reef chem and my problem warning lots of data

ReefCycle · Sep 6, 2014

Moved into my house feb 7 2013, at which point I moved my sw system, at that point I only had a 240 fowlr and 135 reef with a combined 75g sump.
Current tank iteration is a centrally plumbed system that is monitored and controlled by apex controller
1. 240 fowlr
2 150 fowlr
3 135 reef
4 72 bow banggai breedout
5 60 cube reef display tank
6 150 horse trough growout/safety tank quarantine
7 150 horse trough common sump for all tanks
8 algae scrubber 48" runway
Filtration
MRC MR-6R skimmer cleaned biweeky and pulls 3-5 gallon bucket weekly
BRS Reactor running high capacity gfo and large lignite carbon media changed bi weekly
Biopellet reactor Biochurn using AIO pellets (undersized) media lasts around 6-7 months IME
Algae Scrubber cleaned weekly (relatively new)
SRO Calc reactor (forget the model number but its a dual chamber behemoth)
40 gallons water change weekly using I/O marine salt and spectrapure 180gpd rodi
OK NOW on to the problem. My numbers stay pretty consistent as in I test weekly and monthly with Salifert test kits
I will not post my results from last 3 years but here they are
Ph 8.1-8.3 swing from day to night
Ca 440 lowest 425 highest 465 over a 3 year period
Alk 8.2 lowest 7.8 highest 10.5 (heres where I think I should concentrate my attention)
Mag 1350 lowest 900 highest 1400 ( low point lasted a week and was 1.5 years ago my thoughts are from the move and adjustment to increase in volume)
N03 2ppm highest was 5 ppm
P04 .00 highest was .05ppm

My branching hammer coral and one of my chalices started receding. My hammer grew from one head to 25 over a period of 5 years. I love it, and its started receding, my zoas my hurricane chalice millepora and anenomes are all happy and healthy. I have dipped and started using diff food enhancers to try and save it. Should I raise my kh?
sorry for length

CoralHut · Sep 7, 2014

kH sounds good and I would not mess with it. Looks more like maybe your algal scrubber addition is taking too much from the water. Or possibly the AIO pellets. Euphyllia and chalices are very sensitive to drops in phosphate and will recede if they drop rapidly or raise rapidly. I would feed them more and maybe not use so many sources of aggressive phosphate removal all at once.

ReefCycle · Sep 7, 2014

The scrubber was/is installed in place of a 55 fuge and to be fair to the scrubber the 2 corals dropped in health prior. You see all my phosphates had to be locked in the algae in the system. My reef and fowlr had hair algae or briopsis, and I always used the gfo and carbon. I always tested and always got low readings, I used the more natural way to remove it with inverts and just kept physically removing it. After a period of 3 months with the help of the inverts the old algae was gone and hasnt returned. I am going to pull the pellet reactor, since month or so prior to the problem I changed pellets, but my thinking was a biochurn 120 int holds so few pellets in such a large system, that phosphate or nitrate removal wouldnt become an overnight drop.

mcarroll · Sep 7, 2014

I think I agree in targeting the pellet reactor....maybe the GFO too....for decommissioning. I think I'd get on a track to phase both out in favor of the algae scrubber. (Is the ATS sized to your feeding regime?)

Watch N and P closely though so you know how the system is reacting. I'd probably do it over the course of a month or two by slowly reducing the media in both reactors to zero.

-Matt

ReefCycle · Sep 7, 2014

Well pellets are out gfo was on the system for ever so ill leave it and maybe use less gfo per bi weekly change. Scrubber is a dual lane 48" aquari scrubber. The annoying website guy, lol found one on interwebs. So its the largest i could find.

mcarroll · Sep 7, 2014

They have guidelines for ATS sizing - more specific/accurate recommendations all the time it seems - so if you haven't looked yet, check the forum search or google for those.....think santamonica posts them...prolly others as well. I'm not familiar with the unit you mentioned, so I can't specifically comment if it's big enough or not.

Good luck - let us know how things progress!

-Matt

P.S. Just read in another forum about "all-in-one" pellets....thought you were referring to a brand called AIO. LOL. Are yours "laced" with GFO like the others I've seen? Just curious....not changing my recommendation.

ReefCycle · Sep 7, 2014

yeah they are the gfo kind. I needed to replace my pellets and figured it couldnt hurt, guess I was wrong. Its an aquaricare algae turf scrubber its the largest model they had, it was sized for large aquaria, and with my bioload its probably spot on. I will look into santamonica sizing charts tho.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 8, 2014

The chemical specs look fine, unless phosphate is too low, as mentioned.

Any changes in lighting or other creatures in the tank?

With the algae scrubber in place, some elements (such as iron) may be pretty low unless supplemented (although the GFO may actually supply some iron).

ReefCycle · Sep 8, 2014

Lighting and major equipment hasn't changed im a fan of consistency. I took the reactor off line and we will see how it goes. I'm feeding consistent with coral amino and hammer has slowed it's decent thankfully. I'm just nervous and I talked to my friend who has huge success and doesn't over think as much as I do! Lol. Ty guys we see what happens