Continuing to Struggle with SPS

[Charlie’s Frags]

Did you take the bio pellets off-line all at once or slowly? Since it is carbon dosing did you replace with another form of carbon dosing? Debating doing the same thing on mine.

I just turned off the reactor. Done and done.

 

[TX_Punisher]

I just turned off the reactor. Done and done.

No cheato?

I may do the same.

 

[aarbutina]

What test kits are you using for nitrate and phosphate? Have someone else run the tests too.

Red Sea Pro for Nitrate and ULR Phosphorus Hanna Checker for phosphate

 

[TexasTodd]

Those should work. When things are iffy I like having others run the tests too. I've taken water and my testers into LFS and had two people run them.
There's algae on the plug so there's enough P and N to grow it.
Weird thing is you have base up and tip down recession. Tip down is usually alk or light, base up is usually P. A day light pic might help too along with a full tank.

 

[TX_Punisher]

Incase I missed it, done an ICP test?

It found metals in my sample at 100%.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

No cheato?

I may do the same.

I do have a small diy chaeto reactor. What surprised me was within the 2-3 weeks my nutrients started dropping and my GHA withered away. Way lower than before when I had biopellets, gfo, and dosing nopox. It’s amazing what happened once just left it alone. I still test alkalinity everyday and cal, mag, no3, phosphates, and K once a week.

 

[aarbutina]

Looks like flatworms are all over the coral base and rack. But they just look blue from the light I am guessing? Check and make sure you don't have a huge explosion of red planaira because they will sit direct on top of corals and kill them off slowly.

It’s definitely not flatworms. I think it was just how the iPhone screws with colors of things under reef tank lighting.

 

[aarbutina]

But that could just be a wierd trick the camera is playing. Also check to make sure your potassium is not very low for some wierd reason.

Imo if cheato if being used and your not using any other filter methods or media and your feeding good food daily then you don't have to worry about too low of nutrients. The cheato should die off before your coral look like that.

I have some pellets that I feed on an auto feeder throughout the day and normally try to feed some LRS in the evening but that doesn’t always happened. I am going to try to be more consistent with that.

 

[aarbutina]

Why are you running the T5's for only and hour they should be on for at least 8 hours. I would also start feeding your corals at least twice a week with coral food like Benereef

The T5 are relatively new to the system. Am currently ramping them up.

 

[reefwiser]

Just use them It will help your struggle tremendously.

 

[aarbutina]

Just use them It will help your struggle tremendously.

I guess I need to break out the PAR meter again and adjust the max intensity of the LEDs so the when the T5s come on I am not just burning things up

 

[reefwiser]

The T5’s will be dining the heavy lifting. [emoji3]

 

[aarbutina]

Incase I missed it, done an ICP test?

It found metals in my sample at 100%.

I have an IPC test on order. I have been having this problem of a while and have done previous IPC test that have not shown any toxins in the tank. That doesn't mean there aren't any this time, but I feel like this is more of checking a box.

 

[aarbutina]

Check levels of stray voltage. I have a mixed reef tank and back in may or so I noticed my acros where not looking right, loosing color, polyps retracted, and some started to suffer from stn, now only the acros were suffering, everything else was fine. I tested, tested, tested, examined pumps and such, wracking my brain on what it could be, then a couple weeks later I went to kill some aiptasia and felt a slight shock. I got my voltmeter out and man it showed some current flowing. Had my wife unplug pumps one at a time and found the culprit. The very next day the acros that usually had polyps out during the day had them out, the survivors were all back to there normal selves within a month. Just wanted that idea out there.

Checked for stray voltage last night. Wasn't able to detect any.

 

[aarbutina]

As of last night my levels were:

Alk: 7.5 dKh (Hanna Checker)
Ca: 455 ppm (Salifert)
Mg: 1455 ppm (Salifert)
NO3: 0 ppm (Red Sea Pro) (new test kit)
P04: 0.03 ppm (Hanna ULR Phosphorus)
Relative Specific Gravity: 1.025
pH: 8.1 +/- 0.1
Temp: 78 F

So I am getting some detectable levels of phosphate finally, but detectable levels of nitrate are eluding me.

As some have pointed out I am having a bit of an issue with some algae in the display, not on the rock work, the sand, frag plugs, and on frags themselves where tissue is missing. Don't know exactly what is causing this all of a sudden. I did start feeding my fish food that had be coated with metroplex (bound with focus) for a minor ich out break on my purple tang. Not sure if there is a correlation between that and the algae but the decline of the corals started before the addition of the medication. I also am running the carbon specifically to clear out any medication that wasn't consumed by the fish.

 

[maroun.c]

Id send a water sample to ICP just to make sure yo're not struggling with some contamination or with sever shifts of any elements or heavy metals... no need to go crazy chasing numbers but avoiding huge shifts can sometimes make a huge difference.
once all is well set slowly experiment with different alkalinity/nutrients levels but do one thing at a time with enough time in between to be able to relate changes to causes. my tanks have always done better at higher alk but stability is key.

 

[aarbutina]

Id send a water sample to ICP just to make sure yo're not struggling with some contamination or with sever shifts of any elements or heavy metals... no need to go crazy chasing numbers but avoiding huge shifts can sometimes make a huge difference.
once all is well set slowly experiment with different alkalinity/nutrients levels but do one thing at a time with enough time in between to be able to relate changes to causes. my tanks have always done better at higher alk but stability is key.

Yup just waiting for the IPC test kit to get here. Its really a pain how long the turn around time can be if you don't have a test kit on hand. Should probably just buy a couple to keep them on hand. But they aren't really that cheap that you just want to leave them sitting around.

 

[hart24601]

I personally don’t care too much about alk levels but instantly see that 0 nitrate and phosphate and think there is the potential issue. IMO I would start trying to raise that nitrate up a little bit at least to detectable levels. I see now you have some phosphate that is good, just remember you will not see changes right away. Try and keep that level for a while. Don’t worry about algae for now ime, that is more easily dealt with grazers and focus on one thing at a time and don’t try to change too much. I would also leave the lights as is, 200 par is a pretty great level. I personally would consider adding some nitrate. If one is curious can look at my signature to see sps experience.

 

[maroun.c]

Yup just waiting for the IPC test kit to get here. Its really a pain how long the turn around time can be if you don't have a test kit on hand.

tell me about it, its worse when you live accross the globe ;)

 

[aarbutina]

I personally don’t care too much about alk levels but instantly see that 0 nitrate and phosphate and think there is the potential issue. IMO I would start trying to raise that nitrate up a little bit at least to detectable levels. I see now you have some phosphate that is good, just remember you will not see changes right away. Try and keep that level for a while. Don’t worry about algae for now ime, that is more easily dealt with grazers and focus on one thing at a time and don’t try to change too much. I would also leave the lights as is, 200 par is a pretty great level. I personally would consider adding some nitrate. If one is curious can look at my signature to see sps experience.

Beautiful system you have there. I am currently trying to get that nitrate level up by increasing the feeding. My fish load is pretty decent but I can always feed them more/more consistently if I am not seeing any nitrates. Obviously the biological filtration is taking care of most of the nutrients.

I have messed around with dosing nitrates in the past, but I don't like the idea of using industrial grade chemicals like spectracide or this purpose. There are just too many unknowns to be worth the risk in my opinion. I had a pretty good thread going about this earlier this summer (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/h...ue-to-dosing-spectracide-for-nitrates.386025/) and Ryan from BRS even jumped in and did a mini "investigates" on his own. I know that Triton is suppose to be be coming out with a nitrate dosing product in the near future and would be much more willing to try that over some other options.