Coral Issues/Water Parameter Problems?

[Boxed Fish]

ok i did retest the calcium and mag and its still the same roughly so i guess thats accurate? seems weird to me regardless since im using AFR but maybe its not giving me as much as I think.

AFR is mainly ALK also your calcium could be falling out of the solution if your seeing it unstable which seems to be the issue here.when I used AFR I was also dosing calcium and 5ml of mag daily in a 100g tank.

distilled water wouldn't be the issue unless the ALK is above 7.5, u should test your clean water before putting in the system. test your RODI water as well. higher ALK in any water will contribute that rise and lock out calcium.

my. suggestion would be to use carbon/chemiblue and do full tank cleaning as it doesn't seem the husbandry is all the way there. dose 40ml of calcium in your system which will raise it 40ppm. do this daily until its back in check. dont go above 40ml/day. same with your mag. if u continue to use AFR just be aware u would still need to does calc and mag.

your PH is also low 7.8 is two ticks away from acidic which starts to put bacteria in dormant phase

 

[ReefGeezer]

AFR requires bacteria to break down the calcium formate it uses to maintain calcium and alkalinity. New tanks with only a few small corals may be deficient in these bacteria. That said, and as I said before, it's stability, not chemistry that is the OP's problem. If the tank is new, using AFR might contribute to that instability.

 

[bangcamaro]

Did a heavy waterchange last week before i left for miami..let that settle in nicely and came back with my ATO keeping water levels where i want and more. Here are todays parameter tests!

more stable numbers across the board i think..definitely happy with my salinityh and whatnot as well so hopefully trending in right direction.
I did see some improvement in some of my c orals being more open and about..some still closed up quite alot and everything..but its the long game im sure..gonna keep monitoring things but i feel alot better right now...any other suggestions or opinions?
I want to start figuring out my flow and if my lighting is too much or too little..

I'm running a NICREW 100w dual light..will get what my lighting "program" is but ultimately i think its probably okay?

 

[mcarroll]

I'd be concerned about PO4 still bumping along at 0.0 ppm in so many tests.

Filter less?

 

[bangcamaro]

I'd be concerned about PO4 still bumping along at 0.0 ppm in so many tests.

Filter less?

hm interesting..yeah so right now all i have is filter sock, a bunch of matrix, poly filter..otherwise thats really i have in here for filtration?

 

[mcarroll]

hm interesting..yeah so right now all i have is filter sock, a bunch of matrix, poly filter..otherwise thats really i have in here for filtration?

I'd at least consider doing without the mechanical filtration for a while. Doing so should equate to more food particles for corals at the very least.

 

[bangcamaro]

I'd at least consider doing without the mechanical filtration for a while. Doing so should equate to more food particles for corals at the very least.

fair enough, so youre suggesting removing the poly filter and the filter sock? haha

 

[mcarroll]

Well I was eyeballing the filter sock, but the rest it depends how you're using it I guess.

 

[kratosxxl]

After a week of AFR and getting my salinity in line, here is where we're at so far..Not really noticing any major changes in my corals..in fact some of them look even more closed up than before LOL..


kind of shocked at how low my calcium is? I thought AFR was supposed to be adding those elements into the water? So far I've been following what the bottle says..for this whole week I've been doing 5mL but yeah these are my numbers? I'm going to recheck Calcium and Mag tomorrow again to make sure testing is accurate..these have been tested with Salifert test kits.

Recovery will be long my friend , but remember if its not dead it has a chance to bounce back. I think Calcium test are the most unreliable tbh. I have Hanna and 3 test in a row with same RODI shows different readings.Try asking LFS to test ur water.Also im no expert folks can chime in better but i wll suggest starting AFR half of the recomended dose unless you know usage but since things are stressed they wont be using too much