Slowly losing all of my SPS - please help

gideon2086 · Jul 6, 2022

I can't help but wonder if it's the p04. I'm realizing that I moronically left out that I added a calcium reactor a few months ago. My po4 was ALWAYS in the .03-.05 range. I was shocked when I saw 1.2 - likely driven up by the reactor. I added GFO to my carbon reactor and it has now absolutely tanked my Alk... but the po4 is dropping and my tank "looks" a bit better.. probably a null effect at this point though.

Cali Reef Life · Jul 6, 2022

Heres two really helpful videos! Wish you the best.

wculver · Jul 6, 2022

gideon2086 said:
Not sure what’s going on here. My tank is nearly fully automated and runs a CALrX. The only change is dosing Tropic Marin trace elements after an ICP showed my trace elements were low. One of my largest colonies is nearly completely gone and covered in algae now. It started with paling out and then browning tips. The adjacent coral is started to retract and pale on the tips as well. I’ve lost three other colonies in the last two weeks.
The tank is super stable - 8.5 dkh, 450 calc, 1350 mag, 15 ppm no3, 1.026 sal, 78 degrees.

I did a 60 gallon water change a few days ago and have seen no difference. The LPS in the tank seem to be completely fine.

I’ve been doing this for years, and this is one of the few moments where I’m truly stumped…

I noticed you said you were dosing trace elements and I've run into lots of trouble with this. What I have found for what it's worth:

Thr balling method goes into great detail about everything associated with calcification. I believe at low total dosages it is a great guide. At some point though I have found that things fall apart and the trace elements over dose leading to quick death like you describe.

I've changed my trace elements to 1/2 or in one part 1/10 of the recommended dosage. All the coral are happy, they grow quick, and the color is great.

I will also say if you can correct this quickly perhaps they won't be dead. I have a few SPS that did recover. Picture shows a copper Monti that was very unhappy and dead looking but had recovered and is growing now.

gideon2086 · Jul 6, 2022

wculver said:
I noticed you said you were dosing trace elements and I've run into lots of trouble with this. What I have found for what it's worth:

Thr balling method goes into great detail about everything associated with calcification. I believe at low total dosages it is a great guide. At some point though I have found that things fall apart and the trace elements over dose leading to quick death like you describe.

I've changed my trace elements to 1/2 or in one part 1/10 of the recommended dosage. All the coral are happy, they grow quick, and the color is great.

I will also say if you can correct this quickly perhaps they won't be dead. I have a few SPS that did recover. Picture shows a copper Monti that was very unhappy and dead looking but had recovered and is growing now.

Did you do anything other than a large water change to rectify?

TheDragonsReef · Jul 6, 2022

gideon2086 said:
The only change is dosing Tropic Marin trace elements after an ICP showed my trace elements were low.

What trace elements were low, what did you add and how fast?

Id suspect this to be the most likely culprit if you added them too fast or overdosed.

gideon2086 · Jul 6, 2022

TheDragonsReef said:
What trace elements were low, what did you add and how fast?

Id suspect this to be the most likely culprit if you added them too fast or overdosed.

I dosed tropic marin a and b as per their instructions.

wculver · Jul 6, 2022

gideon2086 said:
Did you do anything other than a large water change to rectify?

I actually stopped dosing all together and did small 10% water changes every couple days for a couple weeks. The death stopped progressing pretty quickly after that but took a few months for them to actually truly recover.

When I started the dosing back up I mixed fresh additives and didn't bother with the trace elements until things started recovering in an attempt to make as few changes as I could.

gideon2086 · Jul 6, 2022

The most recent results. I seriously doubt the accuracy of this test. I bought a Hannah chlorine checker after chlorine popped on the first one - Hannah detects zero chlorine. Furthermore, the second test shows 0 zinc - I’ve been dosing zinc. My FIRST test detected zinc and I wasn’t even dosing it.

dwest · Jul 6, 2022

gideon2086 said:
The most recent results. I seriously doubt the accuracy of this test. I bought a Hannah chlorine checker after chlorine popped on the first one - Hannah detects zero chlorine. Furthermore, the second test shows 0 zinc - I’ve been dosing zinc. My FIRST test detected zinc and I wasn’t even dosing it.

Guessing Hanna measures free cl2 and this result is chloride ion found in seawater.

gideon2086 · Jul 6, 2022

dwest said:
Guessing Hanna measures free cl2 and this result is chloride ion found in seawater.

Is the result shown in the ICP a concern? I do not have a clue how to impact that.

dwest · Jul 6, 2022

gideon2086 said:
Is the result shown in the ICP a concern? I do not have a clue how to impact that.

Don’t know. Based off this information your salinity might be high. Seawater should be about 19,000 ppm chloride and 10,500 ppm sodium. Let’s see if Randy is around.

@Randy Holmes-Farley

SUE - Contents

web.stanford.edu

gideon2086 · Jul 6, 2022

dwest said:
Don’t know. Based off this information your salinity might be high. Seawater should be about 19,000 ppm chloride and 10,500 ppm sodium. Let’s see if Randy is around.

@Randy Holmes-Farley

SUE - Contents

web.stanford.edu

I show 1.026 with a recently calibrated Hannah and a hydrometer

Graffiti Spot · Jul 6, 2022

I would change every single filter on the ro di system including the ro filter. It could have been spoiled by city water chloramine injections? I pray you can save that first coral you posted that’s a stunner. Maybe some updated pics in white light of what’s going on might help? I have seen this type of slow loss and thin flesh with bad ro filters. I try to change them before they need to be changed and change the pre filters before they even change a tiny of color.

gideon2086 · Jul 6, 2022

Graffiti Spot said:
I would change every single filter on the ro di system including the ro filter. It could have been spoiled by city water chloramine injections? I pray you can save that first coral you posted that’s a stunner. Maybe some updated pics in white light of what’s going on might help? I have seen this type of slow loss and thin flesh with bad ro filters. I try to change them before they need to be changed and change the pre filters before they even change a tiny of color.

the new filters arrive tomorrow. I put these in only a few months ago...

ZombieEngineer · Jul 6, 2022

gideon2086 said:
I show 1.026 with a recently calibrated Hannah and a hydrometer

You are definitely skewing high. ICP would indicate you are closer to 40ppt or 1.029 based solely on the NaCl readings.

Did you use sealed non-expired calibration solution? One thing that often trips people up is that the calibration fluid evaporates a little over time and skews calibration such that actual tank salinity is high.

Would be worth mixing your makeup saltwater a touch low (like 1.024) for a while and bring it down a ppt or so over several weeks and see if it helps.

gideon2086 · Jul 6, 2022

ZombieEngineer said:
You are definitely skewing high. ICP would indicate you are closer to 40ppt or 1.029 based solely on the NaCl readings.

Did you use sealed non-expired calibration solution? One thing that often trips people up is that the calibration fluid evaporates a little over time and skews calibration such that actual tank salinity is high.

Would be worth mixing your makeup saltwater a touch low (like 1.024) for a while and bring it down a ppt or so over several weeks and see if it helps.

I used two sealed packs.