Crab's is about ready to throw in the towel.

[Peace River]

Are you able to get any water parameter data from your municipal water supplier? Have they made any changes? Etc.

 

[boacvh]

Ammonia test? Anything that could have died and nuked the tank or something else that could have caused the tank to cycle again?
Sorry to not be able to offer much besides moral support!

 

[Topreefer92]

After your tank becomes stable again I would plumb the ro unit back to after the water softner. It is extremely helpful to do so as it will make all your filters on the ro unit last longer. The reason being is, the water softner is filtering out heavy metals and such and just keeping certain minerals in the water from running through your brine tank. Your ro unit will have an easier time filtering out extra salt vs metals and more hard core contaminants. I am wondering if your issue is like mentioned previous is an Alk burn, I have experienced that when switching salts cold Turkey.

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello,

Sorry is not much to say, but I know what your going through. I moved my tank and i went from hardly any problems to things dying left and right. As with you he numbers are right where they need to be.

This may not be the cause but so far it seems likely for mine. My normal local fish shop uses instant ocean pro salt mix. When I moved my tank (they were closed and I bought 80 gallons from the other place that uses fritz. Now I had to use all 80 gallons of the fritz and things went south fast. However, after doing more research and realizing this Later, I did another water change about 80 gallons but used the instant ocean pro salt from my normal lfs. I can say things have stabilized at least and some things have shown good turns and some still going south. May not solve the problem but sure worth a shot.

 

[SeaDweller]

Sounds almost like you’re going back through the new tank syndrome with the algae and such.

I’m not a sw guru, but I do know some about fresh and what I would do. First thing, I’d look to chlorine it chloramines. While I know you said you use the RODI, it’s the time of year that water companies flush their systems so maybe your unit isn’t catching it all. Get a test for that. Also call your water company. Ask if they have done any major cleaning etc and ask for the report.

Please don’t give up, a lot of people look up to you here.

Also, get a beardie but get a different enclosure

I’m beginning to think this is true, about being the time of year. Coincidentally my crash was about this time a few years ago and a local well known reefer by me mentioned the city was upping chloramines. Some people have been having issues about this time too.

 

[RJKain-777]

I had this exact issue with my 180 gallon tank on Fritz salt.

I tore it down and stored all my rock in 40 gallon brute cans.

When I set up my Red Sea reefer, I did 100% Red Sea salt from the beginning. And have had nothing but success with SPS.

There’s something within Fritz salt that our tanks aren’t liking, and since your tank is already set up, it may take some time to get what ever it is put.

Have you tried cuprisorb? Or polypads to remove any metals that may be in your tank? What aboht any airborne contamination in the room ? Candles and such?

 

[Victoria M]

How have you double checked your salinity? I ask because my calibration fluid was off once. LFS confirmed it for me. I now use calibration fluid in a glass vial with rubber stopper. Check your ro water for ammonia and chlorine. These two things can sneak by and still have 0 TDS. I saw a talk at MACNA that the veterinarian said he was helping with a wild coral with stn and brown jelly disease using antibiotics. Not that I think you should do that, just sharing that it might not be anything within your control. But please run some carbon. Coral toxins can outpace water changes.
Sorry you are going through this. It is so frustrating and heartbreaking to see animals in our care doing poorly. We feel so helpless to help them.

 

[Crabs McJones]

I know this may sound dumb. But raise your po4 to .10-.15, that may help slow down the decay, a browned coral is better than a dead one until we figure the problem...I'd even raise the nitrates a bit and definitly run some carbon incase it's a toxin of some sort....

not sure what kind of lights your using and at what intensity and duration? Maybe cut back a little on intensity.

You didnt mention a skimmer on your nutrient export?

Have you checked all your pumps for cracks(stray voltage), rust (heavy metals)

what kind of heater do you use? Titanium or glass?
Any dead fish lately? Anything new? U said you have a water softner? is it a well or city water supply?Do you have naturally hard water? High iron content?

Sorry for the million questions, and not sure if they were all answered just trying to help with a fresh look

Sorry, running a reef octopus 110INT skimmer that i've had for years. Newer pump on it. I'm using cobalt neotherm 300. No dead fish other than my coral beauty that starved itself to death (still not sure why) but all my other fish look great and are swimming fine and active. Its city water

 

[Crabs McJones]

I had this exact issue with my 180 gallon tank on Fritz salt.

I tore it down and stored all my rock in 40 gallon brute cans.

When I set up my Red Sea reefer, I did 100% Red Sea salt from the beginning. And have had nothing but success with SPS.

There’s something within Fritz salt that our tanks aren’t liking, and since your tank is already set up, it may take some time to get what ever it is put.

Have you tried cuprisorb? Or polypads to remove any metals that may be in your tank? What aboht any airborne contamination in the room ? Candles and such?

I checked for copper thinking that maybe there was some sort of cross contamination from my quarantine tank in the basement. But hannah checker came back with 0 copper on 3 separate tests.

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

I would get a chloramine filter. I use this one https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-reverse-osmosis-chloramines-monster.html but that might be overkill for you. I believe Spectrapure has a more "normal" sized one.

 

[Crabs McJones]

How have you double checked your salinity? I ask because my calibration fluid was off once. LFS confirmed it for me. I now use calibration fluid in a glass vial with rubber stopper. Check your ro water for ammonia and chlorine. These two things can sneak by and still have 0 TDS. I saw a talk at MACNA that the veterinarian said he was helping with a wild coral with stn and brown jelly disease using antibiotics. Not that I think you should do that, just sharing that it might not be anything within your control. But please run some carbon. Coral toxins can outpace water changes.
Sorry you are going through this. It is so frustrating and heartbreaking to see animals in our care doing poorly. We feel so helpless to help them.

Yes, and I actually ran into this myself. I have a brand new bottle of calibration solution from BRS as my old one was reading 1.030 instead of 1.026. But the bottle i'm using now is brand new .

 

[Victoria M]

Yes, and I actually ran into this myself. I have a brand new bottle of calibration solution from BRS as my old one was reading 1.030 instead of 1.026. But the bottle i'm using now is brand new .

Have you checked for ammonia and chlorine in your ro water?

 

[Billldg]

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but could you have heavy metals in the tank. A ICP test will tell you, but have you checked all of your pump magnets, ATO sensor magnets, or anything with magnets or that could be putting metal in the tank.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but could you have heavy metals in the tank. A ICP test will tell you, but have you checked all of your pump magnets, ATO sensor magnets, or anything with magnets or that could be putting metal in the tank.

I went through every pump and piece of equipment. Couldn't see anything. I'll go through them again tonight.

 

[RJKain-777]

I checked for copper thinking that maybe there was some sort of cross contamination from my quarantine tank in the basement. But hannah checker came back with 0 copper on 3 separate tests.

There may not be copper but there may be other metal contamination. Aluminum was the issue with my tank when I used fritz.

 

[Victoria M]

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but could you have heavy metals in the tank. A ICP test will tell you, but have you checked all of your pump magnets, ATO sensor magnets, or anything with magnets or that could be putting metal in the tank.

Yes he stated that he has.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Have you checked for ammonia and chlorine in your ro water?

I have not. Picking up a test kit tonight.

 

[Peace River]

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but could you have heavy metals in the tank. A ICP test will tell you, but have you checked all of your pump magnets, ATO sensor magnets, or anything with magnets or that could be putting metal in the tank.

Good point! If it is metals then ChemiPure may be able to help with that.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Hi everyone.
I'm posting this in a last ditch effort to figure out what in the world is going on with my tank. As most of you know I tried switching salts from Fritz to Red Sea Blue Bucket and changed out all my RO/DI filters under suspicion there was contamination or the filters were past exhaustion. I've done well over 125 gallons worth of water changes and I can't seem to get any improvement.
My tri color is stn'ing from the tips, most of my montipora are dying or dead, and now my culture shock is loosing tissue at the tips. I also have cyanobacteria and hair algae taking over.
I have an ICP test coming tomorrow that i'm going to send out, but by the time the results come in everything will likely be dead.
So here's where I'm at.
Salinity is 1.026 (double and triple checked)
Alk has been stable between 8.0 and 8.5 (checked with both salifert and hannah)
Calcium has been between 420-450
Mag 1400
Nitrate is floating around 10
Phosphate is around .05
Nothing has changed in lighting, been running two Hydra 26's on the AB+ schedule with 4 t5's that are only 3 months old.
I've checked every piece of equipment for rusting. Checked stray voltage. Nothing out of the ordinary that I can see.
All RO filters, including membranes, and both DI canisters were changed out prior to the 125 gallon change out. Even before that though I was getting 0 TDS water.
I've pitched my saltwater mixing station and went back to my 6 gallon food grade buckets I used before moving.

I'm at wits end and ready to throw in the towel!
Please talk me out of it Otherwise the 75 is going to be turned into a nice Bearded Dragon enclosure

Sorry to hear what your going through.
I'll tell you what happened to me about 2 weeks ago. I picked up some corals which were Sun cup corals and softies(3) which are photosynthetic. I acclimated everything and my existing corals which are softies started to shrink and not want to open up, this all happened within seconds. the next day I took out the new Softies I just bought and within 2 or 3 days everything look normal again. I wonder if you have some corals giving off chemicals.

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[LARedstickreefer]

I don’t know that the ICP will show anything too obvious. I only use them to make sure that I’m testing parameters correctly. For example: You think your alkalinity is 8 but it’s actually 12...

I’d definitely run carbon and probably a poly filter in there.

Maybe you could call your water department and ask about chloramines?

BTW- Two hydra26hd and some t5 isn’t a lot for a 75g tank. I was running two hydra26hd, nearly at max, over my 34g tank.

If your corals have been growing and coloring up for a significantly long time under them, they are probably sufficient. If not, I’d get a PAR meter ASAP!

I used to run a single over my tank at 50% max power. Corals would stop growing and just wither away. Eventually a PAR meter revealed I was only pushing 100 par at best.