, and it was lit with black box led, one of the early non full spectrum ones.

 

[g5flier]

I started with about 80lbs dry rock and about 15 lbs of old live rock. I also added a bottle of brightwells at the beginning. I have plenty of pods, lots of life on my rocks, a few micro brittle stars, lots of pineapple sponges and some others.

Thats great! I just added the live rock and did another round of the MB7, that is when my tank finally came around, just in the last few weeks. Worked well for me.

 

[mstockmaster]

Yeah, I almost feel like it's partially a light issue, but I don't really know. Either too much light or not enough but I can't really tell.

 

[pirate2876]

Temp? Salinity? What are you using to measure the two?

Where are you getting your water from?

 

[mstockmaster]

Temp 79-81 depending on the season. Its set at 79 but hits 81 at times during the summer. Measured with temp controller probe and verified with digital thermometer. Salinity is at 1.027 or so, measured by refractometer.

 

[mstockmaster]

Water is rodi from my home. Buckeye field supply system, 0 tds.

 

[Bonfish]

I had a similar issue, parameters were in line but slow fading over 3-5 days with usual tissue sloughing. My system was in the basement and I had excess CO2 which was driving down my pH. Similar to what you had originally listed. My Alk consumption was almost zero over several weeks. I raised my pH using macroalgea and getting outside air to my protein skimmer. My pH is between 8.15 and 8.3. Made all the difference in the world for me. CO2 was the smoking gun for me. I hope this helps, it took me about a year before I figured this out.

 

[Ibn]

Your tank is relatively similar in size to mine but with more water volume (47G with 6.68 gallons in the sump, 3.37 gallons in the chaeto reactor, and whatever water volume is in the skimmer body) so I'll just go off what has worked for me.

Dead BRS Reef Saver rock, water, and 60# of Tropic Eden sand was added to the tank on 3/30/16 to start the cycle. As you can see I have 2 MP10wES on the back wall. Return is via an Eheim compact 2000+ in the sump. Was planning on going with a high bioload in the tank with heavy nutrient import (feeding) and export (overskim via Vertex Omega 150).

Added some of the first corals on 4/15/16 when the tank cycled (used Dr. Tim's bacteria and some ammonia to kick start it). Mostly hardy stuff was added - zoas, montis, lps.

Some of the other frags that I wanted were added on 6/16/16. That coincides with when I first saw the first specks of coralline in the tank. This would put it at around the 2.5 month mark from when it got wet.

I also changed out all the rocks completely on 5/4/17. I took out all the BRS Reef Saver rock and replaced them with BRS Tonga simple branch rock. Yep, I replaced dead rock with all dead rock once again.

Here's how some of those frags have fared up to October from the original batch that was added on 6/16/16.

Tank parameters
Alk: 7.7
Ca: 450
Mag: 1380-1440
Po4: .17 ppm (Hanna ULR)
No3: 0.25 ppm (Salifert); recently began adding 1/4 tsp KNO3 on the weekdays to keep this detectable and to keep phosphates in check
Ph: 7.82 - 8.2 (Apex Fusion for this past week)
Temp: 76.5 - 77.2 (Apex Fusion for this past week)
Light: 2 x AI Vega Color (Fiji light cycle with 2 hour ramp up; Sunrise: 5:35 A.M.; Sunset: 6:15 P.M.; CW: 76, 50 DR/G, 84 B, DB, DY)
Flow: 2 x MP10wES on ReefCrest mode at 100%. Both aren't sync with each other. ~3100 gph combined.

Tank is heavily stocked with 10 fish that's fed strictly on a frozen food diet (4-5 cubes daily). 4mL of Reef Energy A/B is added 3x a week on M/W/Fr (tank is at work). 10% water change (5 gallon bucket) is performed weekly on Thursdays. IO salt mixed and stored in white 20G Brute bin. I started this tank at a high alk value in the 9s and low 10s, but over time I've dropped it down to the mid to high 7s instead. The SPS don't seem to mind the lower alk values.

 

[mstockmaster]

Yeah the low ph has been a concern point for me. I might try running a line outside tonight.

 

[mstockmaster]

My main issue is that I cannot figure out what the issue is, whether it's one issue or a combination of multiple issues. Of course it could just be tank maturity, but honestly I don't believe that.

 

[mstockmaster]

So... Things I will try here. Poly filter pad to hopefully rule out contamination. Shipping in water sample today to ATI for icp analysis. Will run skimmer air line outside to hopefully improve ph situation.

Anything I'm missing from a basic chemistry standpoint?

 

[acro-ed]

IMO a 9.3 alk with zero nutrients and LED lighting is a recipe for alk/lighting burn.

As a comparison, I keep my alk at 8.1 and when I have had "issues" with my chems and the alk goes over 9ish I start to get tip burn and generally ticked off acros.

@Ibn above is having success with the lower alk also.

I'd try feeding more and knocking the alk down a little and see what you get with some "easy" acros.

Hope that helps,
Ed

 

[Richards_reef]

OK I just looked at what size aquarium you have (sorry didn't check that before). If you can, I'd suggest doing a 5 gallon water change a week and maybe a 10 gallon once a month. With the smaller systems I've had, more frequent smaller water changes were the only thing that would work for me (larger water changes farther apart stressed my corals) . My suggestions are based on my experiences (I'm trying to help you with your issues not overload you).

 

[mstockmaster]

Yeah, on the water changes I've become pretty lax on them recently. Mostly in an effort to provide some more stability and establish some nutrients in the tank.

 

[Richards_reef]

If you can run your skimmer air inlet outside it should help with co2 (keep an eye on your Temps if you do this). For reference I live in Phoenix az, outside the co2 concentration is around 450ppm in my house with 2 people it will go to 800ppm, when there are 4 people it will go to 1200ppm and when we have a party it will go over 2000ppm.the only time co2 affects (visual stress) our 5 tanks is when we get over 1600 ppm, but all we need to do is open the doors and windows for 30 minutes to bring it back down to 600 ppm. Our house is 1500 sqft single level. When we are at work the co2 in the house drops to 450ppm.

As I said we have 5 tanks 75gallon 100gallon 32 gallon 29gallon and a 10gallon. We only measure pH on the 75 and 100 gallon tanks. The 75gallon stays between 8.1ph and 8.4ph the 100 gallon stays between 7.4ph and 7.8ph. We use different dosing brands for the two tanks.

Co2 is heavier than air so if you have a basement the co2 levels will naturally be higher in the basement.