Don't know what to do?

[gar732]

Well lately nothing has been going right with my tank and I don't know what to do other than tear everything down and start over. I have a 75gal mixed reef with a 20gal sump and 13gal frag tank. I've lost a lot of my LPS and polyps, my SPS seems to be doing well even though I'm battling AEFWs at the moment, not a ton of growth or color but I attribute that to the weekly dips. Most all my chalices and acans have receded to nothing. I have an algae problem also that I haven't been able to get rid of either. I had tested my water expecting and hoping to find something wrong but there was nothing that was that far off. I suspected PO4 to be a huge problem but my brand new salifert test kit reads 0? Here are parameters:
ALK: 9
CAL: 490
MAG: 1350
salt .026
temp 80-82
PO4: 0? Not sure I trust this one. Anyone have any experience with salifert PO4 test kits? The expiration date on it is 02/12 so it should be good.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[soccerbag]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. This hobby can be trying at times for sure! Do you have a LFS that you can take a water sample to? Anytime I notice an issue and my tests come out good, I always take a sample to a friend's house or to my LFS and have them test it to compare. I assume your refractometer has been calibrated recently? Did you switch salts or start dosing anything new? I would definitely find someone with a Hanna PO4 meter and have them test for PO4. It is MUCH more accurate than any test kit out there. I use Salifert too but nothing can take the place of a Hanna meter IMO.

Hang in there. Watching chalices recede is enough to try anyone's patience.

 

[gar732]

Thanks for you insight. A buddy of mine has a hanna meter I may have to give him a call. The salifert was available local. refractometer has been calibrated and haven't changed anything in some time. Unfortunately I lost mostly the more expensive stuff that I really liked, nothing like watching a $350 frag circle the drain to make you wonder if its worth it. All my SPS is in my frag tank and I've lost most of my LPS so the tank is looking pretty bare right now. If it wasn't for my fish I would have taken the tank down by now.

 

[soccerbag]

Man....really sorry to hear it. We've all been there man. No consolation, I know. And it's Murphy's Law...the most expensive stuff is always the first to go.

 

[OMG Corals]

What about nitrates and ph? If you have algae issues there is something wrong somewhere. Do you run carbon? GFO? Are you feeding your lps? What type of algae is it you are having trouble with? Give us a little more info please.

 

[sf_ramsden]

The thing with phosphates is that if you have algae in the tank but are still testing "0", it's most likely that the algae is consuming it. Meaning there are phosphates helping the algae grow (also possibly hurting the corals), but the algae is consuming it which is why tests read "0". A good sign of phosphates is algae growth...

 

[KLR]

I feel for you,this is the reason why I pretty much gave up on my Red Sea Max 250 and it still remains bare.......

I hope you figure out the issue with your tank!

 

[gar732]

What about nitrates and ph? If you have algae issues there is something wrong somewhere. Do you run carbon? GFO? Are you feeding your lps? What type of algae is it you are having trouble with? Give us a little more info please.

I've never had a problem with nitrates or ph and haven't tested for it in some time. My test kits are now old and need to be replaced, I'll try to pick up a couple kits tomorrow. As far as the type of algae, I'm not sure. It grows in a short and very dense mat or clumps. I've had it for some time but was never that bad, negligible really, it just recently it started to take off the way if has. I just picked up a couple reactors to run gfo and bio pellets. I never found the need for it in the past as everything was as it should be.

The thing with phosphates is that if you have algae in the tank but are still testing "0", it's most likely that the algae is consuming it. Meaning there are phosphates helping the algae grow (also possibly hurting the corals), but the algae is consuming it which is why tests read "0". A good sign of phosphates is algae growth...

I've heard this before but I expected to see something if it was bad enough to take out my LPS. I also ripped out quite a bit of the the algae today. What really confuses me the most is why the LPS has suffered and not the SPS. I thought I would have seen it the other way around.

 

[gar732]

I feel for you,this is the reason why I pretty much gave up on my Red Sea Max 250 and it still remains bare.......

I hope you figure out the issue with your tank!

Thanks, me too! I've got a bunch of equipment that is still unused because I haven't decided what to do yet. It's really frustrating.

 

[sf_ramsden]

Do you have any fish in the tank or an invert that may be pestering the LPS? Also, have you been dosing vodka or anything similar to bring nutrients down?

 

[RandyO Verified Sponsor]

Never underestimate the power of predation.

I was scratching my head all week because of a problem in one of my tanks. LPS were closed, ******, and even a few losses. As I throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the problem, I realized I had recently added a purple tang. After 60 seconds of closely watching him I found my problem.

Looking at your problem of it only affecting LPS, I would suspect something is picking on them. Watch your fish very closely. Keep an eye out for other possible suspects like crabs, shrimp, even pods.

I had already dumped a dose of interceptor in my tank before I had the revelation of the tang. There are some bugs out there that can harm LPS.

 

[AquaWorldPSC]

Also any metal that have made it into the tank can cause this to happen. We just took down our 120 because everything wasn't doing well even with perfect params and no new fish nor any pests. While taking the sump apart and taking the rock out, we found a 2" nail rusted beyond anything I have ever seen. There was also a huge rust stain on the acrylic about 3" around. We also found one of the magnets of the Eshopps frag rack rusted out, but couldn't see it before due to coralline growth.

RIP: AWP Spotlight, AWP Green Machine, AWP Mascot, AWP Pinky, AWP Smoothie, AWP Stars in the Sky, Sunset Blasto and many more :(

Have you been using metal screws/nails/fasteners around the tank? Also batteries, or any kinds of metal? I know a couple of people who's tanks had major trouble due to metals oxidizing.

 

[sf_ramsden]

Also any metal that have made it into the tank can cause this to happen. We just took down our 120 because everything wasn't doing well even with perfect params and no new fish nor any pests. While taking the sump apart and taking the rock out, we found a 2" nail rusted beyond anything I have ever seen. There was also a huge rust stain on the acrylic about 3" around. We also found one of the magnets of the Eshopps frag rack rusted out, but couldn't see it before due to coralline growth.

RIP: AWP Spotlight, AWP Green Machine, AWP Mascot, AWP Pinky, AWP Smoothie, AWP Stars in the Sky, Sunset Blasto and many more :(

Have you been using metal screws/nails/fasteners around the tank? Also batteries, or any kinds of metal? I know a couple of people who's tanks had major trouble due to metals oxidizing.

When did this happen?? You lost all those pieces completely, or just one of your colonies?

 

[swannyson7]

Sorry to hear that you're still having problems with your LPS buddy. Any time you want to borrow my Hanna meter, you're more than welcome to it. I also have some extra rowaphos kicking around if you want to try putting some in your reactor. Give me a call when you get a chance

 

[AquaWorldPSC]

This happened the past month or so, everything started receding. I lost the pieces completely, I will be taking them off the site soon.

I have seen customers/kids throw random things in our tanks and sumps. This includes candy, bottles, garbage, batteries, etc. we have been lucky to be able to remove them, but somehow either us or a customer lost a nail in there (You don't even want to know why we took our Zero Edge tank down). I think the Eshopps frag rack magnet has a large role in this also, they are known to rust out after some reading. Our new design will use a closed stand for our upgrade.



Gar- I hope you figure this out soon, take a look in your sump/tank for metal.

 

[sf_ramsden]

Taking my eshopps rack out of my tank ASAP. Wow...

 

[AquaWorldPSC]

Taking my eshopps rack out of my tank ASAP. Wow...

Let me see if I can find the threads that I was looking at so I can show you.

Both of our Eshopps racks have rusted magnets with less than 1 year of use.

 

[gar732]

Let me see if I can find the threads that I was looking at so I can show you.

Both of our Eshopps racks have rusted magnets with less than 1 year of use.

I had one of those in the tank, I went and scraped off some coraline and there was some rust on one of the magnets. I did however remove it a few weeks ago and am still having problems now, there is no way anything else made it into the tank and have done multiple water changes since . Maybe I should do a massive water change?

 

[gar732]

Sorry to hear that you're still having problems with your LPS buddy. Any time you want to borrow my Hanna meter, you're more than welcome to it. I also have some extra rowaphos kicking around if you want to try putting some in your reactor. Give me a call when you get a chance

Thanks Scott, I'll be giving you a call. I was about to order some gfo, do you think I should pick up rowaphos instead? I recall you saying you liked it better. I'm also going to get those bio pellets going as soon as the reactor for it comes in. Beyond that I don't know what else to do other than to take everything apart, scrub all the rock and set it back up as a low nutrient system and hope that was the problem.

 

[swannyson7]

Thanks Scott, I'll be giving you a call. I was about to order some gfo, do you think I should pick up rowaphos instead? I recall you saying you liked it better. I'm also going to get those bio pellets going as soon as the reactor for it comes in. Beyond that I don't know what else to do other than to take everything apart, scrub all the rock and set it back up as a low nutrient system and hope that was the problem.

Pretty much any GFO will work. I just find that I don't have to use as much with the Rowaphos for the same results, so I don't think you really save any money by going with stuff like the BRS HC GFO. It's really just a matter of personal preference, but I like having a smaller container of Rowaphos that I need to find a place to store rather than a gallon jug of another type. When you do start running GFO, make sure you start slow. Just add a small amount and slowly ramp it up instead of filling up the reactor from day one. A rapid drop in nutrients will lead to problems as well. To be honest, I'd run the GFO in the reactor now and look into getting a second reactor for the pellets later on. The pellets are going to take a while to have an impact while the GFO will make a difference much faster.