Lost many SPS. Please help identify RTN, bacterial infection or something else?

[aaron23]

According to a post I read on another forum 2.6 teaspoons dosed in a 110 gals of water brings the dkh up by 1. With half the volume you'll be nearly at 2dkh. So I'm pretty sure that's what caused the rtn

 

[Armydogracing]

What are you wanting to keep your alk at? Imo if it was 10.2 before dosing I wouldnt have dosed unless you like high alk numbers. I keep mine at 8.5

 

[radicaltour]

I'd ask @Randy Holmes-Farley how much the 2 teaspoons of A&H in the 50gal tank would bring up your dkh when you dosed. I have no idea how much that equals

Thanks Aaron.
I'm pretty sure the dosage did not increased dkh by more than 1.0
I can say that because I've been testing alk every day and don't ever recall a jump of more than 1 dkh.
Please note I dosed 500ml out of a gallon mix. Hence, i did not dose the entire gallon into the tank.

 

[radicaltour]

What are you wanting to keep your alk at? Imo if it was 10.2 before dosing I wouldnt have dosed unless you like high alk numbers. I keep mine at 8.5

I wasn't chasing alk. I was chasing pH because mine would hover around 7.8 most of the time.
I dosed sodium bicarbonate in the past but that increased alk quickly. So this time around I thought I would dose sodium carbonate (washing soda) instead.

 

[aaron23]

Reading your previous post I changed the calculator to sodium carbonate and it reads a 3dkh spike

 

[Armydogracing]

Gotcha

Ive made the mistake of chasing ph before and my sps ended up doing the same thing.

Have you tried fresh air to your skimmer? That seemed to work for me well

 

[radicaltour]

Gotcha
Ive made the mistake of chasing ph before and my sps ended up doing the same thing.
Have you tried fresh air to your skimmer? That seemed to work for me well

I stopped using the skimmer but looks like i'll definitely be using it now.

 

[Brew12]

I wasn't chasing alk. I was chasing pH because mine would hover around 7.8 most of the time.
I dosed sodium bicarbonate in the past but that increased alk quickly. So this time around I thought I would dose sodium carbonate (washing soda) instead.

A pH of 7.8 is low, but I wouldn't think it is dangerously low. Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. Especially in a new tank. Mine started at 7.8 and has gradually been working its way up to 8.0 over 3 months.

 

[radicaltour]

Besides water changes, are there any other suggestions to slowly beat this issue?

I've seemingly did another dumb thing today. I dipped a few of the corals in 10ml bayer insect killer with just 1 cup of water.
Now 80% of their tissues seem to have fallen off. I'm not sure if this was due to the dipping or if it's due to the flesh peeling issue that's plaguing the tank?

 

[Brew12]

Besides water changes, are there any other suggestions to slowly beat this issue?

I've seemingly did another dumb thing today. I dipped a few of the corals in 10ml bayer insect killer with just 1 cup of water.
Now 80% of their tissues seem to have fallen off. I'm not sure if this was due to the dipping or if it's due to the flesh peeling issue that's plaguing the tank?

Others may disagree, but I think you need to stop doing so much. Your tank has gone through a large amount of change in the last week. At some point you need to let things stay stable and let it recover on its own. It may, it may not, but constantly changing stuff in an effort to improve things could be working against you at this point.
If it were my tank, I would stop doing water changes for at least a week or two. I would only dose the minimum I needed to in order to maintain calcium. I would let pH and alk slowly drop on its own. Right now I think you need stability more than any single change. Maybe adding carbon would be a good idea but otherwise I would really try to concentrate on stability instead of making changes trying to correct stuff.

 

[Armydogracing]

I would at least put the skimmer back online that may help

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

but I think you need to stop doing so much.

H.I.T.S.
Hand In Tank Syndrome.
Slow down.
young tank. little rock.
too much too fast.
Salt water mix will after time match natural seawater levels.
Thats just right for coral.

the fix is patience.
turn the skimmer on and get oxygen in and feed some real food. the tank will balance its self. we just maintain that balance.

 

[Rick.45cal]

@radicaltour take a step back and take a breather. It's ok, there is probably little that you can do, and the less you do at this point the better! Sometimes the hardest thing in this hobby is to do nothing, and sometimes that is the ONLY and best solution. What's done is done to the corals, some things can't be fixed.

Here's how I would attack the problem. Bring your skimmer back online (with an airline run to outside) even if you choose not to collect skimmate, you can still run the skimmer for aeration, the outside air will help stabilize your pH. After that I would stop worrying much about my pH values, and only worry about maintaining your alkalinity.

With as low as your nutrients are, your alkalinity at 10+ is probably too high. (I choose to keep mine below 8 dKH.) I would let the tanks inhabitants consume the alkalinity until it gets to a lower value, (If you are testing on a daily basis try to test at the same time everyday, then you can figure out about how much alkalinity your tank is consuming in a daily basis.). By the time your tank gets below 8 dKH you should have a pretty accurate idea of how much alkalinity needs to be replaced on a daily basis. (This can be figured using one of the online alkalinity calculators) That is what you are going to start dosing to maintain the tank at the alkalinity level you want it to be at. (That dose ideally should be dosed throughout the day) (Look up 2 part dosing, or ask if you need help).

STOP doing massive water changes!!!! Just do routine weekly 5-10% water changes at most with seawater that closely matches your tank water (especially in alkalinity). Everybody is right, it will be ok to skip a few water changes at this point, I would give it at least 2 weeks before starting a routine waterchange again.

The most important lesson to learn with this hobby is before you react to something, you need to sit down and weigh every option and possibility before acting! No matter what it is! Every action has consequences, there is almost nothing that we do in this hobby that can be "taken back". You and the tank will be ok, just keep asking questions and take things VERY slow from here on out!

 

[radicaltour]

Thank you everyone for your great advice.

Going forward (a month now), should I continue with the auto daily water change system that I have?
It simply pushes a gallon of water out and replenishes the tank with mixed salt water (coralife).
I find this not only convenient but it also helps to stabilize all the parameters without dosing 2-part or anything else.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[Rick.45cal]

Thank you everyone for your great advice.

Going forward (a month now), should I continue with the auto daily water change system that I have?
It simply pushes a gallon of water out and replenishes the tank with mixed salt water (coralife).
I find this not only convenient but it also helps to stabilize all the parameters without dosing 2-part or anything else.

Thanks again everyone!

What's the alkalinity of the water in your waterchange reservoir? If it's high then your alkalinity values will never change, unless your inhabitants can consume more than is being replenished daily (at this point I would highly doubt that.). Personally I would shut it off for a couple weeks, and let things settle down in the tank. In the meantime I would find a salt that has an alkalinity around 7.5 dKH and replace the water in the waterchange vessel with that. When your tank alkalinity drops to 7.5 dKH resume the auto waterchanges. Then it will maintain the alkalinty and calcium where you want it. Your problem will solve itself.

With that auto waterchange system, it's especially important to test your new seawater to make sure that you match it's parameters as closely to your tanks as possible. That way you are really building a very stable system.

 

[spidercrab]

That's fine. That's actually a great water change plan. Just keep the supplements out for a while, don't chase pH always remember that soda ash can nuke a tank in no time. Never add more than a tiny volume at a time. PH of 7.8 is also fine. Below 7.7 can cause some slight problems but it has to get down below 7.5 to really cause noticeable problems in the short term. And it won't rtn all your acros like that especially not at 7.8.

 

[Rick.45cal]

The trick to all of this is to minimize changes, and what changes you are making occur very slowly and gradually.

 

[bobssecrtsn]

I did the 40% water change in a total of 3 days (after the new frags were introduced). So yes, this could have shocked them. But does this usually lead to tissue/flesh peeling though?

Sps are like woman, unpredictable, headaches, and coldhearted that will leave you in a heart beat if they don't like what you give them LOL.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

@radicaltour take a step back and take a breather. It's ok, there is probably little that you can do, and the less you do at this point the better! Sometimes the hardest thing in this hobby is to do nothing, and sometimes that is the ONLY and best solution. What's done is done to the corals, some things can't be fixed.

Here's how I would attack the problem. Bring your skimmer back online (with an airline run to outside) even if you choose not to collect skimmate, you can still run the skimmer for aeration, the outside air will help stabilize your pH. After that I would stop worrying much about my pH values, and only worry about maintaining your alkalinity.

With as low as your nutrients are, your alkalinity at 10+ is probably too high. (I choose to keep mine below 8 dKH.) I would let the tanks inhabitants consume the alkalinity until it gets to a lower value, (If you are testing on a daily basis try to test at the same time everyday, then you can figure out about how much alkalinity your tank is consuming in a daily basis.). By the time your tank gets below 8 dKH you should have a pretty accurate idea of how much alkalinity needs to be replaced on a daily basis. (This can be figured using one of the online alkalinity calculators) That is what you are going to start dosing to maintain the tank at the alkalinity level you want it to be at. (That dose ideally should be dosed throughout the day) (Look up 2 part dosing, or ask if you need help).

STOP doing massive water changes!!!! Just do routine weekly 5-10% water changes at most with seawater that closely matches your tank water (especially in alkalinity). Everybody is right, it will be ok to skip a few water changes at this point, I would give it at least 2 weeks before starting a routine waterchange again.

The most important lesson to learn with this hobby is before you react to something, you need to sit down and weigh every option and possibility before acting! No matter what it is! Every action has consequences, there is almost nothing that we do in this hobby that can be "taken back". You and the tank will be ok, just keep asking questions and take things VERY slow from here on out!

Well said sir.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Sps are like woman, unpredictable, headaches, and coldhearted that will leave you in a heart beat if they don't like what you give them LOL.

You forgot expensive.

Why?

They're so worth it!