Smite's Stout CDA - 205g Acropora dominant system 50x38x25"

[Smite]

Why is your phosphates low? Do you not have fish in your tanks

I do have a decent amount of fish and feed 2-4 times a day.

I don't mind the level being on the low side in all honesty. For the majority of my 120 uns tank's life it wouldn't register on my hanna LR phosphate kit but I fed so much, things were very happy. I know that's somewhat against the norm for most modern acropora keepers but a few times last year I tried to chase those nutrient numbers (keep them detectable) and felt like I was causing more harm than good.

I'm attempting to keep it stable and detectable now until I find a cause of what's going on. I don't use any rowa or other phosphate removal media so even when it bottoms I don't think the coral is truly being deprived all that much.

 

[Smite]

ICP results are in. Elevated Tin reading. A buddy pointed out that this could be from not washing the aquarium out thoroughly before initial start up.

This is a first for having any copper readings for me too. It's in the green but I've just never seen that before, a little worrisome. Zinc is elevated as well, I haven't done anything as far as dosing that.

I'm going to get some triton detox I guess, maybe cuprisorb and see if I can't get these numbers back on track. I'll probably also start with another 40g water change. I'm not sure what level Tin starts to affect things, but that seems very high.

I'm surprised bromine is so low already as well.

 

[Smite]

 

[VanDalsenReef]

I had that a long time ago and actually was experiencing the same things. I ended up losing all my sps but that was my fault and it was rtn. Not stn. I used cuprisorb and it worked fantastically. Took away all the heavy metals and my new acros have been taking off ever since.

 

[Smite]

I had that a long time ago and actually was experiencing the same things. I ended up losing all my sps but that was my fault and it was rtn. Not stn. I used cuprisorb and it worked fantastically. Took away all the heavy metals and my new acros have been taking off ever since.

I've had a mixed bag of TN so far from it. So did the cuprisorb remove the tin as well? I was surprised my LFS has a huge amount of dry goods but didn't stock it. I may run over to the local petco and see if they have any I can grab.

 

[VanDalsenReef]

I've had a mixed bag of TN so far from it. So did the cuprisorb remove the tin as well? I was surprised my LFS has a huge amount of dry goods but didn't stock it. I may run over to the local petco and see if they have any I can grab.

Yes it did. All of it. I just run so often here and there. It's safe anyway so might as well

 

[KevinC]

any idea of the par level with a 250w radium over your 25” tank?

 

[Smite]

any idea of the par level with a 250w radium over your 25” tank?

Sorry I didn't have the par meter when I mocked the MH pendants up. I used some cheap iphone app but I'd only trust that to tell me how even it spread, which seemed very even. It was visually as bright as my current ATI setup, I'd wager it was pretty close to the same values @ 14k spectrum.

 

[VanDalsenReef]

I've had a mixed bag of TN so far from it. So did the cuprisorb remove the tin as well? I was surprised my LFS has a huge amount of dry goods but didn't stock it. I may run over to the local petco and see if they have any I can grab.

There are other products that are supposed to work well. I've heard of the triton one but have no experience or heard of anyone using it. I'm sure it works very well though

 

[Smite]

Completed a 20g water change today. I plan to do that over the next 10 days or so. Then I'll wait a week and send out another ICP to see where the pollutants are at.

I took a few blue pictures with my phone during the WC. Here are some my MVP for putting up with the metals in the system.

So the pieces that have started to TN have a base color like that millepora is showing top left a brown-grey color. Hopefully this one pulls through as it was super nice wild piece I've been growing for a while now. BC Bubblebath Unicorn center

 

[Smite]

Well unfortunately I'm still losing acropora over here. I ran Detox followed by cuprisorb and sent out an ICP. Results came back with slightly higher tin and copper. I've gone through everything in the tank at this point that has a magnet or anything metal/light and haven't found a cause yet. Cleaned my mixing bin and checked my mixing pump all clean, no rust.

I'm going to continue water changes until I go through this 175g of neomarine. I'm still running cuprisorb and GAC. I installed some polyfilters too. I also got in brightwell's Purit that I'll be trying when it comes time to swap my cuprisorb. I'm starting to suspect my rock is the issue but not 100% sure yet.


A fellow reefer needed to rehome a orange back fairy wrasse that was getting aggressive with a wrasse in his tank. He's currently in acclimation to see how the tank reacts to him. BIG boy so hopefully he plays nice.


On the plus my gigantea continues to improve and gain solid color. I'll get some pictures up here soon.

 

[VanDalsenReef]

Check your pumps. They can sometimes Crack on the magnetic motor

 

[VanDalsenReef]

Heater connection as well. It the chord is loose it's just a copper bank

 

[Smite]

The only pump left to check on my system is my Calcium Reactor sicce 1.5. I need to break the whole thing down and go over it thoroughly including the check valve to make sure water isn't making contact with the regulator.

I checked my heaters. Look dry inside (clear jagers) and I didn't see any signs of corrosion.
I pulled all my tunze and wave box apart and they all checked out.
I pulled the skimmer pump apart and that is new looking.
I inspected my UV and confirmed with PO that it was never used in QT but a reef only.
I removed my frag rack, the magnet looks fine but I'm going to break it open just to see the magnet and rule that out completely since it was a no name brand from the LFS.
I swapped the return pump back to my m1 and that looked new.
Pulled my algae reactor apart and checked all components/light.
I've visually inspected my ATI and kessils but I plan to pull the kessils apart and make sure nothing is rusted internally and blowing into the tank.
I checked my overflow to make sure nothing dropped in there.
My sumps pretty empty and white, I see nothing in there (although I did find my watchman goby who I thought had been a goner sometime since November.)
I siphoned my sand, actually removed about 1/2 of it so I have a 1" bed now. I didn't see anything in the sand I removed and took a magnet over the sand bed but nothing came up.
I don't keep my glass cleaner/scraper in the tank. it visually appears fine no swelling ect. I may just replace it to be safe.
No rust in the stand and no hinges, magnets are all coated. Under tank lights look fine.

The big mystery that I don't have an answer for is the rock I used to scape. It was sourced from multiple places/ buddies who had it left over from builds ect. It's lurking in the back of my mind that the rock itself could be the culprit but I'm not there yet.

 

[drawman]

Following!

 

[Smite]

Following!

Nice, hopefully just in time for the turn around comeback Spent most the day on my reef but still have come up short on a heavy metal culprit. I'm pulling the CARX right now to inspect everything on and in there.

 

[Smite]

I'm not sure if this was a contributing factor or not on my CARX setup. The sicce 1.5 shaft is normally all the same diameter and does not step down. So this has worn down to that point. I'm assuming this enters the water column but not sure if that would contribute to my tin and copper. I see no rust.

Overall the calcium reactor chamber appears very discolored too. This is my first time running ARM media, I'm not sure if that is just how it melts down or what?

It's odd enough to where I'm going to revive and set up an old bubble magus doser and just use ESV two part for a while so I can see if there are any improvements over the next few weeks.

 

[Janci]

The calcium reactor media does not look too good in that chamber. Never saw such a brown dusty melt.
Did you check/test your rodi water as well?

 

[Smite]

The calcium reactor media does not look too good in that chamber. Never saw such a brown dusty melt.
Did you check/test your rodi water as well?

It does seem like a really strange color.

ATI does run a RODI sample with each test. IT had a very small amount of zinc. That's even after swapping di resins which seemed odd. I'll have to see what the next one says.

I saw a much more stable ph in the display after pulling the reactor last night. It dipped from 8.18 to 7.97. It now has reached 8.23.

Corals look about the same. I'm going to give the cuprisorb another day, then I'll be pulling that and running metasorb.

I've noticed my phosphates aren't registering on my hanna LR phosphate kit, I'm guessing that is due to all the media I've been running.

 

[Smite]