Got my ATI ICP test in

[rkpetersen]

Magnesium about 100 mg/l lower than I would run it, but other than that, those results are stellar. Water quality is definitely not your issue.

 

[Trevor40]

What are you using to dose? Is your Alk fluctuating at all? Making changes to your tank causes pale acros. Sometimes you just need to let things adjust.
Borrow a Par meter and see how much you are getting before messing with the lights. You could reduce the photoperiod to help with bleaching.

 

[Stigigemla]

You have very high levels of tin and zink. Post a question in the chemistry forum to find out if they are dangerous.

To add another random idea: If you have large soft corals you maybe active carbon filtering can help.

 

[Mattrg02]

You have very high levels of tin and zink. Post a question in the chemistry forum to find out if they are dangerous.

To add another random idea: If you have large soft corals you maybe active carbon filtering can help.

I think you’re looking at the other guys results? I’ve got zero tin and zinc on par with what the test figured I should have.

What are you using to dose? Is your Alk fluctuating at all? Making changes to your tank causes pale acros. Sometimes you just need to let things adjust.
Borrow a Par meter and see how much you are getting before messing with the lights. You could reduce the photoperiod to help with bleaching.

I’m not dosing anything since my tank isn’t using anything. My corals aren’t growing so my levels are staying solid.

Since I truly don’t have access to a par meter, outside of buying one, I’ve raised my hydra26hd up to 14in over the water line. This should increase spread and decrease par.

I do have some zoas and palys, but they are just small frags on the bottom.

This is a bare bottom tank btw.

Any chance that I’m overdoing it with carbon? I run activated carbon 24/7. Same for poly filter.

 

[vetteguy53081]

By chance- how old is the tank? From the results, seems like many levels are undetectable because tank is too new or water too clean.

 

[silvernblackr35]

Looks similar to my results, I had very low iodine as well. Most my sps were looking pretty crappy, bad colors and some spotty stn especially montiporas.. I followed their advice of dosing using seachem iodide and within a month everything was completely turned around. My gorgonians have their polyps out most of the time now as well. Weird because I never really thought iodine was something to even worry about.

 

[waxhawreefer]

Aluminum is high, marine pure blocks??, and silicates, maybe an DI change, I dose iodine and mine are still low, but they always suggest a few mls, for a couple days, that’s it, ur other levels seem fine!

 

[Mattrg02]

By chance- how old is the tank? From the results, seems like many levels are undetectable because tank is too new or water too clean.

The glass is a few months old, the rest is several years old.

I don’t understand what you mean by levels undetectable due to age?

Looks similar to my results, I had very low iodine as well. Most my sps were looking pretty crappy, bad colors and some spotty stn especially montiporas.. I followed their advice of dosing using seachem iodide and within a month everything was completely turned around. My gorgonians have their polyps out most of the time now as well. Weird because I never really thought iodine was something to even worry about.

Guess it’s time to order some iodine!

Aluminum is high, marine pure blocks??, and silicates, maybe an DI change, I dose iodine and mine are still low, but they always suggest a few mls, for a couple days, that’s it, ur other levels seem fine!

My RODI water tests show zero detectable chemicals. I’ve got some poly filter in the sump, hoping to knock down the aluminum. Don’t know where aluminum could come from?

 

[zack801]

You could try running without carbon for a month or so. I very rarely use it unless things seem off. Last time I used a bunch after using flatworm exit and holy hell was that a bad idea. I used the BRS rox carbon so it’s pretty aggressive. One thing you might want to check is your salinity. I recalibrated my refractometer just recently after discovering I was mixing salt to around 1.023 when I was expecting 1.025

 

[Mattrg02]

You could try running without carbon for a month or so. I very rarely use it unless things seem off. Last time I used a bunch after using flatworm exit and holy hell was that a bad idea. I used the BRS rox carbon so it’s pretty aggressive. One thing you might want to check is your salinity. I recalibrated my refractometer just recently after discovering I was mixing salt to around 1.023 when I was expecting 1.025

I use a Milwaukee digital refractometer and saw the salinity, from the ICP test, matches what my refractometer suggests.

 

[zack801]

How’s your flow in the tank?

 

[Mattrg02]

How’s your flow in the tank?

I’ve got two mp10s running 100% reef crest mode, anti sync, one on either side of the 34g display. I have a sicce 2.0 return pump, full blast from the sump. Very little detritus settles on the bottom.

 

[rkpetersen]

My mnemonic for starting to think about unexplained livestock deaths is: We Love Corals Despite Problems.

Water quality - Your testing doesn't show any serious issues. I agree that going without carbon for awhile might be worth a try, especially if you don't use any trace element supplements, which it can deplete. Iodine is a tough one, some swear that it's critical, others never supplement and get great results; for your system size, a drop of Lugol's in the overflow once a week might be enough (it's possible to overdose iodine.)

Lighting - Sounds like your lights might be providing less than what your corals want. Maybe. The lowest part of a coral (where you're seeing stn) gets the least light.

Current - This was going to be my first comment but zack801 beat me to it. That's reasonable flow for this size tank. Is any of the flow hitting your acroporas directly? Some acros really love to be blasted. For those with polyp extension, are the polyps constantly in motion?

Disease - Not as much of an issue for corals as for fish.

Predation - Any sign of flatworms or red bugs?

 

[BoomCorals]

My mnemonic for starting to think about unexplained livestock deaths is: We Love Corals Despite Problems.

Water quality - Your testing doesn't show any serious issues. I agree that going without carbon for awhile might be worth a try, especially if you don't use any trace element supplements, which it can deplete. Iodine is a tough one, some swear that it's critical, others never supplement and get great results; for your system size, a drop of Lugol's in the overflow once a week might be enough (it's possible to overdose iodine.)

Lighting - Sounds like your lights might be providing less than what your corals want. Maybe. The lowest part of a coral (where you're seeing stn) gets the least light.

Current - This was going to be my first comment but zack801 beat me to it. That's reasonable flow for this size tank. Is any of the flow hitting your acroporas directly? Some acros really love to be blasted. For those with polyp extension, are the polyps constantly in motion?

Disease - Not as much of an issue for corals as for fish.

Predation - Any sign of flatworms or red bugs?

Hah that’s clever.

 

[rkpetersen]

Hah that’s clever.

Thanks. I used to keep hundreds of these in my head; they're a basic survival tool for med students and residents.

 

[Mattrg02]

My mnemonic for starting to think about unexplained livestock deaths is: We Love Corals Despite Problems.

Water quality - Your testing doesn't show any serious issues. I agree that going without carbon for awhile might be worth a try, especially if you don't use any trace element supplements, which it can deplete. Iodine is a tough one, some swear that it's critical, others never supplement and get great results; for your system size, a drop of Lugol's in the overflow once a week might be enough (it's possible to overdose iodine.)

Lighting - Sounds like your lights might be providing less than what your corals want. Maybe. The lowest part of a coral (where you're seeing stn) gets the least light.

Current - This was going to be my first comment but zack801 beat me to it. That's reasonable flow for this size tank. Is any of the flow hitting your acroporas directly? Some acros really love to be blasted. For those with polyp extension, are the polyps constantly in motion?

Disease - Not as much of an issue for corals as for fish.

Predation - Any sign of flatworms or red bugs?

My mnemonic for starting to think about unexplained livestock deaths is: We Love Corals Despite Problems.

Water quality - Your testing doesn't show any serious issues. I agree that going without carbon for awhile might be worth a try, especially if you don't use any trace element supplements, which it can deplete. Iodine is a tough one, some swear that it's critical, others never supplement and get great results; for your system size, a drop of Lugol's in the overflow once a week might be enough (it's possible to overdose iodine.)

Lighting - Sounds like your lights might be providing less than what your corals want. Maybe. The lowest part of a coral (where you're seeing stn) gets the least light.

Current - This was going to be my first comment but zack801 beat me to it. That's reasonable flow for this size tank. Is any of the flow hitting your acroporas directly? Some acros really love to be blasted. For those with polyp extension, are the polyps constantly in motion?

Disease - Not as much of an issue for corals as for fish.

Predation - Any sign of flatworms or red bugs?

Don’t see any signs of pests. Frags are very small, less than an inch, so very easy to inspect.

I’ll lay off the carbon and poly filtering since that could be stripping my water. I’ll also give some lugols a try, just for the sake of it. What are the signs of too much iodine?

The corals are definitely getting blasted by the mp10s. When there was PE, they were getting whipped around pretty badly.

I’m hesitant to turn up the lights since some frags look bleached. Wouldn’t they brown out if they weren’t getting enough light?

 

[rkpetersen]

What are the signs of too much iodine?

The corals are definitely getting blasted by the mp10s. When there was PE, they were getting whipped around pretty badly.

I’m hesitant to turn up the lights since some frags look bleached. Wouldn’t they brown out if they weren’t getting enough light?

The one time I overdosed iodine (discovered what had happened on ICP results I got back 2 weeks later), many of my SPS retracted their polyps, and light-sensitive corals like yuma mushrooms suddenly became even more so and some just melted away. If you dose according to the instructions of many iodine products, it's easy to get into overdose range. I'd recommend using no more than half the recommended dose of any product.

Are your frags bleaching, or experiencing stn? Can be hard to tell the difference. Bleaching is potentially reversible, stn isn't.

 

[Mattrg02]

The one time I overdosed iodine (discovered what had happened on ICP results I got back 2 weeks later), many of my SPS retracted their polyps, and light-sensitive corals like yuma mushrooms suddenly became even more so and some just melted away. If you dose according to the instructions of many iodine products, it's easy to get into overdose range. I'd recommend using no more than half the recommended dose of any product.

Are your frags bleaching, or experiencing stn? Can be hard to tell the difference. Bleaching is potentially reversible, stn isn't.

The two milleporas are bleached, just a slight green shimmer left, and have stn at the base. A fox flame stn from the tips and then down before succumbing. The other acros are just not growing. A pc rainbow is dark red/brown with some green in the base. A maleficent went from red to peach and is now very bland with slight hints of peach left. The zoas, on the bottom, are all happy looking.

 

[rkpetersen]

My zoas and acros are rarely totally happy at the same time.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

Those are some pretty stellar water parameters. If pests are eliminated off the list then maybe start look at things not related to water. Looks like you already looked at lighting and flow. You did say you turned down the flow because it was traumatically affecting the corals. Perhaps look at those two things again.

Could there be stray current in the tank?

Did you get all of your frags from the same source?

Also which zoas do you have? How fast are they growing?

Do you have a ton of large soft corals? Might be an issue of some kind of chemical warfare.