Help!!!!

[J Rog]

Hi everyone,

Over the past 2 weeks I have had some major issues.. I have a lost about 4 Duncan heads, 2 sps colonies, and my torch looks worse by the day.. I can't figure out what's going on.. If any one can give me advice as to what it can be I would really appreciate it. I have a 120 gallon tank with a "My Reef Creations" sump (I think it's around 40 gallons). My filtration consists of 2 filter socks, ATB 840 skimmer, BRS dual reactor with Carbon and GFO ( changed out every 2-3 weeks), and a refugium with live rock and Cheto. My lighting is a coralife unit with 2 x 250 watt MH with XM 20K bulbs. Also, I have 2 reef brite LED strips. On top of dosing ALK, CA, and Mag I also have been dosing Brightwells Potassium (2 cap fulls a night), Lugol's (1 drop 3 times a week), and Brightwells coral amino a couple times a week (40 drops)

Lighting period

MH's- 2:30pm- 9pm
LED's- 2pm- 11:30pm


PH- 7.9- 8.1

ALK- 10 DKH

CA- 400 ppm

Mag- 1300

Phosphates- .08

Nitrite- undetectable

Ammonia- undetectable

All test kits are salifert expect my phosphate test kit which is Hanna. I do 20 gallon water changes every weekend.. This tank is about a year old and a lot of the corals were in my previous tank before the upgrade. If any one has any idea please give feed back. Thanks

 

[redemer123]

How old is your tank?

 

[J Rog]

Sorry, forgot to put

Salinity- 1.026

Temp- 79-80 degrees

 

[J Rog]

Tank is about 1 year old

 

[_Alex_]

says a year in op. how often are you cleaning filter socks and with what??

 

[J Rog]

Filter socks get changed out 1-2 times a week. Depends hoe bad they look. I tops them in the washer on the rinse cycle with a little bleach. After the the first rinse cycle with a little bleach I then put it through 3 more times on the rinse cycle without anything.. Only hot water

 

[_Alex_]

what are nitrates at?? any fall cleaning? house pest prevention?

only thing i see is some phosphates but i dont see aht being high enoug hto cause problems but i could be wrong... how are you losing the coral? are they just dead over night? bleaching out? rtn stn? melting?

 

[J Rog]

I can't seem to find my nitrates kit.. I will need to get that tested ASAP.. But no fall cleaning type stuff. I don't spry anything in the house and no chemicals in the tank area.. As far as the sps, it has been a bleached out over night thing.. My Duncan heads seemed to die at a slow pace..

 

[m and m]

Two things that jump out a me 40 drops of AA and two caps of potassium. Could you be over dosing either of these? I dont know out potassium do you test for it? Also on my old 120 ful zeo I think I was dosing 12 drops all week long. Just both those seem high to me.

 

[J Rog]

Well, for the potassium the directions say one cap full for every 50 gallons. And the Amino Omega I believe it says 20 drops per 50 gallons. Ever since I noticed the down fall of some corals I haven't dosed either of these or the iodine.. Things still seem to be getting worse.. : (

 

[J Rog]

Oh, I as far as test kits for potassium and iodine. People have been telling me there is no point because they are very inaccurate.. Is this true??

 

[m and m]

I just looked my AA come out to 22 drops a week. (I have a 120) IDK I would double check both of them.

 

[J Rog]

Wow, you maybe onto something. Are you using brightwell coral amino? Also, do you break that up into a couple drops per day or do you do 22 drops one day a week?

 

[m and m]

I use elos, It might be more concentrated. I just cant imagine any product so diluted that you would need 40 a day. I use to dose when I was hardcore Zeo I think 7 drops 3 times a week.

 

[m and m]

I personally would stop dosing (its not like your coral are living off that pota and AA) and do a 20 percent water change and make sure the water you are adding is exactly the same temp and salinity. Im sure skimming a littler wetter wont hurt either for a bit.

 

[J Rog]

True, today is a water change day. I will do around 25 gallons. I have stopped dosing since this whole thing started. I won't dose anything for a while except the essentials. Thanks for your advice m and m

 

[J Rog]

Just as an update I changed out my Carbon and GFO last night. The GFO smelled really bad.. Now I don't know if it always smelled that bad and i never really noticed or im just being more conscious. I also noticed that my GFO was not tumbling properly.. Looked like half of the GFO floated to the top of the reactor and half stayed on the bootom.. Is it possible that since the GFO was not tumbling right, it released any stuff it absorbed?

 

[swannyson7]

GFO shouldn't release any PO4 back into the tank when it's exhausted, so I doubt that caused your problem. I'm not sure about the dosing on Brightwells AminoOmega because I've never used it (I use Brightwells CoralAmino and dose about 45 drops total each week on a roughly 240g system), but I agree that your dosage sounds a bit high. I doubt that this would cause RTN overnight if your other parameters are in line, but it would cause excess nutrients in the tank over time.

As for the corals that RTNd, here's a few questions to answer to help narrow down other potential causes:
- How long had you been dosing the AA prior to losing the colonies?
- How long did you have the colonies? Were they purchased as colonies or were they grown from frags?
- Is it possible that the corals were stung by anything? Is there any LPS within a few inches that has long stinging tentacles (euphyllia, acan echinatas, galaxea, and some chalices are known to have tentacles that can reach a few inches) or were the colonies close to eachother where they might have touched and stung one another?
- Did you have a swing in alk, pH, salinity, or temp?
- Did you have any rapid changes to your flow (added, moved, or removed a powerhead)?
- Any changes to lighting (new bulbs, new fixture, raised/lowered fixture, added a form of supplementation)?
- Any new additions to the tank (fish, corals, other inverts, rock)?
- Have you checked for stray current or do you have a grounding probe? (unlikely to cause RTN on 2 colonies without everything looking ticked off, but a possibility)

 

[swannyson7]

Also, I wouldn't worry about dosing AAs in your tank seeing as you aren't using a Probiotic dosing regimen. AAs are generally used for an alternative food source in an ULNS, but IMO they're just sold as 'snake oil' to improve coloration for people who aren't implementing one of these system. Although it may show a short term improvement in color/growth, the AA dosing is likely to create an excess of organics (especially at that dosage) in your tank that your filtration won't be able to keep up with. The Potassium will help with your blue & purple coloration, but once again your dosing seems a bit excessive. I always cut the directions on the back of any additive down to about 1/3 and add more if needed after monitoring the results for a minimum of a few weeks. The only time that this rule doesn't apply is when I have an accurate test kit to ensure that I'm maintaining values within the desired range.

 

[J Rog]

GFO shouldn't release any PO4 back into the tank when it's exhausted, so I doubt that caused your problem. I'm not sure about the dosing on Brightwells AminoOmega because I've never used it (I use Brightwells CoralAmino and dose about 45 drops total each week on a roughly 240g system), but I agree that your dosage sounds a bit high. I doubt that this would cause RTN overnight if your other parameters are in line, but it would cause excess nutrients in the tank over time.

As for the corals that RTNd, here's a few questions to answer to help narrow down other potential causes:
- How long had you been dosing the AA prior to losing the colonies?
- How long did you have the colonies? Were they purchased as colonies or were they grown from frags?
- Is it possible that the corals were stung by anything? Is there any LPS within a few inches that has long stinging tentacles (euphyllia, acan echinatas, galaxea, and some chalices are known to have tentacles that can reach a few inches) or were the colonies close to eachother where they might have touched and stung one another?
- Did you have a swing in alk, pH, salinity, or temp?
- Did you have any rapid changes to your flow (added, moved, or removed a powerhead)?
- Any changes to lighting (new bulbs, new fixture, raised/lowered fixture, added a form of supplementation)?
- Any new additions to the tank (fish, corals, other inverts, rock)?
- Have you checked for stray current or do you have a grounding probe? (unlikely to cause RTN on 2 colonies without everything looking ticked off, but a possibility)

I saw i put Amino Omega.. That was a mistake.. Thats just to soak fish food in. lol I use the Coral Amino..
- I have been dosing AA only for about 2 months or so and lost the colonies when and noticed my duncan heads dying about a week ago..
- Everything in my tank was purchased as frags.
- There is nothing near my sps besides other sps.
- As far as rapid changes in flow, I have 2 MP 40's. I did change the settings from Reef crest mode to long pulse.. But I don't remember if that was before I saw some signs of coral stress..
- Nothing new with lighting. Bulbs are about 2 months old.
- The only fish i added before all this is a Naso Tang. But he dosen't bother anything..
- Thats the one thing i feel has been looked over on my part.. The reason I have been thinking that could be it is because my skimmer pump crapped out on my the night before all this started. I think it was the night before.. But maybe the pump that broke put out some voltage if thats possible..