Water chemistry-need HELP!

[trido]

Its not your lights its not your nutrients, if its not pest or fish nipping at corals then all i have to say is, i understand your sick and tired, i also understand you think your lfs is reliable but you do not kno what is in that water , ive gotten water from a sponser on here that rarely changes their filters and learned the hard way, i cannot stress this enuff, it is a must to have an rodi unit for topoff and mix your own saltwater . Fortunatly my tds is only 35 were i live but the phosphate measures 2.0 so you never kno unless you mix and test yourself, also ditch the iodine, if you cant test for it dont use it, its the deadliest available supplement you can dose if you dont dose correctly(edit and its not flow, if you ever go diving majority of lps and softys sit in stagnent and relativly slow moving water from time to time and you have 2 seperate powerheads witch is more then enuff)

Pretty good advice regarding the water. I tend to disagree with the edit though.

 

[recess62]

FWIW You can get a Rodi unit from brs for $150. You are probably spending this much a year buying water from your Lfs. Where I live the Lfs charges $1 a gallon. The 4 stage unit is not that large. It can be placed inside a bathroom vanity and you can tap into the cold water and drain very easily.

 

[Sabellafella]

Pretty good advice regarding the water. I tend to disagree with the edit though.

Hence time to time, Technically every tank anyones every owned cant even amount to the crazy amount of turbulance thats in the ocean, i still dont understand how acros and clams especially can deal with it but flow and surface movement is very important and its most likely not the reason his tank is suffering

 

[Sabellafella]

Im sorry to sound mean but if you have 1500 dollars to drop on leds, an rodi unit and 2 buckets of IO or esv goes a long way

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I dont. Low flow = low oxygen exchange and lack of food. IME even softies like plenty of flow. Although, I havent kept GSP in nearly a decade.

I have green star polyps in low flow and they are fine.

My experience with very low flow is also that lps get bigger, not smaller.

 

[VTek]

I've never seen any fish picking, although this doesn't mean they don't when I'm observing. They definitely will when feeding the coral though to steal the food. But I'm 99% sure fish are not the reason my open brain no longer opens and my monti's polyps cease to open..

 

[trido]

but flow and surface movement is very important and its most likely not the reason his tank is suffering

And you're sure about this because you've dealt with how many tanks in the last decade?
And how many reef tanks have you owned personally? And have been on how many tank tours with your local club?
3000GPH is not much flow at all for a 90G tank. Have you ever seen a monti retract polyps from lack of flow? I have. Have you ever seen a duncan retract polyps from lack of flow? I've seen that too. I have 3000GPH in my 35G frag tank full of duncans, favia, frogspawn. montis, Acros.. The list can go on.

To the original poster.......If all else fails try increasing flow.

Im done with this thread

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I have polys that WONT open in one of my tanks. 12,ooolux difference in the tanks.
And vice versa.
4 65w CF+led and 150MH+led
So lighting counts.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

So...... corals wont open under incorrect flow or light.

thats reefing.
night Bro's

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

XOXO boys. Yall are passionate.

 

[Sabellafella]

And you're sure about this because you've dealt with how many tanks in the last decade?
And how many reef tanks have you owned personally? And have been on how many tank tours with your local club?
3000GPH is not much flow at all for a 90G tank. Have you ever seen a monti retract polyps from lack of flow? I have. Have you ever seen a duncan retract polyps from lack of flow? I've seen that too. I have 3000GPH in my 35G frag tank full of duncans, favia, frogspawn. montis, Acros.. The list can go on.

To the original poster.......If all else fails try increasing flow.

Im done with this thread

If you insist the last decade i had 7 saltwater tanks not including the near decade before that, ive also bred protamotrygon leopodi for 8 years sence i was 14 and what does that matter, doesnt matter how many tanks youve own what a joke i still learn every single day, ive never seen anything retract because im not dumb enuff to supply my corals needs not like you and what does 3000gph matter in a 90 gallon tank, if you shot 3000 gph at a coral would melt right off of its bones , stop chasing numbers bro. Like i said im not smart , i service more then 70 tanks a month and im not talkin about a 40 breeder with some chaeto so please dont get annoyed, ive had monti caps break off and grow under a rock in stagnant water so you have no idea what your talking about, if you witnessed corals dieng from no flow then you dont kno what your doing, and tank tours with your local club whats that supposed to mean , yea i go to rap and macna everyyear sence 2012 but how does that make you smarter and more "intelligent" ive ben reefing sence 2001 and had 7 full blown sps reefs and 2 mixed and have noobies that never researched a thing in their life have better luck then me

 

[Sabellafella]

You gotta grow up bro, im just tryng to help the kid out, not trying to start an argument with anyone , when someone has something negitive to say big woop we are all grown men here. The kid has 2 powerheads in the tank is more then enuff, you want him to add 11 more powerheads arent going to do anything but blow his livestock out of the water, op sorry for this childish nonsence but id look into getting an rodi, some salt and some carbon theres tons of variables here, i had a tank do poorly just from high manganese levels

 

[VTek]

Thanks guys. We all know that each person has different backgrounds and what one person has experience could be completely different for another person as these are all living organisms. For all we know(for the most part) they could close up if I looked at them wrong!

However, that is why I have recently joined the r2r COMMUNITY. I want EVERYONES input. It is all valuable information. Please, keep sending information my way!

 

[VTek]

Lowering the intensity of the lights to slow down algea growth also slows down coral growth. What do other radion users keep their % at over a 24" deep tank?

I have tried to do some research and people typically run 50% to 75% from what I have read. mr.saltwatertank tv also had the XR30 and shows is templates with ramp up to 100% but that is the ONLY user I found that has them up to 100% intensity. Everyone else seems to say NEVER have them this high.

 

[jsker]

Test your Trace elements. As you have stated before you had coraline growing on the glass a time back and your tanks is 13 months old. My 2 cents is your demand for different elements has depleted system. For example you Fe or K. I started using a product for dosing my tank using the balling method and in one week I am seeing the difference. I still dosed Ca and K, Fe, and metals this week. I agree also with some of the posts that you should mix your own salt(some salts have different element concentrations) with your own Ro/DI. Right now I have been happy with Red Sea Coral pro salt, but when I run out I am going to try a different product from the product line that I am using for the balling method dosing to see if I can see more improvement.

 

[cmcoker]

Maybe get a TDS meter and test the rodi you are getting from the lfs. I have seen over 200tds (petco) and 5-10 from lfs. Also if you are against the rodi unit, you could still get rodi and mix your own salt at home.
I am in a townhouse as well. I hooked up my rodi unit in my washer dryer area. Mounted to wall, used a plastic splitter from cold water line and have a shutoff valve on the water supply line to turn it on or off, waste water is hooked into the washer drain pipe.
I have also hooked one up under the bathroom sink, used a fitting that screwed into the cold water supply and would just tuck the waste water into sink overflow drain when in use. Good thing about bathroom is I would put container in the tub, so no worry about overflow. Now I have a float valve on my water container.
So it can be done with limited space.

 

[jsker]

I have tried to do some research and people typically run 50% to 75% from what I have read. mr.saltwatertank tv also had the XR30 and shows is templates with ramp up to 100% but that is the ONLY user I found that has them up to 100% intensity. Everyone else seems to say NEVER have them this high.

FYI I am running 46% White and 100% blue

 

[cmcoker]

Oh, I also agree stop the iodine. Only supplement things you are testing.

 

[samba_dad]

Lighting. Get or borrow a meter. par or lux. Compare it to the LFS. A lux is cheap. intensity says a lot.
It does feel like water .. Hows your corraline and then any brown or green algae on the glass? Colors and details are pretty tough to see.

+1 on this one. I have 2 XR15W Pros on my 65g. I rented a PAR meter and discovered I needed to run them about 80-90% to get SPS levels. If you search my build thread you will see my PAR measurements with the XR15W Pros.

I won't comment on water chemistry as my problems are probably worse than yours.

Good luck!

 

[keithguy]

I buy my rodi at a local coffee house. I tested lfs and found it was not very clean. Coffee house sells water and uses it. Every time I have tested it comes out clean. Test before mix and I second red sea salt pro. Mix for 2 hours and good to go.