Somthing is extremely wrong

[PaulKreider]

So recently I'v been loosing some zoas to an unknown plague that nobody can seem to describe, they close up, and eventualy melt within a few days, it started after a recent fragging of dragon eyes. But now Im checking my water chemistry and there is a major problem....


Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 1ppm
Amonia: 0
pH:8.0
Alk: 7.8
Calcium: 980
Temp: 78F

I have no clue why my calcium is insanely high, maybe this is causing the zoa plague? Im not dosing anything other than kent marine essential elements every other week, the recomended amount, I have a 55gal tank, full of corals. Coralife 65 skimmer, two hydor 1050's and LED's. Water is from RO/DI. Mixed with reef crystals salt.

I re-did the calcium test 3 times and it kept coming out 900+

Please help!

Heres a picture of tank for reference.

 

[cdness]

Well I don't know if the high calcium is causing the zoas to melt, but stop dosing and it will come down. Tanks act very differently with their alk and cal usage. It seems like your Alk demand is higher than your Cal demand. My tank is opposite. You should look into dosing what the tank needs of each, rather than following a recommendation on the bottle. That bottle doesn't know your tank and they are too general to be correct most of the time.

 

[-Logzor]

H202 dip your colonies before they all melt.

 

[Treefer32]

Also, test your CA with a different test kit, it could be that the reagents are expired and/or weak. Have a Local pet store test it or buy a new or different brand test kit to make sure you get the same results. That said, I had my calcium up over 800 and my mg had incidently been up to 1700 and all I was doing was water changes. I found out that MG had settled to the bottom of my salt bucket and that raised my MG and my dosing of calcium allowed my calcium to be too high. I stopped dosing for around 3 months and my CA is finally down to 410 with a small weekly dose I keep it over 400. I go through alk way more than Calcium.

Zoas shouldn't really use much calcium, so, I don't know that's what's killing them, but it's not a sustainable calcium level if that's the real value.

 

[Fatmike92]

Yep if your calc is high and you keep dosing it will never go down. You might not be using up that much calc in your system so when you dose your adding more than needed.

Make sure you check your levels before you dose. If you don't need it then don't dose it!

I say don't dose for a little while. Do a nice water change. And once things get stable again look at dosing but other than that just watch your levels for now and see what happens.

Good luck!

 

[PaulKreider]

If I do a freshwater dip how long should I do it for?

 

[Fatmike92]

I wouldnt do that. sounds like a water problem not a pest problem. the coral is already stressed there is no reason to stress them out more in freshwater

if you are wanting to dip it to rid of pests then use coral RX or Revive with aquarium water. thats your best bet

but if you really wanna do it I wouldnt do it for any longer than 5 min

 

[PaulKreider]

I already tried dippin the melting frags in coral rx, didnt do anything, Il try a fresh water dip on some of the cheaper ones tonight.

 

[altolamprologus]

Do a gigantic water change and stop dosing unnecessary stuff without testing. Kent essential elements is almost entirely calcium chloride. So you've been dosing calcium but you don't have anything that uses it. Don't take any drastic measures, just stop dosing and do large water changes every few days to bring the calcium level down. And remember to follow one of the golden rules of reefing: don't dose anything you're not testing for...

 

[Eienna]

Your pH is low, too...

 

[always reefin]

What are your phosphates? Alk low too imo

 

[Eienna]

Goodness, you may want to check your SG too.

 

[SamsReef]

Paul,

you already have the right advises from everyone about water changes and checking SG. Have you done the water change yet?

 

[Zack]

I agree with these guys, NEVER dose your tank with something without knowing exactly what it needs. Usually if it seems to good to be true- it usually is: such as adding one bottle of stuff per week and your parameters will be perfect- always test and add accordingly. I dont see a lot of sps in your tank, you probably dont havr that high of a calcium or alk. demand anyway. Before i had sps only i rarely had.to dose, water changes took care of most of my dosing.

 

[Murfman]

I would check phophates too!

 

[gmoney243]

Your pH is low, too...

What are your phosphates? Alk low too imo

Ph at 8.0 and alk at 7.8 is perfectly fine sea water runs alk at like 7.0 i wouldnt go lower than 7 but i run my alk at around 8 and have np. It could be pics of half naked women maybe your fish and corals are getting to excited

 

[lakeviewink]

If I do a freshwater dip how long should I do it for?

H2o2 is Hydrogen peroxide, not a freshwater dip, just so you know

 

[mike007]

I really don't think you ca could be that high. You need to retest with a different test or take sample to lfs and have them verify. When you have high ca your alk will be low and will keep staying low untill you balance ca and alk . Bring it down gradually with water changes and then get your water parameters back in check.

 

[gmoney243]

Calcium also falls out of solution at a certain level and ur tank would look like its snowing if it was really 900 ppm

 

[PaulKreider]

A hydrogen peroxide dip? People do those?? I feel like that would kill the zoas.