Ok, so i'll try to keep the story as short as possible, but I need feedback to help minimize losses.
So, what everyone says is true, your reef tank will find the worst possible time to develop a problem.
This is a reef tank I started about 3 years ago, Ive had a lot of success with it, tons of SPS colonies grown from 1" frags, no major problems, at least nothing major. The worst part about all this is the problem reared its head when I got home from my bachelor party, and the following weekend after, Im getting married. For the folks on here that have had a 'big' wedding, youd know how busy the week leading up can be. ANYWAY. So i get home on a sunday evening (I had been gone for 3 previous days), I go and check on my tank and I look in the sump and my skimmer is going nuts. I ask my now wife how long the skimmer had been overflowing and she said she hadnt noticed it was. All the polyps on all the corals in the tank are either retracted, or partially retracted. I added some carbon to a reactor and let it run. I checked all my levels, and theyre normal. This has been the case for over a week, everything retracted, though sometimes the LPS corals open up a bit, and then close back partially. Some SPS has started to STN, others are faded and losing color. I have a WWC yellow tips, that is completely white, with purpleish tips, and partial blue polyps sticking out. Ive done a LARGE water change, over 50% of the water, I waited a week, and will be doing another one.
Heres are my levels:
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:0
PO4:0
Alk: 8.1
Calc: 450
Mag:1350
So I have some possible ideas as to what has caused this problem, Im looking for some feedback to maybe confirm, or maybe some other ideas as to what could have cause this.
1. Ive been dosing KNO3 over the past month or so to maintain nitrates at around 2-3ppm (its as zero now bc I stopped dosing). I havent dosed PO4 at all, and Im wondering if my phosphates bottomed out at some point and my corals have suffered over time bc of it.
2. The KNO3 Ive been dosing is from the Spectracide stump remover, this stuff obviously isnt pharmaceutical grade KNO3 and Ive never really seen anyone post about using this stuff over an extended period of time and Im wondering if some foreign element is in my tank now causing problem (hence the skimmer going nuts?)
3. Another kind of foreign substance made it in the tank at some point. After all, the first thing I noticed was the skimmer going absolutely crazy. it wouldnt do that bc of a PO4 deficiency would it?
4. A couple months ago, I changed my sump light out to the Kessil H380. Over the last month or so, its grown hair algae and chaeto like mad in my sump. Tons of it. Even though Ive been dosing nitrate, Im wondering if the sump has been causing a nutrient deficiency in the display tank.
5. A combination of #1 and #4
Im kind of kicking myself for making the changes I made, my tank was great before I decided to dose nitrate, I could just never get the color purple to show well, so I tried this for a little color enhancement. The stump remover was even a worse idea, I should of just bought a product made for aquariums. I also always had my sump lit up with a homedepot light, I dont know why I decided to change a good thing. Especially since Ive noticed that BRS is pulling the H380 off their trial tanks.
Then again, it could be none of these things and something made it in the tank somewhere, whether it be off my hand or some other object.
For right now Im making everything the way it was before. Im going back to the home depot light, and Im not dosing nitrate anymore. Since all of this, it kind of looks like the color is coming back on some corals, but it could absolutely just be my imagination
Sorry, I know that was a long post. Any ideas? Thoughts?........and no, my wife did not sabotage my reef tank, she loves the tank almost as much as I do.
So, what everyone says is true, your reef tank will find the worst possible time to develop a problem.
This is a reef tank I started about 3 years ago, Ive had a lot of success with it, tons of SPS colonies grown from 1" frags, no major problems, at least nothing major. The worst part about all this is the problem reared its head when I got home from my bachelor party, and the following weekend after, Im getting married. For the folks on here that have had a 'big' wedding, youd know how busy the week leading up can be. ANYWAY. So i get home on a sunday evening (I had been gone for 3 previous days), I go and check on my tank and I look in the sump and my skimmer is going nuts. I ask my now wife how long the skimmer had been overflowing and she said she hadnt noticed it was. All the polyps on all the corals in the tank are either retracted, or partially retracted. I added some carbon to a reactor and let it run. I checked all my levels, and theyre normal. This has been the case for over a week, everything retracted, though sometimes the LPS corals open up a bit, and then close back partially. Some SPS has started to STN, others are faded and losing color. I have a WWC yellow tips, that is completely white, with purpleish tips, and partial blue polyps sticking out. Ive done a LARGE water change, over 50% of the water, I waited a week, and will be doing another one.
Heres are my levels:
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:0
PO4:0
Alk: 8.1
Calc: 450
Mag:1350
So I have some possible ideas as to what has caused this problem, Im looking for some feedback to maybe confirm, or maybe some other ideas as to what could have cause this.
1. Ive been dosing KNO3 over the past month or so to maintain nitrates at around 2-3ppm (its as zero now bc I stopped dosing). I havent dosed PO4 at all, and Im wondering if my phosphates bottomed out at some point and my corals have suffered over time bc of it.
2. The KNO3 Ive been dosing is from the Spectracide stump remover, this stuff obviously isnt pharmaceutical grade KNO3 and Ive never really seen anyone post about using this stuff over an extended period of time and Im wondering if some foreign element is in my tank now causing problem (hence the skimmer going nuts?)
3. Another kind of foreign substance made it in the tank at some point. After all, the first thing I noticed was the skimmer going absolutely crazy. it wouldnt do that bc of a PO4 deficiency would it?
4. A couple months ago, I changed my sump light out to the Kessil H380. Over the last month or so, its grown hair algae and chaeto like mad in my sump. Tons of it. Even though Ive been dosing nitrate, Im wondering if the sump has been causing a nutrient deficiency in the display tank.
5. A combination of #1 and #4
Im kind of kicking myself for making the changes I made, my tank was great before I decided to dose nitrate, I could just never get the color purple to show well, so I tried this for a little color enhancement. The stump remover was even a worse idea, I should of just bought a product made for aquariums. I also always had my sump lit up with a homedepot light, I dont know why I decided to change a good thing. Especially since Ive noticed that BRS is pulling the H380 off their trial tanks.
Then again, it could be none of these things and something made it in the tank somewhere, whether it be off my hand or some other object.
For right now Im making everything the way it was before. Im going back to the home depot light, and Im not dosing nitrate anymore. Since all of this, it kind of looks like the color is coming back on some corals, but it could absolutely just be my imagination
Sorry, I know that was a long post. Any ideas? Thoughts?........and no, my wife did not sabotage my reef tank, she loves the tank almost as much as I do.
