Need help - Big RTN episode on my SPS tank.

Loosechangereef

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I am fighting small amount bubble algae this is what i use on w/c so if bubble bursts gets bubble particles around algae works pretty good but try not to burst bubble
 

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JCOLE

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Seeing lots of high-tin ICP tests. Most of the time, it is in the salt. What salt is everybody using that has these levels? Of course, this sucks if it is in the RODI. Tube from Home Depot/Lowes/whatever has been linked anecdotally - apparently the stuff with the white cords in it, IIRC?

Please read up on one of DR. RHFs articles on Iodine before you dose. What got tested for might not be of any consequence to a reef tank. Iodate is more important, IIRC, but I have not read these in a while. As any halide, including bleach, over dosing can be a problem. You might need to dose... I am not saying that, just compare apples to apples and dose the right thing. In the past, people have bought iodine of some sort or Lugols and dosed and dosed and dosed and their tests never moved because their test kit was looking at a different kind than they were adding.

I made the switch from Reef Crystal's about 6 months ago to Tropic Marin Pro. Didnt like the brown residue it left in my mixing barrels but more importantly I like that Tropic Marin mixes for me around 7.5dkh. I cannot find there 200 gallon buckets anymore. Just received their new 160 gallon boxes..... don't know if they are stopping the buckets or not.

I am thinking about switching to regular Instant Ocean for now.
 
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JCOLE

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If you dose Iodine use something like Red sea Trace Colors A (this is what I use). Do not use Lugols to raise iodine.

I'm not a chemist, if you need a reason why ask RHF.

I have Seachem Iodide that I have started to dose because that is what I have at the moment. I will dose for a little while and see if there is any improvements.
 
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JCOLE

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Only thing I see that's really off is your Potassium, I would recommend fixing that first. Personally IME, 4µg/l tin isn't a big issue but definitely fix your source water.

Not dosing any potassium supplements. However, I am dosing Acropower on a doser. I am going to eliminate that and thinking of switching to IO salt from TMPR to rule the salt out as well.

Filters come in tomorrow for RODI so that will be my main focus.
 
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JCOLE

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Looking at your RODI results, TIN was extremely high. When you read the TDS was it still showing 0? I've been reading other threads about Tin, and most of the time, if TDS is 0, the tin is coming from somewhere else NOT the rodi unit itself.

I got my ATI results back with TIN around 9 which isn't as high as yours, but still higher than I would like. Still trying to identify where it's coming from.

Yes. I am reading 0 TDS on the inline meter and I just took a measurement with my handheld meter and I am getting 0 TDS out of the barrel.

I checked the barrel and it looks very clean.

20210112_191340.jpg

20210112_191345.jpg


This is my RODI. Dont mind the messy wires. You can see 0 still reading on the inline meter as well.

20210112_191721.jpg
 
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JCOLE

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+1 to this and what @ScottB has mentioned. As you know a lot of changes going on and using two known acro killers for many. I would be curious what your PO4 was during all of these times of dosing. On top of that both will swing your nutrients. Acros will hold a grudge and take time to come back to health IMO.




Agreed Iodine should deplete relatively quickly so I would not give as much credence to a low number. That said, there are plenty of anecdotes of people noticing improvement with STN with dosing. I would look at iodine as a moving target...underdose some daily/weekly with the idea of just maintaining a little in the water as opposed to chasing a target value.

Regardless of whether the tin is in your RODI changing all your filters is a good first step of things to check off the list.

I 100% agree with this. I don't really have a good way of testing for Iodine at the moment so I am going to just dose a couple times weekly to keep it in the system and see if things start to improve. I am not going to stress out anymore on getting the right number. I haven't dosed Iodine in a while so it can't hurt anymore than it is right now.

New filters come in tomorrow so hoping that is a good first step to improvement.
 

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Vibrant is death in a bottle. I have had mini crashes both times I tried using it. I
 

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Not dosing any potassium supplements. However, I am dosing Acropower on a doser. I am going to eliminate that and thinking of switching to IO salt from TMPR to rule the salt out as well.

Filters come in tomorrow for RODI so that will be my main focus.

Get a Potassium test kit, bad salt mix is a possibility . Low Potassium can cause problems for SPS, but being over as much as you are I'm sure have some big negatives as well.
 
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Get a Potassium test kit, bad salt mix is a possibility . Low Potassium can cause problems for SPS, but being over as much as you are I'm sure have some big negatives as well.

Sounds good. I think I have a Redsea potassium kit. If not then I will get the Salifert one. Do you have a recommendation for a kit?
 

Will Wohlers

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Can't offer any opinion on what could have caused it as it would just be speculation on my part and speculation could cause you more issues. I just wanted to say im sorry buddy. I know the feeling and it's downright horrible. I had the same kind of event happen 2 Christmas ago and I ended up losing thousands and thousands of dollars and 10 years of my blood sweat and tears over that system. It was so mentally devastating that I stepped away from the hobby for over a year. It was just depressing. I couldn't look at that tank anymore without getting sad. Finally my wife said enough is enough and had someone (unbeknownst to be) come get the tank and most of the equipment and had a completely new system delivered with everything I've ever wanted for my birthday a couple days after the old system left. It was exactly what I needed to get my passion and excitement back. The new system is smaller but it's literally everything to me for many reasons.

I hope it doesn't go that far for you but I know how it feels to watch your baby go up in smoke before your eyes not being able to stop it. Anyway long story short when you get it all leveled out and come out the otherside if there's anything I have that you lost or anything that i have that will help the heartbreak, i will find happiness my friend in sending you some frags and helping you move on after this as my wife did for me.
Will
 
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Can't offer any opinion on what could have caused it as it would just be speculation on my part and speculation could cause you more issues. I just wanted to say im sorry buddy. I know the feeling and it's downright horrible. I had the same kind of event happen 2 Christmas ago and I ended up losing thousands and thousands of dollars and 10 years of my blood sweat and tears over that system. It was so mentally devastating that I stepped away from the hobby for over a year. It was just depressing. I couldn't look at that tank anymore without getting sad. Finally my wife said enough is enough and had someone (unbeknownst to be) come get the tank and most of the equipment and had a completely new system delivered with everything I've ever wanted for my birthday a couple days after the old system left. It was exactly what I needed to get my passion and excitement back. The new system is smaller but it's literally everything to me for many reasons.

I hope it doesn't go that far for you but I know how it feels to watch your baby go up in smoke before your eyes not being able to stop it. Anyway long story short when you get it all leveled out and come out the otherside if there's anything I have that you lost or anything that i have that will help the heartbreak, i will find happiness my friend in sending you some frags and helping you move on after this as my wife did for me.
Will

Thank you Will!! Sorry to hear about your loss as well! This is exactly how I feel at the moment. Waiting patiently for years now to get where I am at with the tank and then to watch it all start dying is pretty crushing.

It's hard to look at the tank right now. I went to look at the tank for the first time tonight around 8 and that was just to feed the fish.

Appreciate the offer man and I will definitely hit you up down the road even if it's to trade corals. This is what reefing is about and I am glad there are hobbyist out there like you Will!
 

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Can't offer any opinion on what could have caused it as it would just be speculation on my part and speculation could cause you more issues. I just wanted to say im sorry buddy. I know the feeling and it's downright horrible. I had the same kind of event happen 2 Christmas ago and I ended up losing thousands and thousands of dollars and 10 years of my blood sweat and tears over that system. It was so mentally devastating that I stepped away from the hobby for over a year. It was just depressing. I couldn't look at that tank anymore without getting sad. Finally my wife said enough is enough and had someone (unbeknownst to be) come get the tank and most of the equipment and had a completely new system delivered with everything I've ever wanted for my birthday a couple days after the old system left. It was exactly what I needed to get my passion and excitement back. The new system is smaller but it's literally everything to me for many reasons.

I hope it doesn't go that far for you but I know how it feels to watch your baby go up in smoke before your eyes not being able to stop it. Anyway long story short when you get it all leveled out and come out the otherside if there's anything I have that you lost or anything that i have that will help the heartbreak, i will find happiness my friend in sending you some frags and helping you move on after this as my wife did for me.
Will
Sounds like you got a keeper!
 

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Thank you Will!! Sorry to hear about your loss as well! This is exactly how I feel at the moment. Waiting patiently for years now to get where I am at with the tank and then to watch it all start dying is pretty crushing.

It's hard to look at the ta m right now. I went to look at the tank for the first time tonight around 8 and that was just to feed the fish.

Appreciate the offer man and I will definitely hit you up down the road even if it's to trade corals. This is what reefing is about and I am glad there are hobbyist out there like you Will!
How often are you feeding your fish? Has this changed?
 
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How often are you feeding your fish? Has this changed?

Not really. I usually feed about 4 times a day of pellets. Usually try to throw frozen in daily or every other day and I feed a cube of dried black worms every other day.
 

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Not really. I usually feed about 4 times a day of pellets. Usually try to throw frozen in daily or every other day and I feed a cube of dried black worms every other day.
That's good. I still tend to think the Vibrant/Fluconazole threw something out of whack but good to check everything off of the list of potential culprits.
 
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That's good. I still tend to think the Vibrant/Fluconazole threw something out of whack but good to check everything off of the list of potential culprits.
I was also broadcast feeding the corals as well. It was a slurry I made up and would feed every couple days. It consisted of Reef Roids, Benereef, and Brightwells small coral snow.

To come to think of it, this could have been a big contributor as well. I noticed when feeding that some pieces would throw out Mesenterial Filaments. I thought it was a feeding responce but now it could have been an aggression response instead.

I did test PO4 occasionally the day after and it wouldn't raise my PO4 that much. Usually .10 at the most.

However, I haven't done this for 2 or so weeks and I plan on stopping now.
 
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Reefltx

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Sounds good. I think I have a Redsea potassium kit. If not then I will get the Salifert one. Do you have a recommendation for a kit?

I use Salifert, it's easy to read and accurate enough.
 
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Well, I think I found an issue also tonight.

Decided to test for voltage tonight because as I sit here driving myself mad thinking of everything that has happened over the last couple of months and it hit me.

This is crazy I know. Sometimes when I was on my step stool next to the tank with the canopy open I would sometimes brush my forehead or arm across the edge of the T5 lamp reflectors. It would give me what felt like a slight shock. I thought there might be a grounding issue but stopped thinking about it once I would look at the ballasts and see the ground wire plugged in.

SMH!!! I can't believe I would let myself go this long without even testing why that happened. My company does nothing but low voltage systems. I am kicking myself right now.

I pulled out my meter and went to test. I raised the canopy and what did this dummy find? My ground probe out of the tank and sitting on my overflow cover. And when did I remove this? I removed it the same time I raised my T5 lights up to their permanent location. I had them mounted temporarily for a couple of weeks before moving them.

When I went to move the lights up I dropped a screw in the tank. I had to dismantle my rockwork to get the screw out. When taking the rocks out I moved the probe out of the tank and up onto the overflow lid. I never put it back.... SMH

I tested with both probes in the water and nothing. Also tested with one lead in the water and one to the ground probe and got nothing again. However, when touching the light reflectors to water I was getting 35-40v AC. I got the same thing to the ground probe. Could just be the meter capacitance but also could be the tank as well.

I threw the ground probe back into the tank immediately.

Might not amount to anything but it could also be something that happened during this time that upset the corals. Can add it to the list.
 
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Perry

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Hey buddy,
I am truly sorry to hear about your coral losses! I totally understand and know the frustration when things go south. Seems quite a bit is going on with the reef, and sometimes it's better to go back to basics to get your confidence back. Maybe some good ole water changes, skimmer, and fish feeding. Corals may brown out or color down, but in time can heal and even re-grow on dead skeleton. Sometimes the solution to fix something is worse than the problem. I would lean on algae killers and limited p04 and possibly starvation, but either way, what's done is done. Back to Berlin style basics is what I would do my friend. All the best in the recovery process :)
 

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