Scott.h
Valuable Member
I'm obviously missing something.
Long story short I got rid of a wet dry trickle filter because I had nitrates around 20 ppm, phosphate .25 ppm. My only apparent "problems". Built a refugium. A month later API test show zero, but salifert shows much higher still. 40? Salifert Color charts suck. So 2 weeks ago I started vodka dosing. Which I'm assuming could be a problem, but I'm going slower than recommended. Total water volume approximated at 85 gallons. I've worked my way up to 8/10 of a ML splitting that into two doses per day. My water looks clearer but my nitrates haven't budged a bit. and now I'm seeing what appears to be coral bleaching. I still have the original coral issue, a pagoda cup coral that isn't dead but won't open. Hence the start of everything I've learned and done. I have some corals doing better then before, but now some less then stellar.
All that aside I've put an RO water system in now, added a grounding probe, I'm testing parimeters daily, every level in my tank has been perfect for 2 months from what I see with two tests kits aside from possibly elevated nitrates. But still having issues. I'm at a loss.
This bleaching I'm convinced Has to be attached to one of three things. The vodka, stripping more nutrients out of my tank than what it was used to because of the refugium and the vodka, or possibly muriatic acid dosing to drop my Kh to a more desirable level of 9. I'm Talking a few cc's a week in my water change container two days prior to my regular weekly water change.
The polyps on the rocks are very thin and white. They used to be green.
Any thoughts?
Long story short I got rid of a wet dry trickle filter because I had nitrates around 20 ppm, phosphate .25 ppm. My only apparent "problems". Built a refugium. A month later API test show zero, but salifert shows much higher still. 40? Salifert Color charts suck. So 2 weeks ago I started vodka dosing. Which I'm assuming could be a problem, but I'm going slower than recommended. Total water volume approximated at 85 gallons. I've worked my way up to 8/10 of a ML splitting that into two doses per day. My water looks clearer but my nitrates haven't budged a bit. and now I'm seeing what appears to be coral bleaching. I still have the original coral issue, a pagoda cup coral that isn't dead but won't open. Hence the start of everything I've learned and done. I have some corals doing better then before, but now some less then stellar.
All that aside I've put an RO water system in now, added a grounding probe, I'm testing parimeters daily, every level in my tank has been perfect for 2 months from what I see with two tests kits aside from possibly elevated nitrates. But still having issues. I'm at a loss.
This bleaching I'm convinced Has to be attached to one of three things. The vodka, stripping more nutrients out of my tank than what it was used to because of the refugium and the vodka, or possibly muriatic acid dosing to drop my Kh to a more desirable level of 9. I'm Talking a few cc's a week in my water change container two days prior to my regular weekly water change.
The polyps on the rocks are very thin and white. They used to be green.
Any thoughts?
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