Mystic Sunsets Going to Shhhh

[JCRove06]

I was pretty pumped to have my mystic sunsets take off as I dialed in on the dosing and got a rodi to change water with high quality Red Sea Pro. These last two weeks I’ve noticed discoloration and now what appears to be eminent death.

Please lmk if you all have any suggestions/advice. As always I truly appreciate all you advice.

JC

 

[JCRove06]

Params over last month. Calcium has gone down, but it’s always been lower. Will check hoses. Making an adjustment dose and increasing dosing over next few days.

7.18.19

Magnesium (1375-1450)

• 62ml, 1240ppm
• Dosed - 15ml

Alkalinity

• 68ml, 3.4Meq/L, 9.5dKH

Calcium

• 72ml, 360ppm
• Increasing Dose - 8ml

7.20.19
Replaced Floss

7.27.19

• Alkalinity- 68ml, 3.4 meq/L, 9.5dKH
  • IncreasingDose -20mlto 158ml
• Calcium - 72ml, 360ppm
  • IncreasingDose - 12mlto 30ml

8.3
Water change- 7 gallons

8.13.19
Alkalinity

• 64ml, 9.0dKH
• Increased Dose

Calcium

• 64ml, 320ppm(400-450 needed)
• Increased Dose

8.22.19

Alkalinity

• 65ml, 9.1dKH (increased Dose)

Calcium

• 60ml, 300ppm (increased Dose)

8.22.19

• Nitrite- 0ppm
• Ammonia -.25ppm
• Nitrate - 0-5ppm
• pH - 8.0
• Phosphate- .05ppm
• Salinity- 1.023

• Water change7 gallons

 

[motortrendz]

Did you change lighting. It almost looks like light bleaching

 

[JCRove06]

Nope

 

[JMM744]

Just a thought, mine doesn’t seem to like high alk. I keep mine around 8-8.5. If it get above that it tends to not do well. No guarantee but seems to be the case for me.

 

[SeaDweller]

Possibly high alk and no available nutrients, would be my guess. What test kits are you using?

 

[JCRove06]

I use Red Sea for alk and calcium, the Hanna tester for phosphate, and the marine test kit for nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, and pH.
I haven’t changed anything except take out my six line wrasse who killed on of my firefish like two-three weeks ago. I thought I might have nudibranchs and the six line was keeping them at bay but I don’t see any when looking carefully.

 

[JCRove06]

Trying to video the Montipora but stupid chromi kept swimming through the shot. I didn’t notice anything, but I ear nudibranchs are hard to spot.

 

[hyprc]

I'd say keep trying to bring up mag and calcium while keeping an eye on nitrates (closer to 10 and you should see better color). Also, bumping up your salinity to 1.025/6 slowly may help as well.

 

[JCRove06]

This seems to be getting worse.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

The black bucket salt has really high alk, 11.5+. I had a bucket mix at 13 before. That could be part of your issue. Another I see is low nutrients, but my tank tests low nutrient altho I know it's just getting sucked up as fast as I put it in.

I'm curious, are you hand dosing or do you have a dosing pump? How often are you testing and dosing? Do you test at the same time of day each time you test?

 

[JCRove06]

Thanks for your reply. I’m using an auto doser. I am not testing at the same time I’d the day. After viewing BRS Tv experiments on YouTube showing significantly better growth in higher alkalinity and calcium tanks I opted to try and increase the alk/calcium, but surprisingly the coral seem to be sucking up the additional nutrients. I’ll Dose more with little incremental effect.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I think most reefers aim for somewhere around 8 or 9. Stability is #1 tho swings will wreck some SPS quickly.

 

[JCRove06]

Thanks for your feedback. I am going to test again today with a local lfs to compare with my results. I don’t believe I have had that large of a swing. My water changes are 5 gallons Red Sea Pro plus about 2 gallons rodi.

Here is the study of elevated parameters from brs.

Grow corals faster with elevated reef tank parameters? - BRStv Investigates

There has been an ongoing discussion over the topic of what levels for alkalinity, calcium and magnesium are the most ideal for coral growth with the general idea being that elevated reef tank parameters will produce increased coral growth. More or less the thought process is that the more available

www.bulkreefsupply.com

 

[Softhammer]

What do you mean 5 gallons Red Sea plus 2 gallons rodi? Are you topping off by simply dumping in 2 gallons of fresh water in conjunction with a water change? Unless your tank is 200+ gallons altering salinity plus blasting Alk with Red Sea salt is going to kill everything. That black bucket salt is crap unless you do daily small water changes. The alkalinity is way way too high. I’d chill on the water changes and get an ATO running if you don’t already.

 

[thejuice24]

Can you pull any of the corals out and dip? I had a simile issue mine went grey. Found out I had black bugs, when my stylos started to RTN from the base up. Does 4 rounds of interceptor and everything recovered.

 

[JCRove06]

What do you mean 5 gallons Red Sea plus 2 gallons rodi? Are you topping off by simply dumping in 2 gallons of fresh water in conjunction with a water change? Unless your tank is 200+ gallons altering salinity plus blasting Alk with Red Sea salt is going to kill everything. That black bucket salt is crap unless you do daily small water changes. The alkalinity is way way too high. I’d chill on the water changes and get an ATO running if you don’t already.

I’ve never had an auto tip off. Salinity is almost always right on 1.025. It fluctuates once to 1.023.

 

[JCRove06]

I’ll try to keep an eye out for the black bugs. A quick google search turned up some pics with reaaaally small black dots so I’m guessing they’re not easy to spot.

One thing I have noticed recently is they light green webbing appearing on my live rock.

 

[JCRove06]

Can you pull any of the corals out and dip? I had a simile issue mine went grey. Found out I had black bugs, when my stylos started to RTN from the base up. Does 4 rounds of interceptor and everything recovered.

It’s encrusted on a large rock. I’d have to treat the whole rock in a 5 gallon bucket I’d assume.

 

[Softhammer]

That’s way too big of a regular salinity swing when combined with Alk and ca tweaking. I’ll bet my left arm it’s not a parasite. I have had the same problem many times and it’s always a water quality issue.