- Joined
- Feb 1, 2020
- Messages
- 104
- Reaction score
- 88
So I've been dealing with some sort of issue with my corals, particularly acropora, over the course of the last 4-5 months. It's been a steady degrade, both visually and in element consumption. Before whatever happened, things were really looking good all around.
My tank is a WaterBox 7225 that's been up for 483 days.
Filtration:
Parameters:
Alk - Tested with Hanna Colorimeter, mostly tested in morning, but occasionally test more than once a day
I pointed out the contents of the red box because I don't think the perceived jump in alkalinity is real. I started a new bottle of Hanna alk reagent and previously noted that the bottle I finished has a stark difference when starting it.
Calcium - Tested with Red Sea Titration
Magnesium - Tested with AquaForrest Magnesium Titration
Nutrients - Nitrate with Nyos, Phosphate with Hanna ULR Colorimeter
Note the drop for both nutrients in August, which I believe was caused by iron dosing and its impact on my ATS
ICP Tests
July 30th: https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/icp-oes/127022
October 31st: https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/icp-oes/132576
Despite some values out of range, I don't think water quality wrt elements is a problem.
I have some progression pictures that portray most acropora in my tank. At this point(Dec. 2nd), I've lost 4-6 acro frags due to complete tissue necrosis. Please note the dates - the first compilation ends on today, whereas the others are back from November. So there is still some crap hanging on, or the problem just look longer to manifest on certain coral.
My best interpretation for timeline is:
Please share your interpretations!
My tank is a WaterBox 7225 that's been up for 483 days.
Filtration:
- Nyos 160 skimmer
- Clearwater Turf Scrubber 200
- Filter socks
- Two Tunze 6105s
- Two Gyre 350s (opposite sides of tank)
- 4 Ecotech Marine G5 XR15s Pros
- 7am to 6:30pm
- 4 hours peak starts at 9:30am, ends at 1:30pm
- followed by lower intensity, less white
- 7am to 6:30pm
- 2 60" ReefBrite LumiLight Pros (actinic)
- Turn on at 9:30am
- Turn off at 3:30pm
- Two part (Sodium Bicarb, Calcium Chloride)
- Manual magnesium
- AquaForrest Pro Bio S
- Daily 8 drops earlier in 2021, but stopped sometime in summer I think
- Flatworm Stop
- not for pest | stopped dosing after 3-4 months starting in April
- Eco-Balance
- actually stopped dosing at end of July, but started again with daily doses starting in November
- Red Sea Iodine (Trace Colors)
- once a week, 2ml
- Red Sea Iron (Trace Colors)
- once a week, 40ml <<<These happened in August and had direct impact on nutrients that month because of ATS and nuisance bubble algae, so I stopped dosing.
- Brightwell Potassion
- inconsistent dosing, but did do a heavier correction after an ICP test in July, and a few smaller ones between then and another ICP in October. The results still showed potassium on the lower side of acceptable.
- Witchhazel
- This was dosed because I have speculated this problem is rooted in bacteria causing tissue necrosis, possible stemming from low nutrients.
- 3 daily doses
- Nov. 14: 60ml
- Nov. 15-16: 30ml
- 3 daily doses
- This definitely ticked off many of the acro frags, causing minstrel filament flare, and probably triggering some heavier STN, but I can only really attribute 1 death so far. This is why I stopped at 3 days, instead of going for the 5-7 days as prescribed from my source (Andre's writeup for Moonshiners method)
- Overall, this did seem help something, as observed by the alk stability after a week of recovery.
- This was dosed because I have speculated this problem is rooted in bacteria causing tissue necrosis, possible stemming from low nutrients.
Parameters:
Alk - Tested with Hanna Colorimeter, mostly tested in morning, but occasionally test more than once a day
I pointed out the contents of the red box because I don't think the perceived jump in alkalinity is real. I started a new bottle of Hanna alk reagent and previously noted that the bottle I finished has a stark difference when starting it.
Calcium - Tested with Red Sea Titration
Magnesium - Tested with AquaForrest Magnesium Titration
Nutrients - Nitrate with Nyos, Phosphate with Hanna ULR Colorimeter
Note the drop for both nutrients in August, which I believe was caused by iron dosing and its impact on my ATS
ICP Tests
July 30th: https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/icp-oes/127022
October 31st: https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/icp-oes/132576
Despite some values out of range, I don't think water quality wrt elements is a problem.
I have some progression pictures that portray most acropora in my tank. At this point(Dec. 2nd), I've lost 4-6 acro frags due to complete tissue necrosis. Please note the dates - the first compilation ends on today, whereas the others are back from November. So there is still some crap hanging on, or the problem just look longer to manifest on certain coral.
So I'm really trying to understand what is the root cause here.
I am still a very new reefer - I'm two years in. I don't have all the answers or experience.My best interpretation for timeline is:
- Dosing of iron in August boosted my ATS into overdrive and bottomed out my nitrates
- I was not vigilant on fixing this because I was following general advice - of you got algae, you got nutrients - and yup, after iron was dosed, bubble algae got worse
- My perceived lack of nutrients for effectively 3 months weakened corals, making them susceptible to bacteria
- I dosed witchhazel, which I feel wasn't a bad choice
- I am now trying to raise nutrients back to levels before issues started in September, and am seeing
- some positive things (faint color returning to some acros)
- some stagnant things (brown and polyp-extension-less corals remain so)
- some negative things (corals that seemed to tough it out are having a delayed reaction)
- Problems popped up after stopping Flatworm Stop - pure speculation - but I know the dosing of this and AF Pro Bio S started to allow me to keep acros around 6months of tank maturity (after lots of problems earlier in tank lifespan)
- Maybe my nutrients have been abundant, but am getting false low readings because of the bubble algae and the extra nutrients is actually causing zooxanthellae to brown out and get ticked off
Please share your interpretations!
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