Need help

[Deborah Armay]

What protein skimmer are you using? A good protein skimmer is key when carbon dosing. When you add a carbon source to your water column, you are feeding bacteria that are helping consume no3/po4. The bacteria in turn is skimmed out, along with excess no3/po4. Your skimmer should be working overtime, and you should notice an increase in skimmate production. This has been my experience and understanding of carbon dosing.

I’m using reef octopus prime 150 skimmer. I really haven’t noticed an increase in skimmate. I clean it every2 days with feeding and usually have 1” or 2 “ of skimmate.

 

[FishyDP]

That is a very good skimmer, and more than sufficient for a 90g imo. I was actually considering it for my system. It was really a coin flip between that and the bubble magus curve 7 which I ended up purchasing. As I mentioned before, I dosed .5 ml vodka in my 125g until I had almost undetectable no3/ po4. This took around 4 months of dosing this amount daily. Every system is different, but this dose worked very well for me.

What is your feeding schedule/routine? What are you feeding? What are you using for flow?

 

[Deborah Armay]

I agree with the theory of bouncing water chemistry messing with the health of your corals. This is something to look at..if zoas and shrooms are not surviving there is something fairly extreme going on. Try not to make too big of changes all at once..do it gradually. I mentioned above about your light source as well, those are pretty strong lights for lower light corals. Knowing some more about your equipment will help, such as fuge light and skimmer, powerheads.

Fudge light is Oce AnRevive Arctic T247, reef octopus prime 150, MP 40/MP 10. I have mushrooms and some corals that are doing well but have lost quite a a few.

 

[Deborah Armay]

Feeding every other day. Small feed pellets for Ishmael, reef raids n rods food. I posted some pictures of my tank. Really appreciate everyone’s help.

 

[RJinPV]

The tank actually looks nice. It seems like there is a lot of flow. Zoas don't like high flow. What intensity are the Radion XR30s running at? They are very good lights but can easily run too high hurting the lower light level corals, like zoas

 

[Deborah Armay]

Howdy from Texas
Besides the high N and P levels and unknown lighting par levels in areas of your tank we need to consider other factors.
First work on bringing down your N and P levels. Are you making your own saltwater? Is it free of N and P? If so then run GFO or some other phosphate absorption material/media. In your sump you can place more rock or some sort of MarinePure media to encourage more nitrate processing bacteria to grow. Over feeding can be an issue if you have a lot extra food or too many fish. This is esp true if feeding pellets or flake.
Now we have the coral issue. It could be your lights, but what you have are good enough to grow anything if they are placed where they get proper lighting. Your high mag level could be an issue if they are over 1450 with low calcium. It is possible to raise your cal and alk levels by switching to a salt with higher levels. I personally mix both RedSea Coral Pro and the RedSea blue bucket 50/50. I would shoot for 8 to 9 alk. Once you have it where you want, then keeping it stable is the key for those hard to keep corals.
Next we have the battle between your leathers, softies and other corals. They do battle by exuding substances that hinder and can kill other corals. Macro algaes can even do this. If you are not running a carbon reactor you might think about starting one up to filter the substances out of the water.
Hope that some of this is helpful. Hang in there and with help here, you will figure it out.

Im not sure if I should post an update here or start a new thread but I started a gfo and carbon reactor. I have less than half cup of ROWA phos in the reactor. Ran the reactor for a couple of days n my phosphates started to drop but my ph went from a stable 8 to 7.5. I had to stop the reactor. My phosphates are still over 200 by hanna checker lo. Dont know what to do now.

 

[lapin]

I think your drop in Ph is ok. This is normal when starting up rowaphos. It should come back up. What you need to watch is your alkalinity level. It is already low. This also can be why your Ph has dropped. Since you have such high phosphates I would change out the the rowa and measure them again in 12 to 24 hours. Its my opinion you should have seen some reduction.
Randy suggests 2 articles that might help:
Yes, GFO can have some effects on pH and alkalinity. The effect is usually short term.
Limewater would be the best way to boost the pH, followed by aeration with fresh air.

This article may help:

Iron Oxide Hydroxide (GFO) Phosphate Binders
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-11/rhf/index.htm

and

Low pH: Causes and Cures
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rhf/index.htm

 

[Deborah Armay]

I think your drop in Ph is ok. This is normal when starting up rowaphos. It should come back up. What you need to watch is your alkalinity level. It is already low. This also can be why your Ph has dropped. Since you have such high phosphates I would change out the the rowa and measure them again in 12 to 24 hours. Its my opinion you should have seen some reduction.
Randy suggests 2 articles that might help:
Yes, GFO can have some effects on pH and alkalinity. The effect is usually short term.
Limewater would be the best way to boost the pH, followed by aeration with fresh air.

This article may help:

Iron Oxide Hydroxide (GFO) Phosphate Binders
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-11/rhf/index.htm

and

Low pH: Causes and Cures
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rhf/index.htm

Thanks so much. I'll read these articles.

 

[Deborah Armay]

So I read the articles and the second articles talks about diagnosing low pH. It talks about taking two water samples and aerating one with inside air and one with outside air. This may be a dumb questions but how do you do this? Want to make sure I get it right. Thanks

 

[lapin]

So I read the articles and the second articles talks about diagnosing low pH. It talks about taking two water samples and aerating one with inside air and one with outside air. This may be a dumb questions but how do you do this? Want to make sure I get it right. Thanks

If you wish to do this; take a container full of water outside. Run an air pump with an air stone in the container to aerate the sample. Measure the Ph of the sample. Do the same inside the house. If you have high Co2 in your house the Ph will be much lower in that sample.