Help me figure out what is going on

[rocko918]

I have a 210 w/ 3 250 20 k radiums, 50 g frag tank with 5 t5's, 20 gal fuge, 801 deltec skimmer, barracuda for closed loop, mix of corals, ro/di, kalk stirrer, calcium reactor, ac3, 3 to 4 inch sand bed.

system has been running for about a year and half. about a month ago my watermelon chalice started to die. after that i noticed my alien eye going. i do 50 gal water changes twice a month. since then some of my sps started to rtn. i replaced my ro/di filters, did more frequent water changes, 50 gal water changes weekly. changed my mixing barrel (was not sure if there was something leaking into the water from the barrel) did that for a month and still stuff is rtning.
had a lfs come over with every test kit they had. found the calicum to be a bit low. 330. that was 2 weeks ago and i am steady with my calicum at 370.
I sent my water to Aquarium Water testing here are my results.

Ammonia (NH3-4) ........................Good ......................................... 0.005
Nitrite (NO2)................................Good ......................................... 0.004
Nitrate (NO3)...............................Good .............................................0.3
Phosphate (PO4) ..........................Good ........................................... 0.04
Silica (SiO2-3) .............................Good .............................................0.2
Potassium (K) ...............................Low............................................. 199
Calcium (Ca).................................Low............................................. 258
Boron (B) ....................................Good .............................................5.1
Molybdenum (Mo)......................... High..............................................0.2
Strontium (Sr) .............................Good ........................................... 10.7
Magnesium (Mg) ..........................Good .......................................... 1150
Iodine (I¯)....................................Low............................................ 0.02
Copper (Cu++) ............................Good ........................................... 0.02
Alkalinity (meq/L).........................Good ........................................... 3.00

as of now here are my stats from last night.
Alk - 12.5
Ph - 7.8- 8.0
Cal - 370
Mag - 1170
Temp - 78 -80
Salinity - 1.026

I picked up some Iodine and Potassium sups last night. I have been using IO salt and i am going to switch to Reef Crystals. picked up a box last night and the water is mixing as we speak.

Thoughts? Its really hard to watch stuff die and not be able to stop it. I have taken out alot of stuff and fragged to save. Ask me questions to help me figure out what i can do.

 

[dnov99]

Seems to me like all your problems started with your CA being to low and possibly your ALK too high. 12.5 DKH is too high in my opinion and will cause your corals to do what they have been doing. I try to keep a steady DKH right around 9 or 10 max, and the key is to keep it stable.

I would be careful with changing salts as this might just make things worse, most of the time the less you do to try and remedy a problem the better. I would try to get your calcium reactor tuned in correctly to keep your DKH stable around 9 or 10. Good luck.

 

[Sikryd]

Bob - first off, that sucks! I know the feeling all too well.

After reading over your post and seeing your tank in person, my first guess would be the alkalinity since I am not familiar with keeping it that high.
I know Leishman had a similiar issue with some chalices, but I don't know more than that. It would be nice to find out if his alkalinity was on the higher side as well.

I keep my alk from 8-10ish. Any lower and I have issues. I haven't got it up in the higher end of the spectrum though since I dose 2 part.

That is the only place were I can begin to even guess there could be an issue.

I know there are a LOT of successful reefs that run in the same range, but most of them that I know of are SPS dominate.

Good luck - and props for doing AWI, that takes a LOT of guessing out of the equation.

 

[Stray32]

The only thing that looks off to me is your PH, it needs to be at 8.1-8.3.

Ahh, yes and your Alk, I recently lost both of my birdsnest colonies due to high Alk.

 

[Viva'sReef]

Alk is definatly high. I don't like to see it above 10 or things in my tank start to show signs of distress.

Also thought your Mg was a little low? I run mine around 1300 with good results.

When was the last time you calibrated your Refractometer? I would look into that as well. I have seen people struggle to get everything in good ranges because things were heading south only to find out that their refractometer was about 5 points off.

 

[rocko918]

Right now my cal is 370, AWT tested it around 250 but i read and heard that thier test for Cal was different than the way we mesaure, so it was not acurate. Do you think 370 is too low.

to get my alk down do i turn down the bubbles per sec or reduce the flow thru the reactor?

I have been watching my mag the whole time, i have been dosing to get it up a bit and it seems to stable out around 1150. I would like to raise it more but i am trying to do 1 thing at a time. I have calibration fluid for my Refractometer and have tested it 3 times during the month. also had someone bring their over. it is right on.

for my ph i switch from a mississippi lime to evs kalk last night. I have been using that lime for 4 years but figured it was not keeping my ph up in this tank.

with switching salts i am hoping to boost the trace elements that i don't test for and for the mag boost.

so right now i will work on dialing in the cal reactor. more or less bubbles or less flow thru?

 

[dnov99]

Reduce the bubble rate and keep testing every day until you get it to 10 DKH and it reamins at 10, this will also help raise your PH, since you will be having less CO2 in the system.

 

[FaviaFreak]

Just from what I have seen personally and from what I have read, chalices can crap out with high Alk and low mg..as stated above get your Alk dialed in 9-10 dkh and make sure that mg stays consistantly within range

 

[Sikryd]

Reduce the bubble rate and keep testing every day until you get it to 10 DKH and it reamins at 10, this will also help raise your PH, since you will be having less CO2 in the system.

+1 ...

 

[rocko918]

by reducing the bubble rate will my calcium drop too? should i also run the cal reactor longer? It comes on 30 after the lights come on and half hour after the light go off the co2 is shut off.

 

[Sikryd]

by reducing the bubble rate will my calcium drop too? should i also run the cal reactor longer? It comes on 30 after the lights come on and half hour after the light go off the co2 is shut off.

Hmmm. I have to admit I don't have any practicle experience with calcium reactors, but I thought most people had them running all the time, just lowering the flow and bubble count to be able to have it run all the time.

I have a LOT to learn about the practicle application of using a reactor, so I'm still reading up on them and trying to learn.

 

[FaviaFreak]

That might be your problem right there, you should run it 24/7 getting it dialed in is the trick

 

[rocko918]

well i don't run the co2 24/7 because of fear of my ph dropping below 7.8 at night.

 

[Paul_N]

Calcium reactor 24/7. The reactors job is to maintain Calcium not raise it. There is usually an initial period of tuning it in to get the PH right and keep the calcium stable. I run mine with a PH controller, couldn't be easier. I have my bubbles at 1/sec and just let the controller do everything.

 

[dnov99]

Run it 24/7, I really wouldnt worry much about your PH being 7.8, the key is a stable ALK, and you will only get that by getting your reactor tuned properly and running it 24/7

 

[FaviaFreak]

Do you top off with kalk at night?

 

[rocko918]

i do top off when needed so if the float switch drops at night it will add kalk.

ok i will setup my ac3 to turn off the co2 at ph 7.7?

 

[ReefGeezer]

My $.02... IMHO... etc...

I agree that your calc reactor needs to be tuned, and needs to run 24/7. You will need to establish the proper calcium and alkalinity levels before trying to tuned it. Turn down the bubble count and effluent flow approximately proportionally until the desired alkalinity is maintained.

In addition, I wonder how you magnesium, potassium, and iodine got so low if you are doing 20% waterchanges so often. You might take a look at the salt you are using or consider dosing supplements.

IMO, don't bother with Reef Crystals. Its the same with just a little more calcium and buffers. I use Kent and it seems to be work well. There are many mixes better than reef crytstals for the same money.

 

[Sikryd]

I try and keep my alkalinity stable, and my ph seems to follow.
To keep my ph up, I use kalk in my top off. I don't worry about the drop at night at all, its normal for a little variation at night.
I keep my ph in the 8.1-8.2 range and I have been having great results.

At 7.9 I had a LOT less growth and some recession. This was also with my alkalinity running a little low. Boosting both has brought on great growth as well as less recession or loss issues.