So I’ve lost over 12 corals over the last month so I decided to do an ICP for the first time. I have a mixed reef. Most of the coral deaths are LPS, but I had a new SPS die in a matter of a week. The corals lost were 3 torches, 2 blasto, 1 acan, 2 favia, 1 cynaria, 3 SPS (a Walt Disney I’ve been wanting for a long time and 2 birds nest). I’ve also noticed a couple things not doing as well as they use to. My Goni/alve are not extending as much, a Fox coral that hasn’t opened in over a month, a scoly with STN, dendro that only opens a bit at night when it had always opened during the day, 2 digi and 2 montipora cap/encrusting that are losing color on the edges.
I have a couple of theories but I’m still pretty new to this so I’d like some advice. I’ve attached my ICP.
The big red flag I saw in my ICP was aluminum. I do have some magnets in the tank I was worried about leaching. I thought I had covered them well in silicone when I was making some floating rock for my back wall but I’m questioning them now. Could these be leaching aluminum? I also recently added a large amount of bio media a few weeks ago to try and increase the bacteria population and get my Nitrates under control (they’ve been sitting at 25 for a couple of months).
No3 and PO4 had been elevated for a few months, I think due to dosing homegrown phyto that may have not exhausted all the fertilizer before I put it in the tank. I’ve slowed way down on the phyto (previously 8oz nano/tetra mix daily down to 4oz every other day) and also started Microbacter7 and NOPOX to lower these numbers. They currently sit at No3 10/PO4 .03.
Like I said, I’m fairly new to reefing. Started this 100gal tank in December and this is my first ICP. Things seemed to be going so well for a while then I had all these deaths. Immediately after I sent off the test I started doing 10% water changes for the next 5 days straight. My normal routine was 10% every 2 weeks.
sorry for the long post.
I have a couple of theories but I’m still pretty new to this so I’d like some advice. I’ve attached my ICP.
The big red flag I saw in my ICP was aluminum. I do have some magnets in the tank I was worried about leaching. I thought I had covered them well in silicone when I was making some floating rock for my back wall but I’m questioning them now. Could these be leaching aluminum? I also recently added a large amount of bio media a few weeks ago to try and increase the bacteria population and get my Nitrates under control (they’ve been sitting at 25 for a couple of months).
No3 and PO4 had been elevated for a few months, I think due to dosing homegrown phyto that may have not exhausted all the fertilizer before I put it in the tank. I’ve slowed way down on the phyto (previously 8oz nano/tetra mix daily down to 4oz every other day) and also started Microbacter7 and NOPOX to lower these numbers. They currently sit at No3 10/PO4 .03.
Like I said, I’m fairly new to reefing. Started this 100gal tank in December and this is my first ICP. Things seemed to be going so well for a while then I had all these deaths. Immediately after I sent off the test I started doing 10% water changes for the next 5 days straight. My normal routine was 10% every 2 weeks.
sorry for the long post.