Major issues...help wanted

[Vaughn17]

Ross, I think feeding is the most reliable way to raise PO4. And yes, the food will either be eaten or break down, both scenarios resulting in nitrates. After starving one of my tanks to death, literally, I opted to start dosing NO3. Been doing so for three months (keeping my NO3 at about 2.5 ppm) and all the acros, other sps, and lps are doing fantastic. I have 3 fish in a 38g and feed them daily, but my PO4 is undetectable, so it is being used up pretty quickly as I don't use GFO (although I do use Polyfilter, which is reputed to remove some PO4). I'm hesitant to feed more as long as the acros are growing and colored up. On the other hand, I'm greedy and want faster growth, so I'm tempted to up both the NO3 and the PO4 to see what will happen (but I probably won't, lol). Also, test your Strontium.

 

[markalot]

Good call, I def need a TDS meter. Do I also need to order calibration fluid?

Sorry, calibration fluid for what? If refractometer, yes, definitely get some 35ppt fluid.

 

[Ross]

Ross, I think feeding is the most reliable way to raise PO4. And yes, the food will either be eaten or break down, both scenarios resulting in nitrates. After starving one of my tanks to death, literally, I opted to start dosing NO3. Been doing so for three months (keeping my NO3 at about 2.5 ppm) and all the acros, other sps, and lps are doing fantastic. I have 3 fish in a 38g and feed them daily, but my PO4 is undetectable, so it is being used up pretty quickly as I don't use GFO (although I do use Polyfilter, which is reputed to remove some PO4). I'm hesitant to feed more as long as the acros are growing and colored up. On the other hand, I'm greedy and want faster growth, so I'm tempted to up both the NO3 and the PO4 to see what will happen (but I probably won't, lol). Also, test your Strontium.

I've got the nitrates good, if anything too high. The balance between them and phosphates just isnt right, I'm guessing my bubble algae is eating up my phosphates quickly. There is also some Xenia in the tank that grows pretty fast, that could be sucking up my phosphates too I guess.

Sorry, calibration fluid for what? If refractometer, yes, definitely get some 35ppt fluid.

Fluid for the TDS meter. I hadn't ever used any before but I saw some online and I'm not sure if it is needed.

 

[zoomonster]

I started this tank 21 months ago and loaded with pretty much all frags. For many months SPS growing like weeds with great color. My 3 caps were all in the 10-16" range, Stylo's, Pocillipora, Monti digi's and some Acro's had all grown from tiny frags to softball plus sized pieces. Then it happened (still scratching head) the cap's suddenly started rapidly dying followed by the digi's. I have of course lost a few frags to stn or rtn along the way but here I lost quite a few frags and colonies including birdnests, stylo's, millipora, and a painful amount of acro's I won't elaborate on. Fish, mushrooms, LPS, ricordia, zoanthids, anemone's, inverts etc were unaffected. The first acro I bought for this tank was a red planet and it along with bali shortcake, strawberry shortcake, blue tipped stag and pocillipora were pretty much unaffected. Some others like purple nana, purple milli, tricolor valida suffered some tissue loss or browning. I lost a softball sized bush of UC wild orchid but the major encrusting survived and is growing back now. In the course of all that nitrates and phosphates spiked from all the die off and Ca spiked from lack of demand.

Anyway... major testing, no sign of pests in an otherwise seemingly healthy tank and the only conclusion I was able to come to is it was a KH swing probably caused by my less than reliable CaRx setup. Needless to say that has been completely revamped. Water changes, major cleaning, more diligent testing and things are either doing well or are recovering. The only other thing remotely related that kind of threw me off the trail was I switched from MH/T5 to Kessil's not long before this started. So at first I thought it was lighting intensity/uv levels when the caps started dying.

Once I was satisfied that things were back under control I started recently adding new frags which are all doing well. I also try and test KH now at least every other day if not daily. Other than going to the continuous flow method on the CaRx (more stable PH+ and Alk in conjunction with a Kalk mixer on ATO) the only change really made is I started using Aquaforest NP pro/Pro Bio S and their amino's along with what I have left of Pohl's coral vitalizer.

So yesssss... I feel your pain and frustration. Been there, done that.

 

[Ross]

I went ahead and ordered a TDS meter, and some new Rodi filters. Tested again, alk was 8.06 and magnesium jumped up from 1260 to 1395. Gonna turn the doser off for the day and let it drop some then turn it back on tomorrow. I think I let the lines prime too long and dosed about 5 minutes worth of magnesium while I was doing other stuff.

 

[MounteeFrag]

Do you use GFO?

 

[Ross]

Nope, no gfo, biopellets, anything like that. I'm running some carbon passively at the moment but don't do that regularly

 

[Ant]

I would focus on the water:

1. Test for Ammonia and Nitrite, and copper (since you know all the other parameters)
2. Check your municipality website to see if water is treated with Chloramine or monochloramine


The only times I had the above situation was
1.when my salinity was way off due to a cheap hydrometer (I now use refractometer)
2. I dropped Phosphate too fast
3. I had a LPS die off with brown jelly disease which first affected the SPS directly above it before RTN'ing other SPS.

 

[john.m.cole3]

Right now I'm hesitant to do that, mainly because I'm getting burn tips. Which from what I've read typically means alk is too high. What are you running mag and calcium at? I may try upping my mag into the 1300's.



I have not thorougly checked, I recently took my mag float out completely to see if that was an issue. I think you could be on to something though, I'm going to go through and check my return pump and skimmer pump. Other than that, I only have 3 vortechs. Is there anything else that could be rusting? I dont recall ever dropping a screw or any metal into the tank.



Thanks for responding Adam, I was hoping you would read this thread. I've always admired your stuff on your website. I am running just a normal 4 stage ro/di from BRS. I notice that I do exhaust the DI resin fairly quick, and always change it before the entire thing turns brown. I couldn't tell you what my TDS is, haven't tested them. Do you think that could be causing my issue? I'm relatively certain i must be getting some TDS, but I would bet its low based on how often I change the filters. Do you think the garden hose or metal fittings on the hose could be leaching something into my water before it runs through the ro/di?

I have a handheld TDS meter you can borrow if you don't have one

 

[Ross]

Update

I checked for rust as several people mentioned, can't find anything. I have a TDS meter and new RO filters on the way (although the filters I have in now are fairly new).

My jason fox mystic and forest fire digi are now completely dead, the jason fox went really fast. Others are still actively stn'ing. Here are the current levels as of today:

Alk 7.73 (hanna)
Calcium 430 (salifert)
Magnesium 1245
Nitrates 10
Phosphate 0.02.

All params are stable on dosing pumps, and I'm still actively losing tissue. ARRRGGGHHH %^%$&%*(

 

[Ross]

Just tested my TDS. Came back at 2-3 in my RO water. This is getting super frustrating. Everything that can be tested for is good.

Please if anyone has any other ideas let me know.

 

[Ross]

I'm removing the carbon, making my light cycle shorter by 1 hour, and gonna do a water change. Every montipora i have is looking very bad, while most acros are pretty much stabilized. If anyone knows something special about montis that I'm apparently missing, PLEASE let me know.

 

[Ross]

I did a 15g water change yesterday, things almost immediately started looking better. Still waiting on my triton tests. But since things look good after a water change, then over a few days go bad I'm thinking there is something toxic in my water, or my additives are causing something to be off. Has anyone had any bad experiences with bulk reef supply additives?

 

[john.m.cole3]

If you noticed an improvement after a water change, it seems like something is leeching from your tank or equipment. How difficult would it be to remove you skimmer and dosing pumps and peerform a solid vinegar bath cleaning?

Are you bare bottom or sandbed?

 

[markalot]

I did a 15g water change yesterday, things almost immediately started looking better. Still waiting on my triton tests. But since things look good after a water change, then over a few days go bad I'm thinking there is something toxic in my water, or my additives are causing something to be off. Has anyone had any bad experiences with bulk reef supply additives?

If you had an imbalance and were lax doing water changes then numerous water changes can help to straighten things out. THis is what saved my tank after losing or harming just about every coral in my tank.

 

[john.m.cole3]

I just bought some Aquaforest additives. a gallon each of the big 3 for $50. Already mixed for you.

 

[Ross]

Obviously the copper stands out the most to me. Not sure where that is coming from. Also it appears I have some unwanted lithium? And severely lacking iodine. Could that be the cause of paleness and no growth? Since this water was sent off I have done 2 water changes.

 

[john.m.cole3]

Lithium dies not have any negative effects on coral. Lithium is what is in Kent tech m. So it may be coming from your mag supplement. I've heard low iodine isn't good but I agree, copper is a for sure problem.

 

[NanoDJS]

glad to see you got major issues figured out ,that copper is death and you got no Trace elements! maybe you should just go with a 2 part dose with iodide like Kent nano

 

[Sabellafella]

your triton test looks great but the Copper level will pale your corals along with lps and zoas, . But i dont know if i passed this up but big d mentioned it earyler in the thread, this looks like a path of aefws. If you didnt try yet dip them, Also run either metsasorb/cuprisorb/poly filter to get the copper lower. As for lithium, my previous tank (including my newest build) ran over 5000 ugl for lithium for god knows how long but i havnt had any problems so who knows. Even jim welsh tank runs around 4-5thousand.