Sorry for the troubles and stress! Hang in there is about all I can offer. I'm in the "hold steady and let things settle" camp, for whatever it's worth.
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Icp is going out in the mail tomorrowOk good. Sounds like an iodine issue to be honest. Did you get back results or did you send out ICP yet?
You asked - I'll answer - things happen - we might not know 'why' in every case - BUT - reacting and making change after change likely causes more problems than just accepting the 'death' in the beginning (sorry - thats my opinion)... And - im also not sure why you're so easy to 'give up on reefing' based on a single problem. This is what @Paul B talks about - people do just 'give up'. Hopefully you will notHi 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
Thanks for your comment. Wasnt really needed. I'm not going to give up. The ICP test will go out tomorrow and when the results come back I'll take the appropriate course of action. Not touching the tank until then. Worse case scenario my fish go in a holding tank in the basement and the 75 upstairs gets a re-boot. I have a source to replace all my coral if need be. I really hope it doesn't come to that, but if it does I have a source to replace what I've lost.You asked - I'll answer - things happen - we might not know 'why' in every case - BUT - reacting and making change after change likely causes more problems than just accepting the 'death' in the beginning (sorry - thats my opinion)... And - im also not sure why you're so easy to 'give up on reefing' based on a single problem. This is what @Paul B talks about - people do just 'give up'. Hopefully you will not
Thanks for your comment. Wasnt really needed. I'm not going to give up. The ICP test will go out tomorrow and when the results come back I'll take the appropriate course of action. Not touching the tank until then. Worse case scenario my fish go in a holding tank in the basement and the 75 upstairs gets a re-boot. I have a source to replace all my coral if need be. I really hope it doesn't come to that, but if it does I have a source to replace what I've lost.
Thanks
Crabs
Crabs man hang in there! #thereisonlyoneglitterfairy
Didnt see it asked, you dont happen to be running old marine pure blocks or balls do you? I remember in the past they had issues leaching aluminum into the water column.
Plus you cannot leave until another mayor is elected.
We leave the windows all open during the summer. You can tell whenever we shut the windows and turned on the ac, my ph drops to around 8.0. As soon as the cold weather comes through and the windows are shut itll drop again.8.5 ph is high and would indicate a possible alk swing or spike
Funny you mention this. Last night, over 4 IPAs each and 5 hours, a reefing buddy of mine got to talking about situations like Rico and Crabs here, and he’s adamant about tank wipe outs like this caused by little to no iodine (iodide?) as well.Ok good. Sounds like an iodine issue to be honest. Did you get back results or did you send out ICP yet?
You did say in your Fritz Salt thread that your wife said the bath/shower smelt like the local swimming pool!At the bottom it says "system water is constantly tested for chlorine residuals"
What does that mean?
Also why would this start just within the last month when we've been in the house since march 30th? Corals were looking absolutely beautiful over a month ago.
Thanks for any help!
Are you thinking there is chlorine in the tank? If so how did it get there?You did say in your Fritz Salt thread that your wife said the bath/shower smelt like the local swimming pool!
Its’ just a rant/vent. Those who know Zach- HE’s THE LAST PERSON TO GIVE UP”You asked - I'll answer - things happen - we might not know 'why' in every case - BUT - reacting and making change after change likely causes more problems than just accepting the 'death' in the beginning (sorry - thats my opinion)... And - im also not sure why you're so easy to 'give up on reefing' based on a single problem. This is what @Paul B talks about - people do just 'give up'. Hopefully you will not
past the RODI systemAre you thinking there is chlorine in the tank? If so how did it get there?
And that makes sense. When patio doors get opened, ph goes up .4 by me. Im about to connect CO2 scrubber to skimmer in which I expect an increase.We leave the windows all open during the summer. You can tell whenever we shut the windows and turned on the ac, my ph drops to around 8.0. As soon as the cold weather comes through and the windows are shut itll drop again.
The dos takes my amount and doses in small increments throughout the day.Reading the last part of the thread 2 things strike me.
1. The shower smelled like a public bath. Thats a lot of chlorine. I would change the carbon prefilter for the osmosis.
2. You use soda ash in 2part method. It is a must that You split it up in several small doses to mimize pH jumps.
Liquid Vibrant will end that hair algae and cyano.Hang in there Crabs. Two months ago I had a power outage and My 225 back siphoned about 150 gallons onto my basement floor. I drilled hole in my return pipes and put air tubing back to my overflow to break the siphon, Long story short salt creep clogged tubing. In an emergency I got 2 drums of water from my spring feed at my farm instead of my well water at my house. I always keep 1- 55 gallon drum RO on hand. I thought I saved the day because 8 fish and 8 of 10 SPS corals all survived. I immediately started RO unit to replace the water from the spring. Changed another 100 gallons to be safe. Today my tank is loaded with Hair algae and cyano. I even went to just actinics on 8 hours when the assault started. SPS Tank was perfect for over a year and now it is trashed. Have a refugium with Caulerpa thriving, Skimmer gets cleaned biweekly, calcium reactor and Kalk reactor. 2 Gyres for flow. I have kept saltwater fish for 34 years and reef tanks at least 20. This game is tough. Be patient. If you can remove some corals set up smaller tank and buy water until you figure it out. Good luck my friend