Tanks dying. Please help icp is in

I have a tank that has been running for over ten years, I don't think I ever had a low nitrite reading, I did have trouble with a lot of detritus in the gravel bed several years back, we had a tornado come through, took the roof off the hose, and no power for a couple of weeks, lost all my fish, when I started to chunk everything, I noticed some of the softie coral started to come back out, so I just let the tank run, I noticed a lot of algae growth on the deep sand bed and the gravel in the back of the tank, so I started siphoning off as much as I could, did a couple of partial water changes, and just left the skimmer running . still have some of those corals. but I did have to remove some of the partially dying corals, to keep them from killing everything else. I wished I had a magic answer for you, but sometimes this hobby can really throw you a curve ball. as this thread grows, more people will follow, and surly someone on here can help.
 
All my coral are dying. Softies Lps sps are slowly dying.
Tanks year and couple months old.
Dkh stable at 8
Temp 77
Nitrate 3
any help would be appreciated.

OK, several questions:

Have you made any changes to your lighting in the last few months (fixture, intensity, etc...)? Have you ever measured the PAR at various places in your tank?
Do you use any cleaning products anywhere near the tank, particularly ones that would contain benzalkonium bromide (e.g., lysol)?
Does your municipality use chloramine as a water disinfectant, and if so, have you tested your RODI output with a total chlorine/free chlorine test strip?
What chemical filtration do you use, such as GFO, Purigen, GAC, etc...?
With what test kits do you measure alkalinity, phosphate and nitrate on an on-going basis?
How do you maintain your alkalinity - with 2 part dosing, calcium reactor, water changes, etc...?
 
Filter sock and carbon.
Changed lighting couple months before this started and everything was growing faster after lighting. Par is normal. 350 top 250 middle 150 bottom give or take. Xr15 t5 combo.
Not sure about my city water.
Never tested my rodi
 
New rodi filters will be coming in couple days.
That's the only thing I could think of. Filters are year old but my tap water is 30 tds. My rodi is always zero
 
New rodi filters will be coming in couple days.
That's the only thing I could think of. Filters are year old but my tap water is 30 tds. My rodi is always zero
Doesn't sound like the issue then. But replacing ever 6 months to protect membrane is good
 
Filter sock and carbon.
Changed lighting couple months before this started and everything was growing faster after lighting. Par is normal. 350 top 250 middle 150 bottom give or take. Xr15 t5 combo.
Not sure about my city water.
Never tested my rodi
You should be able to find city water report online. Google it.
 
Hanna for Dkh and n04
Nyos for nitrate
Salifert calcium and magnesium
Calibrated refractometer
 
Screenshot_20190327-211543_Drive.jpg Screenshot_20190327-211553_Drive.jpg
Screenshot_20190327-211543_Drive.jpg
Screenshot_20190327-211553_Drive.jpg
 
Not sure what city should and shouldn't have.
But I have brs ro system with better option filters regular ri resin.
500 g thru it max.
 
Last edited:
It's not clear from your municipalities' report whether they use straight chlorine or chloramine for disinfection; you can call them if you want to verify. If you've used your RODI system for a year without replacing the cartridges, and it only had one up-front carbon cartridge to begin with, there's a decent bet that you're getting chloramine through your system. At any rate, it's a pretty cheap set of test strips to a) test your incoming water, and b) test your product water. Keep in mind that while you may only have made 700 gallons of product water in a year, at least 4 times that amount will have gone through your carbon and particulate filtration.

You didn't answer the cleaning agent question, but be aware that certain cleaning products are absolutely deadly to aquatic organisms in very small concentrations - benzalkonium chloride/bromide being the most glaring example.

Another couple of thoughts:

You mentioned a refractometer; it would be worth checking it against a LFS's reading to make sure it's accurate. If you've a digital refractometer, you're probably OK, but the "look through it" types can be fairly difficult to get accurate readings from.

You also might want to verify your temperature measurement device; the best comparator is an analytical grade mercury thermometer, but those are getting hard to come by. Failing that, though, you might consider purchasing a second indicator and checking it against your primary one; there have been a few examples where someone's tank temp was found to be WAY off. One other aspect of this is temperature stability. If you're using an Apex or other means of recording the temperature and it doesn't show significant (>2 degrees over a couple of hour's time) variation, you're good. But I mention this because I just pulled a brand-new Eheim Jager out of the box, and it has a temp variation of over 4 degrees F.

I think you can see where we're going with this. You clearly don't have a contaminant that would cause problems that ICP can measure. That doesn't rule out the use of an environmental toxin like the afore-mentioned cleaning compound, but if you or someone in your house isn't using that, there's not much else that could be having a direct toxic effect. Since all of your corals are affected, it's doubtful that your alkalinity stability (or lack thereof) is causing issues, since zoas in particular aren't known to be overly sensitive to this parameter.

That leaves certain environmental parameters, such as temperature, salinity, gas exchange, light intensity and (possibly) nutrient swings.
 
I can’t really weigh in on this because I’m not a chemist and have never done an ICP before. But chlorine is 20,000 ppm. Should it be that high? I’d imagine we’d want our chlorine to be almost as undetectable as possible. You have more chlorine in your water than anything else. Twice as much as sodium. I think that’s a good starting point.

Thats chloride - the fact that they labeled it chlorine - suggests It may be a worthless test. What problems led you to do the test in the first place - thats the most important thing. Edit - Obviously - chloride is the ion of the element CL - chlorine. so its unclear exactly what they mean - is it chloride ion (I think so) or Cl the element. The problem in an ICP test im not sure you can differentiate (which is why they probably label it Chlorine).
 
Thats chloride - the fact that they labeled it chlorine - suggests It may be a worthless test. What problems led you to do the test in the first place - thats the most important thing
ICP test produces elemental constituants. Chloride is an ion of chlorine.
 
BTW- the key here is not the results of these tests - which always lead to questions about 'what they mean'. It seems to me that the CL is not highlighted in any way meaning its 'normal' in their test - im not familiar with their test - but - I would highly assume that Chlorine is not your problem. Exactly what problems were you having that made you want to get the test?:)
 
ICP test produces elemental constituants. Chloride is an ion of chlorine.
Yep - I just said that. ..... The point. being - its not labeled as 'abnormal' so - I wouldn't be thinking ab out checking municipal water supplies for chloramines. but - frankly I think (heresy alert) ICP testing is for the most part worthless. I.e. - you're right - based on their report you cant tell if its 'chlorine' or 'chloride' in your water - whats the purpose of reporting it?
 
It's an ion of chlorine. The element is chlorine. ICP tests the ion mass which indicates the element present.
I know - I repeated it again lol. I said the same thing. There is no point in reporting 'chlorine' in this type of test - it is meaningless - and - is highly unlikely to be due to a municipal water supply problem or RODI problem with Chlorine or Chloramine. I.e. we agree
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
Back
Top