This is gonna be something of an "airing my dirty laundry" post. I'm not happy with myself but rather than avoid embarassment I'm gonna attempt to learn from my mistakes & maybe serve as a warning to fellow reefers. Also hoping to get advice/bounce ideas to fix the mess I made.
History (trying to be brief):
I started a new 100gal mixed reef earlier this year. It's not my first and I took it very slow with this one (at first). Dates are approx, my memory is not perfect.
I had stable params so in Sep I added more coral and turned on the other half of the tank lighting. Today the right side rocks are still a slightly different color than the left, which is interesting. For SPS I added more digis, several diff types of birdsnest, and one acro. All were started as tiny 1-2 in frags. The sps grew ok but soft coral (palythoa in particar) was growing fast in this tank.
So everything was fine until Oct. First mistake I think was stocking fish too fast. In Oct I added 13 more fish: yellow tang, 4x anthias, pair of firefish, pair of wrasse, pair of gobies and pair of royal gramma. I didn't do it all at once of course but in retrospect I think this is too much in a month. The female royal gramma died within a week of adding (unknown cause). All other fish are good, eat well, with no aggression problems (except maybe a bit of domestic abuse from female clown on male but they've been that way for a year). They were purchased qt'ed (TSM and marine collectors) except the clowns and tang which I had awhile in another tank.
I did not get any ammonia spike, but nutrients started to climb. Up till then I was ~5ppm nitrate, 0.03 ppm phosphate. I dosed neonitro/neophos to keep them detectable. But after adding so many fish nitrates slowly climbed to ~20ppm and phos hit 0.15ppm. The tank still looked ok but I started to get worried about stability. Pics for reference:
I started dosing vinegar, increasing by +15ml per week. 6 weeks later I was dosing 90ml vinegar but nitrate was still rising (slowly). Then a couple weeks ago phosphate hit 0.3ppm and I freaked a bit. I've never seen it so high. So I added 1/3 cup "high capacity" gfo from BRS to my reactor. Stupid thing to do.
I tested phos a few days later and it was 0.03ppm. It dropped way faster than I expected and I was worried but coral looked fine at first. Then a few days later some sps looked stressed, and in 24 hrs many were skeletons. I lost nearly all the birdsnest and my first stylo. They had doubled in size in a few months but then I screw up and suddenly dead. *sigh*
The digis are still alive as is the acro (somehow). They do not look stressed atm. Soft coral also looks ok but my alk consumption has plummeted, and pH is totally out of whack. I was dosing 2liters saturated kalk to maintain alkalinity but now I only need 1liter. I no longer see a normal day/night swing for pH either (not much of one anyway) and my daytime peak went from 8.3 to 8.0/8.1.
So, now what? I am looking for advice to get back on track. I removed the gfo but kept vinegar daily dose steady. Nitrates are still climbing (about to hit 30ppm) and I dose 90ml vinegar/ day. This seems like alot and not in line with my previous experience using vinegar dosing. Usually after this long nitrate takes a dive. I don't understand why it's not doing so.
Questions:
I'm thinking a low risk change I can make is to add filter socks or floss. I didn't need to before but now I have a nutrient issue. I have a refugium but it isn't doing much. I don't think I had enough flow or light. Also I'm using red ogo macroalgae instead of chaeto (wanted fresh veggies for my tang). The red ogo actually has been growing but it's clearly not doing the job. I have some chaeto I could add but this will take awhile to grow in. I added a pump to the fuge (flow was pretty stagnant) and am looking at better lighting.
Any suggestions? TY in advance.
History (trying to be brief):
I started a new 100gal mixed reef earlier this year. It's not my first and I took it very slow with this one (at first). Dates are approx, my memory is not perfect.
- Added water in March (dry rock with bottle bacteria)
- Added light in May (half tank only). Also added a few easy soft coral: Xenia, palys, gsp, nepthia, and zoas.
- Added some CuC when algae started to show. Relatively mild ugly period as a result.
- In July or Aug I added a pair of clowns and my first 2 tester sps- a montipora digitata and a stylophora. I also added some inverts (2xfire shrimp, crabs, 2xcleaner shrimp, urchin). Everything fine so far with no deaths.
I had stable params so in Sep I added more coral and turned on the other half of the tank lighting. Today the right side rocks are still a slightly different color than the left, which is interesting. For SPS I added more digis, several diff types of birdsnest, and one acro. All were started as tiny 1-2 in frags. The sps grew ok but soft coral (palythoa in particar) was growing fast in this tank.
So everything was fine until Oct. First mistake I think was stocking fish too fast. In Oct I added 13 more fish: yellow tang, 4x anthias, pair of firefish, pair of wrasse, pair of gobies and pair of royal gramma. I didn't do it all at once of course but in retrospect I think this is too much in a month. The female royal gramma died within a week of adding (unknown cause). All other fish are good, eat well, with no aggression problems (except maybe a bit of domestic abuse from female clown on male but they've been that way for a year). They were purchased qt'ed (TSM and marine collectors) except the clowns and tang which I had awhile in another tank.
I did not get any ammonia spike, but nutrients started to climb. Up till then I was ~5ppm nitrate, 0.03 ppm phosphate. I dosed neonitro/neophos to keep them detectable. But after adding so many fish nitrates slowly climbed to ~20ppm and phos hit 0.15ppm. The tank still looked ok but I started to get worried about stability. Pics for reference:
I started dosing vinegar, increasing by +15ml per week. 6 weeks later I was dosing 90ml vinegar but nitrate was still rising (slowly). Then a couple weeks ago phosphate hit 0.3ppm and I freaked a bit. I've never seen it so high. So I added 1/3 cup "high capacity" gfo from BRS to my reactor. Stupid thing to do.
I tested phos a few days later and it was 0.03ppm. It dropped way faster than I expected and I was worried but coral looked fine at first. Then a few days later some sps looked stressed, and in 24 hrs many were skeletons. I lost nearly all the birdsnest and my first stylo. They had doubled in size in a few months but then I screw up and suddenly dead. *sigh*
The digis are still alive as is the acro (somehow). They do not look stressed atm. Soft coral also looks ok but my alk consumption has plummeted, and pH is totally out of whack. I was dosing 2liters saturated kalk to maintain alkalinity but now I only need 1liter. I no longer see a normal day/night swing for pH either (not much of one anyway) and my daytime peak went from 8.3 to 8.0/8.1.
So, now what? I am looking for advice to get back on track. I removed the gfo but kept vinegar daily dose steady. Nitrates are still climbing (about to hit 30ppm) and I dose 90ml vinegar/ day. This seems like alot and not in line with my previous experience using vinegar dosing. Usually after this long nitrate takes a dive. I don't understand why it's not doing so.
Questions:
- Should I stop vinegar, try something else like nopox, or just stay the course? Maybe it just needs more time?
- Is 90ml vinegar an ok carbon dose for 100 gallons?
- Should I switch from carbon dosing to macro refugium? Is it ok to do both?
I'm thinking a low risk change I can make is to add filter socks or floss. I didn't need to before but now I have a nutrient issue. I have a refugium but it isn't doing much. I don't think I had enough flow or light. Also I'm using red ogo macroalgae instead of chaeto (wanted fresh veggies for my tang). The red ogo actually has been growing but it's clearly not doing the job. I have some chaeto I could add but this will take awhile to grow in. I added a pump to the fuge (flow was pretty stagnant) and am looking at better lighting.
Any suggestions? TY in advance.