euphyllia corals going south quick.

[damsels are not mean]

Not sure if this is the answer but your mag is a little on the low side. Euphyllia seem to really enjoy it in the 1450 range. It also wouldn’t hurt to bump up your phos a bit.

I have never understood this kind of logic wrt water chemistry. All these corals come from the same ocean with the same parameters. Why on earth would higher mag than seawater be better? And why would different corals want the levels at different values?

 

[jabberwock]

I don't know a lot about it, I learned about it only recently, but you might want to look up "denitrifying bacteria". It is different than "nitrifying bacteria" in the fact that it breaks down nitrate in stead of converting ammonia to nitrate. My LFS owner says that is how his main system at home (and all his systems at the store) run... Low nutrient systems. I don't think he particular likes it in his home system, but somehow, that is the balance he got.

 

[WSM]

I obviously had some swings as well with dosing chemi I did WC right before another WC 48 hours after then one Friday. So 3 in the course of 8 or so days. My test results are no where near where they should be based on what salt I use.

 

[Shirak]

I have never understood this kind of logic wrt water chemistry. All these corals come from the same ocean with the same parameters. Why on earth would higher mag than seawater be better? And why would different corals want the levels at different values?

I have no idea if parameters are the same around the oceans our coral come from but I suspect they vary. But I doubt it’s enough to say different corals need different parameters.
However our tanks do differ from nsw particularly with nitrate and phosphate.
Phosphorus is not good for calcification because it binds to the calcium skeleton and can slow/reduce calcification and possibly cause things like polyp bailout. Elevated Mg keeps phosphorus from binding to the calcium.

At least that’s my limited understanding for the higher Mg level recommendation.

 

[Shirak]

I obviously had some swings as well with dosing chemi I did WC right before another WC 48 hours after then one Friday. So 3 in the course of 8 or so days. My test results are no where near where they should be based on what salt I use.

I heard the Fritz can be variable. What are you using for salinity testing and calibration?

As for nutrients it’s hard to say.. could be macro and micro algae, or skimming, or how quickly you pull excess food out of the water, fish load vs system volume etc or a combination

 

[WSM]

I heard the Fritz can be variable. What are you using for salinity testing and calibration?

As for nutrients it’s hard to say.. could be macro and micro algae, or skimming, or how quickly you pull excess food out of the water, fish load vs system volume etc or a combination

I use Red Sea blue buckets.
refractometer & calibration liquid from brs

Tank is heavily stocked 2 fire fish, Midas & carpenter wrasse.

 

[Ksturg]

I also have a 25 lagoon and and this is what I run and what I do. Ditch the skimmer and the water changes . I’ve done one water change in over a year and that was only due to chemi clean to get rid of cyano. IMO a tank this small doesn’t need to have a skimmer. I run a small reactor with rowaphos in it and a small reactor with carbon. I run a medi basket in each fat chamber with filter floss on the top. I change that out every week to 2 weeks and the bottom of both baskets are filled with bio media. I don’t dose anything at the moment but the more euphyllia I get I may start to dose or do a water change every few months. I would also advise not to chase numbers the more you chase them the more you upset the balance of your tank. Get them Close to where they need to be and sit back relax and just monitor. Don’t add anything else until you get it figured out. Here is a tip down view of my tank.

 

[FrugalReeferJon]

Not sure if this is the answer but your mag is a little on the low side. Euphyllia seem to really enjoy it in the 1450 range. It also wouldn’t hurt to bump up your phos a bit.

I agree, bump up your mag.

 

[Shirak]

I use Red Sea blue buckets.
refractometer & calibration liquid from brs

Tank is heavily stocked 2 fire fish, Midas & carpenter wrasse.

I have heard mixed reviews on calibration fluid. My own experience is also questionable. I started making my own for refractometers Very easy and super cheap... table salt and RODI water. Might be a good idea to check your refractometer.


Worth reading https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/reef-aquarium-salinity-diy-calibration-standards.956/

from the article

To produce a 3.714 weight percent sodium chloride solution, dissolve 1 teaspoon (6.20 grams) of Morton's Iodized Salt in 161 mL (161 g) of fresh water (making a total volume of about 163 mL after dissolution of the salt). This solution can be scaled up as desired.

For a rougher measurement in the absence of an accurate water volume measurement:

1. Measure ¼ cup of Morton's Iodized Salt (about 73.1 g)
2. Add 1½ teaspoon of salt (making about 82.4 g total salt)
3. Measure the full volume of a plastic 2-L Coke or Diet Coke bottle filled with purified fresh water (about 2104.4 g)
4. Add an additional 2 tablespoons of purified fresh water (about 30 g)
5. Dissolve the total salt (82.4 g) in the total water volume (2134.4 g) to make an approximately 3.7 weight percent solution of NaCl. The volume of this solution is larger than the Coke bottle, so dissolve it in another container.

From there you calibrate/check to 35ppt

 

[ElementReefer]

OK lemme preface this post by saying that I strongly agree with the advice given already. Not gonna hurt to bump up mag. Go slow and change one thing at a time, observe, prepare for some losses. That said…

I don’t see a healthy tank here. It looks like my first tank did at 1 year. I had stubborn low nutrients, lost euphyllia, poor coral growth overall. I was too clean, didn’t have enough fish. The microbial engine in my tank hadn’t ever really gotten off first base.

Feel free to PM me if you want a deeper dive. I won’t clutter your thread with info lol.

 

[damsels are not mean]

I have no idea if parameters are the same around the oceans our coral come from but I suspect they vary. But I doubt it’s enough to say different corals need different parameters.
However our tanks do differ from nsw particularly with nitrate and phosphate.
Phosphorus is not good for calcification because it binds to the calcium skeleton and can slow/reduce calcification and possibly cause things like polyp bailout. Elevated Mg keeps phosphorus from binding to the calcium.

At least that’s my limited understanding for the higher Mg level recommendation.

Maybe, but plenty of tanks thrive at phosphate numbers wayyy above recommendations such as the most well documented case : https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/rich-ross-home-tank-guess-the-phosphate.296635/

his magnesium has never been elevated and yet the corals grow just fine.

 

[Lavey29]

I’m not basing it on personal experience but what I’ve learned, glad to hear. My tank runs phosphate at .25 and nitrates at 25. I stopped trying to bring them down almost 3 years ago because I always failed and everything is healthy and happy thus I’ve avoided ReefRoids.

That 100 : 1 ratio is perfect for thriving corals

 

[WSM]

Hey guys not sure anyone is looking for an update but I figured I would post to maybe help some others.

Since my last post I’ve got a uv installed (suggested in one of my other post) that seem to be pushing Dino’s back.. hopefully I could just be a little optimistic. I also slowly brought up mag, nitrate & phosphate. My euphyllia partly seem to be bouncing back a little.

Now that I’ve got nitrate to 10 & phosphate 1.0 what’s the best method to maintain this? Do I need to measure weekly and dose accordingly? Should I dose my new saltwater to these levels when doing a WC?

 

[ninjamyst]

Just want to throw in that if your tank is packed, you can benefit from dosing amino acids too to get more nutrients in.

Remember the key to successful reef is big import of nutrients and big export of waste. I also lost my fair share of euphyillas because I stripped my tank of nutrients and trace minerals.

Also keep in mind that your rocks are probably still absorbing phosphate and that's why you have so much trouble keeping phosphate up. At some point, they will leech phosphate back and you gonna be fighting the opposite battle.

Test regularly and keep things stable.

 

[WSM]

Just want to throw in that if your tank is packed, you can benefit from dosing amino acids too to get more nutrients in.

Remember the key to successful reef is big import of nutrients and big export of waste. I also lost my fair share of euphyillas because I stripped my tank of nutrients and trace minerals.

Also keep in mind that your rocks are probably still absorbing phosphate and that's why you have so much trouble keeping phosphate up. At some point, they will leech phosphate back and you gonna be fighting the opposite battle.

Test regularly and keep things stable.

I’ll keep the aminos in mind. I’ve read it’s bad to dose while fighting Dino’s so once I get them beat I’ll likely start it.

 

[Lavey29]

I’ll keep the aminos in mind. I’ve read it’s bad to dose while fighting Dino’s so once I get them beat I’ll likely start it.

Did you ID your dinos with a cheap microscope? UV only helps with dinos that go into the water column at night not dinos that go into the sand. Also keep in mind a UV kills good stuff too along with bad.

 

[kevgib67]

Hey guys not sure anyone is looking for an update but I figured I would post to maybe help some others.

Since my last post I’ve got a uv installed (suggested in one of my other post) that seem to be pushing Dino’s back.. hopefully I could just be a little optimistic. I also slowly brought up mag, nitrate & phosphate. My euphyllia partly seem to be bouncing back a little.

Now that I’ve got nitrate to 10 & phosphate 1.0 what’s the best method to maintain this? Do I need to measure weekly and dose accordingly? Should I dose my new saltwater to these levels when doing a WC?

I’m glad you are seeing improvement! Is phosphate a typo? Did you mean .1 and not 1.0?

 

[Nate Chalk]

What are you using to test Nitrate and Phosphate specifically.

 

[WSM]

I’m glad you are seeing improvement! Is phosphate a typo? Did you mean .1 and not 1.0?

Yes typo! .10

 

[WSM]

What are you using to test Nitrate and Phosphate specifically.

Hannah phosphate & nyos nitrate.