McAllyn
Well-Known Member
Well, I'm at my wits end, maybe someone can come up with some ideas.
Moved everything into the 125, no losses. Everyone settled in fairly quickly. Needed to upgrade my sump, as the Eshoppes R100 is only about 15g, and the new skimmer wasn't going to fit in it. DIY'd a 55 into a sump, now I'm right at 30-32g with enough room for my skimmer and biopellet reactor. This was about 2 months ago.
Finally got the time, and took the system down one night and gutted the old sump. Installed the new sump and replumbed. Put all the equipment in and fired it back up. All in all, everything was down for about 2 hours. Topped off the sump with water that I had mixed the night before.
Got home from work the next day and everyone was unhappy. Frogspawns, hammers, acans, and favias were all drawn in. Acros and montis were browning up. Only the Zoas didn't seem to mind.
Tested water and nitrates were off the scale of my Red Sea kit. Used my API kit and they were between 40 and 80. Did an emergency water change with the 15g I had on hand and mixed another 25g. Did the 25g the next night. Went to the Critter and bought 25g more Saturday, and 25g again last night. (Ordered new filters for my RODI, in case that was the problem, and they needed changed anyway.) As of last night, nitrates were still above the 4ppm on the Red Sea kit, but not showing at all on the API kit.
So far, I've lost 5 acros with the rest either browned and STN'ing or bleaching. My monti's are all browned and white showing on all the edges. The frogspawns and hammers have "some" tentacles showing, but they are not extended much past their skeletons. The acans and favias are shrunken, but don't look to be receding. The zoas and palys are still blissfully unaware anything has happened.
I did the rest of the parameters testing and this is what I've found:
SG: 1.025 (I use Reef Crystals)
Temp: 76.7 (Lower than I like, going to upgrade my heaters) (I run two heaters, never just one.)
pH: 8
Amm: 0 (hate testing this, but with everything dying off, I had to check)
Nitrate: >4 (RSP)
Phos: .07 (Hanna)
Ca: off the scale on my Red Sea Pro kit
Alk: 7.5 (RSP)
Mag: off the scale on my Red Sea Pro kit
I'm starting to dose Alk to get closer to a balance with Ca. I've started Vodka dosing to handle the excess nitrate issue. I have purchased the parts to build an ATS, just working out the design and placement.
Does anyone have any ideas as to what might have happened, or possibly what direction to move? I've been focused on the nitrate issue, but as of last night, I'm also going to put some time into getting the other parameters corrected (or at least within reason, I don't like to chase "perfect numbers.")
Thanks for any thoughts you might have.
Mac
Moved everything into the 125, no losses. Everyone settled in fairly quickly. Needed to upgrade my sump, as the Eshoppes R100 is only about 15g, and the new skimmer wasn't going to fit in it. DIY'd a 55 into a sump, now I'm right at 30-32g with enough room for my skimmer and biopellet reactor. This was about 2 months ago.
Finally got the time, and took the system down one night and gutted the old sump. Installed the new sump and replumbed. Put all the equipment in and fired it back up. All in all, everything was down for about 2 hours. Topped off the sump with water that I had mixed the night before.
Got home from work the next day and everyone was unhappy. Frogspawns, hammers, acans, and favias were all drawn in. Acros and montis were browning up. Only the Zoas didn't seem to mind.
Tested water and nitrates were off the scale of my Red Sea kit. Used my API kit and they were between 40 and 80. Did an emergency water change with the 15g I had on hand and mixed another 25g. Did the 25g the next night. Went to the Critter and bought 25g more Saturday, and 25g again last night. (Ordered new filters for my RODI, in case that was the problem, and they needed changed anyway.) As of last night, nitrates were still above the 4ppm on the Red Sea kit, but not showing at all on the API kit.
So far, I've lost 5 acros with the rest either browned and STN'ing or bleaching. My monti's are all browned and white showing on all the edges. The frogspawns and hammers have "some" tentacles showing, but they are not extended much past their skeletons. The acans and favias are shrunken, but don't look to be receding. The zoas and palys are still blissfully unaware anything has happened.
I did the rest of the parameters testing and this is what I've found:
SG: 1.025 (I use Reef Crystals)
Temp: 76.7 (Lower than I like, going to upgrade my heaters) (I run two heaters, never just one.)
pH: 8
Amm: 0 (hate testing this, but with everything dying off, I had to check)
Nitrate: >4 (RSP)
Phos: .07 (Hanna)
Ca: off the scale on my Red Sea Pro kit
Alk: 7.5 (RSP)
Mag: off the scale on my Red Sea Pro kit
I'm starting to dose Alk to get closer to a balance with Ca. I've started Vodka dosing to handle the excess nitrate issue. I have purchased the parts to build an ATS, just working out the design and placement.
Does anyone have any ideas as to what might have happened, or possibly what direction to move? I've been focused on the nitrate issue, but as of last night, I'm also going to put some time into getting the other parameters corrected (or at least within reason, I don't like to chase "perfect numbers.")
Thanks for any thoughts you might have.
Mac
