Random RTN

[fishyman19]

So a little background on the tank, I have a 20 gallon IM with a sock on one side and the media basket on the other, 2 AI Primes HD's, and for flow I'm just using the returns and a Nano Koralia pump. Tank has been running well since Christmas. For coral I have probably 20-24 Acro frags and some assorted LPS and softies, mainly zoas and a green toadstool.

Water parameters as of yesterday are mag 1360 cal, 370 and alk 7.7. I just bought tests today to test for Nitrate and Phosphate as well. I need to bring my refractometer in tomorrow to test salinity as well.

Now to be more clear this is a work tank and it sits by itself for 2 days over the weekend and that's when my parameters tend to drop the most. On Friday before I left for the day the parameters were Mag-1500 Cal, 450 and Alk 7.8. I try and dose a bit more then normal on Friday to cover for the weekend. Might eventually get the money for a doser.

It ran basically fish less for about a month and a half except for a red pygmy possum wrasse. Last week I added a pair of clowns and a yellow watchmans goby and pistol shrimp. I also have a pom pom crab, emerald crab, sexy shrimp and cleaner shrimp.

I come into work on Monday with a fresh batch of Saltwater for a water change and test the water at the end of the day and dose accordingly. Now yesterday I needed to add some Auto Top off water and accidentally left it running. It didn't overflow the tank but it did fill the back chambers all the way to the top. I quickly(might be against better judgement) took about half a gallon of water out of the tank. Don't know if it actually did anything but oh well. I looked over the SPS and corals and they all seemed fairly happy and healthy, now come into work today and my PC Superman frag has completely bleached, tissue hanging off the tip. I quickly look over the rest of the SPS and minus a few spots that have lost some color I have great PE from I'd say 95% of the frags in the tank. I even put a new piece in today(appleberry monti) that sat in a bag over night, that already has great color and PE. Was my Superman dying just a fluke? I haven't tested nitrates or phosphates in the tank yet just bought test kits for those this morning, but could the sudden fish load have caused the issue? the over watering added of RO? or could something else be wrong?

Sorry for the sideways picture, but this is a picture of my Walt Disney frag that I took to show how the other SPS are doing in the tank, they seem to be doing great. So I'm at a loss why one frag that was doing amazing yesterday is gone within less then 24 hours.

Thank you for the help

 

[happyhourhero]

Yeah the swings over the weekend could be problematic. I would for sure check your salinity with a refractomer like you plan to and get that dialed in. You will likely need an ato because on a tank that small evaporation over the weekend will swing the salinity quite a bit. If you can find a way to keep everything especially ALK stable then you should have some success. The worst part about acros is sometimes they get mad at you today for something that you did 2 weeks ago and sometimes they get mad over whats happening right now.

 

[Scorpius]

You had parameters swing on you. The weakest most sensitive corals get hit first. Don't be surprised to have other issues pop up over the next month now. Just try to keep everything stable. SPS don't like anything to change on them.

 

[fishyman19]

Yeah the swings over the weekend could be problematic. I would for sure check your salinity with a refractomer like you plan to and get that dialed in. You will likely need an ato because on a tank that small evaporation over the weekend will swing the salinity quite a bit. If you can find a way to keep everything especially ALK stable then you should have some success. The worst part about acros is sometimes they get mad at you today for something that you did 2 weeks ago and sometimes they get mad over whats happening right now.

I will get the Salinity checked tomorrow and update you guys. I do have an ATO unit on the tank, the problem is yesterday when I topped off the ATO container it wasn't able to fill up to the line because it was sucking air for a while. So I just let it run, went to lunch and accidentally forgot about it, came back after an hour and it was blowing bubbles in the back chamber cause it was so full. So I probably added a gallon and a half of RO water after a 3 gallon water change. I will have to figure out how to fix the swing that happens over the weekend. Maybe just get a doser that runs then or something.

I've already had some great success and it's been awesome, already have some frags growing over the plugs onto the rocks and the PC Superman was growing great as well. Just for whatever reason it up and died today. Thank you for the advice!

 

[sango]

I agree that the problem was probably the rapid salinity change. I believe an ATO is essential to my long-term success with SPS but I have experienced issues when I bumped the float switch out of position. One option to consider is adding a second float switch for the high water level.

 

[fishyman19]

You had parameters swing on you. The weakest most sensitive corals get hit first. Don't be surprised to have other issues pop up over the next month now. Just try to keep everything stable. SPS don't like anything to change on them.

Yeah I've been doing my best to keep it stable, dosing by hand every day seems to have helped a bunch, it's just the weekend dosing that I need to figure out better.

 

[fishyman19]

You had parameters swing on you. The weakest most sensitive corals get hit first. Don't be surprised to have other issues pop up over the next month now. Just try to keep everything stable. SPS don't like anything to change on them.

Yeah I've been doing my best to keep it stable, does

 

[fishyman19]

I agree that the problem was probably the rapid salinity change. I believe an ATO is essential to my long-term success with SPS but I have experienced issues when I bumped the float switch out of position. One option to consider is adding a second float switch for the high water level.

Yeah I agree with you there, my first tank here at the office was an 8 gallon nano and the pieces I had in there were doing awful. I would say that maybe the tank lost half a gallon a week or less in water, but man does that affect it. So I bought a top off unit and it helped a ton. It's just been a couple times over the last 2 weeks that I let it run too long(just had a baby a few months ago, brain doesn't always work out right lol)

 

[Ashish Patel]

Your problem is salinity and parameters swings and Id imagine temperature swings. Get the tank settled and do start with the basics, get a ink bird heater/cooling controller which is around $30, that will take care of temperature and cooling. You said you used ATO water but are you running a float valve or switch? Also, not sure of your budget a cheap doser (jebao) would be better than running your tank without one. Im talking from experience as having made every mistake in this hobby, there are a lot of affordable solutions to get your tank stable no need for an apex. Alot of us hobbyist in our earlier tanks like justify spending 80% of the money on livestock and later down the road we tend to do the opposite. You take care of temp, salinity, ALK/CA your other parameters will fall into line and your corals will respond after 1-2 months. Hope this helps!

 

[fishyman19]

Your problem is salinity and parameters swings and Id imagine temperature swings. Get the tank settled and do start with the basics, get a ink bird heater/cooling controller which is around $30, that will take care of temperature and cooling. You said you used ATO water but are you running a float valve or switch? Also, not sure of your budget a cheap doser (jebao) would be better than running your tank without one. Im talking from experience as having made every mistake in this hobby, there are a lot of affordable solutions to get your tank stable no need for an apex. Alot of us hobbyist in our earlier tanks like justify spending 80% of the money on livestock and later down the road we tend to do the opposite. You take care of temp, salinity, ALK/CA your other parameters will fall into line and your corals will respond after 1-2 months. Hope this helps!

So I don't think the heating or cooling is the issue, the tank sits around 77-79 during the week and weekend. But I do agree with the salinity swing and parameters. I think this error was primarily my fault as well. I have the Hydor Smart Level system for my auto top off system and it works great except when it runs out and I have to refill it and run it to get it back up to speed. I think that was my main issue with the superman dying. I left it running on accident and it let way way more water in then needed to be put in.

I also decided to pick up the Jebao doser you mentioned and some two part supplement and magnesium as well. They should all be here next week. Looking forward to getting those in next week. So hopefully that will help the weekend depletion issues. And hopefully my brain will continue working the next time I let the top off run. When it's been running on its own it does great, but the two times I've had to catch it back up was when I ran into issues.

Thank you for the help!

 

[fishyman19]

Also just to let everyone know I tested the main 3 again today and Salinity and this is what I got.

Salinity-on the edge of 1.023-024
Mag-1400
Cal-390
Alk-8.4

This was after dosing those 3 yesterday as well. So they all moved up from where they were at on Monday.

Should I just let it go a day and see where they end up on Friday and adjust accordingly until the doser comes in?

 

[Ashish Patel]

Also just to let everyone know I tested the main 3 again today and Salinity and this is what I got.

Salinity-on the edge of 1.023-024
Mag-1400
Cal-390
Alk-8.4

This was after dosing those 3 yesterday as well. So they all moved up from where they were at on Monday.

Should I just let it go a day and see where they end up on Friday and adjust accordingly until the doser comes in?

Thats good start. I use BRS 2 part because of the price an easy calculator for dosing on their website. I use the hanna checker for keeping my alk stable. i test it pretty much daily but when it registers same readings for 5 days I won't test for 3 days. With the hanna it rarely tests past .1 dkh difference per day and generally I find it stays at 8.4 80% of the time I test. I also have a redsea ALK test kit and find i give different reading every time so only use this as a backup, salifert is probably better if I had to choose. Are you using a refractometer? If so make sure to calibrate before every use. I've read SPS salinity is best at 35PPT so thats where keep it. Either way I would keep salinity close to what vendors and other hobbyist use at 1025-1026 so its one less thing you have to worry about when adding acros. I remember my first acro from LFS< i tested the alk in the bag and it was 12dkh. I spend 3 hours slowly drip acclimating it from 12DKH to 8.4dkh and it did not last long before RTN from the base. Dont let anyone tell you your tank is too small. The small details make the difference "Making sure your TDS meter is 0 at all times", taking time to calibrate refractometer, testing your ALK/PO frequently, not overstocking, adding the right amount of nutrients with fish food, and monitoring algae growth on a daily basis. Getting ICP test every 3 months is also a good tool to have since in time your tank will start losing important trace elements and this way you can supplement those that are too low. i say a lot but I have alot to say!