Help me fix my tank

[BranchingHammer]

Ok, this first post is going to be pretty long as it is going to detail exactly what my tank does/consists of. So pls read through this thread if you can.

To start, I think the main problem is that I’m always embarrassed to show off my tank because of how little the coral has grown in the almost two years that I’ve had it. But in this thread, I’m going to expose everything bad about my tank so that I can learn and get my corals to grow and not die.

My tank seems to go through periods of growth, very fast too, and then death and bleaching. Right now my tank is in one of those death periods.

My frag tank is perfect for goring SPS and all other corals, and I don’t even test it’s water. This frustrates me as I’ve spent less time on the frag tank and yet it grows corals better!

Anyways, during this “death period” I’ve moved most of my corals to my frag tank to recover before it was too late. Somehow, my derasa clam does so well. It’s grown 4ish millimeters in the past two weeks.

I am going to do a water change tonight, because sometimes after these “death periods”, it is the only thing that helps.

Here are my parameters:
Salinity: 35ppt, 1.026
Alk: 8.0 dkh consistently
Calcium: 430 ppm
Magnesium: 1350 ppm
Nitrate: 1.75ppm
Phosphate: 0.04 ppm
Temperature: 80 F

Equipment:
Marineland 65g cornerflo tank
Trigger systems crystal series sump
Filter sock
Reef Octopus 110int skimmer
Live rock
Mag 90 return pump
Reefbreeders photon 24 V2
Reefbreeders rpm wave maker

Drinking water RODI system that was purchased for drinking use, puts out 6ppm TDS
Reef crystals salt

If you need me to post any more information or photos, pls tell me as I am willing to do almost anything to make my tank thrive.

Pls help me! #reefsquad

 

[saltyhog]

The only thing that jumps out is the RO/DI system. Why is it putting out 6ppm TDS? It should always be zero! What is your source water TDS? There is no way to know what is in that 6ppm TDS. Do you use the same water for your frag tank? What kind of lighting on the tank/frag tank.

If you can post some pictures of your tank and the corals that are doing poorly.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

First off get that TDS down to 0. If you bought a RO for drinking water then it will not have a DI stage. 6 ppm after the RO membrane is not bad, depending on the TDS of the source water, so add a DI stage after the membrane. You dont know what the 6 ppm consists of and you could be having a build up of some kind over time. I would send out an ICP test to see exactly whats going on with your water, especailly during the "death period". A large 80-100% water change should reset things. Ha e you checked for any stray voltage, pests, are you keeping your lights set the same or changing it up. Hows the flow? Only 1 wave maker?

 

[BranchingHammer]

I will post pictures of coral tomorrow. The frag tank is a 5g AIO fluval spec. The lighting is an Amazon tuna blue par38 with a BRS gooseneck. The only filtration is a refugium. There is also a hydor koralia wavemaker in it.

I am going to do a 15% water change tomorrow and start to run some carbon on the main tank.

As for the RO water system, it will be hard for me to plumb a RODI canister in because it will decrease flow rates. It is a very weird system and I don’t want to mess with it very much. I could, however, purchase a BRS RODI system.

 

[BranchingHammer]

No pests, keeping lighting the same. Only one wavemaker because it is really powerful in conjunction with my return. I don’t believe there is a any stray voltage. I am tempted to do an ICP test, but I want to see if I can help the tank without it first. But I am getting desperate...

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Deal with the 6 ppm TDS. I would want to know whats in the water during a coral die out especially if happens often.

 

[Lasse]

Do you use the same RODI water for your frag tank and for the DT? If that´s the case - you should role out the explanation of bad RODI water IMO,

I would do a Triton test in this case in order to get more information. If it going better a time after a water change - it indicate some leaking of something in the DT

Sincerely Lasse

 

[SPR1968]

From the test results the water parameters look fine, but it sounds like there maybe something else in the water potentially causing issues that’s not being picked up on the standard test kits.

You certainly need to get the RODI system sorted out and 0 TDS water as that’s a basic of reef keeping. Your nutrient levels are low anyway, but you don’t say if you have an algae problem which could give these low test figures.

As already said, a Triton test will provide a check of the water to see what’s what.

If it were me, I would do a series of 20% water changes to get some fresh water in, and potential contamination out of the system and see how you get on from there. Basically a 100% water change but spread over a few weeks so you don’t upset anything.

 

[Hemmdog]

What’s your substrate?
Do your nitrates ever get higher? Like 10ish?
How long is your light schedule? Moonlights?
Are you running a fuge? Are the death times correlated with macro algae harvests in any way? Are you harvesting?

Lots of questions haha sorry. Just trying to rule everything out.

I guarantee your death times are your nutrients bottoming out. 1 nitrate is dancing with fire IMO unless your testing constantly.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I'm going to go against the grain here in regards to your RO with a single digit TDS readings.

First thing is YES, it depends on what the TDS is. Just single digit ppm of copper or lead could be very bad for your system. But IMHO the odds of that are 1000:1 or more! It's far, far more likely that your TDS is something completely benign. I've run systems for years with TDS reading in the single digits. And for an extreme example, a friend of mine with a 220g DT was on a well didn't use an RO system. He filled an open tub with well water at a TDS of over 1200 TDS. He added bleach and a pump that pushed water up so it looked like it was boiling madly at the surface. After 2 or 3 days he used it to make saltwater for his water changes. He had some mild hairy algae issues, but the fish were able to deal with that pretty well. But still, a very low TDS COULD be a problem.

I'm with Lasse, if you are using the same water in your frag tank, I become even more doubtful that your TDS level is an issue. Now the water in the tank could be a different story. It could be leaching something out of the rocks, or off the tank itself (example: if it ever had copper in it). Having the tank water tested is relatively inexpensive and should rule out or explain what is in the water that is so harmful.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Assuming the frag tank is smaller than the display. Does the frag tank get more water changes? Either is volume of water or frequency? If so then its possible any unwanteds are being diluted more in the smaller frag tank than the larger display. 10g water change on a 40g frag tank is a llt more of the total volume than a 10g water change on a 100g for example. Just a thought.
What are the differenced between the frag tank and the display?

 

[BranchingHammer]

Do you use the same RODI water for your frag tank and for the DT? If that´s the case - you should role out the explanation of bad RODI water IMO,

I use the same water for the frag tank as well as the DT.

I would do a Triton test in this case in order to get more information. If it going better a time after a water change - it indicate some leaking of something in the DT

Sincerely Lasse

Sounds like I should send out a test to Triton if water changes don’t resolve.

From the test results the water parameters look fine, but it sounds like there maybe something else in the water potentially causing issues that’s not being picked up on the standard test kits.

You certainly need to get the RODI system sorted out and 0 TDS water as that’s a basic of reef keeping. Your nutrient levels are low anyway, but you don’t say if you have an algae problem which could give these low test figures.

As already said, a Triton test will provide a check of the water to see what’s what.

If it were me, I would do a series of 20% water changes to get some fresh water in, and potential contamination out of the system and see how you get on from there. Basically a 100% water change but spread over a few weeks so you don’t upset anything.

Thanks for the advice, I’m going to do a 15% change today.

What’s your substrate?
Do your nitrates ever get higher? Like 10ish?
How long is your light schedule? Moonlights?
Are you running a fuge? Are the death times correlated with macro algae harvests in any way? Are you harvesting?

Lots of questions haha sorry. Just trying to rule everything out.

I guarantee your death times are your nutrients bottoming out. 1 nitrate is dancing with fire IMO unless your testing constantly.

My substrate is rough grain sand/crushed coral from Carib sea. The light schedule is from 8am to 10pm. No Fuge running on the tank be of not enough nutrients to support them. My nitrates never get higher than 2ish, and I need to dose brightwell aquatics neonitro. I was thinking that the low nutrients may correlate with it, but the corals were growing pretty well with lower nutrients, just with faded pastel colors.

I'm going to go against the grain here in regards to your RO with a single digit TDS readings.

First thing is YES, it depends on what the TDS is. Just single digit ppm of copper or lead could be very bad for your system. But IMHO the odds of that are 1000:1 or more! It's far, far more likely that your TDS is something completely benign. I've run systems for years with TDS reading in the single digits. And for an extreme example, a friend of mine with a 220g DT was on a well didn't use an RO system. He filled an open tub with well water at a TDS of over 1200 TDS. He added bleach and a pump that pushed water up so it looked like it was boiling madly at the surface. After 2 or 3 days he used it to make saltwater for his water changes. He had some mild hairy algae issues, but the fish were able to deal with that pretty well. But still, a very low TDS COULD be a problem.

I'm with Lasse, if you are using the same water in your frag tank, I become even more doubtful that your TDS level is an issue. Now the water in the tank could be a different story. It could be leaching something out of the rocks, or off the tank itself (example: if it ever had copper in it). Having the tank water tested is relatively inexpensive and should rule out or explain what is in the water that is so harmful.

The rock is BRS reefsaver rock, so it probably isn’t leaching anything out. The tank was brand new for this reef tank.

Assuming the frag tank is smaller than the display. Does the frag tank get more water changes? Either is volume of water or frequency? If so then its possible any unwanteds are being diluted more in the smaller frag tank than the larger display. 10g water change on a 40g frag tank is a llt more of the total volume than a 10g water change on a 100g for example. Just a thought.
What are the differenced between the frag tank and the display?

Perhaps, I definitely do more water changes on the frag tank, but now both of them have been sitting without a water change for 3 weeks ish.


Last things I forgot to mention in the first post, I have a coral box dosing pump and am dosing calcium and alkalinity.

 

[BranchingHammer]

Oh also, the tank is about 1yr and 8months old

 

[Lasse]

Sounds like I should send out a test to Triton if water changes don’t resolve.

Do one before the change - as reference when it is not working good - and if the WC help you up - one new as an reference when it is working.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Dugless]

What kind of coral? Fish?

 

[BranchingHammer]

The only issue with the ICP tests is that they are relatively expensive for me.


I’ll put if they are not doing well next to the name

Kole Tang
Six line wrasse
Clownfish

Lobo
Hammer (not doing well)
Frogspawn
Pocillopora (not doing well)
Rainbow Monti (not doing well)
Red and green plating Monti (not doing well)
Derasa Clam (doing great)
Favia 1
Favia 2 (not doing well)
Ricordea
GSP

I think that’s it, I had to move lots of coral to my frag tank to recover, those are not on this list.

 

[BranchingHammer]

I test weekly btw

 

[rkpetersen]

Just want to mention that ATI ICPOES is better than Triton in some ways, and in particular, they also include a test of your RODI water to see how well your system is working, which Triton does not.

 

[BranchingHammer]

Thank you for that info

 

[jabberwock]

The RO/DI system I have for drinking water has a re-minerlizer on it. Perhaps yours does too?