Help! 20 gal lps reef in trouble!

[Purplelobst92]

Hey guys, was wondering if anybody could offer some insight on my current dilemma, im pretty new to the forum, not so much to the hobby. Anyways I woke up this morning to find my reef tank looking to be in bad shape, yesterday everything was fine and expanded and happily growing, this morning my chalice corals have all of their mouths open and they seem to be emitting slime, but they aren't expelling zooxanthellae my small elegance coral is also all shriveled and looks ticked... well I thought that was bad but had to go to work, upon returning my Miami chalice has a white circle of missing flesh, same with my green trachyphyllia, as well as a few of my other chalice corals, im not sure what is happening as I religiously test my water, check temp, sal and do weekly water changes with RODI water, my parameters are as follows

Morning test: (only had time to do a few)
KH- 10.2 Dkh
Calcium- 320 (low I know)

Mid Day test :
Ph- 8.2
Calcium- 290
Phosphate- .2ppm
Kh- 10.5 Dkh
Salinity- 1.026
temp- 78

Evening test:
Ph- 8.3
Calcium - 375 (doser dosed)
Kh- 10 Dkh
Phosphate - .2
Ammonia - 0
Nitrate - 0
Salinity- 1.027
temp- 76.8

Inhabitants are as follow- Porcelain crab (maybe his legs are poking holes in my coral), fire shrimp, A few snails, serpent star, 2 small clowns, banggai cardinal, orchid dottyback, tailspot blenny

corals - orange zoanthids, 2 head of hammer, small torch head, 4 chalice, small acro, 2 cyphastrea, 4 ricordea florida, 2 bounce shrooms, kryptonite shroom, large elegance, 2 trachyphyllia, bunch of pulsing xenia.

Could the Low calcium be whats stressing them out? some bubble caulerpa grew near my Miami chalice could it have attacked it and caused loss of flesh in one spot? is my temp swings causing this? or perhaps is it salinity swings ? im stressing as I don't want to lose my chalice corals I love them, same with my trachyphyllia this is just a nightmare as I recall doing everything in my usual maintenance schedule, my tank has been thriving and all corals were growing and looking great... until this fiasco! ​

 

[Purplelobst92]

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[vetteguy53081]

Calcium a little low, dkh a little high as well as salinity a little high.
Temp is a little low- try to maintain 78 deg and do a slight water change. If possible, take a water sample to your LFS and see what readings they get for comparison

 

[Purplelobst92]

Calcium a little low, dkh a little high as well as salinity a little high.
Temp is a little low- try to maintain 78 deg and do a slight water change. If possible, take a water sample to your LFS and see what readings they get for comparison

Thanks for the reply, I did a 25% water change last night, this morning when I awoke I found my acro is bleaching and my cyphastrea colony is too, my chalice seem to be re inflated and looking slightly better as is my trachyphyllia, my small elegance coral is still deflated and looking to be in bad shape meanwhile the larger one is expanded but not 100%, im taking your advice and going in to my local lfs to see if they get different results than me.

 

[Flippers4pups]

While your pramameters look okay, having no N03 isn't good. Not related to the main problems your having.

Was the slime expelled "brown"?

 

[Purplelobst92]

While your pramameters look okay, having no N03 isn't good. Not related to the main problems your having.

Was the slime expelled "brown"?

So I figured it out... I went into my LFS and got my water tested.... annnnd it appears that my ice cap salinity probe is completely un calibrated... my salinity was 1.033!!!! ;Blackeye;Oldman … and my salifert test kits were expired!!! the LFS readings were
calcium over 500
Dkh 11....
now im doing small water changes and im completely stopping dosing until the parameters level out back to normal, in the meantime well see how much damage is done.... ;Nailbiting I cant even believe amazon sold me expired test kits, my readings were completely different than the Lfs, A big lesson has been learned today on my part and unfortunately my little buddies had to suffer because of this, if you own an ice cap salinity probe, calibrate it on a weekly basis sheesh!!! thanks for the advice guys hopefully my tank bounces back soon and ill have a nice pic to show.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I knew it. That was why I suggested 2nd opinion. Now you know what to do next. Always have a refractometer as a back up as I Never trust controller probes. Theyre good when they work properly

 

[neil bharath]

Wooow thats pretty high

 

[Purplelobst92]

Wooow thats pretty high

Yeah, I almost lost everything, right when I found out my salinity probe was un calibrated I had a batch of saltwater that just mixed to be used as change water, my probe said 1.025, after calibration the actual salinity was 1.048 so I literally almost nuked my tank in my haste to do water changes... Thank the gods!!! my corals are bouncing back well though, I lost most of my acro colony that was growing like a weed, as well as my meteor shower cyphastrea colony that was huge, and 2 torch heads one of which was a gold aussie which cost me about 300 bucks total but still not as bad as losing my prized chalice specimens and my other trachys, all my other mushrooms and lps are looking normal again. came to find out my jebao doser was dosing too much as well... jebaos all will dose 2ml instead of 1ml when calibrated at 100ml.... so in order to combat this I re calibrated my doser but at 50 ml instead of 100ml that way it doses half of what it normally would which is 1ml instead of 2ml... just goes to show you always must do diagnostic checks on your equipment... this is my first go at automation as im very busy, I used to just dose by hand which did me well for a long time, Technology must be relied on but with a grain of salt.