What is wrong with my tank

[ReefLab]

How long has your tank been up?
Have you put in any live rock?
Do you do regular water changes?

one year, exactly (new plumbing went in a few months ago)
No, all the rock started dry
before this issue, I had not changed water for 3 weeks because I kept bottoming out phosphate. before that I did 10% weekly with Brightwell neomarine and I have done two 15% water changes since sending out this test

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Well, I am a little stumped. When there hasn't been some kind of unplanned event and parameters are inline, then look at the thing you changed.... you changed the lighting.

In general, too much light is more harmful than too little light. I would dial back the lights and borrow or rent a par meter to see where your numbers are at.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I would add some polyfilter or brightwells purit or 2 little fishies metasorb

 

[ReefLab]

Well, I am a little stumped. When there hasn't been some kind of unplanned event and parameters are inline, then look at the thing you changed.... you changed the lighting.

In general, too much light is more harmful than too little light. I would dial back the lights and borrow or rent a par meter to see where your numbers are at.

Yeah. ill put the photoperiod back where it was. I have a par meter so ill double check if maybe I bumped something on the LED intensity when I changed it.

I have a suspicion that its due to the low phosphates for too long. Ive been battling low to zero phosphates for months.

 

[ReefLab]

I would add some polyfilter or brightwells purit or 2 little fishies metasorb

In order to try and remove the tin/aluminum?

 

[Naturalreef]

My take is you are stripping nutrients from the water and running high alk and high light.

 

[ReefLab]

My take is you are stripping nutrients from the water and running high alk and high light.

thank you. you consider the alk at 8.5 too high?
I can definitely agree that the nutrients are too low. Phosphate is just consumed so quickly its hard to keep up without accidentally overdosing

 

[Naturalreef]

thank you. you consider the alk at 8.5 too high?
I can definitely agree that the nutrients are too low. Phosphate is just consumed so quickly its hard to keep up without accidentally overdosing

Yes, with low nutrients you need to be around 7 and lower your light levels until nutrients rebound. We have all been where you are right now. Go back to simplistic.....water changes to keep levels in check and good food source to nourish the tank. That’s all you need right now. Your coral will recover once the swings stop. Watch your coral, they will tell you where the nutrient levels are. Shriveled and bleached low nutrients...fat, plump polyps constantly out high nutrients. Water changes will dilute pollution and restore balance.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

I would place some cuprasorb into the tank. It will remove any metals. This could be part of the problem. Also you could use 1/4 the amount of carbon as it can strip the water to clean. Everything else looks pretty good. How often are you feeding the fish? Corals love the waste from fish.

 

[Cumijoged]

Have you consider wc? Maybe i will do 50%-60% of wc, then wait for a couple of days. If things still going south, then something is definitely wrong IN your tank. Or, when was the last time you put some bacterias (rotifera/rimpods/phyto) into your tank?

Cause i used to have the same problem (corals doesnt last longer than couple of weeks), no matter what i did, things doesnt change. Then someone advices me to pour in 5ltrs of rotifera & daily dose of phyto (not sure if they call it the same at your place though), and voila, things are getting better for my tank

 

[ReefLab]

I would place some cuprasorb into the tank. It will remove any metals. This could be part of the problem. Also you could use 1/4 the amount of carbon as it can strip the water to clean. Everything else looks pretty good. How often are you feeding the fish? Corals love the waste from fish.

Twice a day manually with a mix of frozen foods and selcon. 4 times a day with the auto feeder. and yet nutrients still bottom out
Thank you for the advice!

 

[ReefLab]

Have you consider wc? Maybe i will do 50%-60% of wc, then wait for a couple of days. If things still going south, then something is definitely wrong IN your tank. Or, when was the last time you put some bacterias (rotifera/rimpods/phyto) into your tank?

Cause i used to have the same problem (corals doesnt last longer than couple of weeks), no matter what i did, things doesnt change. Then someone advices me to pour in 5ltrs of rotifera & daily dose of phyto (not sure if they call it the same at your place though), and voila, things are getting better for my tank

Interesting. I do notice quite a few pods but I don’t dose phyto as it can get expensive
I’m definitely going to do quite a few water changes
I’m planning on 10% water changes everday for the next week

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

In order to try and remove the tin/aluminum?

Yes. I’d recommend a couple 50-75% water changes over daily 10%. Assuming your replacement water isn’t contaminated

 

[ReefLab]

Not sure if the icp uploaded correctly but the tin is at 5.19ug/L
I found some other threads where @Randy Holmes-Farley said tin is not concerning at higher levels so I’m still kind of lost

 

[vetteguy53081]

I am looking at entire thread and have to ask- What salt mix are you using?
I would suggest to change salt as long as you are doing daily water changes.
I would say 10% every other day for a week or two allowing gaps for you to test water and make any adjustments.
What test kits are you using and speaking of tin and aluminum- Are you using RO water from tap water from the faucet?

 

[ReefLab]

I am looking at entire thread and have to ask- What salt mix are you using?
I would suggest to change salt as long as you are doing daily water changes.
I would say 10% every other day for a week or two allowing gaps for you to test water and make any adjustments.
What test kits are you using and speaking of tin and aluminum- Are you using RO water from tap water from the faucet?

I’m using brightwell’s neomarine salt. I think I’ll switch back to tropic Marin after this bucket. easier to do that than spend $50 testing my new saltwater
I make my own RO/DI water. Less than 10TDS into the DI and always 0 out.

 

[ReefLab]

I am looking at entire thread and have to ask- What salt mix are you using?
I would suggest to change salt as long as you are doing daily water changes.
I would say 10% every other day for a week or two allowing gaps for you to test water and make any adjustments.
What test kits are you using and speaking of tin and aluminum- Are you using RO water from tap water from the faucet?

oh and test kits are:
Hanna for alk, PO4 and SiO2
Red Sea for NO3, Ca and Mg
Pinpoint salinity

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

If you need phosphates then pick up some phos roids... oh, i mean reef roids. Corals dig it and its loaded with phos

 

[ReefLab]

If you need phosphates then pick up some phos roids... oh, i mean reef roids. Corals dig it and its loaded with phos

Lol. I have GLA potassium phosphate from my freshwater days so I’m dosing they currently.

 

[ReefLab]

So the death toll is now:
One acan colony
Blasto
Montipora
Stylo
Hammer
Elegance (on its way out)

weird thing is that I have other acans and hammers that are doing fine.. torches and a bubble coral that look great. Also frog spawn and gonipora that look ok.

I’ve done a series of water changes and maintaining nitrate and phosphate at 10 and 0.03-0.06 respectively.

this has really been bothering me and I’m just lost as to what to do while watching things die.

anything else to add please help #reefsquad