What could be wrong with my tank health?

ScottR · May 19, 2019

laverda said:
Like others have suggested I think a few large water changes will be the best way to get your parameters back on track. Once you do you will need to dose a lot more than just ALK, Ca & Mag. It is not that hard, but you need to know where you stand so you can figure how much of what to dose. The ICP tests can be a big help or you can buy additional test kits for the most critical elements.
You may want to look into the DSR method. There is a thread here on it. I find the spreadsheet is very helpful in determining what and how much to dose. It takes a little while to determine how much you need to dose the different elements. I have not done a water change myself in close to 3 years myself.

The DSR method is really interesting. I’d love to try it myself, but that takes precision and near daily readings.

laverda · May 20, 2019

ScottR said:
The DSR method is really interesting. I’d love to try it myself, but that takes precision and near daily readings.

It really is not as complex as it seams at first. No need for daily readings, you just need to figure out your usage. Weekly should be enough to figure out how much to dose daily or weekly.

balajeek15 · May 21, 2019

since the results say my tank water is low on many elements, in addition to the WC wouldn't it be good to use a product such as RedSea Coral Colors A,B,C,D supplements which have all the 32 elements as they say! and try another Triton test in 3-4 months?

balajeek15 · May 21, 2019

Iodine is 0 and recommend is 60, how much i can dose to get it to 60 and how long?

laverda · May 22, 2019

balajeek15 said:
since the results say my tank water is low on many elements, in addition to the WC wouldn't it be good to use a product such as RedSea Coral Colors A,B,C,D supplements which have all the 32 elements as they say! and try another Triton test in 3-4 months?

In theory you could. It just depends if their mix and ratio of elements matches your tanks needs.

balajeek15 said:
Iodine is 0 and recommend is 60, how much i can dose to get it to 60 and how long?

It is impossible to say with out knowing your total water volume and the product your using. The bottle of the iodine product your using should give you enough info to calculate it.

balajeek15 · May 22, 2019

I went to a LFS hoping to get a bottle of Iodine, and I did not see any, all i saw Iodide form Seachem, Brightwell, and Aqua. Not sure if its Iodine and the story guy didn't even know what Iodine is.

balajeek15 · May 23, 2019

I have been feeding a lot for last 2 weeks and i tested NO3(RedSea) and PO4(Hanna) twice a week and it always show zero.
Any other source to increase this a bit? I can add more fish but that does not happen quickly, it take months to come in to DT.

I was talking to a LFS and he was surprised that i have zero and he said people come here asking how to lower it and you are asking how to increase it. my tank is weird!

balajeek15 · May 25, 2019

Okay a followup,

I did a test of all parameters and Ammonia is zero, still nitrate (red sea) and phosphate (Hanna) is zero
Calcium is 500+ (as per red sea test kit i use 1.1ml)
Mag is 1600+ (as per red sea test kit i used 0.8ml)
Alk - 9.2 (Hanna)

My E-Bionic 2 part dosing is 10ml per day both, I think i should stop it for a week to see if Calcium comes down, or should i just stop Ca and continue to run Alk may be at 5ml a day?

As posted this thread on May 4th concerning the degradation of corals, suggestion given i to do ICP which i did and posted the results here, increase feeding, which instead of once a day i did flakes/pellets around 11am and brine shrimp a lot at 8pm for nearly 3 weeks.

What else i could do.
I also want to post this into tank emergency thread to see if more people chime in to give feedback.
thanks.