Please Help, I'm losing so many corals

[JustinMN18]

Do an ICP asap to rule out that. Check water with a multimeter for voltage or broken equipment.

I did do an ICP test, and had my LFS look at the results, and everything seemed great. Lower calcium and magnesium, but I fixed that with dosing, and now daily testing.

I'll have to see about how to check voltage. I haven't had any fish deaths fortunately, and all my nems are super happy.

 

[JustinMN18]

i think you would see even faster coral death and fish freaking out with electricity in the tank. but always good to check pumps and heaters to make sure they are not cracked just in case.
Chaetogro definitely works to increase chaeto growth, i use it myself, but after i am done with my bottle i may do the diy stuff people on reef2reef seem to use
I think maybe they were talking about api furan -2 (unsure here please correct me if im wrong)
How often and how much are you doing water changes on this tank?

I do 10 gallons every week, so 10%. I'll see about picking up a small bottle of chaetogro. And the furan-2 stuff, do you have any idea where you can buy that?

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Most fish won't be impacted as they are not grounded at all but I have heard to issues relating to stray voltage causing STN. Just get a multimeter and stick one in the ground socket of a plug and the red side goes into the tank.

 

[dedragon]

api furan 2 can be bought on amazon

 

[JustinMN18]

I think your tank is still new.

It could be releasing phosphate from the rocks.

Waterchanges will only help with nitrates not phosphates.

I have a feeling unning gfo and nopox is stripping anything your corals need out of the water column before the corals can use it.

Sounds like you are basically starving your corals. I know weird theory....

I know you have high no3 and po4 but I think you are removing it before your corals can use it.

Just my opinion. But I would stop the gfo and nopox and let your tank mature.

20 nitrates is not bad at all and .2 phos won't kill anything.

I run .15 phos and 20nitrates

Stability is key

If you want to control just phosphate there is phosgaurd, lanthium chloride, and gfo isn't bad but when mixed with nopox I believe is doing too much.

Each tank is different tho!

You have a lot of good advice from other member so just stick to what you choose and keep it stable

Thanks for your input! I just literally started dosing NoPOx like 2 days ago. This has been a 3 week issue so far. Otherwise I just run GFO in the reactor.

 

[JustinMN18]

IME, chaeto struggles or dies when it runs out of iron. It won't usually die from lack of nitrate and phosphate if you have fish, but it may not grow much. When chaeto dies, it releases what it consumed: nitrate, phosphate, and iron. The GHA is probably feasting on decomposing chaeto.

When this happened to me, I did three things: got new chaeto (or remove all non-wiry, non-dark-green chaeto), added a small powerhead in refugium to circulate water in and around chaeto, and started dosing supplemental iron. I've not had my chaeto die since (1.5 years now) and there is no GHA or cyano in my refugium.

One more thing, how many watts is your 'fuge light?

I'm running the AI Prime Fuge light, and it's about 75% power right now.

And good to know. Could it be possible that my phosphates are so high BECAUSE my macro algae is decomposing? Literally my chaeto and ogo just get smaller, and both are intertwined with GHA. And do you run your powerhead 24/7 in the fuge?

 

[JustinMN18]

A pic of your tank, under white light, would be very helpful for us. I also suspect that your starving your tank by running too much export mechanisms, maybe in an attempt to keep it "clean" (aka "sterile" or life-less).

One thing to keep in mind is that if you started this tank with dry rock, then that rock will adsorb phosphate for the first 3-6 months. Once it reaches an equilibrium, it will slow down and the phosphate levels in your tank will seem to rise for no reason. This could be the reason. You may have been enjoying the unexpected removal of phosphate that you were crediting to another reason. This happened to me and was very confusing.

That seems like it could be right.. Does this "random raise" in phosphate ever stop climbing? It seems like it never ends, and gets up there. Highest I've had is 0.33.

 

[JustinMN18]

Agreed with the above; those nutrient levels aren't actually that bad, and some corals will like those numbers. Phosphate in particular doesn't kill things at most levels you can reasonably get in a reef tank. Some healthy tanks have 1ppm or more of the stuff. Nutrients a little high by some standards will do MUCH less harm than trying to yank all the nutrients out.

Do you feed the corals? If so, what and how much?

Agreed that it sounds like they might be starving. What could be happening is they've all been quietly suffering in the background, but have now hit a point where they can't even pretend to stay healthy any more, so they're slowly declining.

Stop dosing NoPox. Remove all nutrient removal methods, really, except maybe some carbon- it won't take much. To get the chaeto going, try ChaetoGro, your corals might benefit as well. Just be sure not to overdose, I've found that too much (i.e. twice as much as recommended) ChaetoGro is irritating to some corals.

I feed the corals frozen food directly every 2 or 3 days, AB+ daily, oyster feast once a week, and Reef Roids 1-2 times a week. Usually the day of a water change, and right before I do it.

I'll try ChaetoGro, and remove the GFO today and just run carbon. Keep skimming on, and just what.... hope my phosphates don't get out of control? I just hate losing these guys. All were doing so well right up until I got back from my weekend trip.

 

[MERKEY]

Thanks for your input! I just literally started dosing NoPOx like 2 days ago. This has been a 3 week issue so far. Otherwise I just run GFO in the reactor.

This was my point in a long about way.

You have always run gfo and now started nopox and now are having issues.

Your dry rocks are releasing po4.

 

[MERKEY]

That seems like it could be right.. Does this "random raise" in phosphate ever stop climbing? It seems like it never ends, and gets up there. Highest I've had is 0.33.

Phos will leach for months sometimes.

 

[Muffin87]

Phosphate: 0.2

I'd check that the GFO is actually doing anything. I'm having the same problem with my GFO.

 

[JustinMN18]

Phos will leach for months sometimes.

What do I do then to prevent it from climbing so high? If I quit dosing NoPOx, and quit using GFO, and rely solely on skimming, how do I keep the phosphate at a reasonable level?

 

[JustinMN18]

Phos will leach for months sometimes.

One question for you. Any idea on "GPH" for flow rate through a carbon/gfo mix in a reactor?

 

[JustinMN18]

I'd check that the GFO is actually doing anything. I'm having the same problem with my GFO.

What have you tried? and what makes you think it's not working? I was almost just wondering if I skip carbon all together for a couple weeks and just run GFO.

 

[jeffchapok]

What do I do then to prevent it from climbing so high? If I quit dosing NoPOx, and quit using GFO, and rely solely on skimming, how do I keep the phosphate at a reasonable level?

Stop with the Reef Roids. They are bad about raising PO4.

That said, your levels are not that high. My PO4/NO3 are .5/50 and everything is doing fine.

Don't get hung up on numbers, focus on results instead. I agree that you should also stop the NoPOx and GFO and rely on chaeto for your nutrient export. Make small changes and then give it time to work - 2 weeks minimum. There are no quick fixes in this hobby.

 

[schuby]

Phos will leach for months sometimes.

My understanding is that the phosphate concentration on the dry rock is much higher than in the water. As you remove phosphate from water with GFO, it gets released from the rock, raising the water but not has high as it was before. The bottom line is that the GFO has to remove far more than just what's in the water to lower the overall level in your tank. For your coral's health, It is better to do this over weeks and not days.

You ask why your phosphate keeps going up. It is because you are putting more in than taking out (by your corals and GFO).

 

[Tamberav]

I agree you are doing too much.... nopox... GFO... all that crap... blah.

Cheato can be finicky, I instead use Caulerpa. It grows wonderful and controls nutrients without the neediness of cheato.

 

[MERKEY]

My understanding is that the phosphate concentration on the dry rock is much higher than in the water. As you remove phosphate from water with GFO, it gets released from the rock, raising the water but not has high as it was before. The bottom line is that the GFO has to remove far more than just what's in the water to lower the overall level in your tank. For your coral's health, It is better to do this over weeks and not days.

You ask why your phosphate keeps going up. It is because you are putting more in than taking out (by your corals and GFO).

Was this for the OP?

 

[schuby]

Was this for the OP?

Yes, sir.

 

[JustinMN18]

My understanding is that the phosphate concentration on the dry rock is much higher than in the water. As you remove phosphate from water with GFO, it gets released from the rock, raising the water but not has high as it was before. The bottom line is that the GFO has to remove far more than just what's in the water to lower the overall level in your tank. For your coral's health, It is better to do this over weeks and not days.

You ask why your phosphate keeps going up. It is because you are putting more in than taking out (by your corals and GFO).

I guess I just don't know what to do then.... if I quit GFO and NoPOx, and solely rely on my refugium which is not seeming to work well right now (I have chaetogro ready to be picked up from BRS right now), what do I do when my phosphates have no ceiling?