Getting upset, don't know what I am missing here. Please help

[certain_code]

Like posted many times already by others I am reaching the point of just ditching my tank and leaving the hobby behind. I really just don't get what is going on a why I have less and less success with my tank. Any help of course is appreciated but sinking more and more money into my tank and getting worse and worse results is killing me.

What I have noticed:
Almost all my coral is closed, receding, or all out dead. Bowerbanki, Mushroom, Open Brain, Hammer, and a few others have all nearly died if not already have. Some coral like my torches, zoas, and Liam's polyps are looking fine.

I have a hair algae outbreak that I have been working against for the last few weeks. Water changes, brushing and collecting have put a dent for sure but I am still fighting it. Not sure what the problem is considering Phosphate levels are near zero when read on the Hanna Phosphorus checker.

PH has slowly gotten higher and higher with no change in dosing or anything else. Not sure what to do about this. Double checked that the probe is calibrated.

Tank:
80 Gallon Deep Blue 18" tall
ATI 8x39W - 12 hour cycle - 12" from water surface

Parameters:
This has been a struggle as of lately, I am dosing what seems like a large amount of Cal and Alk yet my levels always seem to dip and dip and dip. Currently I am dosing 100ml of alk and 120 ml of cal daily with only about 10 living coral frags. This just seems crazy to me.

More detailed history of parameters can be found @ Aquatic Log

What I do know
My calcium has been in flux in the last few weeks. I had a leak in my dosing pump and was running without Calcium for a few days and it tanked my levels. I am working on raising these with Randy's 2-part but it's honestly been tough to


tl:dr; Tank is essentially crashing from what seems to be simply low calcium for the last week or so. Dosing amounts seem to be higher than some with heavy SPS loads yet I get nowhere. Fish are happy, algae is slowly getting removed.

So R2R, should I just quit or am I just missing something?

Please help!

 

[D maul]

Check magnesium 1200 to low. 1350 is good

 

[D maul]

Do you run any gfo in your tank?

 

[Acro76 Verified Sponsor]

Run your blue bulbs for 8 hours, run the whites for 2-3... a 12 hour cycle is probably just fueling the algae. The corals don't need that much light.

Is your coralline algae growing yet? This can use up the alk faster than corals when it is growing well.

You should be doing a water change to correct an Ca/Alk imbalance, not overdosing to correct.

 

[certain_code]

Check magnesium 1200 to low. 1350 is good

Do you run any gfo in your tank?

I do run GFO and last changed it on Oct 1.

Magnesium was low after 2 water changes (20 total gallons) so I recently dosed to get it back up. Going to take a reading tonight to check where it is at.

 

[brandon429]

Is API test kits indicating all these levels that's important to know pls post full tank shot we save these tanks all the time it's worth it


For sure dose no more only water change and feed until balance is back good call above.

Your gfo, bright lighting and alk is behind the decline IMO
No matter how bad the turnaround shot looks great can you post pics that gives us unspoken detail.

One can indeed have GHA and no nutrient issues, how does it grow on the Great Barrier Reef for fishes to eat if not? Not all parts are farm runoff affected, many parts are pristine and they grow algae just fine.

The algae issue is separate to the other events. All corals will respond and put on mass by feeding more and alk'ing less for sure we can save your tank. All you do is lessen or drop the fish bioload until full fix is complete

 

[certain_code]

Run your blue bulbs for 8 hours, run the whites for 2-3... a 12 hour cycle is probably just fueling the algae. The corals don't need that much light.

Is your coralline algae growing yet? This can use up the alk faster than corals when it is growing well.

You should be doing a water change to correct an Ca/Alk imbalance, not overdosing to correct.

Next step was going to be a day or two of lights out since the coral is not doing well anyways. It has helped in the past with cyano so figured it would with GHA as well.

Coralline seems to have died off a few weeks ago and is brown now on the back glass. I have not seen anything new by way of growth in that front.

I have done 2 10 gallon water changes in October with Reef Crystals. Seems like it usually just lowers my levels rather than bringing them to where they need to be. Going to do another this weekend as it did seem to positively effect some coral (particularly the Duncans)

 

[certain_code]

Is API test kits indicating all these levels that's important to know pls post full tank shot we save these tanks all the time it's worth it


For sure dose no more only water change and feed until balance is back good call above.

Your gfo, bright lighting and alk is behind the decline IMO
No matter how bad the turnaround shot looks great can you post pics that gives us unspoken detail.

One can indeed have GHA and no nutrient issues, how does it grow on the Great Barrier Reef for fishes to eat if not? Not all parts are farm runoff affected, many parts are pristine and they grow algae just fine.

The algae issue is separate to the other events. All corals will respond and put on mass by feeding more and alk'ing less for sure we can save your tank. All you do is lessen or drop the fish bioload until full fix is complete

Tests kits:
Phosphate, Alk, and Cal are Hanna.
Magnesium is Salifert.
PH and Temperature are via Reef Angel controller.
Rest are API but soon to be replaced.

How do you think strong lighting, GFO, and Alk are playing a part? Any advice?

The GHA growing anywhere makes sense from what you are saying. It has gone down quite a bit but fighting it has certainly been a battle. Mostly it seems like it is growing on my frags and could be hurting them because of it. Does that make sense?

Latest tank shot is is on AquaticLog but I will post it below as well.

 

[Tahoe61]

I have done 2 10 gallon water changes in October with Reef Crystals. Seems like it usually just lowers my levels rather than bringing them to where they need to be. Going to do another this weekend as it did seem to positively effect some coral (particularly the Duncans)

I can sense your frustration.

You have either gotten a bad batch of salt (which seems unlikely) or there is a testing error. With the SG value were it's at it seems unlikely you would see such low Ca and alk values post two water change. Are these mature corals and large colonies, is consumption that great?

Agreed bring up the mag, reduce the lighting period.

Edit: Thanks for the image.

 

[D maul]

Running gfo is not your problem it's helping export,first you need to get mag, alk, and calcium where it should be. Dose mag slowly to get up to 1350.

 

[IronVulture]

How old is your tank?

 

[IronVulture]

I would test my water again with a different test kit I don't see how your levels are dropping so much with the few corals you have.

 

[millertyler22]

Just my 2cents but gfo will expire very fast if phosphates are high and with GHA tells me they are consider changing it 2x this week then once a week till its under control and figure out how long it takes to expire...and do a 3 day no lights... Once u have it under control try to find out what is causing the out take to begin with

 

[certain_code]

Running gfo is not your problem it's helping export,first you need to get mag, alk, and calcium where it should be. Dose mag slowly to get up to 1350.

Working on getting Mag back up, dosed to raise it 100ppm a few days ago but just tested and seemed to have no effect. Will dose again according to BRS calculator.

How old is your tank?

Just over 6 months old. Certainly not old but assume enough time to be able to keep some coral known to be hardy.

I would test my water again with a different test kit I don't see how your levels are dropping so much with the few corals you have.

I have checked against my ATI, Hanna, and Salifert kits And they are all within an acceptable range of each other. I can't imagine that 3 Hanna checkers would all give such inaccurate results so typically test with those as comparing colors is not so easy to me.

 

[brandon429]

Those pics are nice and show calcification histories for the tank without even knowing param details pics matter greatly in analysis imo

ur tank is easy save I was visioning 5x worse. aside from subtle nuances every keeper eyeballs in their tank which are apparent to you, it looks like a normal reef in pics. You want no algae and better coral growth as the two actions sought.

regarding gfo, search to see if its killed corals by over stripping in other threads, you've mentioned detailed po4 controls and probably not exceptional tank feeding in order to prevent algae. I see it as noncritical to regenerating a tank, its a luxury once a tank is cruising. if any number of threads show gfo installation being associated with overstripping and coral harm (whereas just right is safe, fine line for many search returns show) then removing it until you feel corals are back on course is indicated.

gfo is an option that thousands of tanks don't employ and never will, its a luxury among things we have as options so it can be reused as needed, you can also spot feed better to counter act it and leave it in place. better feeding of corals and water changes all sustained for two mos with no tedious parameter chasing for that two mos will fix ya

and at each stage along the way, algae is handled independently. sent ya neat links in pm

 

[Kcstoker1]

Sorry to hear of all the troubles. Hopefully we can help you turn things around.

+1 on the lighting period. It's too long. Trim it down, maybe less than 8 hours until things are under control. Consider going with half for 6 hours and going full the 3 hours in the middle.

I use the ATI 6x24 Sunpower on my DT and the 4x24 Sunpower on my frag tank. I've noticed that the bulbs pretty much hit their lifespan right at, or around 12 months. Could stretch to 14 months but then I start to see issues. My lights are on 8 hours per day with full lights on for 6.5. If you've been burning them for 12/day, you may have burned them past their lifespan. If you have new bulbs, I would replace any that you've had going for 12/day for a year. I wouldn't go from 12 hours/day to total darkness with already stressed corals. It's more likely to be a nail in the coffin than a solution, in my opinion.

What's your topoff procedure? I'm assuming RODI, though it wasn't mentioned.

Have you recently switched to Reef Crystals? A change in salt can cause some destabilization until things settle in again. It shouldn't directly lead to algae issues, but it can affect CA, Alk and Mag and pH which can stress out corals, causing issues that could lead to algae problems.

Changing lighting sched alone will cut out 1/3 of the algae's potential growth period and nutrient export time. Beyond that, keep up regular water changes and feed minimally. Stable parameters can be achieved in low-population tanks simply by establishing good maintenance rhythms and being cautious.

Good luck. Hoping to follow your success from here on.

EDIT: Just saw that your tank's only been running for 6 months. I might still consider replacing bulbs just to rule it out. 12 hrs/day is potent.

 

[FlyinBryan]

What's your salinity at? 1.0255? Mag at 1350 the rest will stay up and stable. Do you have an ro/di filter for water? Hanna checkers can be off. What's your ammonia level at?

 

[melypr1985]

Dont quit! You can do this! It's confusing and I certainly dont understand much more than a basic knowledge of dosing, but I do know that nothing in this hobby is fast. Your getting great advice and a lot of it. Whatever you decide to do to fix this based on the help your getting will still take time to work. Give it some more time and I know that you'll get it under control. Whenever I'm having problems I go back to the basics. I dont have to dose anything, all i do are weekly water changes and I have many more corals than you have there with pretty good growth.

Have you tested your newly made saltwater to see what it's mixing at? What the Mag, Alk and Ca are right off?

 

[brandon429]

Im proud of how quick people are to offer help in this forum talk about good action. Nine help post replies per second is decent forum turnaround time heh

 

[gcrawford]

Some may jump on me for this, but....for me, this worked: I added a calcium reactor, set it to drip constantly, added a Kalk reactor using Mrs. Wages from WalMart, lowered temps to 77F, do occasional small water changes and leave everything else alone. Corals will adapt to most any CONSTANT condition, but constant change will not yield positive results. Nitrates and phosphates will not kill your corals. My advice is to stick with stable parameters and sit back and watch. You may have algae here and there, but don't panic. Personally, I haven't checked any parameters in a year and both large independent systems are thriving. I've enjoyed the hobby much more since letting nature take its course using stability as the most important parameter.