Help! Chemical warefare? Corals dying

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Ashley L

Ashley L

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Bacteria is also another consideration to rule out.
Test your ph, keep it capped and note how many hours it takes to turn yellow (titration ph test) and let us know.

I listed all of my test results just now in the comment above and posted some pics of some strange things I just found in my tank. Can too much bacteria cause problems? I have been carbon dosing temporarily to get the nitrates down from my hammer coral dying in the tank.
 
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Ashley L

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What is your specific gravity? Alk looks low for my taste
It is 1.025
What is the ideal alkalinity for your tank? I'm new to dosing and testing these extra parameters.. I haven't been keeping many corals very long.
 
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Ashley L

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Could the pH test kit be the issue? I have no experience whatsoever in this but it seems strange that you've heavily dosed with no change.

I have tested it twice now with no change. I can't believe my ph isn't going up, I don't know what's going on. My KH is 15.7 and I was told that was way too high, and that it goes hand in hand with having low ph. But if I can't raise my ph then I don't know what to do.. I did a big water change and still no success. A little frustrating lol
 
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Ashley L

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Ideal alk is tough to say. What have you been dosing?

I have only been dosing brightwell aquatics magnesium and calcium. The rest has came from my Red Sea coral pro salt. I have been trying to raise my PH with aqua vitro eight four and Aqua vitro balance and it says that it raises alkalinity as well. My KH is kind of high, or so I was told. It is 15.7, but my ph is 7.8. I have went through a whole bottle of Aqua vitro buffer trying to raise my ph and it just will not go up.
 

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pH and Alk r linked together, if mag isnt stable both calcium and alk wont be stable also. In this case, your alk is low, nitrate is high... But lps r hardy, most of your corals r dying mean something went wrong or chemicals shock
 

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7.8 is just a bit low but it's not that bad. Many home aquariums have ph at around 8.0. I don't think that's the major problem here. The kh though, is way too high. It should be around 7 to 10. Both the salt mix and the aquavitro eight four stuff contribute to this crazy high kh. Another problem is the high phosphate level. It should be around 0.03. Your nitrate is also high at 15. If your corals have been exposed to such high levels of kh and phosphate for a long time, it will be even more lethal if you somehow drop them significantly. I suggest to start experimenting 25% water changes with a different salt mix, stop adding the eight-four stuff, and see where the levels are at after that. Depends on the changes, you may adjust the amount of WC to slowly bring the levels down to normal within a week. Nitrate will go down naturally with WC. As to phosphate, you should start looking into adding GFO into your canister if you haven't done so.
 
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I would start running a lot of activated carbon right now and skimming wet and increase flow/oxigenation and water changes immediatelly. Do you use chiller/heater? What is the water temperature?. Any coral sucked by a pump?

Edit: Oh boy! I just notice this happened on Sunday... today's Tuesday!
 

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I have only been dosing brightwell aquatics magnesium and calcium. The rest has came from my Red Sea coral pro salt. I have been trying to raise my PH with aqua vitro eight four and Aqua vitro balance and it says that it raises alkalinity as well. My KH is kind of high, or so I was told. It is 15.7, but my ph is 7.8. I have went through a whole bottle of Aqua vitro buffer trying to raise my ph and it just will not go up.
Your chemistry is heavily out of balance.

Don't add any more chems to the water!

Do 20 percent changes twice a week until your alkalinity comes down to about 8dkh.
The only thing you can do to help save what you have.
 
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Ashley L

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pH and Alk r linked together, if mag isnt stable both calcium and alk wont be stable also. In this case, your alk is low, nitrate is high... But lps r hardy, most of your corals r dying mean something went wrong or chemicals shock

Do you think the Aqua vitro could have caused chemical shock? Once I added more carbon it seemed to maybe help the corals left in the tank. I have never dealt with this before. That is the only change I did, and I switched to Red Sea coral pro salt because I was told it was significantly better than the neomarine mix I had been using.
 
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Ashley L

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7.8 is just a bit low but it's not that bad. Many home aquariums have ph at around 8.0. I don't think that's the major problem here. The kh though, is way too high. It should be around 7 to 10. Both the salt mix and the aquavitro eight four stuff contribute to this crazy high kh. Another problem is the high phosphate level. It should be around 0.03. Your nitrate is also high at 15. If your corals have been exposed to such high levels of kh and phosphate for a long time, it will be even more lethal if you somehow drop them significantly. I suggest to start experimenting 25% water changes with a different salt mix, stop adding the eight-four stuff, and see where the levels are at after that. Depends on the changes, you may adjust the amount of WC to slowly bring the levels down to normal within a week. Nitrate will go down naturally with WC. As to phosphate, you should start looking into adding GFO into your canister if you haven't done so.

I will look into getting a GFO. Thank you! My nitrates went up because a hammer coral I had died in the tank with a feather duster attached in it that was still alive, so I couldn't remove it. I had great success with the neomarine salt mix I had been using and got Red Sea coral pro salt because I had read many reviews saying it was better. Aside from that, adding eight four was the only other real change I did. The parameters I listed last night were after doing about a 25gal water change. My KH seemed to go up after the water change. My fish seem to be fine, and my corals that are left seem alright... Except for my big elegance coral. It is not doing too good. Is there any other way to bring the KH down? And do you think those things in the pics I posted last night could have contributed to any of this? I have no idea what it is.
 
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Ashley L

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I would start running a lot of activated carbon right now and skimming wet and increase flow/oxigenation and water changes immediatelly. Do you use chiller/heater? What is the water temperature?. Any coral sucked by a pump?

Edit: Oh boy! I just notice this happened on Sunday... today's Tuesday!

Yes it really set in Sunday, but the parameters and all were from last night so you're good lol. My KH went up after doing a 25gal water change.. So I'm wondering if it's this new salt I'm using. I added the rest of the bottle of eight four yesterday as well... Which did not raise my ph at all, only my KH. I bought the new salt because it was supposed to be better than the neomarine salt I had been using. My water temp is 81. I use a sicce heater. No chiller. I added extra carbon on Sunday night and it seemed to help what corals I left in my main tank. I am skimming wet, I have two tunze powerheads that really move the water, and a bubble wand that stretches out the whole length of the back of my tank. No corals have been sucked by a pump. I have never had this happen before and am panicking. Is there any way to lower KH aside from water changes? I have been on a waiting list for a XXL BTA and now they are shipping it in to me and this is going on. I'm freaking out to say the least, lol.
 
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Ashley L

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Your chemistry is heavily out of balance.

Don't add any more chems to the water!

Do 20 percent changes twice a week until your alkalinity comes down to about 8dkh.
The only thing you can do to help save what you have.

Which picture is the common sponge? I had three mysterious things show up.. Lucky me lol. One is brown, one is green, and one is white. They are all very different. I won't add any more Chems. Do you think adding mag may stabilize it a little better? Or a different brand of ph buffer? The Params I posted last night were after changing about 25 gal. My KH seemed to actually go up with the water change. I won't use that salt again. Another problem is that I have been on a waiting list for a XXL BTA from before this happened and it is now being shipped to me sometime today. I've never had anything like this happen to me before. When I do a water change the water I add has very low ph, so I always needed a buffer. I had great success with seachem, but all my lfs had was Aqua vitro so I tried something new there too. The whole bottle didn't raise it one bit, only made my KH out of control. All my fish in the tank seem great, and my corals that are still in there look good.. Except for my elegance coral. It's not looking good. I'm sorry for all the questions, I've never had this happen before and am so stressed out over it.. I love my corals so much.
 
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Ashley L

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Your situation and questions would be best for @Randy Holmes-Farley to help answer

Is there anything else I can do? I don't have anywhere to put them BTA. I also don't know how to use Randy's link. Is he tagged in this now where he can see it? I'm still new on here. Thank you so much for all the help. I really appreciate it!
 

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I use neomarine myself and have for years.
PH is a number a person shouldn't chase
The buffer is raising alk cause that's what it does :)
No more dosing and change water to get the dkh down to 8
Everything else will fall in line from the salt mix.
 
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