Corals look unhappy. I have parameter questions

[saltypuffer]

My corals have been looking unhappy for about a week. It started with my frogspawn shriveling up completely, then gsp looking a lot less plump, then my Duncan’s and hammers took a hit and aren’t as plump either. I had a stylophora’s polyps retract for one day during this time, but weirdly enough all sps have been looking great. I have been in the process of getting my calc and mag up slightly to desired levels so I’ve been dosing all for Reef. I BARELY increased my dosages and have just started to notice a slight increase in Calc (nothing changed yet in mag). I’m kind of lost as to why my corals look like they’re on deaths door.

Full Parameters:

Tank: 125 gal (155 gal total vol)
Dosing: moved up slowly from 35ml AFR to my now current dosage of 50ml AFR daily. Tank has been up for 8 months.

ALK: 8.8
Calc: 415
Mag: 1170
Nitrates: 20
Phosphates: 0 (undetectable with my salifert kit)
Salinity: 1.025

I guess I’m just wondering that I’m doing wrong? Could my nitrates be too high and phosphates too low? If so, would this cause a crazy difference in my corals from one day to the next? My alk is kind of where I want it (if it goes too low I dose alk separately) but im bringing up my mag and calc up slowly with the help of AFR.

Additional info that might help: Skimmer went berserk for no apparent reason but returned to normal 4 days ago

 

[Pistondog]

Phosphates too low. Feed some reef roids 2 or 3x per week.
Target 0.1 ppm.

 

[js-3Design]

Nitrates high
Phosphates low.
Magnesium low.

I use dsr phosphate + everyday in my tanks (0.1ml for 80 liters) it worked wonders.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

There are 3 things mashed together in your post, 1) corals doing poorly for a week, can you show some pics? 2) AFR in relation to calcium and mag 3) phosphate and nitrate

Before you started AFR, did you get your parameters exactly where you want them, or are you trying to dose enough AFR to get the parameters to where you want them? First is get the parameters where you want, then start AFR. I only measure alk now, I don't measure the other anymore, the AFR will keep everything in line with the alk. Personally I would use buffer to increase the calcium and mag where you want it.

 

[eqbal9947]

Stability is the key
Mag is too low
LPS and softies like phos

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I'm with Mojo; I only test alk, nitrates, and phosphates in my tank. I've tested mag once but haven't since the one time I did. (I also use AFR in my tank)


https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/just-say-no-to-magnesium-testing-rmm-is-born.1017528/

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Assuming the magnesium is low and not test error (a big assumption risk) and also assuming the salinity is correct (still a risk but less so) then raising the sg from 1.025 to 1.0264 (35 ppt average for ocean seawater) will raise the magnesium from 1170 to 1235 ppm.

Before adding any magnesium by dosing, try your magnesium kit on some new salt water.

 

[Pod_01]

Just my opinion, as was mentioned by others PO4 of zero is not a good value, corals need phosphate and will starve without it. I aim to have a value 0.05 up to 0.2, higher value work for my reef as well.
Some reefers can get away with low PO4 but they tend to have lot of fish and the fish in turn makes coral food that contains PO4.

There are many ways to increase PO4, feed more, some coral foods, liquid additives and some specific PO4 foods like TM Phos Feed.

To bring up Calcium and Mag you can increase your salinity from 1.025 to 1.0262… I tend to run at 1.0262. I see Randy just made the same suggestion…

Good luck.

 

[saltypuffer]

Phosphates too low. Feed some reef roids 2 or 3x per week.
Target 0.1 ppm.

Thanks for the tip. I’ll look at ordering some today!

 

[saltypuffer]

Nitrates high
Phosphates low.
Magnesium low.

I use dsr phosphate + everyday in my tanks (0.1ml for 80 liters) it worked wonders.

Is this considered the best way to raise phosphates without also raising nitrates? I’m a bit confused how that even works because I always thought they were kind of correlated. I’ll check it out though so thanks for the reccomend!

 

[saltypuffer]

Assuming the magnesium is low and not test error (a big assumption risk) and also assuming the salinity is correct (still a risk but less so) then raising the sg from 1.025 to 1.0264 (35 ppt average for ocean seawater) will raise the magnesium from 1170 to 1235 ppm.

Before adding any magnesium by dosing, try your magnesium kit on some new salt water.

Okay sounds good! I have another tank set up and it’s testing normal on mag using the same test kit but I’ll check a new batch of salt water just to be safe. I will probably go this method first before trying to mess with different additives.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Is this considered the best way to raise phosphates without also raising nitrates? I’m a bit confused how that even works because I always thought they were kind of correlated. I’ll check it out though so thanks for the reccomend!

My advice, and the cheapest option, is to dose sodium phosphate.

Reef Roids is known to be phosphate heavy relative to nitrate, and can work as well.

 

[Daz_1978]

I hated my Salifert Phosphate test kit... Mine jumped in range from 0 to 2, then 5, 10, etc. Pretty useless IMO. I need all the numbers in between 0 and 1... actually between 0 and 0.3!!! Your Phosphate may be just fine, but you'll probably never know using that kit.

Tropic Marin suggest to get your parameters where you want them using other products, before using AFR to maintain. Meaning AFR is a maintenance solution, not a repair solution.
While your levels are lower than where I like mine... they really don't look like a death sentence for anything in there.

I'd love to know what made the skimmer go nuts...
And what is your idea of raising levels "slowly"?

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I'd love to know what made the skimmer go nuts...

^^^ THIS

Is it possible a pollutant got into your tank? When was the last water change? Anyone spray cleaners or air fresheners in the room? (Or the house?)