Ohio Reef
Reef Discussion => Water Chemistry => Topic started by: erky on January 30, 2017, 10:35:47
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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.
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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 %
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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
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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ph is 8-8.2 this morning to all who were asking
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Flatworm exit won't kill acro eating flatworms just so you know
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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.
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here are 2 images of what comes out after dipping a coral
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took those is a macro lens after i dipped a. tenuis i have it was showing signs of stress.
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I dont see any in pics. If no pests then it is a water issue. Sounds like a big water change is in order
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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
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Sounds like a good plan
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Is that what is left over after dipping the first coral in the pictures with the circle drawn on it?
Jeff
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Yes
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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?
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I also did a 90 gallon water change last night, i will test my levels later tonight if anyone wants to know.
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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
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What salt brand?
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Aqua forest probiotic
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Gyre 250 is rocking the flow now in the tank
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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.
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anyone have a ph monitor that i can borrow while mine gets fixed?
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I believe there is a handheld PH meter in the club test kit.
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my ph is pretty stable always above 8.0 day and night, im really getting annoyed at what is going on, does anyone have any ideas of what to do?
I am going to take a few more pictures soon to see if there is anything pest wise going on, but i have dipped and dipped with not luck.
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I was experiencing alot of the same issues as you. Pulled my hair out trying all kinds of different things. It had been a couple of months since I had calibrated my refactometer so I decided to check it. WOW it was off by .05 My salinity was actually at 1.019 During all this I was doing 50 gallon water changes and my alk was also clear up in the 12 range. Needless to say my corals had lost alot of color and many had stn and lost a couple of them completely. It has been about 2 weeks since I got the salinity and alk back to normal and I am starting to see my p/e come back and alittle of the coloration return. If you havent calibrated you refractometer in awhile do so. You might also ck your alk test kit against the known regent that comes in the kit.
Jeff
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I was experiencing alot of the same issues as you. Pulled my hair out trying all kinds of different things. It had been a couple of months since I had calibrated my refactometer so I decided to check it. WOW it was off by .05 My salinity was actually at 1.019 During all this I was doing 50 gallon water changes and my alk was also clear up in the 12 range. Needless to say my corals had lost alot of color and many had stn and lost a couple of them completely. It has been about 2 weeks since I got the salinity and alk back to normal and I am starting to see my p/e come back and alittle of the coloration return. If you havent calibrated you refractometer in awhile do so. You might also ck your alk test kit against the known regent that comes in the kit.
Jeff
with RODI or distilled water?
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I bought a calibration fluid off eBay. Your welcome to drive up and check yours but I know it is a drive. If you haven't calibrated I would say that's a must. Also make sure the calibration fluid is same temp as the water your testing
Jeff
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Did you get your meter calibrated? Was it off?
Jeff
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ive used rodi and its dead nuts on 0
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I would still pick up some calibration fluid. I cked mine tonight with ro water and it was actually below the scale.
Jeff
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mine was off to using RO water by 5 I think
Hows everything looking
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some corals are doing amazing and coloring well, but others look like they were just pulled out of the sewer....
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alright jjos99 you win salinity was 5ppt lower than it should of been, got calibration fluid today and warmed then tested, currently adding more salt to the tank, SLOWLY
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it happened to me too....5 off as well couldn't believe it
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Glad to hear you found something. Watch your alk as you add the salt. The increased salinity can also effect the alk. I am slowly seeing better color and p/e but it is taking its time so dont expect a quick turn around but things should get better.
Jeff
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Have you seen any difference in your corals yet?
it been a good 6 weeks since I got my tanks salinity back in check and my corals are showing better color and p/e now but has been very slow.
Jeff
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been out of town the past week+ so hopefully everything is doing well.
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got home yesterday and some noticeable improvement in a few corals, some serious growth on 2, but 2 others still look like crap, not too worried about them as they most likely are not going to make it.
I do have a mean case of cyano going on right now also, not sure where that came from, but need to get it figured out.
Also on my other tank it decided to leak all over my office floor while I was gone, looks like I lost some LSP and montis in that one...
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Glad to see it getting better. I would Dip the 2 looking like crap just to see if they can be saved. If your seeing STN I would cut them above it.
Chemi-clean is the best for cyano it wiped mine out over night. I noticed it 2 weeks later and dosed again hasn't come back. Will probably do a small dose quarterly for maintenance.
what cause the leak. I travel a lot too and always worry i forgot to do something
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Glad to see it getting better. I would Dip the 2 looking like crap just to see if they can be saved. If your seeing STN I would cut them above it.
Chemi-clean is the best for cyano it wiped mine out over night. I noticed it 2 weeks later and dosed again hasn't come back. Will probably do a small dose quarterly for maintenance.
what cause the leak. I travel a lot too and always worry i forgot to do something
i dont have a clue what caused the leak, neighbor filled the tank up and she said it was super full in the diaplay and hardly any water in the sump, but that doesnt make sense at all.... So 4 days went by when she was over to when i got home and the tank was below the overflow and the sump was full... Im so confused on how that happened. Im assuming the tank had a leak or something but never saw anything. I tore it down and have some rock and fish in a spare sump i have.
I am going to get the cyano under control with some chemi-clean as that has worked in the past, and then jump into getting these nitrates under 5ppm they are currently 10+. I think carbon dosing will be my best bet, thoughts on that?
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that's crazy hate it when i cant figure something out
Carbon isn't going to doing anything for the nitrates..its more for chemical warfare and keeping the water crystal clear..
A water change and more frequent changes should bring it down also a refugium helps a lot
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Pit bull I think erky means vodka, vinegar, or sugar etc. carbon dosing.
That will work yes. 10 isn't crazy high. Water changes also an option, but you could probably pull it down in a couple of weeks with careful carbon dosing paired with Dr. Tims waste away as seeded bacteria... I think there is a brightwell product too that has denitrifying bacteria. Someone's probably used it. I pulled a tank down from 20 in about 2 weeks using vodka with half dose to maintain it.
Might take a little longer if you don't seed it.
I haven't had much in the way of nitrates since employing marine pure in my sumps.
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the tank is really showing some great improvement, growth has started again, and colors are really starting to show clear and vivid!
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That is great news Erik, I need to get down to see you.
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That is great news Erik, I need to get down to see you.
yeah things are growing that you want.
I am considering doing another fiji order soon.
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When I was taking some mechanical classes years ago one of the professors always would say to use the KISS method when diagnosing something. Keep it simple stupid. We all tend to overthink things too much. It has burnt me many times
Jeff
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When I was taking some mechanical classes years ago one of the professors always would say to use the KISS method when diagnosing something. Keep it simple stupid. We all tend to overthink things too much. It has burnt me many times
Jeff
i usually use that method too! the bali tri is finally starting to show a little purple again!
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glad to hear things are working for the better.
jeff
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Glad to hear lets see some pics
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A few of my acros and misc frogspawn
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looking good Erky
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thanks that ANacropora has really taken off in the past 6 weeks its growing so fast, would love to find some other colors and thinking about fragging some here soon.
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so now that this mess is getting better do you have any feelings on adding the t5 to your lighting? I am thinking on taking off the added led strips I installed on my system and putting on the 2 t5 bulbs that I have. I am thinking I have too much spotlighting with my current lights and alot of shadowing. I have a nice piece of pinky the bear that is growing like a weed on half of it and not growing at all on the other half. That is why I am thinking I am getting some spotlighting with my leds.
Jeff
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so now that this mess is getting better do you have any feelings on adding the t5 to your lighting? I am thinking on taking off the added led strips I installed on my system and putting on the 2 t5 bulbs that I have. I am thinking I have too much spotlighting with my current lights and alot of shadowing. I have a nice piece of pinky the bear that is growing like a weed on half of it and not growing at all on the other half. That is why I am thinking I am getting some spotlighting with my leds.
Jeff
Ive had t5's running since october on the tank. I did it because the lights are only 16 inch and there seemed to be a bare spot on the back row of my tank, and i had the light laying around anyways. I think your your setup it would only benefit your goals. LEDs are great but so are T5's id say they compliment each other very well!
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been tracking my phosphates for the past few months, seems strange to me that they jump around so much, they go from .03 - .16 when I test every few days, anyone know a reason for this or is this common? Id like to keep them steady is possible.
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What if anything are you using for phos reduction now? Testing with a Hanna checker? If so run the test several times with the same test viles. I usually CK my several times till I get the same reading.
Jeff
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Hanna ulr tester
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Test your sample multiple times and see if you get different readings. I notice my first test is usually higher then the follow up tests.
Jeff
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Test your sample multiple times and see if you get different readings. I notice my first test is usually higher then the follow up tests.
Jeff
will do
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for anyone following this thread, my tank has been bouncing back, so much that I started dosing nitrates again to keep them at 3-5ppm.
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That's is great news.