Parameters out of wack and tank is failing

[Rick.45cal]

what should my nect step be?

So stop dosing the aquavitro eight.four. You need to let your corals slowly take up the excess alkalinity and calcium, and like Uncle99 said reduce your water changes to 10% weekly which will help bring your alkalinity and calcium back in line. Slow is the name of the game in reefing and when you think you are doing things slowly slow down even more.

Testing your saltwater before you do waterchanges is a must. If it has really high alkalinity and calcium levels than it isn’t helping to change water. If you need to switch to a salt that has much lower levels of alkalinity and calcium then that will help you tremendously. (Red Sea in the blue bucket, has much lower levels than your tank currently does as an example). I also wouldn’t be overly concerned with the NO3 levels and I would closely watch the PO4 levels and bring them slowly down, doing it too fast with GFO will do bad things to your corals. So be careful .

 

[MACHO]

You have a nice tank man.....but.......
You need to be able to test weekly.....
Salinity, temp, nitrate, phosphate, CA, MG, ALk and record them every week to ensure stability.

so for now i should say test

Okay, can you get a picture of the yellow?

And Yes, don't add buffers for pH. It's most likely why your calcium and alkalinity is wack.

probably not the yellow he stays in the rockwork and my lights are about to go out

 

[MACHO]

So stop dosing the aquavitro eight.four. You need to let your corals slowly take up the excess alkalinity and calcium, and like Uncle99 said reduce your water changes to 10% weekly which will help bring your alkalinity and calcium back in line. Slow is the name of the game in reefing and when you think you are doing things slowly slow down even more.

Testing your saltwater before you do waterchanges is a must. If it has really high alkalinity and calcium levels than it isn’t helping to change water. If you need to switch to a salt that has much lower levels of alkalinity and calcium then that will help you tremendously. (Red Sea in the blue bucket, has much lower levels than your tank currently does as an example). I also wouldn’t be overly concerned with the NO3 levels and I would closely watch the PO4 levels and bring them slowly down, doing it too fast with GFO will do bad things to your corals. So be careful .

oh god i heard good things from fritz and now im gonna have to buy a different salt I was using salinity before and just recently switched to fritz

 

[Rick.45cal]

I’d throw the aquavitro eight.four in the trash, you won’t need it anymore

 

[Rick.45cal]

oh god i heard good things from fritz and now im gonna have to buy a different salt I was using salinity before and just recently switched to fritz

Test the water made with it first and see, if it has really high alkalinity and really high calcium set it aside and use it later when you need to add those things, it doesn’t have to go to waste

 

[MACHO]

Yup 10% weekly
Large amounts do not reduce nutrients much, but likely create instability

okay ill do a 10% water change every week then and see where that goes

 

[MACHO]

Test the water made with it first and see, if it has really high alkalinity and really high calcium set it aside and use it later when you need to add those things, it doesn’t have to go to waste

woudnt my acros and stuff like the high calcium and dkh as well as my green star polyps i thought they were easy but my harder corals like my toadstool or gorgonian is open and not the gsp or acros

 

[MACHO]

Yup 10% weekly
Large amounts do not reduce nutrients much.
Your load in terms fish does not seem heavy, so I have some concerns on your biological process.
Nopox, ( or other carbon source) when used as directed will reduce Nitrates by increasing your export bacteria. It not that far out of whack in a softies tank.

what do you mean by my biological process

 

[Rick.45cal]

woudnt my acros and stuff like the high calcium and dkh as well as my green star polyps i thought they were easy but my harder corals like my toadstool or gorgonian is open and not the gsp or acros

Ideally the acros want to be between 7 and 8 dKH, though you can get away with higher alkalinities. However alkalinity of 14+ and skyhigh calcium levels probably aren’t making them happy.

 

[MACHO]

Ideally the acros want to be between 7 and 8 dKH, though you can get away with higher alkalinities. However alkalinity of 14+ and skyhigh calcium levels probably aren’t making them happy.

even the gsp?

 

[Rick.45cal]

even the gsp?

Corals tend to prefer natural seawater conditions which is about 7.5 dKH. Anything drastically outside of that isn‘t doing them any favors, but they also really don‘t like big rapid changes in alkalinity, especially acropora, it can result in them looking like a popped baloon on their skeleton. It’s why it’s important to make the changes slowly, it may also be why they are unhappy now, big swings upwards (because of the buffers) may have angered them.

 

[Uncle99]

Your live rock and other hard surfaces have bacteria which builds over time and is a primary source of the nitrogen process. The more the bacteria, the more you can export out of the tank.

So foods, poop, pee go in the water, breakdown to ammonia, which is converted to nitrite, which is converted to nitrate, which leaves the tank as nitrogen gas.....”the nitrogen cycle” ( or as I call it the export cycle)

 

[GoVols]

I would not chase pH, especially by adding buffers!

That why his alk is so high too, and Seachem (Aquavitro) uses a ton of borate.

It throws off most test kits, except Seachem's.

 

[MACHO]

Your live rock and other hard surfaces have bacteria which builds over time and is a primary source of the nitrogen process. The more the bacteria, the more you can export out of the tank.

So foods, poop, pee go in the water, breakdown to ammonia, which is converted to nitrite, which is converted to nitrate, which leaves the tank as nitrogen gas.....”the nitrogen cycle” ( or as I call it the export cycle)

oh sorry i blanked the tank has been established for a while so idk what could be going on with the nitrogen and the other parameters

 

[MACHO]

Corals tend to prefer natural seawater conditions which is about 7.5 dKH. Anything drastically outside of that isn‘t doing them any favors, but they also really don‘t like big rapid changes in alkalinity, especially acropora, it can result in them looking like a popped baloon on their skeleton. It’s why it’s important to make the changes slowly, it may also be why they are unhappy now, big swings upwards (because of the buffers) may have angered them.

i just stopped dosing the aqua vitro what salt do you recommend to get the parameters to the right area? can you send an amazon link or something lol

 

[Rick.45cal]

So if I was in your situation I would probably choose ”Red Sea Salt” just make sure you get the one That comes in a blue bucket. That’s assuming your Fritz doesn’t test out to having an alkalinity of between 7-8 dKH, I would try mixing up a batch and testing it first, if it comes out with an alkalinity around there then you don’t need a different salt.

here’s the salt on Bulk Reef Supply’s website Red Sea Salt, I’m sure amazon has it but everytime I open amazon it goes straight to the app which won‘t let me link to it. There are other salt mixes that are close to natural seawater parameters, this just happens to be the one that I know personally is usually very close all the time.

 

[Crustaceon]

This is what I would do in your situation:

Stop dosing things for now and never look at your PH again. I wouldn’t stress out even with a ph of 8 and if you’re using a skimmer or a refugium and have good water flow in the display, odds are your ph is perfectly fine.

Do a 10% water change once per week and when you do, make sure to siphon the crud out of your sandbed, clean the sump and change the filter sock out for a fresh one.

That’s it.

Do this for a month and I’ll bet things will drastically improve in your system.

 

[MACHO]

This is what I would do in your situation:

Stop dosing things for now and never look at your PH again. I wouldn’t stress out even with a ph of 8 and if you’re using a skimmer or a refugium and have good water flow in the display, odds are your ph is perfectly fine.

Do a 10% water change once per week and when you do, make sure to siphon the crud out of your sandbed, clean the sump and change the filter sock out for a fresh one.

That’s it.

Do this for a month and I’ll bet things will drastically improve in your system.

okay thats my plan for now

 

[MACHO]

So if I was in your situation I would probably choose ”Red Sea Salt” just make sure you get the one That comes in a blue bucket. That’s assuming your Fritz doesn’t test out to having an alkalinity of between 7-8 dKH, I would try mixing up a batch and testing it first, if it comes out with an alkalinity around there then you don’t need a different salt.

here’s the salt on Bulk Reef Supply’s website Red Sea Salt, I’m sure amazon has it but everytime I open amazon it goes straight to the app which won‘t let me link to it. There are other salt mixes that are close to natural seawater parameters, this just happens to be the one that I know personally is usually very close all the time.

is it a problem for there to still be water in the bottom of the barrel when ive done my water change?

 

[Uncle99]

Seems to me there’s a lot of stuff going on.
When all parameters are in range and stable, everthing will come into balance.

May I suggest the following targets to achieve and maintain and this can only be done through testing regularly.

Salinity 1.025-1.026
Temp 78-79
Nitrate 2-10ppm
Phosphate 0.03-.2
Alk 8-8.5 dkh
Ca 420-440 ppm
Mg 1300-1360 ppm

When any one of these is off, things get nasty.
Find a salt which is as close as possible.
Make sure you tumble the dry salt mix.
Make a small batch with your 0 TDS RODI water and use your tests to ensure all are in range.
Record these numbers on a worksheet as the target parameters.
Do a 10% water change every week....no misses for now
Retest weekly at the same time and record your findings.
Hopefully, each time you test, you should be getting closer to the target parameters.
If not, retest ones which are not going in the correct dir3ction to ensure not a testing error.
If something shows up or is constantly going in the wrong direction.....post for us to look at.

Stay safe