Help!! All of my SPS dying???

[Reefkeeper12]

Interesting. I know they clean rocks, I’ve never heard that about the sand. And no, I don’t know much about breeding clowns, as I am not trying to breed them.

Definitely don’t get a pair of them then.

 

[Cassian]

Definitely don’t get a pair of them then.

Lol. Too late. I’ve always had a pair of clowns and never had trouble with them, including this pair.

 

[Ed Hutchings]

Thanks for all the great info! I can’t get my mag any lower than that. I don’t dose at all. I guess my well water is naturally that high in mag. No, the temp has not fluctuated at all.

You're using well water for source water? Please tell me you're running it through a good RO/DI with TDS meters and regular cartridge changes. Have you sent out a sample to be tested? There can be lots of issues using well water as source if you're not really careful about it. And, if you're running it through a RO/DI it should strip it of any mag so that should not be a source of your high mag level. I'd bet it's a testing issue and it's not really that high.

But back to the well water. You need to get a sample tested after its filtered via RO/DI. I'd be concerned about that being an underlying problem.

 

[Cassian]

You're using well water for source water? Please tell me you're running it through a good RO/DI with TDS meters and regular cartridge changes. Have you sent out a sample to be tested? There can be lots of issues using well water as source if you're not really careful about it. And, if you're running it through a RO/DI it should strip it of any mag so that should not be a source of your high mag level. I'd bet it's a testing issue and it's not really that high.

But back to the well water. You need to get a sample tested after its filtered via RO/DI. I'd be concerned about that being an underlying problem.

I have tested my well water a while back. Never tested it after RODI. I do run it though RODI and change cartridges

 

[Ed Hutchings]

Why would you test your well water before treatment but not after? If you're using well water you need to pay especially close attention to it. You have multiple TDS meters? How many stages is your filter system? What's the flow order? Have you tested your well water for CO2? A lot of well water is high in CO2 and needs to be aerated BEFORE you run it through your filter. Using well water now adds a whole other dimension to your tank issues. I'll go out on a limb here and say you probably have source water issues.

 

[Cassian]

Why would you test your well water before treatment but not after? If you're using well water you need to pay especially close attention to it. You have multiple TDS meters? How many stages is your filter system? What's the flow order? Have you tested your well water for CO2? A lot of well water is high in CO2 and needs to be aerated BEFORE you run it through your filter. Using well water now adds a whole other dimension to your tank issues. I'll go out on a limb here and say you probably have source water issues.

When I tested it wasn’t for tank purposes. Been using this water for over 2 years. Never had problems and corals thrive.
I have determined the cause of the rtn I asked about in this thread was from a relative washing my filter socks in detergent. I had a four stage RODI. I believe no TDS. I’ve tested it a long time ago. I don’t know about the flow order or CO2, but I haven’t had any issues. I find that well water has greatly improved my coral success compared to RODI city water

 

[Ed Hutchings]

Ok well you thought your magnesium was high because of your well water. That alone tells me you're unaware of how an RO/DI system works. You're unsure of your TDS, flow through your system or whether or not you have CO2 in your well water. Good luck to you.

 

[ihavecrabs]

Hey LukeWolf,

I have similar issues when my nitrates bottom out. How are your nitrates at the moment and have they bottomed out recently. Unfortunately I have found once this algae/bacteria/Dino gets its hold, it is difficult to eliminate.

If you take a turkey baster and blow it all off, it reappears within a few hours right?

My saving grace was a large UV filter in conjunction with getting my nitrates and phosphates back to normal.

Hope this help.

 

[Cassian]

Ok well you thought your magnesium was high because of your well water. That alone tells me you're unaware of how an RO/DI system works. You're unsure of your TDS, flow through your system or whether or not you have CO2 in your well water. Good luck to you.

That is correct. I will take your advice and educate myself on RODI systems. Thank you

 

[Cassian]

Hey LukeWolf,

I have similar issues when my nitrates bottom out. How are your nitrates at the moment and have they bottomed out recently. Unfortunately I have found once this algae/bacteria/Dino gets its hold, it is difficult to eliminate.

If you take a turkey baster and blow it all off, it reappears within a few hours right?

My saving grace was a large UV filter in conjunction with getting my nitrates and phosphates back to normal.

Hope this help.

My nitrates are undetectable or very low at the moment. This stuff takes a few days to come back
Thanks for the info!

 

[JohnThomas]

Noooo

 

[Ed Hutchings]

That is correct. I will take your advice and educate myself on RODI systems. Thank you

Your source water is the foundation of your system. Using well water can be all out dangerous to your reef if you're oblivious to the quality. Depending on where you are, how deep your well and many other factors, you could be dealing with pesticides, toxins, heavy metals and a bunch of other nasty stuff not normally found in tap water. Typically well water is not near the quality of tap water. Combine that with no TDS meters, not enough stages in your filtration system, and lack of frequent enough cartridge changes (because you have no TDS meters to tell you when they need replacing) you're setting yourself up for continued issues. Its imperative that you know exactly what you're dealing with as far as water quality PRE filtration, as well as post (final water quality). If you don't know exactly, you can't eliminate it as a potential problem. Educate yourself thoroughly on your specific well water quality and then develop a game plan for filtration and usage. Start by testing for CO2 and send out a sample for a very thorough test including heavy metals and chemicals.

My RO/DI is 6 stage. I set it up to run well water through it. My well is high in CO2 so I have to aerate it prior to filtering. It is heavy in iron. I go through the first stage cartridges (sediment) very quickly. It got to the point it didn't pay to use well because of how fast I went through cartridges and the extra effort it took to perk the water prior to filtering. So i went back to tap. At some point I may revisit using well but right now it's just not worth it.

 

[Cassian]

Your source water is the foundation of your system. Using well water can be all out dangerous to your reef if you're oblivious to the quality. Depending on where you are, how deep your well and many other factors, you could be dealing with pesticides, toxins, heavy metals and a bunch of other nasty stuff not normally found in tap water. Typically well water is not near the quality of tap water. Combine that with no TDS meters, not enough stages in your filtration system, and lack of frequent enough cartridge changes (because you have no TDS meters to tell you when they need replacing) you're setting yourself up for continued issues. Its imperative that you know exactly what you're dealing with as far as water quality PRE filtration, as well as post (final water quality). If you don't know exactly, you can't eliminate it as a potential problem. Educate yourself thoroughly on your specific well water quality and then develop a game plan for filtration and usage. Start by testing for CO2 and send out a sample for a very thorough test including heavy metals and chemicals.

My RO/DI is 6 stage. I set it up to run well water through it. My well is high in CO2 so I have to aerate it prior to filtering. It is heavy in iron. I go through the first stage cartridges (sediment) very quickly. It got to the point it didn't pay to use well because of how fast I went through cartridges and the extra effort it took to perk the water prior to filtering. So i went back to tap. At some point I may revisit using well but right now it's just not worth it.

Thank you so very much for the big write up! I’ll definitely look into this. Unfortunately tap is not an option for me, so I will have to work with well water

 

[Cassian]

Is it possible a sailfin blenny could be scraping tissue off of my sps? I read a post that mentioned theirs was.

 

[Cory]

Imo the problem here is your starving your corals. They need registerable no3 and po4. Zero no3 and po4 = dinos and dead corals.

Corals cant grow and repair without a nitrogen source and phosphorous source. Raise your no3 and po4

The birdsnest definitely has dinos. The clear stuff is unknown to me.

 

[Cassian]

Imo the problem here is your starving your corals. They need registerable no3 and po4. Zero no3 and po4 = dinos and dead corals.

Corals cant grow and repair without a nitrogen source and phosphorous source. Raise your no3 and po4

The birdsnest definitely has dinos. The clear stuff is unknown to me.

Thanks for the info! I have raised my nitrates and phosphates, so hopefully everything will improve!

 

[Frey]

I use well water and have for 10 years run through 7 stage rodi. Usually one or the other anion or cation depletes quickly, however i have not had many issues with my tank.
Anyways I guess my 2 cents would be with the dry rock being added to the system. Did you cure it first? All of the dry rock i added to my system years ago looked like that while it was curing in my tank once i started adding lighting.
I would never be adding new rock to tank containing sps i believe in an earlier post you said it was curing still. You probably had an ammonia spike or something out of whack in the nitrogen cycle and sps corals do not like quick and sudden changes.
I would guess there wouldn't be enough copper or residual residue from fish treatment to impact an 180 gallon tank unless copious amounts of qt water somehow made it to the tank. My bet is the filter socks in combination with the newly added live rock.
Also how long has the tank been running?

 

[Cassian]

I use well water and have for 10 years run through 7 stage rodi. Usually one or the other anion or cation depletes quickly, however i have not had many issues with my tank.
Anyways I guess my 2 cents would be with the dry rock being added to the system. Did you cure it first? All of the dry rock i added to my system years ago looked like that while it was curing in my tank once i started adding lighting.
I would never be adding new rock to tank containing sps i believe in an earlier post you said it was curing still. You probably had an ammonia spike or something out of whack in the nitrogen cycle and sps corals do not like quick and sudden changes.
I would guess there wouldn't be enough copper or residual residue from fish treatment to impact an 180 gallon tank unless copious amounts of qt water somehow made it to the tank. My bet is the filter socks in combination with the newly added live rock.
Also how long has the tank been running?

This tank has been running for about 6 months now. I transferred all of my liverock from my established 65 gallon that was a year old into this larger tank. No nitrate, nititrite, or ammonia has spiked the entire time. I have added new dry rock like this several times to multiple tanks and never had a problem. I’m fairly sure it was the filtersock contaminant that was the issue because I ran carbon and everything seems to be doing fine now

 

[Frey]

I am glad you are running good now. I would be cautious about adding new rock like that though. Nothing good can come from it. I also have a 180 and a 90 a 65 gallon fuge plus a fairly large sump all plummed into one system. I still wouldn't add new rock to my system until i had it fully cured in another container and its quite a few gallons of system to disperse the effects.
Good luck from here on out!