Help me out of this slump!

[Scott.h]

Thanks for the response scott.
Yep you have a point what can it hurt. Doser is off and I'll let the alk fall to 7. Yes I switched from brs to b ionic

My one tank when I first started I had the same issues. Redid my whole ro system. It wasn't that. My alk wasn't even at 8. How could that be? I lowered to about 7.4. Better but still some issues. Could it be alk, or is there some other underlined issue? I got on the phone with adam from battle corals. Sent him some pics. Same thing as what I'm seeing. "Alk burn". "Let it fall".. "quit changing water". So for the longest time I actually kept the tank a tad under 7.0. I think the next line down on Salifert was 6.7 by the way I test. It fixed everything over a month or so. Why, I don't know. I've always dosed N and P to keep both stable and noticeably detectable. My doser is set to dose every hour. I matched water change water with hlcl acid. what the heck? Even now if my ph gets lower because of the house being closed up, my alk will creep up to 7.4 I will get those signs. I try to test every 3 days or so, but who am I kidding. I'm busy and have multiple tanks. I'll turn the doser off over night and back to the normal schedule the next day.

 

[Acro maniac]

It's pretty hard to watch a tank crash slowly and not have a clue what's going on or what to do about it.
Now using just Hanna as alk test 8.7 was the high last week prior to turning dosers off. Last nights test was 8.1
No longer just tips losing tissue I lost a colony last night rtn. So I did a water change this morning. Matched all the levels and now ALL acros not just a handful, showing filaments from tips. Im afraid I will be losing everything to this unknown

There is a couple other small colonies not fat behind

 

[Scott.h]

It's pretty hard to watch a tank crash slowly and not have a clue what's going on or what to do about it.
Now using just Hanna as alk test 8.7 was the high last week prior to turning dosers off. Last nights test was 8.1
No longer just tips losing tissue I lost a colony last night rtn. So I did a water change this morning. Matched all the levels and now ALL acros not just a handful, showing filaments from tips. Im afraid I will be losing everything to this unknown

There is a couple other small colonies not fat behind

Wow that's devistating. Can you clip any good pieces and put them in another system?

 

[Acro maniac]

I'm have put off fragging in hopes that I see a rebound. Now that I'm losing stuff it seems like the only choice as now I'm too late for a couple. I have moved somethings to my overcrowded frag tank, there's no more room. The guy I make water for said he'd be glad to give my corals a home.
A total reboot likes inevitable. The only thing that worries me is if I don't know what caused this, is it going to happen again? And what do I do?

 

[Scott.h]

I'm have put off fragging in hopes that I see a rebound. Now that I'm losing stuff it seems like the only choice as now I'm too late for a couple. I have moved somethings to my overcrowded frag tank, there's no more room. The guy I make water for said he'd be glad to give my corals a home.
A total reboot likes inevitable. The only thing that worries me is if I don't know what caused this, is it going to happen again? And what do I do?

I know what you mean. If there was a direct cause found at least you could correct it. Any more I try to keep every level as close to natural water as I can. Your tank is sps dominated, so chemical warfare is out, correct? Triton wouldn't pick that up. Nothing on the triton test was on the radar? I had that happen once to a wild colony that stripped overnight 3 weeks later. It was crazy. I chalked that up to my parameters including alk being higher then natural ocean levels. But the fact is sometimes you just don't know. It could be a result of something that happened weeks ago too.

 

[Acro maniac]

Yes sps dominate but there are a couple favia frags on an island rock and and a couple acans in the bottom also 1 duncan on the side.
This has been a slow regression sense about July. I have had a couple of the montis for 8 or so years and have fragged them multiple times. It sucks to see them almost bleached . I had some one locally comment on alk and ammonia and Im trying to do some research and find an association. But so far have been unsuccessful

 

[Scott.h]

Anything stabilize?

 

[Acro maniac]

Anything stabilize?

I have done some extensive cleaning ( blowing rocks, removing as much detritus as possible) po4 went up for a few days even with gfo running. It seems to me I have been lacking on maintenance so I'm hoping the cleaner system will turn things.
When I reviewed my log I kept over looking the fact that this past year I have slowly let my maintanece schedule slip.
Currently things are hard to read but the deterioration has defiantly slow if not stopped.
Alk was stable at 7.7-8 and I was still seeing negative results so that's what forced me to look at other options.
Hoping this is it, my buddy gave me a couple sacrificial frags so will see.
Thanks
Ryan

 

[Acro maniac]

No such luck with recovery.
Not really sure where to go from here.
All levels still stable with the excetion of po4 which was brought down to 0.02-0.06 from 0.5 , but has been stable for a couple weeks.
Wc corrects whatever is going on for about 5 days and then I see signs of filaments on what was new nubs, tips and some edges on bases of acropora.
Orange cap shows signs of brighting up after a wc then start fading at day 5. All other montis have no flesh just polyps growing through algae covered base and pe suffers around 5 days post wc.
I have added sacrificial frags of acros and 1 monti cap over the past month that look irritated at the time they are acclimated but don't lose any tissue for weeks.
It seems the newer frags can tolerate what ever this is for some time before they give up .
Any and all ideas will be helpful

 

[Acro maniac]

Also dealing with some crazy different algae, some bright green that is not really attached to the rock and can be sucked out. Comes off in sections like a mat. And some others I take some pics tonight.
Fwiw I never in 6 or more years had any algae issues in this system until I doser interceptor last March.
Could that doser of interceptor be the cause of all this????

 

[rockstarta78]

So after some trial and error i found the dt to 87v so i went through all pumps skimmer ato maxspects and hydor doser chiller unplugged each no change in voltage. unplugged everything that touches water no change. So next i said the only thing left is unplugged all the lights no change. The only thing left that had power going to it was the 4ft power strip under the cabinet i flipped the swich and thats the culpret.
So now i have a mess of wires going to to different power strips and the dt is at 18v
Also noticed the tips of 2 acros when everything came back on. ???? Could it be the lack voltage now?

Did you ever address the voltage issue in the DT? Sorry if I missed it. I know everyone keeps suggesting ALK swing is the issue, which probably is true. However, I was just curious if you still have electricity in your DT from that strip light? If everything is turned off, your DT should show 0 voltage. Btw, do you have your lights mounted on the tank or is it hanging? Reason I ask, I had a light mount, and I didn't realize the mount leg was partially submerged in the DT. I kept having lots of issues. Since my wife used to hate the way the mount looked, I did a DIY mount, and things are starting to look better.

 

[Acro maniac]

Added a ground probe and removed the old power strip. So yeah resolved the power issue.
I have a hard time buying the alk is the culprit.
I have a Frag tank that is a much smaller system and has twice as much a swing daily and weekly 7.7 to 7.15 everything looks great.
Dt 7.7to 7.5 swing and everything is dying except Duncan a couple acans and favias

 

[rockstarta78]

IMHO 7.7 to 7.5dKh is not a swing. I don't think it's your ALK. You said everything looks good after a WC but things start going downhill at mid-week point. If ALK is consistent at this point, meaning between 7.7~7.5 you wouldn't have the issues you are facing. Something else is causing this issue.

From what I have read so far, you have no stray voltage either in the DT or the Sump, you ALK and CAL is stable (I'd consider 0.2 ~ 0.5 dkh variance as stable for now), I am also guessing your NO3 and PO4 are stable (N <10ppm and P <= 0.03ppm), RODI filters have been replaced (as per your earlier post). If everything I mentioned so far holds true, it's either your rock, sand or powerheads leaching something into the water column that's causing the water quality to deteriorate. And that's just my guess, and I could be 100% wrong.

What would happen if you move one of the damaged SPS to your frag tank? Will it recover over time? or will it keep losing tissue? You used the same salt and RODI water for the frag tank? If the SPS comes back to life, it's not the water or the salt. How are your fishes and invert doing in the DT? Do they look healthy? I wonder what is the big difference between your frag tank and your DT?

Sorry for so many questions and the long wounded post. I was just thinking of how I would approach it.

 

[Acro maniac]

IMHO 7.7 to 7.5dKh is not a swing. I don't think it's your ALK. You said everything looks good after a WC but things start going downhill at mid-week point. If ALK is consistent at this point, meaning between 7.7~7.5 you wouldn't have the issues you are facing. Something else is causing this issue.

From what I have read so far, you have no stray voltage either in the DT or the Sump, you ALK and CAL is stable (I'd consider 0.2 ~ 0.5 dkh variance as stable for now), I am also guessing your NO3 and PO4 are stable (N <10ppm and P <= 0.03ppm), RODI filters have been replaced (as per your earlier post). If everything I mentioned so far holds true, it's either your rock, sand or powerheads leaching something into the water column that's causing the water quality to deteriorate. And that's just my guess, and I could be 100% wrong.

What would happen if you move one of the damaged SPS to your frag tank? Will it recover over time? or will it keep losing tissue? You used the same salt and RODI water for the frag tank? If the SPS comes back to life, it's not the water or the salt. How are your fishes and invert doing in the DT? Do they look healthy? I wonder what is the big difference between your frag tank and your DT?

Sorry for so many questions and the long wounded post. I was just thinking of how I would approach it.

No thanks for the intrest another mind is very valuable.
Yes all holds true and yes if I relocate a frag of a dying colony to the frag tank it recovers.
Dt is bb
I inspected the gyre 2 weeks ago while cleaning also if it's a metal i would have seen it on the triton results, correct.
Maybe the rock it' 8 to 10 years old?
Been in the system from day 1

 

[rockstarta78]

Now I am really lost. 8 to 10 year old rock would be perfect for any tank. You'd think there would be nothing bad coming out of these rock. I am not too sure it's your rock.

 

[ajm83]

How long ago was the last Triton?

 

[Acro maniac]

I

Now I am really lost. 8 to 10 year old rock would be perfect for any tank. You'd think there would be nothing bad coming out of these rock. I am not too sure it's your rock.

I did 3 treatments of interceptor back in febuary/March, and thought that might have affected the rock

 

[Acro maniac]

How long ago was the last Triton?

Id' have to look but I believe it was September.
All these issues started in June if I remember correctly, Its been going on for a while.
I have a triton sample in the mail curently also

 

[rockstarta78]

I

I did 3 treatments of interceptor back in febuary/March, and thought that might have affected the rock

Is it when your issues started? Sorry I can't remember if you mentioned a timeframe when it all started.

 

[Acro maniac]

I had a bout with blackbugs in February March this years and dosed interceptor. All acros rebounded and were doing amazing until June. The first indicator something was off was an orange cap and a small piece of mystic sunset. Pic below