big mistake

[ohiojeffsreef]

okay, I was trying to address a nitrate issue. I had an old denitrator, and decided to try it. After flushing it with 15 gallons of rodi water I hooked it up to my tank and dosed it with vodka. it had been stored for a year or more maybe. after flushing the water didn't have any odor that I could tell, so I thought it was okay. that was two weeks ago and I have lost all my sps and most of my lps. my softies are stressed but seem to be holding on. inverts are showing signs like my cleaner shed and lost his feelers. testing shows no nitrate, no phosphate, no ammonia or nitrite. ph is 8.4 currently because me trying to dose. my water will not keep calcium or alk. I dose it up and overnite it drops unbelievable amounts. last night I had my dkh 8.5 and today it was 6.5. calcium was 400 after a large water change yesterday and was down to 350 this afternoon. I keep trying to dose it up and it keeps falling like a rock. I am convinced that it isn't a waste issue. this is chemical. I know that denitrators will produce sulfuric acid if the flow is too slow. assuming that all the water I have changed, the carbon and the poly pads have addressed any nutrients, my question becomes if I put sulfuric acid in my tank, would this in effect counter act my dosing since alk and acid are polar opposites? if so, is there any way to fix what I have done? I have run out of ideas. I really need help.

 

[Reefing Madness]

If you used an old denitrator, theres no way its set to go only after a few days, or even a few weeks. If its not a sulpher denitrator, it did not set up overnite. And, how much vodka did you dose into the tank? What size tank? I doubt that did it either, because you'd practilcally have to drop the bottle in to kill anything. If your not seeing white bacteria build up on the glass, its not the vodka.
If your losing that much ALK and CAL, then I'd say you have a BUNCH of LPS SPS and Coralline growing in your tank, its possible to lose all that, but man, your tank would be full.
Maybe time for a doser. But have you tried to get your alk to 12 and your cal to like 460 instead? And see how that does?
Whats your SG reading?

 

[ohiojeffsreef]

ok, I dose two part by brs. my reef was two years old, I had a mixed reef. yes, I had sps and lps. I was dosing 100ml a day to maintain my dkh 10.5 and my calcium at 430-440. I kept my mag over 1400 if possible but it usually was happiest around 1350. I had to scrape my glass every day. no nitrates of phosphates on tests, but the daily growth on my glass was telling me my nutrients were higher than ideal. I cannot leave well enough alone, so I was trying to address these extra nutrients. I hooked up the aquaripure that I bought when I first got started two years ago. as I learned more I shut it down. of course I learned if you don't have a nitrates, you don't really need a reactor for them. now that my reef had grown and I had added stuff I thought maybe it was time to try it again. it took me two days to realize something just wasn't right. I unhooked it but over the next few days everything started dying. I have lost all my sps and many of my lps. my reef is 75 with a 100 gallon sump. i figure about 150 gallons total. over the last two weeks i have changed 100% plus. i have done two 30% changes and i have lost track of how many 5 gallon changes trying to address what i thought was a nutrient problem. the problem is with the carbon, seachem phosphate media, and all this water, i should have any organic thing in check. also find i cannot keep my levels up. they keep falling overnight. is why i am thinking something more on a chemical level. lets say this old denitrator was just full of acid from setting. it would be deadly for sure, but it would also counter dosing alk for sure. it is the only explanation i can come up with. i just have no idea how to fix it.