Tank Crash - Change in Salt Mix?

[Turd Ferguson]

Recently lost all my acro which were thriving. The only major changes I made was moving from IO Reef Crystals to RS Coral Pro Salt Mix.

I like the Coral Pro as it mixes quickly, the instructions indicate it should be mixed and added to the tank in 2 hours, whereas I'd like it IO Salt Mix for a day or two prior to the 5 Gal water change (40G with Sump).

Has anyone noticed any adverse changes to their tank when abruptly changing salt mixes? Prior to the slow decline, the acro's were rapidly growing. In all I lost about 6 colonies while the plating sps are still thriving.

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks !

 

[Acros]

This is very unlikely to be a salt issue.

 

[brandon429]

I just did the same thing to my tank changing from red sea blue bucket, 7 dkh alk, to imagitarium sea water, 11 dkh alk. bleached montis because I forgot to lower light power and sustain a while before moving up. I'm fully certain it did it to you. if you'd reduced light power and slowly ramped, it wouldn't have. what I did was drop the light power, slowly begin working up, and instead of a full change out I went back to 70% imagitarium water 30% red sea phasing out slowly into all imagitarium water. that'll fix it.

 

[bluemon]

If it is a salt issue, the issue probably isn't with the salt itself; it is probably because there was a spike in alkanility (if you did not match the alkalinity), as the Coral Pro salt might have a higher Alk than Reef Crystals. But really, the difference should not be so stark and you probably matched ALK anyways

 

[Doctorgori]

my vote for suspect also is alk swing, not salt brand per se

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Recently lost all my acro which were thriving. The only major changes I made was moving from IO Reef Crystals to RS Coral Pro Salt Mix.

I like the Coral Pro as it mixes quickly, the instructions indicate it should be mixed and added to the tank in 2 hours, whereas I'd like it IO Salt Mix for a day or two prior to the 5 Gal water change (40G with Sump).

Has anyone noticed any adverse changes to their tank when abruptly changing salt mixes? Prior to the slow decline, the acro's were rapidly growing. In all I lost about 6 colonies while the plating sps are still thriving.

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks !

I do not think that mixing difference is real. IO is fine in whatever time Red Sea Coral Pro is. It's just that Red Sea is worrying about precipitation of calcium carbonate in the high alk mix, whereas that is not the priority for RC mixing.

I doubt corals were lost due to the salt mix change.

 

[ReeferHD]

most likely alk swing, RS pro mixes at about 13dkh

 

[bushdoc]

It would help to diagnose problem if you could give us parameters( especially dKH) before and after change. I second those who blame sudden alkalinity bump.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

RC mixes high as well, and an ~ 10% water change is not going to make a big alk jump.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.

I realize it seems a little silly to blame a change in salts, to a certain extent I'm grasping for ideas.

In all my tanks over the last decade or two, I've only ever used Instant Ocean.... just thought I'd try Red Sea as I liked the idea of mixing and adding in the tank within two hours, where it seemed to take longer for the IO salt to mix.

The least accurate additive would be Kalk in the ATO is it's addition can depend on water amount of water evaporations. I add 1 teaspoon of Kalk powder per gallon. Via dosing pumps I add 17ml each component of ESV 2-part.

I noticed things start to go south about 8 weeks ago. First the bali slimer started to lose polyps and other colonies started to have algae growing on them. Colonies which were previously growing furiously

My Alk would bounce between 7.5 - 8.2 and once in a blue moon, say I ran out of 2 part, it could go as low was 5.8, but the corals were fine.

The first week of August I went on vacation and forgot to add kalk powerder to the ATO and I apparently ran out of two part fed by dosing pumps. The Alk dropped to 5.6, and today it's back at 8 dkh. What did happen is more torches melted, the acro's were already exiting the tank. I'm thinking the alk swing did the torches in, as well as a frogspawn coral.

The last time I lost a torch I believe it was due to an alk swing.

Which brings me back to the salt. As I noticed the acro's degrading I did more regular water changes (weekly instead of monthly 5G changes). I'm wondering if it perhaps is just a bad batch ? Or perhaps something got in the tank. My alk didn't change much going from Reef Crystals to Red Sea.

I don't test for phosphates although run periodically Rowaphos in a filter bag (if hair algae outbreak) I don't feed much, and the last time I checked they were zero. Current reading from the Hanna Nitrate HR is Zero.

The acans, candy cane, mushrooms and plating corals are doing fine. Just the Acro's and Torches took a nose drive. It's taken about 8 weeks for the Acro's to die, torches in 2 days (when I got home from vacation). The pocilliopora are doing ok. I've a green colony that is bleaching although it's baby colonies are growing fine.

Going forward, I'm going back to IO Reef Crystals tomorrow but will first send off a ICP test. Once received I'll report back the values. Should be interesting. I'm also going to dose Kalk via a pump throughout the day, more so in the evening to level out the pH which swings from 7.8 to 8.2... starts to drop at 10pm when the lights are out ( 250W MH, x2 RB XHO)



Cheers.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Ok, I'm an forgetful idiot.

The ONLY other change to the tank other than changing salts was the dosing of Vibrant to remove Hair Algae.

It never came to mind as I used it +1 year ago to remove bubble algae. It worked, although at the time there were not more than 1 or 2 acro colonies. When I added Vibrant the HA was growing strong, and I noticed it attaching to the SPS.

Perhaps that was the culprit? I've read that it's a bit of a snake oil... ?

Thanks !

 

[bluemon]

Ok, I'm an forgetful idiot.

The ONLY other change to the tank other than changing salts was the dosing of Vibrant to remove Hair Algae.

It never came to mind as I used it +1 year ago to remove bubble algae. It worked, although at the time there were not more than 1 or 2 acro colonies. When I added Vibrant the HA was growing strong, and I noticed it attaching to the SPS.

Perhaps that was the culprit? I've read that it's a bit of a snake oil... ?

Thanks !

It’s not that it’s a snake oil.

people wouldn’t be mad if it were just snake oil.

it’s worse as it’s just plain algaecide.

vibrant 100% crashed your tank

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Does anyone know how long it takes Vibrant to exit the tank? I haven't added it in at least 4 weeks.

 

[brandon429]

Just do a full water change like we do in tank moves and rip cleans

it’s not harmful if you follow what we do in 500 logged examples, namely the light reduction. Don’t forget: if you pour water over a filthy sandbed that stirring up can do secondary harm

what doesn’t harm is cleaning the sand, like we do, then the reassembly water change. Vibrant isn’t going to bind to your rocks, just rip it out. Any customization outside the logged order of ops may introduce variables. We’ve moved thirty thousand dollar sps tanks in the sand rinse thread, 100% water changes is what we do. That’s a side benefit for you.

 

[Uncle99]

Lots of reports on death and Vibrant.
I use for 16 weeks for bubble algae, worked great but coincidentally, lost 90% of my coralline algae, but no corals.

 

[paragrouper]

Recently lost all my acro which were thriving. The only major changes I made was moving from IO Reef Crystals to RS Coral Pro Salt Mix.

I like the Coral Pro as it mixes quickly, the instructions indicate it should be mixed and added to the tank in 2 hours, whereas I'd like it IO Salt Mix for a day or two prior to the 5 Gal water change (40G with Sump).

Has anyone noticed any adverse changes to their tank when abruptly changing salt mixes? Prior to the slow decline, the acro's were rapidly growing. In all I lost about 6 colonies while the plating sps are still thriving.

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks !

Did you do a 100% water change from the old to the new, or a smaller percentage? Did you test Alk. before and after the salt change?

 

[gbroadbridge]

Recently lost all my acro which were thriving. The only major changes I made was moving from IO Reef Crystals to RS Coral Pro Salt Mix.

I like the Coral Pro as it mixes quickly, the instructions indicate it should be mixed and added to the tank in 2 hours, whereas I'd like it IO Salt Mix for a day or two prior to the 5 Gal water change (40G with Sump).

Has anyone noticed any adverse changes to their tank when abruptly changing salt mixes? Prior to the slow decline, the acro's were rapidly growing. In all I lost about 6 colonies while the plating sps are still thriving.

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks !

It's not the change in salt itself but the change in water chemistry that resulted from the change.

If your gonna change, you need to do it very slowly to give the coral time to adapt bearing in mind coral takes months to adjust to even a small change.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

In a 40G tank with 15G sump, I did a 4.5G water change weekly so that around a 10% water change. Not a biggie I think.

I'm a little bummed because Vibrant previous removed all Bubble Algae from the tank, now the Hair Algae has greatly decreased (including Cheato, but, meh.). So it does as intended, but there seems to be secondary consequences.

or it's the change in salt which as a culprit seems to be a bit of a stretch.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Just do a full water change like we do in tank moves and rip cleans

it’s not harmful if you follow what we do in 500 logged examples, namely the light reduction. Don’t forget: if you pour water over a filthy sandbed that stirring up can do secondary harm

what doesn’t harm is cleaning the sand, like we do, then the reassembly water change. Vibrant isn’t going to bind to your rocks, just rip it out. Any customization outside the logged order of ops may introduce variables. We’ve moved thirty thousand dollar sps tanks in the sand rinse thread, 100% water changes is what we do. That’s a side benefit for you.

Interesting, the other change I've made, is vacuuming out the detritus from the sump. It was getting rather gross and longer over due. I believe one section of the sump the houses the macro algae needs a good cleaning.

Also, when I do a water change, the fresh salt mix goes directly into the area with the maco algae/sand/detritus area. Perhaps the secondary harm you mention.

Thanks for the post folks !

 

[littlefoxx]

Recently lost all my acro which were thriving. The only major changes I made was moving from IO Reef Crystals to RS Coral Pro Salt Mix.

I like the Coral Pro as it mixes quickly, the instructions indicate it should be mixed and added to the tank in 2 hours, whereas I'd like it IO Salt Mix for a day or two prior to the 5 Gal water change (40G with Sump).

Has anyone noticed any adverse changes to their tank when abruptly changing salt mixes? Prior to the slow decline, the acro's were rapidly growing. In all I lost about 6 colonies while the plating sps are still thriving.

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks !

My corals love RS coral pro salt. Fish seem to really thrive in it too. I was using a different brand then switched to that salt and saw a huge positive change for my corals! Not sure what happened to you, but I suggest not giving up completely on the red sea salt!