Most of tank is dying

[Docdiggy]

Well my 4 yr old tank is crashing. Not sure what happened, but could possibly be from elevated salinity. Anyway, I never adjusted my alk dosing and it went from 8.5 to 9.5 in less than a week. Could this be from all the dying sps not consuming anything? Most of my lps are ok.

 

[Tahoe61]

How elevated was the SG?
The utilization of elements will decrease when stony corals are stressed.
Post an image of the Acropora if able pleae.

 

[CNDReef]

If you had big colony’s that died , your alk will rise for sure. Try running a lot of carbon if you haven’t yet

 

[Docdiggy]

I've been running a carbon reactor. Ive always used calibration fluid to set my refractometer. A local store owner came by who uses RODI. My tank said .025 for me, but .030 for him. Ive had my unit for about 6 yrs and got it off ebay. I ordered the aqua maxx one from marine depot. Just waiting for it to come. All acros are white and my big montis are getting brown algae on them. I did lots of water changes over the last couple months to fill my new 125. If the salinity was truly .030, I have no idea for how long. At least 2 months. Maybe more.

 

[Docdiggy]

It's just going bad.

 

[Docdiggy]

The acros would lose all polyp extension. Then stn/rtn from the tips down. I did over dose sodium nitrate and I'm wondering if that plummeted phos. However, the sps were looking rough before that. The SG is the only thing I can say caused this.

 

[CNDReef]

That sucks man. I just had the opposite happen to me. I thought my salinity was 1.026 and it was 1.022 , let’s say acros looked pretty white as well and just because I trusted my reference solution.
Hope it turns around for ya

 

[Docdiggy]

What were you calibrating with?

 

[CNDReef]

Brs salinity stock solution

 

[Docdiggy]

This?

 

[CNDReef]

Yup

 

[CNDReef]

It’s been a year so I ordered the pinpoint solution and it was low compared to that 1. So I had it double checked and the pinpoint was accurate.

 

[Docdiggy]

I've been thinking of ordering the pinpoint. I took a little over 2 gallons out and replaced with RO yesterday. It made a small bump.

 

[VelocityTech]

I had a salinity drop to 1.020 possibly lower.. when my ATO went nuts. I did a 50 gallon water change with very high salinity. Leveled it out to 1.23. Slowly let it evaporate adding saltwater instead of RO for top off.

It did rise to 1.026 in a few days.


Nothing was affected. Except a six line wrasse I found in the overflow pipe

 

[Docdiggy]

I'm in a situation where I'm not sure what's going on. Do I believe RODI or calibration fluid? I lost my fox face the other day. No idea why. I still have 2 clowns and a starry blenny. All sps have been removed which may have been causing die off.

 

[Fishfinder]

I don't think that is your issue. I wouldn't go changing this problem if your salinity is 1.023-10.29. Let it be acros and fish will live fine within that range. I would look to other issues

 

[40B Knasty]

I would recommend Acurasea for calibrating. I had that solution you have now. In less than 6 months it went .002 off. Thank God I was running my tank at 1.024.4, because there is a lot of things in this hobby I do not trust. The true reading would have been at 1.028.4 if I was reading 1.026.4ppm and running my tank at that.

 

[Docdiggy]

I'm leaning toward the fish dying because of the amount of sps that died. Could they cause an ammonia spike?

 

[40B Knasty]

I'm leaning toward the fish dying because of the amount of sps that died. Could they cause an ammonia spike?

Test for ammonia. That's the only way to know.

 

[Docdiggy]

I had a local guy that used an API test and came back 0. I'm gonna get a Triton or ATI test done. Just not sure which to go with.