Constantly Failing At SPS What Am I Missing?

[RMS18]

I set out to check for rusting components just incase even though everything I have is new and get cleaned every couple of months. I found the screws on my skimz skimmer looking like this...

Thoughts?

 

[bif24701]

I set out to check for rusting components just incase even though everything I have is new and get cleaned every couple of months. I found the screws on my skimz skimmer looking like this...

Thoughts?

Those are fine. No matter what SS will oxidize slightly in salt water. Only fix for that is titanium screws which some high end skimmers use. The kind of rust you want to look for is stuff that is falling apart from rust. That will leach large amounts of metals into the water.

 

[blebs]

Not to stir the pot but if I ran my leds at 100% all my sps would be dead as well. I run a max of 40% intensity led with my t5 bulbs for only 3 hrs. The rest is ramp up/down.

i run my kessil 100% and 4 t5 from aquatic life for 11 hrs a day and all my corals including zoas and lps love it

 

[Sean1986]

I know a lot of folks on here are against dry rocks but I personally do not believe that is the issue. I did not cure my dry rocks before my set up at the beginning of January and I had corals in my system 2.5 weeks later. I have not lost a single acro and my system is only a total of 55 gallons. I also have not done a single water change since the tanks has been up and running. My sps is encrusting and growing and coloring up better then when I purchased them from a store. I think everyone here is correct on using a good Rodi unit I know you said ones on the way and im stoked for your. Took me 5 years in this hobby to get my rodi and i cant believe I didn't get it sooner.

 

[RMS18]

I know a lot of folks on here are against dry rocks but I personally do not believe that is the issue. I did not cure my dry rocks before my set up at the beginning of January and I had corals in my system 2.5 weeks later. I have not lost a single acro and my system is only a total of 55 gallons. I also have not done a single water change since the tanks has been up and running. My sps is encrusting and growing and coloring up better then when I purchased them from a store. I think everyone here is correct on using a good Rodi unit I know you said ones on the way and im stoked for your. Took me 5 years in this hobby to get my rodi and i cant believe I didn't get it sooner.

I'm hoping the rodi is the issue. I tested the rodi water from my lfs with a tds and I was only reading 018-025. The corals have only gotten worse... The Stylo has no tissue left completely white with some polyps left. It's just a mess on there... Here's my slimmer that showed this tissue loss over 2 days..

 

[dragon99]

Yikes, you might consider using Panta Rhei Lith or Triton Detox.

Definitely a couple water changes when the RO/DI gets setup.

 

[rtparty]

I know a lot of folks on here are against dry rocks but I personally do not believe that is the issue. I did not cure my dry rocks before my set up at the beginning of January and I had corals in my system 2.5 weeks later. I have not lost a single acro and my system is only a total of 55 gallons. I also have not done a single water change since the tanks has been up and running. My sps is encrusting and growing and coloring up better then when I purchased them from a store. I think everyone here is correct on using a good Rodi unit I know you said ones on the way and im stoked for your. Took me 5 years in this hobby to get my rodi and i cant believe I didn't get it sooner.

My first Monti was going amazing for a while. Growing, coloring up, looking great. Then one day it just changed and went down hill. It looks like garbage now and I expect it will be dead soon.

We need much longer than 2.5 months before considering anything in this hobby a "success."

 

[RMS18]

Yikes, you might consider using Panta Rhei Lith or Triton Detox.

Definitely a couple water changes when the RO/DI gets setup.

Great suggestion... Do you have a preference one over the other?

 

[Sean1986]

My first Monti was going amazing for a while. Growing, coloring up, looking great. Then one day it just changed and went down hill. It looks like garbage now and I expect it will be dead soon.

We need much longer than 2.5 months before considering anything in this hobby a "success."

I may of implied I was having success but I didnt say I was successful or called it a success. Just saying what I have been observing in my own tank. First tank with Dry rock and first tank with my own RODI system. So far no issues with any of my SPS, I think being stable is the key like many others have stated. Iv read many ups and downs with people trying to figure out the zeovits system and how they can make it work for them.

Iv read over this thread the past couple days so sorry if you answered it did you use any bacteria source? I used Microbacter7 on my tank and have been adding a few drops of that a day. Not saying its the answer just curious and I havent see any harm from using it. Did have a bacteria bloom around the 5 day mark of using it but that was probably from me dosing to much.

 

[RMS18]

I may of implied I was having success but I didnt say I was successful or called it a success. Just saying what I have been observing in my own tank. First tank with Dry rock and first tank with my own RODI system. So far no issues with any of my SPS, I think being stable is the key like many others have stated. Iv read many ups and downs with people trying to figure out the zeovits system and how they can make it work for them.

Iv read over this thread the past couple days so sorry if you answered it did you use any bacteria source? I used Microbacter7 on my tank and have been adding a few drops of that a day. Not saying its the answer just curious and I havent see any harm from using it. Did have a bacteria bloom around the 5 day mark of using it but that was probably from me dosing to much.

With the Zeovit system there is a live bacteria that is added. For my tank i dose EOD for the heavy bioload. I think showing the example of the slimer and what can occur in my system within 1-2 days is a good example that something is really wrong and it's more than live rock vs dryrock or not enough Coraline. I liked the suggestion from the member about using trition detox. Unfortunately my rodi system got hung up in Kentucky with the storm we have had and is now 3 days past due the expected date with no ETA currently.

 

[CoralWealth]

I'm hoping the rodi is the issue. I tested the rodi water from my lfs with a tds and I was only reading 018-025. The corals have only gotten worse... The Stylo has no tissue left completely white with some polyps left. It's just a mess on there... Here's my slimmer that showed this tissue loss over 2 days..

Only 018-025???? Ask any SPS guy that you see that has a tank of SPS colonies that he grew from frags when he changes the TDS, I bet he will say 001-002 at max. Those levels you are talking about will definitely kill your SPS. It is 100% your cause man

I personally dont even left my second stage DI get to all brown even if its reading 000 at the end, dont want to risk it. For $13 it costs to change a DI is nowhere close to worth having your acros suffer.

You said your LFS uses this same RO/DI and grows good colonies? or he keeps colonies alive enough that he bought till he sells them?

 

[RMS18]

Only 018-025???? Ask any SPS guy that you see that has a tank of SPS colonies that he grew from frags when he changes the TDS, I bet he will say 001-002 at max. Those levels you are talking about will definitely kill your SPS. It is 100% your cause man

I personally dont even left my second stage DI get to all brown even if its reading 000 at the end, dont want to risk it. For $13 it costs to change a DI is nowhere close to worth having your acros suffer.

You said your LFS uses this same RO/DI and grows good colonies? or he keeps colonies alive enough that he bought till he sells them?

Ahh sorry did not think that was to high... Nope doesn't grow colonies they import them and frag them. That's a good question honestly. I guess the nice ones don't last to long before they are purchased.

 

[dragon99]

Great suggestion... Do you have a preference one over the other?

Best I can figure out, they are probably the same thing. The Triton bottle costs way more though so I purchased and have used the Panta Rhei.

I used it after seeing Chromium in my Triton report

The next Triton test I did a couple months later showed 0 Cr, so I believe it worked.

 

[CoralWealth]

Ahh sorry did not think that was to high... Nope doesn't grow colonies they import them and frag them. That's a good question honestly. I guess the nice ones don't last to long before they are purchased.

Yeah I bet you will notice a 100% difference once you change all your water with pure 000 TDS once you get your RO/DI running. You will get this SPS game down soon, you already have stability so next is just the pure water

 

[rtparty]

It's hard to say that those TDS numbers are good or bad when we have no idea what is in that reading. I know plenty of successful tanks that use tap water with TDS readings of 300+.

To just make a blanket statement of "any TDS is bad" is incorrect and misleading.

Best practice is definitely a good RODI unit with 0 TDS and what we should all shoot for but again, we have no idea what's in that reading to say it's killing the SPS.

 

[UWC]

Only 018-025???? Ask any SPS guy that you see that has a tank of SPS colonies that he grew from frags when he changes the TDS, I bet he will say 001-002 at max. Those levels you are talking about will definitely kill your SPS. It is 100% your cause man

I personally dont even left my second stage DI get to all brown even if its reading 000 at the end, dont want to risk it. For $13 it costs to change a DI is nowhere close to worth having your acros suffer.

Agree with this 100%

 

[CoralWealth]

It's hard to say that those TDS numbers are good or bad when we have no idea what is in that reading. I know plenty of successful tanks that use tap water with TDS readings of 300+.

To just make a blanket statement of "any TDS is bad" is incorrect and misleading.

Best practice is definitely a good RODI unit with 0 TDS and what we should all shoot for but again, we have no idea what's in that reading to say it's killing the SPS.

Not to be mean or trying to argue just trying to understand, but do you have SPS in your system and they thrive? I would love to see a successful SPS tank that uses tap water.

 

[rtparty]

Not to be mean or trying to argue just trying to understand, but do you have SPS in your system and they thrive? I would love to see a successful SPS tank that uses tap water.

I don't use tap water. Never said I did.

My current tank is a total ugly, PITA. That's another thread though and I don't want to bring that into this thread. I have a thread all about it already.

For this thread and trying to find the "issue", we can't definitively say it's the RO water being used. We just can't. We have no clue what's in that reading. It could be "stuff" that is totally acceptable and the average reef should be able to handle and even possibly use. It could also be super toxic and killing everything. The latter is extremely unlikely since the store that provides the water isn't killing SPS in 2 days using the same water.

To claim 100% (your words) the OP will see a difference with "better" water is misleading and false hope. COULD it be the problem? Yes. It could also be 99 other things. Things we can't even detect or test for.

The one common theme that stands out is the use of dead rock and a young tank. Do some have success with SPS, dead rock and young tank? Of course. Does that mean that isn't the issue here? No. There are way too many reports of dead rock, a young tank and SPS death that we can't rule that out. No matter how stable everything is, how immacualte the husbandry is or what system (Zeovit in this case) is used.

Sometimes things just don't work in this hobby and it takes a major shake up to fix it. For Paletta's tank it was all new LIVE rock and that's been the case for quite a few people. So we can chase "issues" for months on end and may never fix it. The OP could also spend the couple hundred bucks on all new LR and see if that works. (After the new RO unit is setup of course since that is a much easier fix and will be needed any way.)

As for successful tap water tanks, they're out there if you search. Especially in the cheap (sorry any Utahn reading this) state I live in. Our local board is filled with tap water tanks that do fine. It's also full of unsuccessful tap water tanks. My point is that we can't just claim it is one thing because it doesn't meet the status quo of what this hobby has turned into.

 

[happyhourhero]

I am also interested in seeing a SPS tank that uses tap. I have seen some softy tanks for sure but still no tap sps tanks.

Using 000 tds is just a simple way to eliminate a range of variables which helps when troubleshooting.

 

[happyhourhero]

OP throwing in a polyfilter can often times help in events like these too.