So I had a bad Alk problem at the beginning of the year in my 90 gallon. I noticed that some of my SPS were starting to bleach and lose color and such. Some were bleaching from the tips down and others were bleaching from the bottoms up. I tested everything and it all seemed good, well not good, my calcium and mag were off the charts, so I was way confused. Then I thought to myself hey maybe my test is bad. Bought a new ALK test kit and turned out instead of 11 dkh i was sitting at around 13-14.
I stopped dosing everything and let them fall gradually to good levels. My problem now though is I just can't seem to keep on top of it and get it to a normal range. I tested last night and my ALK is at 10. I'd like to get it around 9 if I could. Buy my calcium and mag never seem happy, I dose probably twice a week and they are still low at water change day on Sunday. So I started 3 times a week and still low. Well for the first time since January they seem ok. I tested Sunday night and levels were Cal 450, Mag was still a bit low at 1350 and Alk was at 11. I've been testing Alk every day and yesterday like I said above it dropped down to 10. I just can't seem to be on top of it like it was for almost 2 years before this problem happened.
I'm starting to feel like it's a lost cause because on a daily basis now I'm seeing a new colony starting to STN/RTN and nothing I'm doing seems to help. My 3 healthiest colonies(Walt Disney, Last Dragon, and Strawberry Shortcake) are doing great. I even dropped Ap X on my Shortcake and it is recovering and regrowing the area that bleached. They are also my most expensive so hopefully they don't start haha.
I just don't know if there is something that I'm missing. Some of my LPS are struggling as well, but most are doing great. I did lose a purple tipped torch coral but most others are doing great. And my softies are rocking the tank. I've got a MP-10 in the middle of my tank running on reef crest mode and one other mode at half power and I've got a Jebao Wp-40 on the other side at the top on Eclipse mode at half speed. I've been curious if that isn't enough flow, but when I put my other Wp-40 on the other side of the tank stuff blows around like crazy so I don't know. I've got Kessil 360 lights on the tank and I took the top off in March so instead of the lights being 4 inches off the water they are probably around 10, don't know if that would effect anything. Sorry for the long post, I'm just at a loss right now, I hate going home and seeing new things dying on me.
Thanks for letting me vent a bit and thanks for any tips as well!
I stopped dosing everything and let them fall gradually to good levels. My problem now though is I just can't seem to keep on top of it and get it to a normal range. I tested last night and my ALK is at 10. I'd like to get it around 9 if I could. Buy my calcium and mag never seem happy, I dose probably twice a week and they are still low at water change day on Sunday. So I started 3 times a week and still low. Well for the first time since January they seem ok. I tested Sunday night and levels were Cal 450, Mag was still a bit low at 1350 and Alk was at 11. I've been testing Alk every day and yesterday like I said above it dropped down to 10. I just can't seem to be on top of it like it was for almost 2 years before this problem happened.
I'm starting to feel like it's a lost cause because on a daily basis now I'm seeing a new colony starting to STN/RTN and nothing I'm doing seems to help. My 3 healthiest colonies(Walt Disney, Last Dragon, and Strawberry Shortcake) are doing great. I even dropped Ap X on my Shortcake and it is recovering and regrowing the area that bleached. They are also my most expensive so hopefully they don't start haha.
I just don't know if there is something that I'm missing. Some of my LPS are struggling as well, but most are doing great. I did lose a purple tipped torch coral but most others are doing great. And my softies are rocking the tank. I've got a MP-10 in the middle of my tank running on reef crest mode and one other mode at half power and I've got a Jebao Wp-40 on the other side at the top on Eclipse mode at half speed. I've been curious if that isn't enough flow, but when I put my other Wp-40 on the other side of the tank stuff blows around like crazy so I don't know. I've got Kessil 360 lights on the tank and I took the top off in March so instead of the lights being 4 inches off the water they are probably around 10, don't know if that would effect anything. Sorry for the long post, I'm just at a loss right now, I hate going home and seeing new things dying on me.
Thanks for letting me vent a bit and thanks for any tips as well!