Chalice receding and getting darker

Bdroid · Jul 2, 2020

Hi,

I need some serious guidance from all the chalice experts out there...I have a chalice that was doing fine for about a month and then about a couple of weeks ago it started to recede. I have tried moving it to a lower flow and shaded area but that didn’t seem to do anything and just looks worse than before. I feed about 3 times a week with reef roid and mysis but lately it doesn’t seem to want to eat. I recently tried increasing my lights since it seem to be a bit low by the sand bed around 60-70 Par to 80 Par but with no improvements...Any idea, what else I should try?

My water parameters:
Nitrate: 0 (Api kit)
Phosphate: 0.01 - 0.03 (hanna ulr)
Alkalinity: 8.2-8.4 (Salifert)
Ph: 8.4 (api kit)
Salinity: 1.025-1.026 (Hanna)
Water temperature: 79.5

Thanks in advance!

NitrateKillah · Jul 2, 2020

Is it a young tank?are you sure Nit is 0?

fishguy242 · Jul 2, 2020

hi i think lighting is fine,get some moderate flow across it

Bdroid · Jul 2, 2020

NitrateKillah said:
Is it a young tank?are you sure Nit is 0?

The tank is a little over two years old and according to the api test kit it’s 0 or close to it

MERKEY · Jul 2, 2020

Do you use Rodi water?

Chalices are sensitive kind of like sps so of there are any leaching metals they will show before other lps.

NitrateKillah · Jul 2, 2020

Bdroid said:
The tank is a little over two years old and according to the api test kit it’s 0 or close to it

You feed it Mysis and Roids? I really think you should try another test kit bro. Mysis is HEAVY on the water. Its dead shrimp dude....

MERKEY · Jul 2, 2020

Bdroid said:
The tank is a little over two years old and according to the api test kit it’s 0 or close to it

How old are your test kits?

Bdroid · Jul 2, 2020

MERKEY said:
Do you use Rodi water?

Chalices are sensitive kind of like sps so of there are any leaching metals they will show before other lps.

Yep i make my own saltwater with rodi water. The tds meter on the system shows 0 and di is still good. I even double check with another tds meter to make sure it is 0. Probably should pick up a icp test kit to double check what’s off with my water parameters...

Bdroid · Jul 2, 2020

MERKEY said:
How old are your test kits?

Hanna ULR is only about a month old, Salifert Alk kit is about 6 months old and the api test kit is about 2 years and the expiration date is 03/2023...

fishguy242 · Jul 2, 2020

moderate light,moderate "constant "flow

Bdroid · Jul 18, 2020

Well just a quick update...my chalice didn’t make it...I have tried moving it to a lower flow area which seem to help a little but with no major improvement. I believe my nutrient level was probably the problem since it was at a undetectable level for nitrate using api and nyos test kit.

I’m going to work on getting my nutrient level up and stable before trying again... Also just waiting for my icp test results to come back. Hopefully it is just a nutrient issue any nothing else.

Bdroid · Jul 31, 2020

Well just got my Icp results back and it seems like there’s aluminum, tin and lanthanum in the waters...Triton is suggesting to do a 6x15% water change...this probably the cause on why the chalice wasn’t doing well? Guess time to pick up some more salt...

MERKEY · Jul 31, 2020

Do you have black sand?

Smarkow · Jul 31, 2020

When I had aluminum it was due to some ceramic media
When I had tin I did eventually (took months!) find a nut in my topoff container
Lanthanum is not toxic in small amts, do you dose Phosphate-E by brightwell or other lanthanum chloride products (I think, please correct me if wrong)

So critically assess your tank and make sure everything is okay, including heaters, magnets, pumps, etc.

Good luck, sorry about your chalice

Bdroid · Jul 31, 2020

MERKEY said:
Do you have black sand?

Nope i have about 2” of pink fiji sand...

Bdroid · Jul 31, 2020

Smarkow said:
When I had aluminum it was due to some ceramic media
When I had tin I did eventually (took months!) find a nut in my topoff container
Lanthanum is not toxic in small amts, do you dose Phosphate-E by brightwell or other lanthanum chloride products (I think, please correct me if wrong)

So critically assess your tank and make sure everything is okay, including heaters, magnets, pumps, etc.

Good luck, sorry about your chalice

I have been dosing phosphate-e to control my phosphate and maintain it around .01-.03...I recently cleaned out my gyre pumps and didn’t see anything wrong...i will check my heaters...actually maybe i will just replace them since I had them a little over a year already...I do have have some biomedia in my sump...maybe that’s the cause of my aluminum being high? Did you end up replacing your media? If so, what did you replace it with?

Smarkow · Jul 31, 2020

Bdroid said:
I have been dosing phosphate-e to control my phosphate and maintain it around .01-.03...I recently cleaned out my gyre pumps and didn’t see anything wrong...i will check my heaters...actually maybe i will just replace them since I had them a little over a year already...I do have have some biomedia in my sump...maybe that’s the cause of my aluminum being high? Did you end up replacing your media? If so, what did you replace it with?

Yeah I used one of those ceramic bricks. Same material/company I think. Heard certain batches had leeched aluminum but that the manufacturing process was “fixed.” I replaced the media with live rock rubble. The tank matured around it.