Rainbow Montipora

[pumarjr]

I'm worried that i'm loosing my Rainbow Montipora for no obvious reasons. Religious husbandry is performed on my tank weekly, 10% w/c's using E.S.V's 4 part. All levels checked using in date Salifert test kits, i'm just scratching my shaved head on this, I have added new Radion lighting vs. my old sunbrite led lighting, So I went from 1w to 3w chips. those are dialed down to a peak of 25% throughout the day, 12hr photo period with only about 2 hours at 25%, then it ramps back down slowly. just kinda lost on this. I feed eod, pellets in between wet feedings.

Cal 450
Mg 1400
Alk 10dkh
sal 1.026
temp 78
nitrates 0
nitrites 0
ammonia 0
phos 0(allegedly) waiting for my hanna tester to know for sure
Any ideas are welcomed.

Current Shot of it

Previous images, this one is about 1 month old, just added the radions in this shot

This one is under my Sunbrite lighting and when I had just got it about 5 months ago

 

[xcorallusx]

I would try moving it away from that bubbgle algae and LPS to the right, could be stinging it.

 

[swannyson7]

+1. Looks like it's getting stung by the Duncan (I think) to the right of it.

 

[pumarjr]

ok, relocated the Duncan and also removed the bubble algae.

 

[Braves Fan]

Keep us updated on this, I would like to know how this turns out.

 

[pumarjr]

The Hanna Phos meter came in today, tested for phosphates and the results were 0.13. things just do not add up. I have a few small patches, about a dime in size of gha, so if my tank does not have high phosphates then what the heck. I may also have some stray voltage, when I got close to my tanks water it discharged a small electric shock to my finger, only upon initial contact and less than the power of a grill igniter.

 

[pumarjr]

I just finished reading an article, concentrations greater than 0.1 can cause sensitive corals to become unhealthy, so at 0.13, my tank is unfit. gonna change that somehow.
I just tested my r/o reservoir, the reading was 0.0. I've turned off my cal reactor, stopped dosing and shunted my kalk drip. Going to attempt to isolate the phos factory. Also going to rinse my brine before I add it to the tank from no on. i'm actually about to thaw one cube of hikari brine in 50ml solution of tank water and then take a reading of phosphates. pretty sure that they are going to be high. above 2.5

 

[Thatgrimguy]

I just finished reading an article, concentrations greater than 0.1 can cause sensitive corals to become unhealthy, so at 0.13, my tank is unfit. gonna change that somehow.
I just tested my r/o reservoir, the reading was 0.0. I've turned off my cal reactor, stopped dosing and shunted my kalk drip. Going to attempt to isolate the phos factory. Also going to rinse my brine before I add it to the tank from no on. i'm actually about to thaw one cube of hikari brine in 50ml solution of tank water and then take a reading of phosphates. pretty sure that they are going to be high. above 2.5

Run some GFO and that'll mop up the Phosphate pretty quickly. Rinsing your food won't really help, but all foods contain significant phosphate and it is definitely the main source. But short of feeding less or focusing on store both homemade foods you really aren't going to be able to make a huge difference. Running GFO will take care of it though and that's pretty straight forward.

For a great resource on phosphate in our aquariums, Randy Holmes Farley wrote this recently.
Aquarium Chemistry: Phosphate And Math: Yes You Need To Understand Both — Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog

 

[pumarjr]

Already and have been running gfo for some time now. Just recently added the reactor back. Going to test today.

 

[pumarjr]

One thing I noticed is on my algae scrubber I just installed 2 weeks ago seem to be covered in Dino's. I removed the scrubber last night. I'm wondering now if it's time to clean my sump/fugue and remove the sand from it.

 

[pumarjr]

My phosphates today are at 0.07, going down!!!!:bigsmile:

 

[pumarjr]

Phosphates down to 0.03 today. I cleaned my sump as well.

 

[bobssecrtsn]

wow so the cal reactor was the cuprit?

 

[pumarjr]

Not really sure as I removed too many variables at once. I removed my cal reactor, my bio pellet reactor, stopped my Kalk drip and yesterday I completely removed my sump/fugue and cleaned it for the first time since I set up the tank. I also removed all the sand from the fugue and now run it with chaeto and lr. When I tested for phosphates yesterday, I had already performed the sump cleaning and also started my Kalk drip again. I'll test again today, but more than likely my ca reactor will not be coming back due to just dosing with 2-part.