SPS tank dying

[IslandLifeReef]

no black bugs, so i tried turning the lights down from 45% to 40%. I'm going to try moving some of the pumps around, maybe i've got some dead spots in the tank.

Hmm. You were running your lights at 45% on a tank that size. IME, slow tissue loss from the base up is a sign of too little light. When you told me you PAR numbers, I discounted that, but now I'm not sure those numbers are accurate based on how low you are running those lights.

I would consider slowly increasing the lights rather than decreasing them. Lowering the lights works well to reduce stress from a sudden shock, but you have a great ICP test and your lights have been at that level for a while. Try increasing them 5-10% a week until you are running them around 70% and see how that goes.

Also, after making a change, don't make another change for a few weeks to allow you to see if the change you made is helping or hurting. The only way I would make more changes is if something went really bad really quickly.

 

[happyhourhero]

Have you changed out your RODI filters? Has your source water changed in your city?

 

[SeeFu]

Hmm. You were running your lights at 45% on a tank that size. IME, slow tissue loss from the base up is a sign of too little light. When you told me you PAR numbers, I discounted that, but now I'm not sure those numbers are accurate based on how low you are running those lights.

I would consider slowly increasing the lights rather than decreasing them. Lowering the lights works well to reduce stress from a sudden shock, but you have a great ICP test and your lights have been at that level for a while. Try increasing them 5-10% a week until you are running them around 70% and see how that goes.

Also, after making a change, don't make another change for a few weeks to allow you to see if the change you made is helping or hurting. The only way I would make more changes is if something went really bad really quickly.

if you watch the brs video on the xr30 g5 you'll see they ran theres at around 45% too for a similiarly sized tank.

16:16 mark

my tank is 12" wider but its also 4" shorter

 

[SeeFu]

all filters were changed about 3-4 months ago

 

[IslandLifeReef]

if you watch the brs video on the xr30 g5 you'll see they ran theres at around 45% too for a similiarly sized tank.

16:16 mark

my tank is 12" wider but its also 4" shorter

Didn't you say you were running the AB+ program. At the intensity setting you mention, BRS modified the settings increasing the green, red, warm white and cool white settings. While the increase in the green and red spectrum probably didn't increase the PAR significantly, the increase in the white channels probably did increase the PAR more than you would think.

I'll say again, IME, slow recession in tissue from the base up is usually caused by a lack of light. With your ICP test showing your water is good, I would look at increasing the light rather than decreasing it.

 

[sculpin01]

Your 25% water changes aren’t likely to hurt anything as long as 1) you replete nitrate and phosphate to maintain healthy levels and 2) you’re not unlucky enough to get bad salt.

However, if you don’t replete nitrate and phosphate, you’re setting yourself up for a dino outbreak. Are you by chance dosing any amino acids?

 

[SeeFu]

i just bought some new refractometer calibration solution. it's reading 3ppt higher than two current old solutions. How can I get a definite answer to what my salinity is?

 

[Jeeperz]

I had a similar issue 2 - 3 year ago.
Tank was migrated from a smaller tank and everything was ok for like 12 months or so, but the slowely some corals died and new corals wouldn't make it for more than 2 months and coraline algeas slowely disappeared from the rockwork (not the glass).
After six mor months doing ICP tests and changing a lot of waster think I found the reason - I have been using a cheap PVC container (95 liter) for mixing saltwater before water change, made of black reused plastic, and when not having a powerhead in for like 30 minutes a grey oil-like film covered the water surface. It was not the salt (RS) because I tested it by mixing in a new hard-plastic container, and no film was to see here.
I used the opputunity to start all over with new custom build ceramic rock-work Looking at my sps dominated tank right now

Hope this is not the issue in your case. Just wanted to share the expirience

Pics of the tank or it didn't happen. Lol

 

[SeeFu]

Hmm. You were running your lights at 45% on a tank that size. IME, slow tissue loss from the base up is a sign of too little light. When you told me you PAR numbers, I discounted that, but now I'm not sure those numbers are accurate based on how low you are running those lights.

I would consider slowly increasing the lights rather than decreasing them. Lowering the lights works well to reduce stress from a sudden shock, but you have a great ICP test and your lights have been at that level for a while. Try increasing them 5-10% a week until you are running them around 70% and see how that goes.

Also, after making a change, don't make another change for a few weeks to allow you to see if the change you made is helping or hurting. The only way I would make more changes is if something went really bad really quickly.

i cranked my lights up to 65% over the past month. things have improved significnatly and stopped dying. I'm amazed that after 2 yrs the tank decided 45% wasn't enough light.

 

[wrassie86]

I don't know if it was mentioned or not, but how do you top off the tank? I feed my DI into a 5 gallon container automatically then it is fed to the tank by float valve. My 5g jug never fully empties, so it suffers TDS creep if i don't clean it now and then.

 

[Dr. Jim]

i just bought some new refractometer calibration solution. it's reading 3ppt higher than two current old solutions. How can I get a definite answer to what my salinity is?

I've seen a lot of reefers have problems simply because their salinity measuring device or calibrating solutions were "off." IMO, improper salinity measurements may be a more common cause for problems than many may think. I would recommend a Tropic Marin High Precision Hydrometer to check your refractometer. I would also invest in a good refractometer (at least $100; look on Amazon) and buy 2 or 3 calibrating solutions to compare or make your own using Randy Holmes Farley's formula.

Once, I bought 3 different calibration solutions at the same time, plus I made my own, and there was a disturbing degree of variation amongst all of them. (I also use a Milwaukee digital). I've bought several of the T.M. High Precision Hydrometers over the years (mainly because they are so easy to break!) but I've always had confidence in them when comparing values to those of ICP companies (like Oceamo). I can't explain exactly the device that Oceamo uses but thru personal communication with the owner (Christoph) it is supposed to be much more accurate than anything a hobbyist might use.

Recently, I bought two Tropic Marin High Precision hydrometers just to compare them to each other .....(just to give me even more confidence in them). There was only a difference of 0.0003 between the two of them! (so, 1.0260 vs 1.0263). You can't get to the 4th decimal place with a refractometer.

Hope this helps.

 

[Yanir34]

Are you using nopox or other Carbon source to handle No3 and Po4 ?
Also, are you dosing amino acid ?
In my country we have outbreak of infection that hurts sps exactly the way that you wrote...All of those tanks have 2 thing's in common: dosing amino and carbon.
Once that dosing were stopped , the things got better

 

[SeeFu]

problem solved. it was a lighting issue.

 

[Yanir34]

problem solved. it was a lighting issue.

How did you come to this conclusion.?

 

[homer1475]

How did you come to this conclusion.?

i cranked my lights up to 65% over the past month. things have improved significantly and stopped dying. I'm amazed that after 2 yrs the tank decided 45% wasn't enough light.

Theres your answer. lol

What I did recently was move from a 6 bulb t5 ATI fixture with reef brites, to an 8 bulb with built in LEDS(powermodule hybrid). My Alk uptake went up by 1DKH a day by simply adding more light.

I knew I was low on PAR, but had no idea how much my corals changed in growth from simply adding more light. I have not PAR'ed the tank with the new lights, so I really have no idea how much more light I added, but I would guess at least 100 PAR difference.

It's amazing how much light can make a huge difference in growth, or death of a coral.

 

[Rmckoy]

You post good parameters but no mention of stability?
What’s the flux on salinity, temp and alk?

I was reading to see if anyone caught alk has a .6dkh swing .

curious how often . Is it gradual over a period of time ?

 

[homer1475]

If coral and tank are healthy, a .6DKH swing should not bother a thing. Probably why no one has mentioned it.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

problem solved. it was a lighting issue.

i cranked my lights up to 65% over the past month. things have improved significnatly and stopped dying. I'm amazed that after 2 yrs the tank decided 45% wasn't enough light.

Glad I could help. People get focused on nutrients when it comes to issues with corals, but they forget that coral gets approximately 85% of their energy from light. Its like saying you fertilize your plants, but they keep dying even though you keep them in a room with a window. Yeah, they are getting light, but is it enough and usable to them?

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Pics of the tank or it didn't happen. Lol

Thats how I look at most of this "information" or, I atleast go looking for thier pictures, most dont have the pictures to back up the "information" they dole out.

Who doesn't have a build thread/any up to date pictures of their tank on here, but has 1,000's of random posts.... I dont get it, all the good experienced information gets buried by fish poop... sorry not sorry

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

@reefbeef