Tell me whats wrong.

Surf&turf · Mar 23, 2012

I had a very BAD Alk swing about a month and a half ago and lost several nice SPS colonies.

The one's that are hanging on still look terrible, brown with bleached tips and bases. Very little PE.

My Params since then have rock steady.

Alk 9 up from 6.4

CA 450 down from 510

Mag 1300

PH 8.1

SG 1.024

PO4 0 Salifret
NO3 0 API

I also run GFO.
I have a fairly good sized fish population in a 90 gallon system. Are the corals staving? I also have a little algae growth on my PH but none on the LR. so I really don't think PO4 is actually zero. LPS are doing good.

-Logzor · Mar 23, 2012

Sometimes it can take months for SPS to recover from trauma, such as the alkalinity swing that you experienced. For example, in my tank, my temperature probe malfunctioned, running my tank at 70-71 degrees for 4-5 months. I've had the problem corrected for weeks now. Some corals are beginning to color up again but others are still suffering, but no longer degrading.

I would begin by removing your GFO and cutting your feedings in half. Basically, you want some phosphates in your system, your SPS corals need to be able to readily access it in the water in order to rebuild and grow. Pulling out too much can starve them. On the other hand, you don't want algae growing on the skeleton adjacent to live tissue, algae can make it impossible for certain corals to recover. So to be safe, cut the food in half so you don't cause a spike in algae growth after removing the GFO.

Did your alkalinity spike up or down? Are you saying it spiked up to 9 from 6.4?

Surf&turf · Mar 23, 2012

No, it went from 11 down to 6.4

I have added a few frags just to test the waters so to speak, and they are doing good.

revhtree · Mar 23, 2012

Was it a sudden drop or slowly?

Surf&turf · Mar 23, 2012

Pretty sudden, over about a 3 day period.

I think it was combination of things that stressed the corals, kalk overdose, Alk swing, I had a stucture failure in my scape and was rescaping part of the tank, might have stirred up the sand to much.

Just wondering if I can save the remaining corals.

H2O · Mar 23, 2012

Thats a bad swing lucky all your sps didn't die .
When sps die they have a horrible smell and in a way that has impact on the ones that made it can't explain how that works but its something I noticed when I had a mini crash last year. The ones that r still dieing u need to frag them and dump the rest then do some big water changes to get that death smell out and you be on your way to recovery also run some good carbon . Not KENT

Surf&turf · Mar 23, 2012

So far, the STN has stopped and some are on the road to recoverey, Just don't see much PE from my Milli's and other acro's. I guess it will just take time.

-Logzor · Mar 23, 2012

I think you can save the remaining corals if you keep your parameters rock-solid.

What cause your alkalinity to drop that quickly in 3 days? Was the purely consumption by the corals?

Surf&turf · Mar 23, 2012

I had a kalk overdose and was waiting for a new test kit in the mail, and didn't realize it had dropped that fast until it was too late.

I slowly raised it back up, but the damge had already been done.

shred5 · Mar 23, 2012

Surf&turf said:
I had a kalk overdose and was waiting for a new test kit in the mail, and didn't realize it had dropped that fast until it was too late.

I slowly raised it back up, but the damge had already been done.

Well Alk is depleted by biological process going on in our tank and not just by sps using it. My fear is people that run biopellets and such to increase bacteria are going to see alk drop faster than normal. any chance you do any carbon dosing?

Surf&turf · Mar 23, 2012

No, I don't run Bio-pellets, I do use Vinegar to kill Aiptasia, but only a small amount.

-Logzor · Mar 23, 2012

Surf&turf said:
No, I don't run Bio-pellets, I do use Vinegar to kill Aiptasia, but only a small amount.

Yeah that wouldn't make any impact.

In order to understand better, what was the timeline like for these events? Typically a kalk overdose will raise your pH and alkalinity to super-high levels.

Surf&turf · Mar 23, 2012

The Kalk overdose and LR falling all happened the same weekend. I overdosed the tank will messing with the scape by accident.

When I figured out what I had done, I tested my Alk and it was up to 11, I usually run it around 9, it could have gone higher as that was my last test.

When my new test kit came in, 3 days later it was down to 6.4.

JackoChang · Mar 23, 2012

Surf&turf said:
The Kalk overdose and LR falling all happened the same weekend. I overdosed the tank will messing with the scape by accident.

When I figured out what I had done, I tested my Alk and it was up to 11, I usually run it around 9, it could have gone higher as that was my last test.

When my new test kit came in, 3 days later it was down to 6.4.

Must be that time of the month, I'm recovering from almost the exact same problem, same numbers and everything. GL to you, hope everything recovers.

Surf&turf · Mar 23, 2012

JackoChang said:
Must be that time of the month, I'm recovering from almost the exact same problem, same numbers and everything. GL to you, hope everything recovers.

Thanks, GL to you as well!!

Surf&turf · Apr 13, 2012

So the tank has been recovering, but I still feel like something is out of wack.

Will coraline algae grow if P04/N03 is high? Its growing like crazy but SPS not so much.

ritter6788 · Apr 13, 2012

Try taking the GFO offline for a bit. I had a similar problem a while back with kalk/alk/GFO. Most of my sps looked like they had alk burn but the alk never got over 9. I stopped the GFO and kalk and started 2 part dosing and things recovered. I think I was over doing it on the GFO and the addition of kalk stressed things out even more. Since things settled I'm back to running GFO again with no issues but I only run about 1/4 the recommended amount. Hope you can get things turned around for the better!

Dowtish · Apr 13, 2012

When your new test kit arrived, was it the same brand? Wondering if you were getting a bad reading from your old kit? Seems like it fell way too fast to me.

Surf&turf · Apr 13, 2012

ritter6788 said:
Try taking the GFO offline for a bit. I had a similar problem a while back with kalk/alk/GFO. Most of my sps looked like they had alk burn but the alk never got over 9. I stopped the GFO and kalk and started 2 part dosing and things recovered. I think I was over doing it on the GFO and the addition of kalk stressed things out even more. Since things settled I'm back to running GFO again with no issues but I only run about 1/4 the recommended amount. Hope you can get things turned around for the better!

I'll try that, I quit dosing kalk and switched to 2 part. Thats kind of the way my SPS look, the tips start to grow, but then turn a light brown like they were burn't, although the LPS are doing great. My Alk has been steady @ 8.9-9.3 DKH.

I was thinking maybe the PO/4 was to high, but maybe it is to low.