First reef tank 125g need advice

[Gdk414]

So ive had this tank running for like 10 months now. I had one crash a few months ago but thing are doing a lot better now. I test cal, alk, mg, nitrate, ph, and salinity a few times a week.

My mag is over 1500. Should i be concerned?

Everything else is testing within a range thats desireable. Going back to the crash a few months ago....
I hooked up a cal reactor and messed up my parameters cuz im a dummy and im doing this for the very first time. I turned off the cal reactor, did waterchanges and got my tank back to normak, BUT, my green star polyp turned brown and eventually the polyps stopped comming out all together! It doesnt appear to be dead, and i just got some new gsp that i know was alive and well, and it refuses to come out too!
My xenia has been looking kinda ticked off too idk whats going on. Im going to test for stray voltage as soon as i can get a meter.
Does anyone here have some advice? Thanks.

 

[Brew12]

When you say your mag is over 1500ppm, how far over is it?

Oh.. and my personal feeling is to pack up and not use the Calc reactor yet. When you aren't running it, what is your daily dkh consumption?

 

[Gdk414]

Im not running my cal reactor until i install a second ph probe. Its just sittin next to the tank doing nothing lol. Idk if you can make sense of my log but my cal and alk doesnt move too much. Yet cuz after the crash i lost most of my stony corals. Every now and then i manually dose brs cal thats it. Thanks for the reply

 

[Gdk414]

Oh yeah idk about the mag. 1500 is as far as the salifert test reads. I empty the syringe and it still hasnt turned purple. Or blue.

 

[Gdk414]

I test each parameter twice to illuminate user error

 

[Brew12]

Im not running my cal reactor until i install a second ph probe. Its just sittin next to the tank doing nothing lol. Idk if you can make sense of my log but my cal and alk doesnt move too much. Yet cuz after the crash i lost most of my stony corals. Every now and then i manually dose brs cal thats it. Thanks for the reply

I wouldn't even run it then. Calcium reactors are fantastic but I feel they work best on systems with high Alk/Calc demand. Otherwise they are difficult to get dialed in.

I'm not exactly sure what you have going on. It would be unusual to need to dose Calc without also dosing Alk since with 2-part it should need to be added equally.

What salt are you using and how often do you do water changes?

 

[tgrick]

Okay...

Calcium reactors are fantastic and I feel safer running them PROPERLY vs. two part additions. Calcium reactors MUST use CO2 controller and the bubble rate should be SLOOOWWW at 1st. Do you know what your PH was during the crash? I suspect your ph dropped too low...it's a killer.

I'm not worried about Mag YET but just how high is it really? Can you take the water to a LFS and have THEM test it. The kit might be off and it not the 1st time that happens. Chemicals get old.

I run Kalk with my calcium reactor in my 133 gallons. My PH hovers around 8. It does spike to 8.5 at night (Cheato Fuge) and goes as low as 7.9. I'm working on better stability but I lost ALL my macro algae to a kessil H380 light that I added. It was just too close to the cheato at that time.

Let us know after you take the water to a LFS.

 

[Brew12]

Calcium reactors are fantastic and I feel safer running them PROPERLY vs. two part additions.

I agree with this up to a point but I am not aware of anyone who has successfully used them with a dkh consumption of under 0.5 per day. Fantastic for an established tank imo, but not for a new one.

 

[tgrick]

Yes. Totally agree...their has to be demand. I only made this comment as the OP has one. An extreme low demand tank does not need one but with the addition of a few right pieces starts to increase demand significantly. I do suspect the heart of the crash issue is LOW PH due to misuse of calcium reactor. I keep an eye on PH all the time as I run one. In fact, I keep both eyes on it! Thank you APEX on this one!

 

[tgrick]

One more thing.

You are not a "Dummy." We ALL make mistakes and sadly it's too easy to make mistakes in our busy lives. I've had marine tanks on and off since the late 70s. I can't tell you how much damage I caused except it was a lot. I'm still making mistakes. Heck...made one recently. I will say its much easier now than them. My original ATO was an upside down gallon jug into the wet dry!

 

[Gdk414]

I wouldn't even run it then. Calcium reactors are fantastic but I feel they work best on systems with high Alk/Calc demand. Otherwise they are difficult to get dialed in.

I'm not exactly sure what you have going on. It would be unusual to need to dose Calc without also dosing Alk since with 2-part it should need to be added equally.

What salt are you using and how often do you do water changes?

I am using reef crystals. Water change 50 percent every 2 or 3 months

 

[Gdk414]

Okay...

Calcium reactors are fantastic and I feel safer running them PROPERLY vs. two part additions. Calcium reactors MUST use CO2 controller and the bubble rate should be SLOOOWWW at 1st. Do you know what your PH was during the crash? I suspect your ph dropped too low...it's a killer.

I'm not worried about Mag YET but just how high is it really? Can you take the water to a LFS and have THEM test it. The kit might be off and it not the 1st time that happens. Chemicals get old.

I run Kalk with my calcium reactor in my 133 gallons. My PH hovers around 8. It does spike to 8.5 at night (Cheato Fuge) and goes as low as 7.9. I'm working on better stability but I lost ALL my macro algae to a kessil H380 light that I added. It was just too close to the cheato at that time.

Let us know after you take the water to a LFS.

The test is new and I test my other tanks with no issues however I will have a second test done as you suggested I don't know what my pH was because I didn't have my Apex hooked up and I also run a refugium when my lights go off

 

[Gdk414]

Would the pH cause my green star polyp to not open?

 

[tgrick]

PH can be a killer...big time! Basically, if your calc reactor is setup wrong you can overdose C02. When the C02 increases the obvious result is that oxygen is depleted quickly. The best indicator of how much C02 you have is through PH testing. A chart is available that looks at PH and then tells you what your Co2 level is. PH testing is a must. PH would definitely cause ALL corals not to open. I would cause death to everything...very quickly.

Water change. I change 2 gallons every day with a 2 gallon bucket from Home Depot. I killed my Chaeto recently with too strong a light (Kessil H380) that was too close AND/OR my 30% water change I did because of a new coral I purchased that brought velvet. That's another story. I try not to change too much water these days unless required. Change water...but I would max it at 20% a single time. OMVW.

 

[tgrick]

It would be ideal for you to know what the PH level is the system at the time it crashed. I guess that's too late. Where is the PH now? We also need salinity. Temperature. When things go south quickly...these basic parameters are the 1st that need to be checked.

 

[tgrick]

Are you using RO water? RODI? Tap?

 

[Gdk414]

Are you using RO water? RODI? Tap?

Yes rodi new rodi unit from icecap. Ph between 7.9 and 8.7

 

[Gdk414]

Salinity always 0. 025

 

[Gdk414]

It would be ideal for you to know what the PH level is the system at the time it crashed. I guess that's too late. Where is the PH now? We also need salinity. Temperature. When things go south quickly...these basic parameters are the 1st that need to be checked.

Thats what im guessing happwnd. Ph crash w missuse of cal reactor . Temp always around 77

 

[tgrick]

Knowing is key. A calcium reactor for me is great. Don't give up on it. Next time make sure you get Kalk running with the Auto Top Off. Then, get the proper Co2 controller and know that the effluent coming from the reactor feeds the sump VERY Slowly. You'll get there and keep up the great work. It's a nice road to be on.