Back in again. 75g sps build thread

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DesertReefT4r

DesertReefT4r

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Water test day.
SG 1.024
Alk 8.4 dkh
Cal 410 ppm
Mg 1440 ppm
No3 .05 ppm, that's right the test finally has the slightest pink tint.
Po4 .02 ppm
Then I did a 10g water change on the the display tank and 8g on the QT tank.
 
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Well all my extra feeding and dosing Red Sea Coral Nutrition has added up and is taking a toll on the reef. Diatoms on the sand, green film on the glass, cyano on the sand and rock and dark brown turf algae on the rock. So I scrubbed the rock and glass and cleaned things up a bit. Today is water test day so we will see whats going on there.
 

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Well all my extra feeding and dosing Red Sea Coral Nutrition has added up and is taking a toll on the reef. Diatoms on the sand, green film on the glass, cyano on the sand and rock and dark brown turf algae on the rock. So I scrubbed the rock and glass and cleaned things up a bit. Today is water test day so we will see whats going on there.

I hope this goes ok, if not you need to let us know exactly how you are running the tank now, there has to be something we are missing and there are enough people here to try and get our heads around it!?
 
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I hope this goes ok, if not you need to let us know exactly how you are running the tank now, there has to be something we are missing and there are enough people here to try and get our heads around it!?
Here is my method. 10g water changes every other week with 0 tds rodi and Fritz RPM salt. Dosing B Ionic 2 part 1.5 ml daily to maintain alk and cal at about 8.0 and 410 ppm, mag stays at about 1440 with water changes. Feed the fish 3 times a day once in the morning, afternoon and evening. I dose the Coral Nutrition with the evening feeding. I feed a mixed diet of Prime Reef flake, New Life Spectrum pellets and the normal frozen foods like mysis, marine cuisine, fish eggs, rotifers. Normally feed frozen in the evening. Filteration is done by a chaeto fuge, RO 150SSS skimmer and filter sock. Sock is replaced about every 3 days, skimmer cleaned weekly and chaeto harvested as needed about every 2 weeks. Water testing is done weekly with Red Sea for cal, mag, no3 and po4, alk with Hanna, SG with calibrated refractometer, ph and temp with Reef Keeper controller probes. SG is maintained with my controller ATO using 0 tds rodi. Flow is provided by 2 PP8 power heads at 100% on switching pulse mode, enough to blow my sand around a bit. Lighting is 2 250w MH 20k bulbs on PFO M80 ballasts, most corals get 200-230 par. MH run for 6.5 hours. MH bulbs are about 5 months old, replacee in December 2018. Also have a 30w actinic led bar that turns on 2 hours before the MH turn on and turns off 2 hours after the MH are off to provide a dawn dusk effect and give some pop to the corals. Temp is stable 78-80°f. Stocking list is 3 Chromis, 2 clownmfish, Scopus tang and a psuedochrome. I a damsel, sixline wrasse and Tomini tang in QT that are ready to be introduced into the display. Cuc is a few hermits, some snails of different types not sure how manu but I do need to add more again and a conch snail. Lastly I enjoy the reef daily observing the health of the fish and corals.
 
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Just did my water tests.
Temp 78.3
Ph 7.84, lights still off
Salinity 1.025, back to normal
Alk 8.4
Cal 415
Mag 1440
No3 0.00, last week it was 0.05
Po4 0.02.
Also moved the 3 fish in QT into the 75g display.
 

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Just did my water tests.
Temp 78.3
Ph 7.84, lights still off
Salinity 1.025, back to normal
Alk 8.4
Cal 415
Mag 1440
No3 0.00, last week it was 0.05
Po4 0.02.
Also moved the 3 fish in QT into the 75g display.

Looks good to me except the low nitrates and phos.
 
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Looks good to me except the low nitrates and phos.
I know right. There has to be no3 and po4 in the water though because of aglae growth on the rock and glass, diatoms on the sand and my chaeto grows pretty quick. I am high considering a ICP test. I need a Hanna po4 checker, I dont trust the Red Sea kit, so hard to tell from 0.00-0.04 color change. For now I am just keeping the tank stable.
 
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Little tank update. My sps are looking like crap, still no idea whats going on. My Scopus tang has Ich now, yeah. I finally start to QT fish and a well established fish gets Ich. It has been stressed due to the addition on the Tomini tang so I think the stress left it open to Ich. No other fish at any point have shown signs of Ich so I dont know who brought it in. Short of removing all coral and rock from the tank there is not removing any fish from the display. The Scopus and psuedochrome have been very aggressive to the new fish. I did a 20g water change on Sunday. About to get an ICP test. Wondering if the salinity drop to 1.022 is what caused this since it has been the only major issue so far. Only other changes have been the increase feeding of Reef Energy which I cut way way back, 15ml of no3 a day which I stopped and ran out of MB7 which was dosed very randomly until I ran out and bough to cycle the tank. Cal alk amd mag have been kept stable.
 
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So bummed out about my reef right now. All my acorpora are on the decline, color loss, more browing, some with no PE and a couple burnt tips. Getting an ICP test tomorrow, LFS was out of them today. Goimg to find out if anything is out of wack with my water. Also highly considering Life Rock Enhance to clean up rock and get rid of the dark brown algae, starting to think its dinos due to the air bubbles. Other than always having low to undetectable no3 and po4 the only issue this tank has encountered is the drop in salinity from 1.025 to 1.022 like a month ago. Its the only thing I can think of to cause any issue with the corals. I did a 20g water change on sunday and water is testing the same as always, alk today is 8.4. Also some of my snail are lethargic. Really needing some help here.
 
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Its happening.

20190531_214406_resized.jpg
 
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Have you tried running the skimmer less or running without filter socks, see if your levels rise?
Yep. Did the no filter sock for 2 weeks and no change just more ditritus in the sump. I turn my skimmer off with feed mode for 30 minutes at least 2 times a day and it set to skim pretty dry. I have not tired shutting it down for long periods.
 

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Sorry to hear, I hope your tests show something that you can correct ASAP. I wonder if it’s your source water? Two things jump out at me, and they may mean nothing at all: your frequent water changes (why do so many when you’re trying to raise nutrients?) and the salt. I myself have used two boxes of fritz, but I stopped when the alk was wonky and from the stories I’ve read about bad batches. In the fritz forum people are 50/50 with their love for the salt, and someone’s been calling them out and fritz doesn’t respond to them. Again, may mean nothing at all and I hope you get it sorted out.
 

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Are you sure you aren’t starving your corals with almost zero nitrate and phosphate?

You could try less water changes as suggested above, feeding a bit more, dosing no3 and/or a p04 source as well.

Good luck with the icp. It may just reinforce what you already know.
 
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Thanks for the info. Yeah I think I will slow down on the water changes. The 2 boxes of Fritz I have used so far test good, a bit high on mag but alk and cal are spot on at 9.5 dkh and 420 ppm cal, mag is 1480 ppm. Source water is 0 tds RODI that I make myself. Just replaced di resin and pre filters 3 days ago and upgraded from 4 stages to 6 stages, added a 2nd carbon and di stage. 8 tds out of the membrane and 0 after the di. I feed pretty heavy already, flake or pellet 2 times a day and frozen at night. All fish appear well fed. I feed Red Sea Reef Engery A and B about 2 times a week 2 mls each. I was doing it daily along with 15ml of Neo Nitro but had a diatom and cyano bloom that I am still working on. It takes 30ml of Neo Nitro to get 1 ppm and it will be gone in under 24 hours in my tank. Have some Reef Roids on the way as well. My po4 Hanna checker get delivered tomorrow so I will post up results, honestly expecting under 0.02 ppm. I wish Hanna made a low range no3 checker I would buy it for sure.
 

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