SPS crashing

[Chad_P]

I started carbon dosing and adjusting phosphates over the past month or two as my NO3 have been between 25-50ppm and PO4 around .1-.2. However, within the last two weeks I’m literally losing SPS daily. These are all frags and some I’ve had for months.

Is carbon dosing my issue? NO3 is still locked on 25ppm while dosing 50ml of vinegar/day. My phosphates did bounce around a little bit between .02 and as high as .4 with GFO. But for the past 2 weeks PO4 has been between .02 and .1.

I’m going to stay the course with carbon dosing since I’d like to get NO3 down and get back to mostly SPS. Just frustrating seeing a new frag each day RTN. I have 1 gig, haddoni and a mag anemone that are all doing well. The few LPS that I have are fine as well.

Alk has swung a bit between 7.5 and 8.5 but I have tried to keep any swing less than 1 dkh.

Is it my swings in alk and/or PO4? I’m guessing that’s it, or I’ve got some bacteria in there that’s going after acros.

Or I just quit chasing numbers messing with NO3 and PO4 and let it ride. Didn’t have issues but I could grow SPS before all this.

Also, I have an ICP test on the way to see if something else is going on.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Quit poking it imo.
Stop the dosing. Something is clearly not right.

How are you maintaining the alk n cal ?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

How did the sps look before the carbon dosing and gfo?

 

[Chad_P]

How did the sps look before the carbon dosing and gfo?

They looked fine, coloration wasn’t great but saw growth. Kicking myself for chasing numbers now.

 

[Chad_P]

Quit poking it imo.
Stop the dosing. Something is clearly not right.

How are you maintaining the alk n cal ?

Maintains alk and ca through 2 part, BRS. Using a Dos to add. 100ml of CA and 75ml of Alk per day.

 

[marvelousone]

Might be you are dropping no3 to fast and is the alk swing of 1.0 in a day. I just started carbon dosing and I am doing it slow. I went from no3 at 25 to 2 in about 3 weeks. Did not effect corals at all.

 

[Chad_P]

Just unplugged my doser for the vinegar. Done messing with this going to just manage PO4 when needed and manage NO3 through water changes and skimming. Too many headaches between trying this and NoPox.

 

[zack801]

I had the exact same thing happen when I started chasing number with nitrates/phosphates. I started dosing nopox and both dropped fairly rapidly and things started rtn’ingz
Did things not look ok before you started carbon dosing? Sps need stability.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

They looked fine, coloration wasn’t great but saw growth. Kicking myself for chasing numbers now.

I did the same thing. Wasted a bunch of money. I should of put it all on the Rams. Hey Ohhhh!!!!!

Too Soon???

I think we all see these beautiful/colorful acro frags and expect them to look like that when they start growing, but those frags were the tips, the most vibrantly colored part. That’s going to transition to its base for awhile until new branches and tips start to grow, which takes a loooooong time. So what do we do??? We freak the $&@? out. We start asking, “why are my acros brown, why are my acros colors changing” etc. Then our community answers
“Your po4 is too high, you should run gfo, dose vodka, run your skimmer wet” blah, blah, blah

Do I need to continue this long winded rant or do you see where I’m going?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Just unplugged my doser for the vinegar. Done messing with this going to just manage PO4 when needed and manage NO3 through water changes and skimming. Too many headaches between trying this and NoPox.

I think that’s a good idea

 

[Chad_P]

I had the exact same thing happen when I started chasing number with nitrates/phosphates. I started dosing nopox and both dropped fairly rapidly and things started rtn’ingz
Did things not look ok before you started carbon dosing? Sps need stability.

Things were ok, I had growth just not the coloration. Keep in mind these were all frags i started chasing numbers and that’s when things went to hell. Lost my stability.

 

[Alfrareef]

As per my personal experience the PO4 swing should be the main culprit and some times the “effect” takes some time to appear. Sps need stability and it’s not a 1-2 weeks stability, it’s lot more for them to thrive.
Of course we all had corals that have sustained instability and they are ok or even full recovery, but for me that’s the exception... and takes time.

 

[Chad_P]

I had a thought and maybe it’s nothing. I’m using reflective tape on my top brace all around the top to protect from my MH light and heat. It’s made out of 1 mil aluminized material.

Any chance that’s leaching in my water? It gets wet and I slide my cover over it.