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- Jan 18, 2020
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I am total beginner with SPS myself (and in general) with huge gaps and misconceptions in my knowledge/experience so don't put much stock in anything i say.
My tank isn't much older than yours and we used live sand and bottled bacteria to cycle it. I also have good programmable spectrum LED's but way less par than most other people because they barely penetrate at all (barely into the high range at the top of the tank).
Just to understand all 10 sps frags are experiencing this? If not all which specific species and which order did they start dying off?
I would logically rule out a light issue by the fact that they are probably mounted at different levels, and have different light requirements and also the specific way in which they are being effected, especially after doing good for so long.
If they were doing good at first and now took a crap I would think that they:
A. Used up all of, or are finally suffering the effects of a lack of, something critical in the tank that they all need to live which I would think unlikely unless its something you can't test for or have a bad test. Some of your numbers are a bit high or low but I'm not sure its so wildly off as to have everything crash at once after a few weeks of good growth.
B. Some sort of disease or infection or pest that effects all types equally (well beyond my knowledge) though I would expect that to have started somewhere and progressed and not hit everywhere at once.
C. Some sort of toxin introduced to the tank either from the air or from direct contact like some idiot dunking an arm covered in toxic sun block or lotion in or something.
A massive water change (as large as possible in several sessions) with the water being dosed to exactly match the tank ahead of time might be a good start to eliminate potential contaminates but it would also make the lack of nitrates worse.
EDIT: refugiums and skimmers might need some replanning on yours.
I normally do 20% every 2 weeks.
My tank matches the center of the ranges on this chart exactly except I can't get my PH over 8.1 with my current dosing (whats yours BTW?).
My nitrates were 15 (down from 20 due to several food incidents and dirty filters though they used to be 5-10) and the phosphates hover in low measurable levels above zero with the hanna. I also have no refugium and have both brown diatom and green (not hair) algae growing on the glass and rocks though the blenny works the glass and the hermit crabs work the sand and rocks.
So far everything is looking healthier after a few weeks than when it was at the LFS but who knows what next week will bring.
My tank isn't much older than yours and we used live sand and bottled bacteria to cycle it. I also have good programmable spectrum LED's but way less par than most other people because they barely penetrate at all (barely into the high range at the top of the tank).
Just to understand all 10 sps frags are experiencing this? If not all which specific species and which order did they start dying off?
I would logically rule out a light issue by the fact that they are probably mounted at different levels, and have different light requirements and also the specific way in which they are being effected, especially after doing good for so long.
If they were doing good at first and now took a crap I would think that they:
A. Used up all of, or are finally suffering the effects of a lack of, something critical in the tank that they all need to live which I would think unlikely unless its something you can't test for or have a bad test. Some of your numbers are a bit high or low but I'm not sure its so wildly off as to have everything crash at once after a few weeks of good growth.
B. Some sort of disease or infection or pest that effects all types equally (well beyond my knowledge) though I would expect that to have started somewhere and progressed and not hit everywhere at once.
C. Some sort of toxin introduced to the tank either from the air or from direct contact like some idiot dunking an arm covered in toxic sun block or lotion in or something.
A massive water change (as large as possible in several sessions) with the water being dosed to exactly match the tank ahead of time might be a good start to eliminate potential contaminates but it would also make the lack of nitrates worse.
EDIT: refugiums and skimmers might need some replanning on yours.
I normally do 20% every 2 weeks.
My tank matches the center of the ranges on this chart exactly except I can't get my PH over 8.1 with my current dosing (whats yours BTW?).
My nitrates were 15 (down from 20 due to several food incidents and dirty filters though they used to be 5-10) and the phosphates hover in low measurable levels above zero with the hanna. I also have no refugium and have both brown diatom and green (not hair) algae growing on the glass and rocks though the blenny works the glass and the hermit crabs work the sand and rocks.
So far everything is looking healthier after a few weeks than when it was at the LFS but who knows what next week will bring.
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