Help please!!!

[Bauyer9]

I'm having problems with my tank and I don't know why! 45 gallon JBJ reef tank. Always use RO/DI...

Running for 6 months. I did the usual cycle process, added some fish and coral, everything was doing really well and growing good. A week or two ago I started having major cyano and very minor green hair algae. I've done weekly water changes from day 1. I added an automatic feeder and I'm thinking the tank was getting over fed for a while. A week ago some of the corals started to look bad. Still have color but have shrunk and stayed that way. Zoas look fine, Duncan, birdsnest and one acan all look good. Frog spawn, hammer, not so much. Hammer especially is very shrunk. I've been doing weekly 20 gal water changes. What can I do? Will over feeding cause these issues? How can I bring everything back...help pleaseeee

 

[ludnix]

Overfeeding can definitely cause some issues, but you might need to look at other parameters for the corals as well. Can you test the Alkalinity of the water or the nitrate level?

 

[Kershaw]

A full list of peramiters would help. You can try cutting back on feeding. And keep doing your water changes. When my tank shows signs of algae starting to pop up I change my GFO, and carbon. Just to be safe.

 

[mohammad.sga]

Use strong phosphate remover like exportphos BW or etc

 

[mtraylor]

That is usually typical for a new aquarium and happens in established aquariums as well. You will need to post water parameters to help.

 

[johntdaballa]

Get a alga scrubber that works well or a Chaeto reactor

 

[Playa-1]

Post test results for everything that you're testing for. Using RO/DI is a good thing, however, Many people neglect the Carbon filters or have inadequate Carbon filters out of the gate. They miss the fact that the Carbon filtration is one of the most important aspects of the RO/DI and you can't tell the condition of the Carbon filters based on a TDS reading. If the Carbon is spent then the system maybe passing Ammonia into the tank. Just a heads up. Also people can't really give you much help without your test results. Overfeeding can cause all kinds of issues. In fact it's a very common problem. I think it's one of the biggest reasons that People have issues with Nitrates and Phosphates to begin with.

 

[Bauyer9]

Ok, so I FINALLY got my test kits in, and here's the results
Alk 7.8 DKH with Hannah
Calcium 650 with Nyos
Phosphate 0 with Hannah
Salinity refractometer 1.028 Apex says 35.8
Nitrite 0 with Red Sea
PH 8.3 Apex says 8.01
Nitrate 5 with Red Sea
Ammonia 0 withRed Sea

I tested a brand new batch of salt and got this
Alk 9.6
Calcium 450
Phosphate 0
Salinity 1.025
Magnesium, still not getting a reading

The only number I see that might be is an issue is the calcium at 650. So it's been 2 month since I first noticed problems. I still haven't done anything but weekly 5 gallon WC. Most of the corals have died, the few that haven't are barely hanging on. Fish are doing great, no issues at all with them. Where do I go from here???

 

[USMC 4 LIFE]

Your salinity and CA are too high, alk and phosphate are a little low. Drain 3 gallons from your DT and replace with RODI water only. This will help bring salinity down. Don't dose CA for a week and re-evaluate what your daily consumption of CA is. Increase your daily Alk dosage by 10%. Magnesium is replenished with weeklywater changes and pretty much irrelevant if you're consistent with that. Having it between 1250 and 1400 is ideal though.

Reef parameters should be Ingrained from day 1. Suggest you research that and keep appropriate test kits readily available if you plan on keeping a reef tank. Stability and consistency are key

 

[Bauyer9]

I don't currently and have never dosed anything in this tank. All those parameters are from water changes only. I purchased the kalkwasser starter kit from BRS, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea to start using that. It's my understanding that this will raise the Alk and he Calcium numbers. If this is accurate, what's my other options?

 

[USMC 4 LIFE]

Ok. Well I would first lower the salinity of your tank to 1.025. You can do this by draining a gallon of water from your tank and replacing that with a gallon of pure RODI water. Repeat this step until 1.025 is reached.

Then recheck your CA to see where it's at. You need it below 500. In the future you want to keep it between 420-460.

I just noticed your live rock. It looks really really new. How old is this tank.

 

[Bauyer9]

The tank is 8 months 10 days old. Unfortunately most of the corals in that picture are dead or barely hanging on now. They were doing great with decent growth for a few months. I didn't add corals until around the 5-6 month mark. Would a major water change be a good idea? The fresh water seems to be at the right parameters, so I'm not sure why my calcium is so high, considering I don't have many corals, and I don't dose anything at all.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

The tank is 8 months 10 days old. Unfortunately most of the corals in that picture are dead or barely hanging on now. They were doing great with decent growth for a few months. I didn't add corals until around the 5-6 month mark. Would a major water change be a good idea? The fresh water seems to be at the right parameters, so I'm not sure why my calcium is so high, considering I don't have many corals, and I don't dose anything at all.

reetest you phosphate. a true zero isnt good. are you running GFP or chem media?
Is that a recent picture?
What percentage are you running the light? (i own one as well.) and how long?

 

[Bauyer9]

-I've done 2 tests for phosphate, one with salifert, and one with Hannah Checker, both read 0.
-I am using ChemiPure Elite.
-That is not a recent picture, a lot of those corals are dead now or very shrunk for over a month.
-Lights have been 80% almost since the start...maxspect razor. I turned them to 70% yesterday. They are on full from 12 to 6 and ramping up and down before and after those times

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

-I've done 2 tests for phosphate, one with salifert, and one with Hannah Checker, both read 0.
-I am using ChemiPure Elite.
-That is not a recent picture, a lot of those corals are dead now or very shrunk for over a month.
-Lights have been 80% almost since the start...maxspect razor. I turned them to 70% yesterday. They are on full from 12 to 6 and ramping up and down before and after those times

got it.
IMO, too much light, too low a nutrient .

Ditch the chem media, its stripping the Po4.

the hammer and frogspawn like less light than other corals you have. Im assuming they are blessed or dis colored?

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Something is definitely wrong, but I can't put my finger on it. Your parameters are not that far off. Calcium of 650 is high, but I wouldn't expect it to cause such a rapid die-off event. Salinity of 1.028 is actually closer to 37ppt salinity. That's higher than the average of 35ppt, but there are some reefs out there that have salinity in that range. If you slowly reduce the salinity, that will lower your overall calcium by about 50ppm.

The light intensity sounds a bit high as LEDs are generally really powerful, but you say you haven't changed intensity since you started the tank. Are you sure about this? It's unlikely that the corals would have survived for 8 months with such high intensity light. Ditto with the Chemipure. Have you started using more or less recently?

A few additional "detail" things to check. First, double check your RO/DI output. After the DI resin, the TDS should be 0ppm. Make sure the membrane is functioning properly. Measure TDS from your tap, measure TDS after membrane but BEFORE DI resin. Divide the filtered water by the tap TDS. The number should be less than 0.07. If it's higher than 0.07, your membrane needs attention. If you don't have a TDS meter, get one. If you have one, make sure it's calibrated.

Second, make sure your refractometer is calibrated. It's possible your refractometer and Apex are off and your salinity is way outside the range of normal.

Third, make sure all your test kits are within their expiry date and that you're using test kits from a reputable manufacturer (preferably Salifert, Red Sea, etc). The results mean nothing if they're not accurate.

Personally, after making sure your RO/DI unit is functioning properly, I would do 25% water changes every few days until your calcium comes down a bit and your carbonate comes up a bit. That should also reduce any ammonia present from the die-off.

 

[Bauyer9]

The chemipure elite did go in around the time I noticed negative changes, before that there was chemipure blue. I get my RO/DI from a BRS 6 stage unit. It's the best unit they offer with the built in TDS meter. The unit is 3 maybe for 4 months old. As of now, it's reading 0 TDS leaving the last membrane. All my test kits should be accurate, you can see in the previous post that next to the test result I named what kit I used

 

[Bauyer9]

Not The hammer or the frogspawn are bleached at all, but they ARE shrunk and haven't opened. Like someone stated, I'm going to lower the lights a bit, take out the chemipure, and do a bigger water change. Is anyone against that? Not sure where else to start

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

No not at all.

One of the reasons I don't use gfo. When I had a po4 and cyano in my 30 g. I put a table spoon of gfo in my hob filter and my can't cane shrunk up the tha bone.
I thought I was crazy.
I pulled it left evrtying alone and it came back.
I did the gfo thing again and every time it sucked but to the bone.
It why I call it my undead coral. I've killed it like six times.

 

[Bauyer9]

So I lowered my lights from 80% to 65%. I removed the chemipure elite, and I did a 10 gallon water change. Salinity is at 34.5, I'll test the water parameters tonight.