Help, struggling with parameters.

[mvan14]

Ok so I’m struggling with my tank. Recently my parameters have gone out of control. I added a fair amount of corals on Tuesday 10/18 and they’re struggling. SPS is bleached, LPS appear to possibly have BJD(I have Lugol’s on the way) torch has yet to fully extend.

tank info
25 gallon
Temp 78f
Salinity 34.5
Alk 7.7
Cal 690
Mag 2220
pH 7.8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0



filtration:
Filter sock
Filter floss
Carbon

using instant ocean reef crystals

I tested just a little bit ago ,I’m going to test again in the morning and am planning on doing a 5 gallon water change and testing again. I do have some green hair algae. My livestock is very low, one clown fish, 5 hermit crabs, one snail. I had to remove a damsel as he was going to kill my clown fish and I lost a wrasse. I don’t dose anything and I feed very little.

not really sure what to do. Thinking about restarting…

 

[fishski13]

What test kits are you using?

Alkalinity is low but reasonably low, but calcium and magnesium are through the roof too high. Calcium should be around 450ish and mag around 1300ish. The readings you are getting are either wrong due to bad test kit or something is majorly wrong. I dont think there is any salt mix out there that produces such readings. Are you dosing at all?

Also what is your phosphate? My guess would be slightly high as nitrate is 0 and you have hair algae. You should work to get at least a few ppm nitrates in your system so corals have something to take and use to grow.

 

[Reef.]

Your alk seems low for that salt and your calcium and magnesium high, either a testing error or your salinity if not correct.

 

[Spare time]

Yeah something is not right here. As another states, if you could list the test kits that would be great. That magnesium has to be wrong unless you dumped something like a few gallons of a magnesium additive into the tank. The calcium also being high is making me think again its either an issue in your testing or you are adding waaaaay to much of something. Same with the alk, which is low for that salt mix (which would tell us its either your salinity measurement is correct when mixing and the tests for calcium and magnesium are wrong (assuming you just didn't simply add way more salt that instructed), or your salinity measurement is wrong and the alk test is also wrong).

 

[mvan14]

What test kits are you using?

Alkalinity is low but reasonably low, but calcium and magnesium are through the roof too high. Calcium should be around 450ish and mag around 1300ish. The readings you are getting are either wrong due to bad test kit or something is majorly wrong. I dont think there is any salt mix out there that produces such readings. Are you dosing at all?

Also what is your phosphate? My guess would be slightly high as nitrate is 0 and you have hair algae. You should work to get at least a few ppm nitrates in your system so corals have something to take and use to grow.

Alk, mag, cal is salifert. API for the rest, going to update that to Hanna soon. Yeah im thinking testing wrong probably. I’ll try again tomorrow to compare then do a water change and test again after. Im not dosing at all. However, I am feeding Red Sea AB+.

phosphate I don’t know, I just ordered a test for that. I agree nitrates being so low makes me nervous.

 

[mvan14]

Your alk seems low for that salt and your calcium and magnesium high, either a testing error or your salinity if not correct.

I agree I think testing error. I’ve never seen my mag even close to that before. I’m going to test again in the morning and compare.

 

[mvan14]

Yeah something is not right here. As another states, if you could list the test kits that would be great. That magnesium has to be wrong unless you dumped something like a few gallons of a magnesium additive into the tank. The calcium also being high is making me think again its either an issue in your testing or you are adding waaaaay to much of something. Same with the alk, which is low for that salt mix (which would tell us its either your salinity measurement is correct when mixing and the tests for calcium and magnesium are wrong (assuming you just didn't simply add way more salt that instructed), or your salinity measurement is wrong and the alk test is also wrong).

I’m thinking testing error. Last week my salinity dropped significantly somehow to 28 so I did a relatively large water change to raise it. I’m starting to blame that as a rookie mistake.

Alk, calc, mag are salifert. The rest are API.
I don’t dose anything.

 

[olonmv]

Sounds like a testing error but for future reference though. To bring salinity back up you can just add a slightly higher salinity of makeup water to your tank until the salinity desired is reached.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I would take a breather and do this for starters. . . .
Take a good size water sample to a trusted LFS that does not use Api kits and see what readings they come up with and to compare with yours.
With the numbers you are seeing and from looks of your tank- there is something off as tank does not look terrible other than presence of some algae which may indicate your tank is at or near a window.
A 5% water chance will have little to no impact however a 25% or more will.

 

[Reef.]

I’m thinking testing error. Last week my salinity dropped significantly somehow to 28 so I did a relatively large water change to raise it. I’m starting to blame that as a rookie mistake.

Alk, calc, mag are salifert. The rest are API.
I don’t dose anything.

Unless your ato dumped a large amount of rodi water into the tank, I can’t see a reason for a massive drop in salinity from 34.5 to 28.

What do you use to test salinity, sounds to me your salinity test is or was wrong.

 

[mvan14]

I would take a breather and do this for starters. . . .
Take a good size water sample to a trusted LFS that does not use Api kits and see what readings they come up with and to compare with yours.
With the numbers you are seeing and from looks of your tank- there is something off as tank does not look terrible other than presence of some algae which may indicate your tank is at or near a window.
A 5% water chance will have little to no impact however a 25% or more will.

I didn’t think of taking a sample of my water to a LFS, That’s a great idea. Good point on the water change %. I’ll be doing a 20% change tomorrow. I tested again just a bit ago and got the same results.
Below are test results from a couple weeks agoNumbers are all over the place, driving me insane.

10/8
Salinity-30(here’s where I saw the dip)
Ph-8.0
Ammonia-0
Nitrate-0
Nitrite-0
Mag-1560
Alk-8.9
Calc-540

10/16
Salinity-35(post 50% water change)
Ph-7.8
Ammonia-0
Nitrate-0
Nitrite-0
Mag-2k
Alk-11.2
Calc-670

10/22
salinity-35
Ph-8.0
Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-0
Mag-2190
Alk-7.7
Calc-600

i promise I’m following the directions lol

 

[vetteguy53081]

I didn’t think of taking a sample of my water to a LFS, That’s a great idea. Good point on the water change %. I’ll be doing a 20% change tomorrow. I tested again just a bit ago and got the same results.
Below are test results from a couple weeks agoNumbers are all over the place, driving me insane.

10/8
Salinity-30(here’s where I saw the dip)
Ph-8.0
Ammonia-0
Nitrate-0
Nitrite-0
Mag-1560
Alk-8.9
Calc-540

10/16
Salinity-35(post 50% water change)
Ph-7.8
Ammonia-0
Nitrate-0
Nitrite-0
Mag-2k
Alk-11.2
Calc-670

10/22
salinity-35
Ph-8.0
Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-0
Mag-2190
Alk-7.7
Calc-600

i promise I’m following the directions lol

Get that second opinion then you'll know

 

[mvan14]

Unless your ato dumped a large amount of rodi water into the tank, I can’t see a reason for a massive drop in salinity from 34.5 to 28.

What do you use to test salinity, sounds to me your salinity test is or was wrong.

I’m only adding rodi as it evaporates, which had been quite a lot lately. I use one I found on Amazon. Going to order a better one.

 

[mvan14]

water update below with some history. It’s all over the place. Might pull my hair out soon.


10/8
Salinity-30(here’s where I saw the dip)
Ph-8.0
Ammonia-0
Nitrate-0
Nitrite-0
Mag-1560
Alk-8.9
Calc-540

10/16
Salinity-35(post 50% water change)
Ph-7.8
Ammonia-0
Nitrate-0
Nitrite-0
Mag-2k
Alk-11.2
Calc-670

10/22
salinity-35
Ph-8.0
Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-0
Mag-2190
Alk-7.7
Calc-600

i promise I’m following the directions lol

 

[xCry0x]

0 nitrate and probably 0 phosphate is a recipe for disaster.

You need nutrients in the water for all coral.

The difference between just going from 0 -> 2 nitrate is a night and day difference in how happy everything in my tank is.

You should have algae growing. You should also either have snails or herbivores eating the algae.

You will see some successful tanks with really low nutrients - but they usually still feed heavily and simply also export heavily.

Under feeding + low nutrients = starved tank.

Ya the mag is high, but your issues are more than likely:

Lighting
Flow
Nutrients

 

[Charlie the Reefer]

I would calibrate your refractometer too. In my (limited) experience they can give false readings just a few days after calibration!

 

[mvan14]

0 nitrate and probably 0 phosphate is a recipe for disaster.

You need nutrients in the water for all coral.

The difference between just going from 0 -> 2 nitrate is a night and day difference in how happy everything in my tank is.

You should have algae growing. You should also either have snails or herbivores eating the algae.

You will see some successful tanks with really low nutrients - but they usually still feed heavily and simply also export heavily.

Under feeding + low nutrients = starved tank.

Ya the mag is high, but your issues are more than likely:

Lighting
Flow
Nutrients

Agreed, I’m going to have to get a better cuc for my algae while also cleaning it by hand. And work on nutrients. I currently don’t have a power head so that’ll be next on my never ending list of things to buy. As for lighting I’m starting to wonder if I need to tinker with that more I currently have an AI Prime 16HD on a 12 inch arm. Running the Saxby preset, toned down a little.

 

[terraincognita]

I would calibrate your refractometer too. In my (limited) experience they can give false readings just a few days after calibration!

THIS.

Have you been calibrating this? Do you have calibration fluid? Are you using a Hydrometer or a Refractometer.

Your MG and CAL #'s are so freaking crazy, this honestly seems like the most basic and possible answer.

If it's that $35 one from Amazon, those can go off from being dropped "roughly" on a desk from 6 inches or so, if you "casually" tossed it in a bucket, or into the cabinet or anywhere I gurantee it's off calibrated. People don't realize how cheap those $35 ones are.

 

[terraincognita]

THIS.

Have you been calibrating this? Do you have calibration fluid? Are you using a Hydrometer or a Refractometer.

Your MG and CAL #'s are so freaking crazy, this honestly seems like the most basic and possible answer.

If it's that $35 one from Amazon, those can go off from being dropped "roughly" on a desk from 6 inches or so, if you "casually" tossed it in a bucket, or into the cabinet or anywhere I gurantee it's off calibrated. People don't realize how cheap those $35 ones are.

Okay the other also possible thing is if you're not "mixing up" your salt in the bucket dry before mixing it wet you can be letting heavier elements settle or something like that, you're supposed to "roll" the bucket for like 2 minutes, and mix it up when you first get it before you use it. You never know how long it's been sitting tbh.

 

[ScubaShane]

I haven't read the other posts I'm just posing my recommendation so it might have already been said. Do a 1/3 water change. Wait 20-30 minutes then test Cal and Alk. Get Cal to 420-450 and Alk to 8-9dkh. Don't worry about other parameters. Those were fixed or close enough with the water change. Get the PH right by fixing you Cal and Alk.