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allabarton
Community Member
Thank you, Zack. There is no way back. I already have had a taste of SPSs. Addiction addiction addiction. It is hard to quit. Just hoping my husband would not stop paying for my corals.
Please, help me to figure out what went wrong in my SPS tank
- Thread starter allabarton
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Thank you, Zack. There is no way back. I already have had a taste of SPSs. Addiction addiction addiction. It is hard to quit. Just hoping my husband would not stop paying for my corals.
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allabarton
Community Member
Rydogg, thank you so much for taking your time to write the reply. There is a lot of information for me to think over.
I think you are right: too many corals in a new system.
I need to check the the lights settings.
My problem is when I see something goes wrong I start to do many changes at once.
Also I do think that using Epsom made the matter worse.
As for fish: I have Bellus Angel and Blue Throat Trigger. Don't see them getting to close to the corals. As for tangs they nib algae of the corals' bases.
Thanks again. I really appreciate it.
I think you are right: too many corals in a new system.
I need to check the the lights settings.
My problem is when I see something goes wrong I start to do many changes at once.
Also I do think that using Epsom made the matter worse.
As for fish: I have Bellus Angel and Blue Throat Trigger. Don't see them getting to close to the corals. As for tangs they nib algae of the corals' bases.
Thanks again. I really appreciate it.
tinkerman
Community Member
I would say you started a mini cycle after adding the trigger and the tank hadn't settled back in. The cyno is an imbalance between nitrates and phosphates and allouded the cycno to take hold. I think if you had records of your tests back from nov 10 till now your parms started flucuating from the mini cycle.
To big or to many swings in your water from alk, cal, mag will bring your ballance off for SPS.
Try to be stable as possible in the future.
Did you do the dose test from BRS, so you know how much you dose p/hr with your dosing.
BRS have also the dosers for the two part and I have a lots of succes with the two part.
You know we have a big reef cummunity in Houston called Marsh.
And members can help you out locally.
Try to be stable as possible in the future.
Did you do the dose test from BRS, so you know how much you dose p/hr with your dosing.
BRS have also the dosers for the two part and I have a lots of succes with the two part.
You know we have a big reef cummunity in Houston called Marsh.
And members can help you out locally.
salmon alley
Community Member
How are you measuring your salinity? Do you have a saltwater specific refractometer and if so, is it properly calibrated? If your measuring device is giving you faulty readings, you could be keeping salinity at inappropriate levels.
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allabarton
Community Member
Thank you. Definitely I need to check the Marsh out.
As for dosing: Epsom mix I woul just drip for a few days 1 drop every a few seconds.
And Kalkwasser wixed in RODI is dosed as the water evaporates (Profilux controller with Optical level probe).
I hope it was just too many changes happening at the same time.
Thanks again.
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allabarton
Community Member
I use Sybon Refractometer. Just came back. Recalibrated Refractometer. Sure enough it was off. Instead of usual 1.026 it was 1.023. Is it a big difference for corals? I guess on top of all pareters' swings.
I am going to do some testings after putting my 3 little kids to bed.
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allabarton
Community Member
Here are the parameters for today. And corals looking worse than 3 days ago.
December 28
Alk 148ppm/8.3dKH (Hanna Checker) and 8.4dKH (Red Sea)
Ca 410 ppm (Red Sea)
Mg 1290 (Red Sea)
Ph 8.47 (probe)
Salinity 1.023
I am going to do 9% usual WC trying to bring the salinity up.
December 28
Alk 148ppm/8.3dKH (Hanna Checker) and 8.4dKH (Red Sea)
Ca 410 ppm (Red Sea)
Mg 1290 (Red Sea)
Ph 8.47 (probe)
Salinity 1.023
I am going to do 9% usual WC trying to bring the salinity up.
att
New Member
Only bad things happen fast in this hobby, just slow down a little bit. Your tank is barely 4 months old, give it time to mature on its own, especially before adding sps. Its better to just add a frag or 2 at a time, then wait and see how everything responds to your tank. Patience, Patience
tinkerman
Community Member
If you lok back to you post #12 you can see your swings in the parms or from dec 23 till now. I still think its a new tank you added a bigger fish and your system is tring to catch up it bio filter. I would do your water change add don't mess with anything and let tank stabilize. The salinity being low will mess with your ca,alk,and mg readings. The higher your salinity the higher you can keep ca, alk, mg. The 1.023 salinity will have a max you can keep ca, alk, and mg at then stuff just precipitates out. Did you acclamate the sps to your lights? It looks like you put them in and glued them where you wanted them. If you place the sps on the sand and in a low flow area it might help slow down the tissue loss. For bringing your salinity up I would add a gal of saltwater a day to the tank till you get the salinity you want. I still see tissue in all the photo's you posted so they arn't dead yet.
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allabarton
Community Member
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allabarton
Community Member
Saturday December 29
Raising salinity by evaporating.
Dosing Baking Soda 3 teaspoons mixed in 2 cups of RODI to keep Alk up since not using ATO with Kalkwasser.
Alk 139ppm/7.8dKH @ 10:30am
Alk 142ppm/7.9dKH @ 2:30pm
Alk 141ppm/7.9dKH @ 9:00pm
Ph 8.28 @ 2:30pm
Ph 8.30 @ 6:00pm
Ph 8:30 @ 9:00pm
Salinity 1.024 @ noon
Oyster Feast started 1 teaspoon.
Amino Acids started 20 ml.
Phosphate 0.00 ppm
Definitely I see some improvements in corals: more PE, brighter color, color coming back on brown ones. Could that be so soon? I am scared to go to bed and wake up to even more upset corals. I am going to stay up as long as I can to check Salinity, Alk, Ph.
Raising salinity by evaporating.
Dosing Baking Soda 3 teaspoons mixed in 2 cups of RODI to keep Alk up since not using ATO with Kalkwasser.
Alk 139ppm/7.8dKH @ 10:30am
Alk 142ppm/7.9dKH @ 2:30pm
Alk 141ppm/7.9dKH @ 9:00pm
Ph 8.28 @ 2:30pm
Ph 8.30 @ 6:00pm
Ph 8:30 @ 9:00pm
Salinity 1.024 @ noon
Oyster Feast started 1 teaspoon.
Amino Acids started 20 ml.
Phosphate 0.00 ppm
Definitely I see some improvements in corals: more PE, brighter color, color coming back on brown ones. Could that be so soon? I am scared to go to bed and wake up to even more upset corals. I am going to stay up as long as I can to check Salinity, Alk, Ph.
I would think its a combination of things that may have caused the demise but going forward if you are really going to want to keep the colored sticks, IMO I would invest in a calcium reactor and a controller or a 2 part doser.
I prefer Ca reactors but thats an opinionated topic. I am leaning more towards the swings in your KH than anything else-SPS dont like swings and every time I see an acro dying from the base up I would frag the acro just above the dead spot, the times I did not that piece just continued to die-I dont even mess around with that anymore, if I see that happening the fragging tools come out.
PH is also something I would not "chase" for that perfect number, my PH drops at night to about 7.7 and only gets to about 7.95 during the day-granted once the weather changes and I get fresh air in the room it will change to a low of 7.85 and daytime high of 8.2 maybe.
Like i mentioned, if I had to choose 1 thing I would have said it was the KH swing, calcium swings and mag swings wont kill SPS, but they wont tolerate swings in Alk.
I'm not sure if I missed why your SG is so low, 1.023 is fish only, IMO you need to get to 1.026 and soon-you can do that in 2 days, again IMO
Sorry to read about your loss, I have over 80 different acros in my display and I could not imagine something that terrible.
Good luck going forward ( and get that reactor or doser -you'll be GLAD you did)
I prefer Ca reactors but thats an opinionated topic. I am leaning more towards the swings in your KH than anything else-SPS dont like swings and every time I see an acro dying from the base up I would frag the acro just above the dead spot, the times I did not that piece just continued to die-I dont even mess around with that anymore, if I see that happening the fragging tools come out.
PH is also something I would not "chase" for that perfect number, my PH drops at night to about 7.7 and only gets to about 7.95 during the day-granted once the weather changes and I get fresh air in the room it will change to a low of 7.85 and daytime high of 8.2 maybe.
Like i mentioned, if I had to choose 1 thing I would have said it was the KH swing, calcium swings and mag swings wont kill SPS, but they wont tolerate swings in Alk.
I'm not sure if I missed why your SG is so low, 1.023 is fish only, IMO you need to get to 1.026 and soon-you can do that in 2 days, again IMO
Sorry to read about your loss, I have over 80 different acros in my display and I could not imagine something that terrible.
Good luck going forward ( and get that reactor or doser -you'll be GLAD you did)
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