Dying Acros

[ChattReefer]

Long story here.

My 90g cube has been running amazing for almost a year. Had great Acropora growth and everything was coloring up extremely well. I also have a 80g frag tank that is jammed packed with Acropora that I used to start the new Cube Display.

On 11/09 I started dosing Kalkwasser for the first time (BRS Pharma Grade). I started dosing slowly monitoring pH with my Apex and only dosing opposite my lighting schedule. Everything seemed happy and growing. After about a week I would slowly increase the dosage on the hour, making sure I didn't get any pH spikes and was checking my Alk (Hanna) daily to make sure it wasn't rising too high. All in all I could never get Kalkwasser to level out my pH in the evenings and would still get dips while Alk wouldn't climb.

Everything seemed well until last week when I woke up to a new frag completely RTNd and some of the other corals browning out. I decided to do a 20g water change and keep monitoring levels. 3 days ago another coral RTNd and everything was pale. I decided to discontinue the Kalkwasser and move the corals I could into the frag tank. Today everything is melting or completely gone. All parameters remained unchanged other than a dip a few days back from a pH of 8.29 to 8.09.

I had my Kalkwasser mixed in a jug with the dosing tube about 1" off the bottom. I'm not sure if some how the slurry possibly got into the tank or the Kalkwasser was dosing too much but my pH Probe and my Hanna kit wasn't showing it? I have so many questions and it's such a disheartening experience. Luckily I have backups of most of the Acropora in my frag tank that runs on All For Reef.

If any of you Reef Sages have some clue of what might be going on, or if my dosing was bad, or any thoughts, it would be greatly appreciated. I'm devastated, but wanting to always learn new techniques to prevent this in the future.

Parameters over the past month:

Alk - 7.6 - 8.2
Calc - 410-430
pH - 8.09 - 8.29
Mg - 1335 - 1365
Nitrate - 12.9 - 14.8
Phos - .03 - .15 (.15 was on December 3rd and is the only highest recorded phosphate level. General level is .03-.05)

 

[PeterC99]

I gave up on Kalk, found it difficult to keep parameters stable And had an experience similar to yours. Switched to CO2 scrubber to keep pH stable And now use a calcium reactor for nutrients. Found much better results.

 

[ChattReefer]

I gave up on Kalk, found it difficult to keep parameters stable And had an experience similar to yours. Switched to CO2 scrubber to keep pH stable And now use a calcium reactor for nutrients.

Seems like that too me. I never chased pH until there was evidence of increased coral growth. My pH before kalk would swing from 8.0/8.1 at night to 8.2/8.3 in the day. With kalk it seemed like that number at night would swing but would stay closer to 8.15. still with what has happened it doesn't seem worth it

 

[Dburr1014]

Long story here.

My 90g cube has been running amazing for almost a year. Had great Acropora growth and everything was coloring up extremely well. I also have a 80g frag tank that is jammed packed with Acropora that I used to start the new Cube Display.

On 11/09 I started dosing Kalkwasser for the first time (BRS Pharma Grade). I started dosing slowly monitoring pH with my Apex and only dosing opposite my lighting schedule. Everything seemed happy and growing. After about a week I would slowly increase the dosage on the hour, making sure I didn't get any pH spikes and was checking my Alk (Hanna) daily to make sure it wasn't rising too high. All in all I could never get Kalkwasser to level out my pH in the evenings and would still get dips while Alk wouldn't climb.

Everything seemed well until last week when I woke up to a new frag completely RTNd and some of the other corals browning out. I decided to do a 20g water change and keep monitoring levels. 3 days ago another coral RTNd and everything was pale. I decided to discontinue the Kalkwasser and move the corals I could into the frag tank. Today everything is melting or completely gone. All parameters remained unchanged other than a dip a few days back from a pH of 8.29 to 8.09.

I had my Kalkwasser mixed in a jug with the dosing tube about 1" off the bottom. I'm not sure if some how the slurry possibly got into the tank or the Kalkwasser was dosing too much but my pH Probe and my Hanna kit wasn't showing it? I have so many questions and it's such a disheartening experience. Luckily I have backups of most of the Acropora in my frag tank that runs on All For Reef.

If any of you Reef Sages have some clue of what might be going on, or if my dosing was bad, or any thoughts, it would be greatly appreciated. I'm devastated, but wanting to always learn new techniques to prevent this in the future.

Parameters over the past month:

Alk - 7.6 - 8.2
Calc - 410-430
pH - 8.09 - 8.29
Mg - 1335 - 1365
Nitrate - 12.9 - 14.8
Phos - .03 - .15 (.15 was on December 3rd and is the only highest recorded phosphate level. General level is .03-.05)

Where were you dosing? I assume in a sump but where? Near return or before the return?
Full tank shot before the event?
And in that fts, where are the pieces located?

Edit: how fast did you drop po4?
Other #'s look spot on.

 

[Perry]

I knew that eventually, we would start seeing these type of threads show up. Reason, is that PH is important, but shooting for 8.5 and beyond, what some are trying to do, using kalk to do this, can be risky. I have found, over my years of not testing, monitoring, or even caring, that PH sort of falls in line to where your alk falls. The lower the alkalinity, the lower the PH. I prefer NSW values, that being said, I rest at 8.2 peak, and 7.8 non peak, and that is with my skimmer pulling outside air. My acros grow at quite a fast rate with these numbers.
This hobby seems to be getting more complicated than necessary.
When in doubt, change it out~Water change, water change, water change....
Run your system basic until things balance out.
Enjoy the hobby, not trying to be a biologist or chemist, make observations instead
Put your test kits in a locked closet, except alk....Test daily, heck, hand dose that stuff
Feed them fish, and pull that residual out through means of export.
Remember, after all, it only gets as complicated as you allow for ;)