Need advice ......

[jabberwock]

Wow.. and NOBODY has asked you what lighting setup you use.

I am still blown away by how little attention is paid to the value of light.

Since nobody else cares, what lights are you using? Have you mapped your par (intensity) values through your tank? More importantly, do you know what Spectrum your lights produce?

...and, we don't even know tank size. 30 gallon water change in a ??? size tank?

 

[DE FISH]

A diy recipe for po4 would still be beneficial as I don’t trust brightwells

 

[Jedi1199]

"When all other avenues have been explored, whatever remains, however unlikely, MUST be the answer."

Nitrates at 18.. irrelevant.

Phosphate at 0, possible but unlikely (i would bring it up a bit though)

Coral Beauty.... it is possible that he is nipping the polyps, but that would be obvious.

Flow... Looks like its low to me based on the photos you posted.

Lighting.. the unexplored issue.. ?? Hmmmmmm

 

[Garf]

You running activated carbon to mop up anything the softies may be exuding? just curious, cheers

 

[BetterJake]

My latest peramiters were pretty spot on to where i have been keeping them and i am finally acheiving what i think can be called stability ?

Just did a 30 gallon water change last night

Alkalinity for the last few weeks 7.3-7.6 trying for 7.5 and last night tested at 7.5
Calcium 420
Magnesium 1380
NItrates 18.6 which seems high? even after a 30 gallon water change but i have been feeding frozen cubes twice a day for my new anthias fish . I might cut back on that in the next month or so if nitrates stay elevated
phosphates 0.00 Should i turn off my phosban reactor ???
salinity 1.026 verified by refractometer at home and at my lfs on their refractometor at the shop a day prior
tempature 78.0

I recently added 3 new sps frags and a acan coral . I have them inside an acclimation box to see if it is my tank peramiters or my fish ( coral beauty ) that is killing my corals. because everytime i try sps or acan corals they die in 5-10 days. I recently had a digi fire and teal birdsnest that both died last month

Most of my peramiters seem ok and all my other corals are thriving and growing. The new frags look happy too but too early to tell

I guess my concern is the nitrates of 18.6 after a water change and phosphate at 0.00

Any suggestions on this would be most appreciated ! thanks

Just doing a water change wont completely remove nitrates. For simplicity, if I have a 100 gallon tank with 100ppm nitrates and do a 20% or 20 gallon water change I'd still have 80 ppm Nitrates after.

 

[czoolander]

...and, we don't even know tank size. 30 gallon water change in a ??? size tank?

109 gallon display with a 30 gallon sump . total water system 139 gallon

 

[Jedi1199]

...and, we don't even know tank size. 30 gallon water change in a ??? size tank?

Red sea reefer 250.. 54g 36 x 20 x 21
Sump=10g

Total system volume 64g not including displacement.

 

[czoolander]

"When all other avenues have been explored, whatever remains, however unlikely, MUST be the answer."

Nitrates at 18.. irrelevant.

Phosphate at 0, possible but unlikely (i would bring it up a bit though)

Coral Beauty.... it is possible that he is nipping the polyps, but that would be obvious.

Flow... Looks like its low to me based on the photos you posted.

Lighting.. the unexplored issue.. ?? Hmmmmmm

You could be right for sure haha I guess time will tell with my experiment in my acclimation box

I would be safe to assume that if the corals still look good after 5 to 10 days its probably the coral beauty and not the lights or water peramiters?

If the corals fade and die inside my acclimation box

It is probably lights or flow

Time will tell i guess

 

[czoolander]

Just doing a water change wont completely remove nitrates. For simplicity, if I have a 100 gallon tank with 100ppm nitrates and do a 20% or 20 gallon water change I'd still have 80 ppm Nitrates after.

YEs i get that part haha

I was just surprised i had nitrates at 18.6 after my water change because i typically test between 10-20 levels and if i was 30% higher then 18.6 that is definitley the highest it has been in a couple years

 

[czoolander]

Red sea reefer 250.. 54g 36 x 20 x 21
Sump=10g

Total system volume 64g not including displacement.

I dont know where you pulled 250 from . but i have a 525xl my fault i didnt post tank size

Anyway i have 139 gallon total system volume 109 display and 30 sump

I think 30 gallons on water change is about 25-30% water volume change if my math is decent on the fly haha

 

[DE FISH]

Post deleted by user

 

[Jedi1199]

I dont know where you pulled 250 from . but i have a 525xl my fault i didnt post tank size

Anyway i have 139 gallon total system volume 109 display and 30 sump

I think 30 gallons on water change is about 25-30% water volume change if my math is decent on the fly haha

My bad.. I confused your system with another thread I have been posting to.

 

[czoolander]

You running activated carbon to mop up anything the softies may be exuding? just curious, cheers

Hello

I do put in those bags of activated carbon in my sump. However i have been thinking of running a better product for carbon .

I have been seeing a product " aquachar " on instagram and reefers look like they get super clear water from this but i have to research more on how to put it in my tank if its loose carbon.

I really dont know to much about carbon to be honest. I just get those aqua clear bags from my LFS and put them in my sump. I remember using them on my freshwater tank so not sure if they are good for reeftanks as well??

 

[Jedi1199]

Hello

I do put in those bags of activated carbon in my sump. However i have been thinking of running a better product for carbon .

I have been seeing a product " aquachar " on instagram and reefers look like they get super clear water from this but i have to research more on how to put it in my tank if its loose carbon.

I really dont know to much about carbon to be honest. I just get those aqua clear bags from my LFS and put them in my sump. I remember using them on my freshwater tank so not sure if they are good for reeftanks as well??

So you are adding chemical filtration to your tank and don't know why? Am I the only one seeing a red flag here?

 

[czoolander]

So you are adding chemical filtration to your tank and don't know why? Am I the only one seeing a red flag here?

How is adding carbon to a tank a red flag ? What am i missing here?

Carbon is used to remove toxins in the water and make the water quality clearer . Not sure how you equate having bags of carbon in my sump as a red flag or something that would kill my corals?

 

[DE FISH]

Hello

I do put in those bags of activated carbon in my sump. However i have been thinking of running a better product for carbon .

I have been seeing a product " aquachar " on instagram and reefers look like they get super clear water from this but i have to research more on how to put it in my tank if its loose carbon.

I really dont know to much about carbon to be honest. I just get those aqua clear bags from my LFS and put them in my sump. I remember using them on my freshwater tank so not sure if they are good for reeftanks as well??

I’ve bit the bullet and ordered some neophos to get my levels above 0ppb

 

[DE FISH]

I also heavily fed reef roids to my lps today in a hope to increase po4

 

[Jedi1199]

How is adding carbon to a tank a red flag ? What am i missing here?

Carbon is used to remove toxins in the water and make the water quality clearer . Not sure how you equate having bags of carbon in my sump as a red flag or something that would kill my corals?

The red flag is you are doing something that impacts your system and you do not know why you are doing it.

What exactly are you attempting to achieve here?

What toxins are you trying to remove?

Do you even know what carbon removes from a system?

The red flag is doing anything without knowing why.

 

[DE FISH]

The red flag is you are doing something that impacts your system and you do not know why you are doing it.

What exactly are you attempting to achieve here?

What toxins are you trying to remove?

Do you even know what carbon removes from a system?

The red flag is doing anything without knowing why.

I highly doubt carbon is contributing to a zero po4 reading

 

[Jedi1199]

I highly doubt carbon is contributing to a zero po4 reading

Based on what?