Hi All,
I have a redsea reefer 250; I use regular instant ocean salt, dose ESV 2 part, and do 15 L water changes every week.
a month ago, I pulled out 1/3rd of my life rock and replaced it with an uncured chunk of caribsea 'life' dry rock (they called it life because supposedly it contains bacterial spores). After the re-aquascape, I went through a Montipora -apocalypse; almost all of my encrusting monti's RTN'ed; one acrpora RTN'ed as well. Other acropora are doing well.
I first wondered about pests, but couple of dips didn't reveal anything. So I did a triton ICP test. I had done a similar test about a year ago. The test highlighted a few anomalies:
Aluminium now: 39 µg/l - was 9.364 last year
Copper now: 3.763 µg/l - was 0 last year
Magnesium 1617 mg/l - was 1439 mg/l last year
[that one I can explain - was dosing Mg based on a bad test kit resulting in elevated levels, but these levels most likely predated the addition of the new rock]
Bromide 108 mg/l - was 74 mg/l [don't think this is a big deal, but it was a change ]
Lithium 670 µg/l - was 200 ug/l [big change]
So, the three things that jump out at me are Aluminium, Copper and Lithium ? could they have been introduced via the caribesea rock ? Would would be the other possible sources ? On copper - I did add 2 new fish to DT that were being treated with copper in a QT; but I don't think that a few ml's of water added when I transferred them over would have caused this much elevation ? should I be concerned about deterioration of some of the electrical equipment ?
Right now, I am not sure if the source is the new rock, or something corroding in my tank... what would be a good experiment to rule between these two hypotheses? do a series of water changes, calculate the expected reduction in these levels, then test again ?
any thoughts and ideas about how to trouble shoot this would be useful. Would running carbon be helpful here, or just water changes.
thanks all for your help!
here is a video of the tank showing problems
I have a redsea reefer 250; I use regular instant ocean salt, dose ESV 2 part, and do 15 L water changes every week.
a month ago, I pulled out 1/3rd of my life rock and replaced it with an uncured chunk of caribsea 'life' dry rock (they called it life because supposedly it contains bacterial spores). After the re-aquascape, I went through a Montipora -apocalypse; almost all of my encrusting monti's RTN'ed; one acrpora RTN'ed as well. Other acropora are doing well.
I first wondered about pests, but couple of dips didn't reveal anything. So I did a triton ICP test. I had done a similar test about a year ago. The test highlighted a few anomalies:
Aluminium now: 39 µg/l - was 9.364 last year
Copper now: 3.763 µg/l - was 0 last year
Magnesium 1617 mg/l - was 1439 mg/l last year
[that one I can explain - was dosing Mg based on a bad test kit resulting in elevated levels, but these levels most likely predated the addition of the new rock]
Bromide 108 mg/l - was 74 mg/l [don't think this is a big deal, but it was a change ]
Lithium 670 µg/l - was 200 ug/l [big change]
So, the three things that jump out at me are Aluminium, Copper and Lithium ? could they have been introduced via the caribesea rock ? Would would be the other possible sources ? On copper - I did add 2 new fish to DT that were being treated with copper in a QT; but I don't think that a few ml's of water added when I transferred them over would have caused this much elevation ? should I be concerned about deterioration of some of the electrical equipment ?
Right now, I am not sure if the source is the new rock, or something corroding in my tank... what would be a good experiment to rule between these two hypotheses? do a series of water changes, calculate the expected reduction in these levels, then test again ?
any thoughts and ideas about how to trouble shoot this would be useful. Would running carbon be helpful here, or just water changes.
thanks all for your help!
here is a video of the tank showing problems
