Advice needed please

[Alberta79]

My tank has taken a turn for the worst. Tank is 14 months old. Everything was doing great up till about 3 weeks ago when I started making changes. The only number I was not comfortable with was 25ppm No3. Up till 3 weeks ago it didn't seem like much of a factor. I was saving up money and started doing upgrades. I switched out 4x Ai primes for 2x xr15 gen 4 pros. I also upgraded the skimmer from a curve 5 to a RSK 300. I noticed my fresh saltwater was mixing up at 35ppm Nitrates which is where my tank is at now. GHA has started growing several of my sps are bleaching and my monti caps are losing color. Since changing the changes the corals have slowed down there Alk consumption and I noticed my alk went from 8.5 to 11 over a week.

Steps I have taken and or are about to take..
1. Changed out ro/di filters and tested tds. (0)
2. Stopped dosing and feeding amino and reef roids
3. Turned down intensity on the radions to 40% (running same spectrum as I did with the AI primes AB+)
4. Mixing fresh batch of salt water however I switched from RedSea Coral Pro to Fritz RPM as I tried to make fresh water with RDCP but kept getting high NO3 readings <25ppm
5. Wanting to do a 25% water change and the ride it out after making sure new water is within 1 dkh of current tank level.

Tank - reefer 350
corals - mostly sps with a 6 lps colonies
fish - low bio load 2 clowns 2 tangs 1 foxface 1 6line 1 scooter blenny
filtration - sand bottom filter socks skimmer Rowa floss reefspec carbon
I feed a cube a day of frozen and a 1/4 sheet of nori per day. Redsea coral pro salt currently 3ml of reef energy A&B per day and reef roids once per week.

Water has been rock solid for 7 months before this current episode
temp - 78.4
No3 - 25ppm
po4 - 0.03
salinity - 1.026
alk - 8.5
cal - 445
mag - 1380

Current parameter
temp 78.4
NO3 - 35ppm
PO4 - 0.03
Sal - 1.025
Alk - 11.0
Cal - 460
Mag - 1410

How should I proceed? Thank you

 

[dwest]

My tank has taken a turn for the worst. Tank is 14 months old. Everything was doing great up till about 3 weeks ago when I started making changes. The only number I was not comfortable with was 25ppm No3. Up till 3 weeks ago it didn't seem like much of a factor. I was saving up money and started doing upgrades. I switched out 4x Ai primes for 2x xr15 gen 4 pros. I also upgraded the skimmer from a curve 5 to a RSK 300. I noticed my fresh saltwater was mixing up at 35ppm Nitrates which is where my tank is at now. GHA has started growing several of my sps are bleaching and my monti caps are losing color. Since changing the changes the corals have slowed down there Alk consumption and I noticed my alk went from 8.5 to 11 over a week.

Steps I have taken and or are about to take..
1. Changed out ro/di filters and tested tds. (0)
2. Stopped dosing and feeding amino and reef roids
3. Turned down intensity on the radions to 40% (running same spectrum as I did with the AI primes AB+)
4. Mixing fresh batch of salt water however I switched from RedSea Coral Pro to Fritz RPM as I tried to make fresh water with RDCP but kept getting high NO3 readings <25ppm
5. Wanting to do a 25% water change and the ride it out after making sure new water is within 1 dkh of current tank level.

Tank - reefer 350
corals - mostly sps with a 6 lps colonies
fish - low bio load 2 clowns 2 tangs 1 foxface 1 6line 1 scooter blenny
filtration - sand bottom filter socks skimmer Rowa floss reefspec carbon
I feed a cube a day of frozen and a 1/4 sheet of nori per day. Redsea coral pro salt currently 3ml of reef energy A&B per day and reef roids once per week.

Water has been rock solid for 7 months before this current episode
temp - 78.4
No3 - 25ppm
po4 - 0.03
salinity - 1.026
alk - 8.5
cal - 445
mag - 1380

Current parameter
temp 78.4
NO3 - 35ppm
PO4 - 0.03
Sal - 1.025
Alk - 11.0
Cal - 460
Mag - 1410

How should I proceed? Thank you

I think your light change impacted your corals. Since you’ve turned down the new lights, I think you are ok. You also made sure your ro unit is good. I would do weekly 10% water changes and ride this out.

 

[Billldg]

I looked over your parameters, and though your P03 may be a little high, I had mine much much higher before and only had small effects on sps, I mean like 50 + ppm high. I think @dwest is correct, the light change may have shocked your corals a little. Now with the shock the frags have slowed down growing a little and thus you Alk climbed which may have added to it. You already adjusted your lights, so I would watch your Alk and Cal parameters and adjust as needed to get them back to your norm. Then after you see everything stabilize you can start to bump your lights back up. I also have 2 XR15 G4 pros, they are powerful lights. I also agree with the water changes.

@ReefSquad, anything else to add that I may have forgot or overlooked?

 

[Alberta79]

Thank you. I will just take it slow on the water changes and the light intensity. So I was running the 4 ai primes full out I was thinking about running the radions at 40% and go from there. My 3rd radion will be in next week with diffusers for all 3. I believe the diffusers will also steal a bit of par so I plan on keeping the intensity the same when adding the 3rd as I will also be adding the diffusers to all 3.

 

[Billldg]

Thank you. I will just take it slow on the water changes and the light intensity. So I was running the 4 ai primes full out I was thinking about running the radions at 40% and go from there. My 3rd radion will be in next week with diffusers for all 3. I believe the diffusers will also steal a bit of par so I plan on keeping the intensity the same when adding the 3rd as I will also be adding the diffusers to all 3.

I also have diffusers, just been to lazy to install, LOL!!! They steal about 20 percent of par from the light.

 

[KrisReef]

SLOW down!

All these changes will not take you back 3 weeks before you started changing things up.
Take it slowly.
Make one change, observe and then make the next.

Sorry to be so harsh, but I am hoping to slow down the changes so the corals can catch their breath. I know it's difficult to sit by and do nothing when things go bad, but sometimes just letting things alone will allow the coral to adjust and survive. Keep changing just increases stress. Your numbers are not that bad?

Good luck! And sorry again for my brisk reef-side manner. Steady. Slow and steady.

 

[Alberta79]

SLOW down!

All these changes will not take you back 3 weeks before you started changing things up.
Take it slowly.
Make one change, observe and then make the next.

Sorry to be so harsh, but I am hoping to slow down the changes so the corals can catch their breath. I know it's difficult to sit by and do nothing when things go bad, but sometimes just letting things alone will allow the coral to adjust and survive. Keep changing just increases stress. Your numbers are not that bad?

Good luck! And sorry again for my brisk reef-side manner. Steady. Slow and steady.

Your not being harsh man, I know this. When I changed lights I made sure to use the same spectrum but everything seems to be going bad now. Skimmer shouldn't affect the tank other than maybe raising nitrates a bit as it breaks in. I think the problem is the change of lights shocking coral thus causing a spike in alk. Not sure how to go slow changing lights other than starting at low intensity. I thought 2 xr15's at 65% would equal 4 primes at 100% I thought wrong obviously lol

 

[KrisReef]

Your not being harsh man, I know this. When I changed lights I made sure to use the same spectrum but everything seems to be going bad now. Skimmer shouldn't affect the tank other than maybe raising nitrates a bit as it breaks in. I think the problem is the change of lights shocking coral thus causing a spike in alk. Not sure how to go slow changing lights other than starting at low intensity. I thought 2 xr15's at 65% would equal 4 primes at 100% I thought wrong obviously lol

You also mentioned changing salts, and thanks for letting me off easy, and we both have the same goal in mind; Hope the tank parameters and corals move safely back to normal.

I can't remember which salt tests high for ALk on mixing. Just thinking out loud on here.
HTH!!

 

[Billldg]

You also mentioned changing salts, and thanks for letting me off easy, and we both have the same goal in mind; Hope the tank parameters and corals move safely back to normal.

I can't remember which salt tests high for ALk on mixing. Just thinking out loud on here.
HTH!!

Red Sea Pro test high for Alk.

 

[Alberta79]

You also mentioned changing salts, and thanks for letting me off easy, and we both have the same goal in mind; Hope the tank parameters and corals move safely back to normal.

I can't remember which salt tests high for ALk on mixing. Just thinking out loud on here.
HTH!!

ya the Redsea coral pro mixes up at 11dkh for me and super high nitrates from my last 2 buckets. I mixed up Fritz rpm last night and tested this morning 8.8dkh and 0 nitrates. Actually all the numbers are bang on to the numbers I had pre light change. I havent done a water change yet but think I will do 10% weekly as soon as my tank dkh drops to 9.5.