Sad days

JOKER · Mar 1, 2015

Watching SPS die slowly not knowing what is wrong. All parameters in check as far as I know. Waiting on refracto calibration fluid now. After a year and a half tank was doing great then all of a sudden looking BAD. What would you guys recommend? ALK 10 CAL 500 Phosphate .08 I know a little high but took GFO offline thinking may be the problem Nitrate 10. Mainly just SPS looking bad, everything else seems ok but not great.

tyler1503 · Mar 1, 2015

Went through this with my LPS a few months back. It's a stressful time. I never figured out what was wrong, but hopefully you will.
Good luck!

Tahoe61 · Mar 1, 2015

I would double check all your values against another test kit, you're running them on the high end and I would left the calcium and alk drift down towards the value for NSW. I have run my tanks (sps) with nitrates of 10 for years and never had an issue so I seriously doubt that is the reason.
Have you checked all pumps/heaters.....for failure.
Have you changed out your lighting or updated bulbs?

Hope it turns around for you, sounds extremely frustrating.

rcmike · Mar 1, 2015

I've went through similar problems a few times through the years. Check things that you normally take for granted. I once had a bad batch of salt and when my corals started to look bad I did more water changes. What normally helps was making it worse. I finally checked the alk of the new water and it was so high it wouldn't register on the test kit. Also check for parasites like flatworms or monti eating nudibranches. Sometimes you never find the reason though and everything just starts getting better again. Good luck and I feel your pain. It's hard to watch things dying and not know what to do to fix it.

Anthony35 · Mar 1, 2015

The CAL is high but as far as the ALK 10 is where I keep mine so that is not the issue.

High ALK/CAL is only a problem if there are fast and/or constant swings.

As stated I would double check all the values just to be sure it's not the test kit false readings.

Also check for parasites.

Velodog2 · Mar 1, 2015

Have my sympathy. Going through similar with stn. It's not fun when the tank that was a source of happiness becomes a source at stress and frustration instead. It's a challenging hobby.

What are the actual symptoms? What species of corals are affected? Are there any that are doing well?

DFW · Mar 1, 2015

Make sure temperature is right, and constant, and make sure ro/di water is good. Add Prime to all ro di water in case there is too much chlorine, and/or ammonia for ro di filter to filter out. Make sure no chemicals are used in house like hair spray, carpet fresh. Make sure there is strong flow around corals, and that there is enough light all around the corals.

cee · Mar 1, 2015

What's your pH? This time of year the pH tends to drop because of the lack of fresh air and that can stress corals.

iiluisii · Mar 1, 2015

Joker are your sps mariculture

esteadma · Mar 1, 2015

I second the pH theory. Is there any correlation between the time that you started using heat in your house and the time that you started seeing changes in your tank. If you aren't using one, you might consider hooking up a CO2 absorbent to your skimmer.

JOKER · Mar 1, 2015

PH is swing is from 8.2- 8.3. Tested both salt batches RC and red sea coral pro. Both mix at 13 but if I let mix for a day that number is usually around 11 which with the water changes I do 10 gallons at most I don't see much of a swing. I have backed off the dosers to get the numbers down. Most of the sps are aquaculture and some have been in the tank from day one. All zoa look good the lps don't look great but are ok. Mushrooms look ok as well. Torch and frogspawn aren't looking great but the clowns have been hosting them so I figured that could be the cause on those.. Lighting is led setup. Rapidled to be exact. Had an algae outbreak lately so maybe phosphate is higher than im testing. Tested with 3 kits all 0 except hanna and it reads .08 which it has been higher than that before but the gfo took care of it.

JOKER · Mar 1, 2015

The total water volume is around 130 gallons. Temp is 77.2. The Ph pobe was calibrated just a few months ago. In the process of trying to get a frag tank going now to save what I can hopefully. Was planning to order the upgrade in next few weeks but not sure if will be doing that or not now.

wangspeed · Mar 1, 2015

Check salinity. In a pinch you can use RODI to calibrate.

cee · Mar 1, 2015

Holmes-Farley posted a salinity calibration standard a few years ago that works pretty well. If I cal to rodi I've found that can be off quite a bit. Do u have a refugium with reverse lighting cycles (your pH range seems almost too good to be true).

fishdoc11 · Mar 1, 2015

Double check all of your params. Look hard for AEFW and red bugs. Check everything you can that might be introducing stray voltage. Double check your RO/DI. Do regular large water changes until you have turned over all the water in the tank over a couple of weeks. Run good carbon and make sure you are rinsing your phosphate remover well. Also wouldn't hurt to run some resin like chemi pure. try and see if any metal has been dropped into the tank or if anything could be in there liked dropped things (did the kids drop anything in there like penny if you have kids), equipment corroding. Good luck, one of the most frustrating parts of this hobby and EVERYONE goes through something like this if they are in the hobby long enough. Good luck! Let the rest of us know if you loose lots and get things turned around. We will help up restock.
hth, Chris

JOKER · Mar 2, 2015

As for stray voltage, I plan to check that tomorrow I forgot the meter at work. For metals I had a poly pad running in sump and no color change so I don't think that is it. Checking chlorine and other stuff what would you guys recommend for that? Would that not also affect fish too? Monti look good still as of now. I calibrated the refracto with rodi at same temp as tank and in spec. Frustrated for sure.!! Wet skimmed about 12 gallons last few days also thinking that may help. Some of the SPS still look ok. Havent noticed any AEFW or red bugs but who knows.

JOKER · Mar 2, 2015

Fishdoc thanks. At this point I don't know if I will even try to continue with the reef. Very upsetting to have a reef thriving then wondering from day to day.

JOKER · Mar 2, 2015

I do run a refugium on reverse cycle of tank to help with ph swing. Water reads 0 tds.

fishdoc11 · Mar 3, 2015

I wouldn't worry about testing for chlorine, not much chance it's in there with RO/DI (or no chance with 0 TDS) and it would off gas very fast. Also wouldn't worry too much about pH swings. Lots of tanks have 0.4 swings (mine all have that I have kept up with, say 7.8 at night to 8.2 during the day). Take a tricolor acro out if you have one and investigate the base to inspect for AEFW.

Wet skimming for a while now is a great idea.

When acros start dying they put off proteins that will get other across to shut down and start dying (especially in RTN) so the key is diluting/removing them and doing water changes.

JOKER · Mar 3, 2015

Thanks fishdoc. I am definitely changing water. Wet skimmed around 30 gallons so far. Trying to find a decent deal on a frag tank now so I can get setup. I called my water dept today just to make sure they haven't went to chloramines they use chlorine gas so my filter should be fine. Running BRS 6 stage. Water coming in is like 160, water into di is 7 or so and out of di is 0. Have inspected what I could remove and been looking with viewer and haven't noticed anything. The acro that have died went from top down. Hopefully I can get frag tank soon and clip what I can and dip weekly in bayer to eliminate anything it can be. Now im getting some cyano so thinking something in water quality. Tomorrow is test day so I will see where im at.