help with my acros!!

d_adler · Aug 19, 2015

so i recently moved my 7 month old 55gal tank and luckly enough it went what seemed to be flawlessly. it took about 5 hours from start to finish to have it up and running again but since then my acros have been stning at a slow rate. after the move ive been struggling to keep my parameters in check, especially my alk. jumping from 11 to 9 to 8 to back to 11. after about 2-3 weeks of this i was finally able to level it off between 8.3-8.6.
my current levels for the past 2 weeks have been...
alk 8.3-8.6
cal 350
mag 1350
point of sale 0 (but i have hair algae growing throughout so i know this is false and i have some nutrients)

fish:
a leopard wrasse
gold nugget
yellow corris wrasse
lawn mower blenny

coral:
20-30 various sps
about 10 lps
frogspawn
bubble tip anenome

is there anything i could really do to stop this stn? should i possibly bump up my alk to 9ish, drop it down in the 7s, or just leave it be?

ive tried fragging one or 2 and it only lead to instant death the following day. its disappointing because it seems your favorite frags are always the first to go in the downward spiral.

any help would be appreciated.

toothman · Aug 19, 2015

The alk swings were most likely the problem. Stability is the key

d_adler · Aug 19, 2015

toothman said:
The alk swings were most likely the problem. Stability is the key

thats what i figured. i forgot to mention that ive been doing a 8-10% red sea pro salt water change weekly that makes my alk swing about 1 dkh. is a smaller water change even worth doing in order to stop that swing?

Vpham · Aug 19, 2015

If ur po4 n no3 is in low range...with good test kits, u could get away with bi weekly wc with 5%...that would help abit with alk swing.
I do mine every 2 months at 10%...

rockskimmerflow · Aug 19, 2015

I would monitor PH both day and night. Test at different times. You may find it has dropped in the morning if you do not run a refugium or have adequate gas exchange during the non photosynthetic portions of your tanks daily cycle.

I have moved over 10 reef tanks and have found that on well established tanks, the moving process can disrupt the natural processing of waste material. The excess liberated detritus is metabolized at an increased rate and can consume oxygen at an undesirable speed when the tank lights are off. A large water change/sand siphoning coupled with higher aeration or the addition of a reverse daylight refugium can counteract this effect. Stability is key! Get your alk to a stable level and check your PH -you may find it's dipping below 7.8 at times. This can spell problems for acros- especially when there is extra waste capable of fueling algae.

The good news is that even if nothing is done this phenomenon usually disappears once the tank re-stabilizes over the course of a month or two. Though I wouldn't recommend waiting for the sake of your acropora. Best of Luck!

toothman · Aug 19, 2015

I have a majority sps tank that has pH drop to 7.8 - 7.9 during the night with lights out and refuge light on. During the day when lights are on it rises to anywhere from 8 - 8.2. This is normal and should not have a detrimental affect on your corals. Alk swings can and will cause major problems. Don't chase the pH. Stability is the most important factor. What are the nitrates at? Some nitrate is ok, 5 or lower and phosphate at .03 or 04 is fine. That is unless you are running ULNS

rockskimmerflow · Aug 19, 2015

I wouldn't recommend chasing stability in the PH, just make sure it's not dipping beneath 7.7-7.8 at night. PH swings are totally natural. It's the extremes that worry me. I have personally seen tanks bounce back once adequate gas exchange stability was restored. If he hasn't tested PH it wouldn't hurt to check. Too much Phos is of course notorious for stn and sps growth suppression as well.

ReeferJohn408 · Aug 20, 2015

I had the same issues with some of my sps before until I installed a Calcium / Alk reactor and left it alone. Meaning the more we adjust or dose things up, the more we doom our tank.

I don't even dose anything besides Iodine and weekly coral minimal feeding. Fish get fed heavily and provide natural food for my sps which they love. Just Avoid excess waste food that sits inside your tank and become Phosphate.

Water changes, what is that?

Skimmer / Carbon Maintenance pretty much handle everything in my 150G tank. PH does swing high/low every single day. Just keep your water aerated and try to open up windows once in a while in your house.

I don't even use any test kits anymore. I've been into this hobby for nearly 12 years now and have pretty much seen everything that could possibly go wrong in a reeftank. I just look at my corals and make small adjustments thereafter. SPS sometimes change coloration and regain it back after a period of time. It has to adopt to it's surrounding first. But if you keep adjusting things or moving or rearranging things inside the tank, the more SPS gets stressed. In my case, I let it adopt to where I glued it unless there's something near that would sting or kill it.

Every system is different but most SPS will adjust and tolerate small adjustments. Stability is the key.

Temp / Calcium / ALK ALK & ALK / Lights - Keep these stable to be successful.

- Now I am setting up a Zeovit SPS tank to up the challenge a bit. Zeovit tanks are amazing but can be complicated as well. We shall see how i goes..

d_adler · Aug 20, 2015

To be honest. I haven't checked my ph since the first month or 2 of tank set up :/ I'll test it at different intervals during the day and night to try and see how wide the swing is. I have noticed an excessive amount of detritus build up in a dead spot I have. I'm going to vacuum that out as soon as possible

I currently have a small refugium with chateo. Running a skimmer 24/7 and run carbon.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 20, 2015

FWIW, I wouldn't be convinced the alk swings were the primary cause since moving a tank causes all sorts of issues that can lead to problems.

That said, I'd bring up the calcium to 420 ppm or so, and keep the alk about where it is.

FWIW a 10% change from a 8 dKH tank with a 13 dKH salt will only boost alk by 0.5 dKH from 8 dKH to 8.5 dKH, not a full 1 dKH.

How are you supplementing calcium and alkalinity?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 20, 2015

ReeferJohn408 said:
I don't even dose anything besides Iodine and weekly coral minimal feeding. Fish get fed heavily and provide natural food for my sps which they love. Just Avoid excess waste food that sits inside your tank and become Phosphate.

FWIW, I'll bet you can also stop dosing the iodine and not notice a difference. I didn't see a difference after years of dosing it.

I presume you must dose calcium and alkalinity, however.

ReeferJohn408 · Aug 20, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
FWIW, I'll bet you can also stop dosing the iodine and not notice a difference. I didn't see a difference after years of dosing it.

I presume you must dose calcium and alkalinity, however.

True. But i've been doing it for 12 years positively and it wouldn't hurt to add a drop or two daily to maintain Iodine/Potassium level for my sps, but like you said it doesn't affect much especially on a large water volume.

d_adler · Aug 23, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
FWIW, I wouldn't be convinced the alk swings were the primary cause since moving a tank causes all sorts of issues that can lead to problems.

That said, I'd bring up the calcium to 420 ppm or so, and keep the alk about where it is.

FWIW a 10% change from a 8 dKH tank with a 13 dKH salt will only boost alk by 0.5 dKH from 8 dKH to 8.5 dKH, not a full 1 dKH.

How are you supplementing calcium and alkalinity?

i currently dose sodium carbohydrate and calcium chloride. currently dosing 40 ml of each a day dosing 12 times a day every other hour

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 23, 2015

d_adler said:
i currently dose sodium carbohydrate and calcium chloride. currently dosing 40 ml of each a day dosing 12 times a day every other hour

Then I'd stick with that, but also do some additional dosing of the calcium chloride for a couple of days to boost it to 420 ppm.

d_adler · Aug 23, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Then I'd stick with that, but also do some additional dosing of the calcium chloride for a couple of days to boost it to 420 ppm.

When I boost the calcium up 420ppm do I keep the dosing the same or bring it back down?

Every time I mess with my dosing I get more of a spike rather then stabilization.

I'm dosing 41 ml alk and 41 ml calcium daily.

From Tuesday 830pm to Saturday 830 pm my alk jumped from 146ppm to 157ppm.
While my my calcium is still around 350.

How would you proceed?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 23, 2015

d_adler said:
When I boost the calcium up 420ppm do I keep the dosing the same or bring it back down?

Every time I mess with my dosing I get more of a spike rather then stabilization.

I'm dosing 41 ml alk and 41 ml calcium daily.

From Tuesday 830pm to Saturday 830 pm my alk jumped from 146ppm to 157ppm.
While my my calcium is still around 350.

How would you proceed?