Calcium up take at a low!

[erky]

I have a 180g SPS dominate reef and it soaks alk up really well, but i get little to no CA absorption. My current water parameters are 
CA - 520 (i know a little high, over dose with wrong concentration a while ago)
Alk - 9 dkh
MG - 1350
po4 - .03 (hanna)
NO3 - 15 (just had a small spike from aminos)

My real question is why in the world in the past month did my calcium only drop 20ppm? A few of my corals are showing signs of growth, but only 4-5 out of ~100 sps's. I am getting a little disappointed in this tank, but I am not going to give up yet. I can do another Triton test, another $50 for peace of mind is worth it to me. If anyone could provide some feed back I'd love to hear it.

[joelbegt]

Any more information on your setup?

Lighting type and schedule and par if you know
Flow
Two part I assume
Ph
Skimmer
Temp
Bare bottom, or sand?

Waterchange schedule and %

[erky]

T5 and LED 8 hours a day
jeboa wp-40 and 2 hydor pumps
2 part yes
Ph i will check
skimmer is a corallife 220, upgrading to a BM cone 7 today
temp - 76-78
sand

WC's been doing every 3-4 weeks 30 gallon

[erky]

here are some pictures of corals i have, been dipping a few trying to find out if there is an pest in the tank or not, the 3 that i have dipped this morning i found nothing. here are a few pics, one night have something on it but i dont know.

[joelbegt]

Looking at those pictures shows high nutrients.  (Note how green past death is)

Not sure if your hand dosing or using pumps, but one pump may be dosing more than the other explaining the difference in uptake.  I can't think of a time where I had uneven dosing using an a&B Product or BRS

I personally prefer keep it simple Berlin method, but barebottom if I'm SPS focused.  I shoot for almost undetectable phosphates and nitrates, 50-100x flow(you are a bit short), big skimmer, and lots of light(read this as 350-500 par), 10% waterchanges weekly.  Dose nothing but alk and cal and maybe mag if necessary(I find it's not with 10% wc).

If I'm having issues I generally dilute the problem with 25-30% waterchanges 3 days in a row.  Use a salt that mixes where you plan to run your tank.  I attached a pic for growth reference when things are going well for me.

[CoralBeauties]

that first pic looks suspicious to me.  Might be an aefw.  If there is some dead sections on the lower part of that coral take a close look at it for eggs.  They will be pretty oblivious if they are there.  They are always laid on dead sections of the coral.  When I battled aefw I didnt think there was any way that I had them and my corals were just not doing well and some were stn from the bottom up.  I finally found them by seeing a funny looking oval spot on one of the corals and I took a turkey baster to the coral and quite a few blew off.  You might blast a few with a baster or power head.  If you have them they will appear as white to clear flakes coming off the coral.  Hope that is not it.  If so you have a battle ahead of yourself.
jeff

[lazylivin]

 Just to add to Jeffs post, when searching for aefw dont use bayer. Bayer is white and cloudy making it difficult to see. Dip with coral rx in a white bucket and lots of light shining directly into dipping container. Aefw when they come off look like a tiny peice of beige flake food. Thin like onion skin.

[erky]

I ordered flatworm exit, and plan to dose the tank with it. I am at the point i need to do something and i can tell a few of my corals are not happy currently! Some other corals are growing well and their color is great, just strange on what is going on.

[erky]

ph is 8-8.2 this morning to all who were asking

[joelbegt]

Flatworm exit won't kill acro eating flatworms just so you know

[erky]

Flatworm exit won't kill acro eating flatworms just so you know

I honestly dont think its aefw, bc from everything i have dipped there has not been any show up.

thanks for the heads up, i just hooked up a fresh air line to my skimmer thinking that might help a little as well, the tank is right next to the furnace in the basement might be causing some issues that way.

[erky]

here are 2 images of what comes out after dipping a coral



took those is a macro lens after i dipped a. tenuis i have it was showing signs of stress.

[lazylivin]

I dont see any in pics. If no pests then it is a water issue. Sounds like a big water change is in order

[erky]

I dont see any in pics. If no pests then it is a water issue. Sounds like a big water change is in order

well i can do 2 90g changes, 2 days apart. then monitor from there. I am going to add more flow to the tank, just not sure what i want to get/spend also

[lazylivin]

Sounds like a good plan

[CoralBeauties]

Is that what is left over after dipping the first coral in the pictures with the circle drawn on it?
Jeff

[erky]

Yes

[erky]

I ordered a Gyre and it should be here today, for those of you who own one, in a 6ft tank should i place it on one of the ends or just in the middle back glass of the tank for best results?

[erky]

I also did a 90 gallon water change last night, i will test my levels later tonight if anyone wants to know.

[CoralBeauties]

I have done the large changes but really didnt see any change by doing so.  I know others on here have had a lot of success with doing so.  It usually takes a good week or more before I see my corals get back to normal after a large change.
Jeff

[joelbegt]

What salt brand?

[erky]

Aqua forest probiotic

[erky]

Gyre 250 is rocking the flow now in the tank

[erky]

checked the temp this morning and it was 75, working on getting that raised a bit higher, the additional flow is wonderful, one coral really loves it so far!

going to start logging my PH every few hours to see what kind of swings the tank is doing.

[erky]

anyone have a ph monitor that i can borrow while mine gets fixed?