Ryan T.L.
Community Member
Hi everyone, I was away for 3 weeks and came back to a very different tank. Sorry for the long post but trying to give as much detail.
Background:
My new tank is about 9mos old but with all rocks from a prior system that was almost 10yrs with thriving sps colonies.
When I started this tank the only new thing introduced was the sand, everything is 3-4yrs old but for one butterfly I got almost 2yrs ago. I really doubt it's AEFW (which I fought before) or a pest or that my fish are nipping at corals, I've had to deal with that before too.
Victims:
About 3 months ago after doing 3 Tritons and making sure all my params were stable, seeing lots of coralline and sponge growth I added 6 frags (2 green slimers, blue tenuis, rainbow acro, tricolor valida, oregon blue tort). I fragged these from my own old colonies. All have encrusted, started growing, and had good PE extension although mostly at night.
Problem:
Blue tenuis completely bleached when I returned. Oregon tort now has some brown algae on one side, 3color seems to be doing great, rainbow however looks paler than normal. I could chalk up all those to the tank being new although my sump is full of sponges which I usually considered a good sign.
However, over the last week I saw one of the green slimers turn darker, almost grayish tips, then I woke up to the other slimer frag looking very pale, not entirely bleached.
Observed Changes aka mandatory %*&t that happens when you go away:
As always, something did go wrong while I was away, I'm ordering in the order of likelihood IMO:
- DOS malfunctioned and dumped too much alk raising it to 10 from the usual 8-8.5dKh, fortunately I forgot to fill the dosing container and it was caught by my friend who was watching the tank but possibly was that way for 12+ hrs
- one of the auto feeders dumped too much food, PO4 jumped to 0.3 from the usual 0.08-0.1
- least likely, though maybe possible, my friend performed several water changes. I use HW Marinemix reefer but was out and no LFS carries that so he got a bucket of RS salt (blue)
Setup and Parameters:
- Reefer 350, oversized reef octopus skimmer, 2 gyres 230 ( lots of flow), BRS carbon reactor with mixed Rowa and Rox carbon, Razor 420R 320W lights
- Salinity: 35ppt
- Alk: usually 8-8.5 (Hanna), jumped to 10, I've stopped dosing and now it's back to 8.6
- Ca: ~440 both Triton and Hanna checker, 3/3x the match was within 10ppm
- Mg: between 1300-1400 Aquaforest test
- pH: - 8-8.3
- PO4: jumped to 0.3, but now back to 0.1 (Hanna ULR)
- NO3: 10ish
- Potassium: 390 salifert
- Temp: 78
Questions:
1) Any thoughts what to suspect and ideas what to do?
2) Could it all be from the alk jump even if it was relatively short between 12-18hrs? if so, what can I do other than keep it stable and hope it gets better?
3) Would a short phosphate jump cause issues? I'm inclined to think no...
4) Could it be the salt change? the second green slimer turned pale after a water change
Thank you!
Background:
My new tank is about 9mos old but with all rocks from a prior system that was almost 10yrs with thriving sps colonies.
When I started this tank the only new thing introduced was the sand, everything is 3-4yrs old but for one butterfly I got almost 2yrs ago. I really doubt it's AEFW (which I fought before) or a pest or that my fish are nipping at corals, I've had to deal with that before too.
Victims:
About 3 months ago after doing 3 Tritons and making sure all my params were stable, seeing lots of coralline and sponge growth I added 6 frags (2 green slimers, blue tenuis, rainbow acro, tricolor valida, oregon blue tort). I fragged these from my own old colonies. All have encrusted, started growing, and had good PE extension although mostly at night.
Problem:
Blue tenuis completely bleached when I returned. Oregon tort now has some brown algae on one side, 3color seems to be doing great, rainbow however looks paler than normal. I could chalk up all those to the tank being new although my sump is full of sponges which I usually considered a good sign.
However, over the last week I saw one of the green slimers turn darker, almost grayish tips, then I woke up to the other slimer frag looking very pale, not entirely bleached.
Observed Changes aka mandatory %*&t that happens when you go away:
As always, something did go wrong while I was away, I'm ordering in the order of likelihood IMO:
- DOS malfunctioned and dumped too much alk raising it to 10 from the usual 8-8.5dKh, fortunately I forgot to fill the dosing container and it was caught by my friend who was watching the tank but possibly was that way for 12+ hrs
- one of the auto feeders dumped too much food, PO4 jumped to 0.3 from the usual 0.08-0.1
- least likely, though maybe possible, my friend performed several water changes. I use HW Marinemix reefer but was out and no LFS carries that so he got a bucket of RS salt (blue)
Setup and Parameters:
- Reefer 350, oversized reef octopus skimmer, 2 gyres 230 ( lots of flow), BRS carbon reactor with mixed Rowa and Rox carbon, Razor 420R 320W lights
- Salinity: 35ppt
- Alk: usually 8-8.5 (Hanna), jumped to 10, I've stopped dosing and now it's back to 8.6
- Ca: ~440 both Triton and Hanna checker, 3/3x the match was within 10ppm
- Mg: between 1300-1400 Aquaforest test
- pH: - 8-8.3
- PO4: jumped to 0.3, but now back to 0.1 (Hanna ULR)
- NO3: 10ish
- Potassium: 390 salifert
- Temp: 78
Questions:
1) Any thoughts what to suspect and ideas what to do?
2) Could it all be from the alk jump even if it was relatively short between 12-18hrs? if so, what can I do other than keep it stable and hope it gets better?
3) Would a short phosphate jump cause issues? I'm inclined to think no...
4) Could it be the salt change? the second green slimer turned pale after a water change
Thank you!
