Not doing so well - everything seems to by dying.

[icejam]

So this is where I am after weeks of neglect [life got better of me]:

Corals are not opening and look like they are dying. Most actually receded - you can see bare frag plugs now.
What I noticed was low pH and alk so started dosing kalk - about 4 tsp a week [with ATO over last month].
That brings my water parameters to [as of today]:

Temp: 76
Grav: 1.025
pH: 8.0
Alk: 10
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0
Phosphate: 0
Calcium: 420

I understand that with low nutrient corals might be starving but I am not sure how to bring those up. I started feeding more, stopped changing filer socks that often and reduced my chaeto by 90% and my refugium light hours from 12 to 8.
I can’t seem to bring nutrients up.

I also dimmed my lights as they might be too strong? [Softies started growing down the rocks and receding on top parts of LR. The only ones that open are in the very corner of the aquarium where there is least amount of light].

Bio load: 2 clowns, six line wrasse, 2 damsels, goby + shrimp combo, handful of invertebrates. 55 gal tank + sump. No skimmer. Running for about a year.

Some photos of my poor reef. Any advice much appreciated. Thanks.

Edit: forgot to add - I am doing 7~10 galon water change weekly.

 

[Hemmdog]

What are you feeding? Add aminos like Red Sea reef energy asap.

 

[lexinverts]

Reduce your alkalinity to 8-ish, and raise your nutrients. I like to keep my nitrates around 7 and my phosphate around .05.
You can dose food grade sodium nitrate and trisodium phosphate. I have been able to find both at Amazon.

 

[icejam]

What are you feeding? Add aminos like Red Sea reef energy asap.

Some pellets 2~3 times a day [can't remember the brand], DIY frozen food [mostly blended seafood] every other day and Seachem phyto - 10ml weekly

 

[icejam]

Reduce your alkalinity to 8-ish, and raise your nutrients. I like to keep my nitrates around 7 and my phosphate around .05.
You can dose food grade sodium nitrate and trisodium phosphate. I have been able to find both at Amazon.

Unfortunately not such luck here in Canada. Our Amazon selection isn't the best. I'll ask at LFS this week.

 

[lexinverts]

Unfortunately not such luck here in Canada. Our Amazon selection isn't the best. I'll ask at LFS this week.

Some people use Potassium Nitrate or stump remover to dose nitrate. That should be easy for you to find. For phosphate you might try adding acropower.

 

[Malifry97]

Seachem flourish for phosphate and other options above for nitrate

 

[Malifry97]

Also +1 to amino acids

 

[vetteguy53081]

Bump temp to 78 deg, drop kh a tad, water change for sure and verify salinity with a water sample to a trusted LFS to verify and compare to your readings

 

[icejam]

I calibrate my refractometer regularly but will confirm with LFS tomorrow.
Can Flourish be used in salt water tanks safely?

 

[Fiesty]

Sorry to hear about your tank not doing well. I was a little confused what u meant by "weeks of neglect?" Usually I would take that to mean a lack of water changes but could obviously mean many things. IMHO, a solid reef tank should be able to flourish with months of hands off, other than feeding, if other parameters stayed consistent such as salinity, alk, mag, and calcium. The fact u have low nutrients seems to indicate u doing too many water changes and not needing to do more from that perspective.

After checking salinity, id question your source water. Do u use RODI? For mix and top off? If so, where do u get it? Have u tested it to make sure of tds levels? Maybe old filters / di canister?

Without knowing more about your tank, id be inclined to make sure source water and parameters good first and then do a VERY large water change. And run some carbon as well. Seems to me there is either something in your water stressing / killing the corals or maybe too much swing in some of the main parameters. But without more info its hard to know for sure. Aslo check for any heavy metals leaching into tank such as rust, etc.

 

[icejam]

Yes I am using RODI for both salt water [instant ocean salt] and ATO. I have 4 stage RODI unit and all medium is new - less than 100 gallons RODI made so far. TDS are at 0.
As for neglect I always managed to do at least 10% WC twice a month. But hardly cleaned glass or LR. Had a heater failure, a return pump failure - always something. I guess it was more unstable than neglected. I changed jobs a month ago so now have time to care for it properly but can't bring it back to what it was just 3 months ago. And don't even know where to start at this point.

I was running carbon but stopped at some point so I will add it back tomorrow and will try get my water tested by LFS.

And now it dumped 2ft of snow and more is expected which means I will not be going to LFS in the morning [it's about 45 min one way with clear roads and about 3hrs in current conditions].
Such is life.

 

[Fiesty]

Yes I am using RODI for both salt water [instant ocean salt] and ATO. I have 4 stage RODI unit and all medium is new - less than 100 gallons RODI made so far. TDS are at 0.
As for neglect I always managed to do at least 10% WC twice a month. But hardly cleaned glass or LR. Had a heater failure, a return pump failure - always something. I guess it was more unstable than neglected. I changed jobs a month ago so now have time to care for it properly but can't bring it back to what it was just 3 months ago. And don't even know where to start at this point.

I was running carbon but stopped at some point so I will add it back tomorrow and will try get my water tested by LFS.

And now it dumped 2ft of snow and more is expected which means I will not be going to LFS in the morning [it's about 45 min one way with clear roads and about 3hrs in current conditions].
Such is life.

Thanks for the reply. I know it's hard now but dont worry too much about questions or taking problems with tank personally because there r many people here willing to help and u in the right spot to get this figured out! Since we not there to see your tank in person, then questions the only way to guide a resolution, but it is in no way meant to be judgement.

Cleaning the glass and rocks, in my opinion, would have no effect here. Or even be detrimental to this situation.
Soap on hands, stiring up detrius, contaminants on brushes, hoses, etc. Could all have a negative effect. Cleaning glass and rock more for looks from human standpoint but not for tank health. So i just trying to say I doubt thats the issue so dont beat yourself up about that.

Even lack of waterchanges should have potentially helped your tank and not hurt it since there doesnt seem to be a high nutrient level. Something else seems to be the issue here.

To get it back to where it was previously, id suggest focusing on resetting and then stability. Add some carbon, potentially a lot in case there is a problem in the current water. Do a large water change with proper parameters (in case problem with water, double check tds and salinity, etc.) and then focus on maintaining stability in the sytem for awhile, which means hands out of tank, no water changes, etc. and just let it run and do its thing while it settles out.

 

[icejam]

Thanks for the reply. I know it's hard now but dont worry too much about questions or taking problems with tank personally because there r many people here willing to help and u in the right spot to get this figured out! Since we not there to see your tank in person, then questions the only way to guide a resolution, but it is in no way meant to be judgement.

Thanks, I didn't take it this way anyway. This is the best reefing community on the internet and I appreciate everybody's input.

I'd battle the snow and try to get to LFS today to get my water tested [just in case my tests are way off] and buy what everybody has mentioned.
Thinking about it some more I did add 2 large pieces of LR to the system recently [visible in one of the photos] but those have been properly cured / stored.
I'll post an update as soon as possible.
Thanks.

 

[PicassoDan]

If your Alk/Ca got very low in the last month, it could take another month before things start looking better. How low did it get?

The tank looks looks very clean, so I agree - no more water changes for a month. I wouldn't start adding too much at this point, maybe just feed more. Food = phosphates.

 

[icejam]

If your Alk/Ca got very low in the last month, it could take another month before things start looking better. How low did it get?

The tank looks looks very clean, so I agree - no more water changes for a month. I wouldn't start adding too much at this point, maybe just feed more. Food = phosphates.

Looking at my notes my Alk got down to 3 and Ca to 300 at the beginning of November - that's when I started dosing kalk. I am feeding like crazy but nitrates and phosphates are staying at zero.

 

[icejam]

Added red sea reef energy. Turned my temp up a bit as well. I had my water tested by LFS and everything checks out except pH that they measured at 8.3 [API]. If in fact I have overdosed kalk and pH spiked that much that could explain some of the coral being unhappy. I ordered some new pH tests [LFS only had API in stock]. I will be monitoring and keeping parameters stable for as much as I can and see what happens next. Thanks

 

[PicassoDan]

How's your Alk looking now? pH of 8.3 sounds like an indicator of high Alk.

 

[icejam]

How's your Alk looking now? pH of 8.3 sounds like an indicator of high Alk.

I will get a complete set of readings tonight. I lowered the amount of kalk I add to my ATO. I'll post an update with photos in couple if hours. thanks.

 

[icejam]

Temp: 78
Grav: 1.025
pH: 8.3
Alk: 10~11
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0
Phosphate: 0
Calcium: 400

So I started dosing reef energy, lowered my lights another 10% and raised temp 2F.
As you can see none of the parameters changed [pH - might be a reading error] but everything looks better than it was.

Here are some photos:

Thanks.