HELP! Steady decline in coral health with stable parameters

[Hairyteeth]

Seems like unstable parameters/quickly changing parameters may be your culprit… these are bigs swings for the duration and frequency, I think that a slower reaction is needed here

 

[Graemesreef]

Fish can handle salinity swings just fine. May people only temp acclimate and drop in these days. Ill even freshwater dip all my new arrivals for 5-10minutes with no issues. Im sure the fish loss was due to another stressor.

I agree, I was just thinking that would be a big swing very quickly in a small system?

 

[Jcon82]

Seems like unstable parameters/quickly changing parameters may be your culprit… these are bigs swings for the duration and frequency, I think that a slower reaction is needed here

I agree. I've spent too long wondering if stopping the all for reef was part of issue. The corals never looked better when I was using it. But even dosing only 2ml a day I couldn't keep the KH from rising over 12dkh. But I feel like stopping it was the beginning of the tank failing.

Now I'm just dosing the recommended amount of no3 and po4. I test every other day and see no detectible change in levels. So I assume something is consuming it.

I'm a bit confused since I tested KH on saturday and it was 10dkh and yesterday it was 10.9dkh. Will dying corals release anything in the water that could do this?

I'm thinking of ordering an ICP test. I've read of far worse swings that dont obliterate an entire tank worth for corals. Even my GSP is melting!

 

[Hairyteeth]

All for reef needs to be digested by a bacteria before it becomes available in the water column and is testable, that’s why your still seeing your alk rise after stopping the dosing.
I bet if your parameters didn’t budge from there current levels for like three weeks everything would bounce back.
If you have money to burn you could send out an icp, it never hurts but I think with your at home test you are still seeing the swings so it’s not Necessary at the moment

 

[Jcon82]

All for reef needs to be digested by a bacteria before it becomes available in the water column and is testable, that’s why your still seeing your alk rise after stopping the dosing.
I bet if your parameters didn’t budge from there current levels for like three weeks everything would bounce back.
If you have money to burn you could send out an icp, it never hurts but I think with your at home test you are still seeing the swings so it’s not Necessary at the moment

Thanks, I'm really trying to get these parameters where they need to be! I'm wondering if there's something bad in the tank like copper or something from residual sunscreen or even something that came in on a frag plug. I was hoping the ICP could ease my mind on that.

However my Alk isn't dropping like I expected it to. It seems to want to stay in the 10's. Its interesting to think that the A4R could be doing this after many weeks of not dosing it. I'm wondering if doing two 10% water changes a week with the lower alk salt is a good idea.

Even with my ATO Salinity does decrease over time so I feel like waiting for alk to be consumed naturally may not be an option. Nutrient uptake is non existent at the moment.