What did make it die

[SouL_Shaker]

2years old hammer coral is dead. What do you think made it die ?

All parameters are normal.

 

[KJ]

Post yours parameters?

 

[SouL_Shaker]

Post yours parameters?

It is 2 years old. My first coral.

Ca 500
KH 6.5
Mg 1310
Po4 0.78
No3 0

 

[SouL_Shaker]

 

[KJ]

What kind of test do you use to check your parameters? It looks like your ALK is low , I would try to increase the next few days to 8.0 and increase no3 to measurable levels. your hammer looks fine , it is not dead, but looks like it needs a little bit more nutrients in your tank so he can get back to his glory days

 

[SouL_Shaker]

What kind of test do you use to check your parameters? It looks like your ALK is low , I would try to increase the next few days to 8.0 and increase no3 to measurable levels. your hammer looks fine , it is not dead, but looks like it needs a little bit more nutrients in your tank so he can get back to his glory days

Tropic marine test kits for measurement.

Protein skimmer is too strong . I have only 3-4 XL size tang and even though I feed them w everything , nutrients have never increased . I don't like fish in coral tank.

And I've some sps inside the tank , that's why I didn't increase the kh value more than 7 ppm. They say High kh with low nutrient would kill sps's.

 

[KJ]

Tropic marine test kits for measurement.

Protein skimmer is too strong . I have only 3-4 XL size tang and even though I feed them w everything , nutrients have never increased . I don't like fish in coral tank.

And I've some sps inside the tank , that's why I didn't increase the kh value more than 7 ppm. They say High kh with low nutrient would kill sps's.

Alk 8.0 will be just fine and try turning off your protein skimmer for a few days and see how your corals respond to it.

 

[prsnlty]

Tropic marine test kits for measurement.

Protein skimmer is too strong . I have only 3-4 XL size tang and even though I feed them w everything , nutrients have never increased . I don't like fish in coral tank.

And I've some sps inside the tank , that's why I didn't increase the kh value more than 7 ppm. They say High kh with low nutrient would kill sps's.

I have 40 or so acros and my my kh is consistently 9.6. If I were to lower my kh my ph would drop too low. Every system is different. What kills sps is kh yo-yo'ing up and down.

Your tank is out of balance or your test kits are inaccurate. Alk should be higher if Ca is at 500 ppm(normally). Either get new tests or take a sample to your local lfs to test and see if your numbers match. Po4 is kinda high also.

 

[SouL_Shaker]

I have 40 or so acros and my my kh is consistently 9.6. If I were to lower my kh my ph would drop too low. Every system is different. What kills sps is kh yo-yo'ing up and down.

Your tank is out of balance or your test kits are inaccurate. Alk should be higher if Ca is at 500 ppm(normally). Either get new tests or take a sample to your local lfs to test and see if your numbers match. Po4 is kinda high also.

I realised that dosing pump's head was choked up 3 days ago. It didn't dose kh until I released. That's why the values became unbalanced.

 

[Brian Kim]

I realised that dosing pump's head was choked up 3 days ago. It didn't dose kh until I released. That's why the values became unbalanced.

That could be it and your PO4 is high

 

[SouL_Shaker]

That could be it and your PO4 is high

Coral food increases po4 value , I dose daily.

 

[prsnlty]

Most corals don't need to be fed daily. I give one good feeding per week with all flow off for 60-90 minutes at night and let them catch the rest as the fish are fed mostly. There are a few that I will target feed mysis once during the week. If you don't over feed and you strain your frozen foods po4 should not get that high. Are you running a gfo reactor? If not, you probably should consider it. If so then I would look into your feeding habits.

 

[SouL_Shaker]

Most corals don't need to be fed daily. I give one good feeding per week with all flow off for 60-90 minutes at night and let them catch the rest as the fish are fed mostly. There are a few that I will target feed mysis once during the week. If you don't over feed and you strain your frozen foods po4 should not get that high. Are you running a gfo reactor? If not, you probably should consider it. If so then I would look into your feeding habits.

I used to have a pellet reactor. But I've lost colors on lps corals so I turned it off...

I've seen that if corals are fed daily , their scale becomes bigger by 50% throughout the day. I kinda like big scaled corals.

Even tough lights are on , they try to feed on coral food 7/24 (Not only when lights turned off) and their scale becomes too big throughout the day.

 

[prsnlty]

The problem is that it's a closed system. That may be good for a while then it crashes.

 

[prsnlty]

I suggested gfo not pellet.... they are not the same thing.

 

[SouL_Shaker]

The problem is that it's a closed system. That may be good for a while then it crashes.

If I stopped dosing coral food , po4 would be 0 ppm.

But the scale on corals would become bad.

Nothing increases no3 in my tank but coral food increases po4.

And pellet reactor keeps both nutrients at 0 ppm. I kinda don't like it.

 

[SouL_Shaker]

I suggested gfo not pellet.... they are not the same thing.

Gfo means carbon ?

 

[alyee5]

GFO is granular ferric oxide for removing phosphates...

 

[SouL_Shaker]

GFO is granular ferric oxide for removing phosphates...

Oh yeah I've that material. But I've never used it inside the reactor. I just have it.

Does it reduce phosphate only ? And don't decrease no3? In this case it should be very useful.

 

[alyee5]

GFO isn't used to reduce nitrates...

Here's a good reference from Randy Holmes-Farley on how GFO works...

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-11/rhf/

I've only used water changes,skimming and husbandy to maintain my nitrates, no experience with turf scrubbers/macro algae or carbon dosing or any commerical products...