My 75 gal mixed reef
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ritter6788
Coral Fraud Private Eye
Sorry to hear about your troubles. Sounds like your parameters and dosing are all over the place which is likely your issue over lighting.
I haven't read the whole thread but I'll try to help.
Your alk is 12? This could be the problem. What salt mix? Manual dosing?
Too many people jump to blame lighting when it's rarely the issue.
I haven't read the whole thread but I'll try to help.
Your alk is 12? This could be the problem. What salt mix? Manual dosing?
Too many people jump to blame lighting when it's rarely the issue.
OP
OP
luxauterna
A softy who loves softies
Ya the last two tests I did for all came between 11-12. I was manually dosing brightwell aquatics reef code a&b. The same I've done on all my other tanks before. I stopped dosing when I realized my calcium was dropping quickly while my alk was rising. This was I think a little over a month ago. Maybe 2 now. I've just been doing more water changes. I use IO reef crystals.
Reeflogic
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Yeah I am merely trying to help Ryan, by offering advice on a very similar experience when I first switched to LED's. His corals looked EXACTLY like mine did, I reduced lighting intensity and duration and my corals are all fine now. I made no other changes at that time and it worked. The alk is definitely high and it could be contributing, but from the looks of it, he over exposed them like many people do that are new to LED's. Regardless, it may not be lighting, but I would diagnose one thing at a time and lighting is an easy one to diagnose. If the corals bounce back, HOORAH, if they don't...try a different angle. Jumping all over the place will likely create more issues than he had to start with. I would definitely get the alk / calcium in check, which I did mention earlier.
ritter6788
Coral Fraud Private Eye
My alk on newly mixed reef crystals runs about 9-10 which means you could be driving it up by dosing if you're getting 12. If your alk is rising and calcium is dropping you may be overdosing alk and precipitating calcium. 12 dkh isn't always killer but it's close to the top of where you want to be.
I would stop dosing everything for a while and test daily until you figure out what your usage is. With an alk of 12 you won't have to worry about dosing any alk part for a while.
I would stop dosing everything for a while and test daily until you figure out what your usage is. With an alk of 12 you won't have to worry about dosing any alk part for a while.
OP
OP
luxauterna
A softy who loves softies
Ya I have not dosed anything for a month now. My all has slowly been lowering weekly. Thank you both for the help! I will keep this updated with any progress. Hopefully it'll be positive.
ritter6788
Coral Fraud Private Eye
My comment about people blaming lighting wasn't pointed directly at you. You've given good advice. We're all just trying to help. Water parameters are always #1 when I'm solving problems with my tank. I've questioned my leds at times too but it usually comes back to a water issue. 99.9% of the problems with my tank come back to alkalinity or purity of RO/DI water.
ritter6788
Coral Fraud Private Eye
Haha! I've typed it enough mine changes all to alk!
OP
OP
luxauterna
A softy who loves softies
Haha. Too funny
ritter6788
Coral Fraud Private Eye
Absolutely. All corals are affected by alk. It's the most important parameter to keep stable out of the big 3 (cal, alk, mag).
Reeflogic
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All good Ritter, wasn't being defensive, just stating why I felt it may be lighting! 
Based on what I see in his tank, he doesn't have much calcium consumption and honestly, I do not see where dosing would really be necessary at this stage. Simple weekly water changes should support his current load. Again, I would let the corals acclimate to lower light intensity and slowly ramp it back up. Nothing happens overnight, but the frogspawn I had that looked identical to yours is twice the size in 6 months with BRIGHT colors, after allowing it to acclimate to the lighting better. All my params remained in check during that time frame, the only thing I altered was lighting and it corrected itself. I ran into other issues with old filters in my RO/DI as well, but that came later and I knew deep down what the issue was, I was being lazy.. lol
Either way, I knew you were trying to help, I was just wanting him to stick with the lighting change for a bit and see what happens. it's just a gut feeling based on personal experience with LEDs.
Based on what I see in his tank, he doesn't have much calcium consumption and honestly, I do not see where dosing would really be necessary at this stage. Simple weekly water changes should support his current load. Again, I would let the corals acclimate to lower light intensity and slowly ramp it back up. Nothing happens overnight, but the frogspawn I had that looked identical to yours is twice the size in 6 months with BRIGHT colors, after allowing it to acclimate to the lighting better. All my params remained in check during that time frame, the only thing I altered was lighting and it corrected itself. I ran into other issues with old filters in my RO/DI as well, but that came later and I knew deep down what the issue was, I was being lazy.. lol
Either way, I knew you were trying to help, I was just wanting him to stick with the lighting change for a bit and see what happens. it's just a gut feeling based on personal experience with LEDs.
OP
OP
luxauterna
A softy who loves softies
Its probably a combination of both. I will continue to just do water changes without any dosing and continue to check my levels as I do. I will also continue this low whites mostly blue run to see if anything bounces back from bleaching. Thank you again guys
lionfish5740
Active Member
Have you read this article from Randy about calcium/alk? It might help you.
Chemistry And The Aquarium: Solving Calcium And Alkalinity Problems ? Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog
I didn't read your whole thread in detail but what test kit are you using? I ask because I had a monti start to bleach and the only thing that had changed was lowering my NO3 to zero per RS test kit.
Chemistry And The Aquarium: Solving Calcium And Alkalinity Problems ? Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog
I didn't read your whole thread in detail but what test kit are you using? I ask because I had a monti start to bleach and the only thing that had changed was lowering my NO3 to zero per RS test kit.
