Tank Going Downhill

[Waffen06]

Sorry about your nem.
Generally, a zero NO3 result is not good. The exception would be if there is a lot of food consistently moving through the system with a lot of uptake & processing going on. Or if there was a ton of algae.

Do you have a Hanna for testing phosphates/phosphorus?

Do not only a salifert phosphate kit. Theres some algae but not a ton. Dont think theres enough to absorb it all.
Dont know what to do, one suggestion is I need to remove excess with a blackout and not add any extra food (coral food) but with 0 nitrates maybe I need to raise them by feeding more?

 

[ScottB]

Do not only a salifert phosphate kit. Theres some algae but not a ton. Dont think theres enough to absorb it all.
Dont know what to do, one suggestion is I need to remove excess with a blackout and not add any extra food (coral food) but with 0 nitrates maybe I need to raise them by feeding more?

A salifert PO4 test of zero would not panic me, but a zero on Hanna would have me hitting the Phosphate additives pretty hard. You are obviously into the hobby so I would recommend saving up for a Hanna ULR.

As to Vibrant, I have soured on that for use against bubble algae. It is not worth the risks that come with Vibrant IMO. Just attach a pointy stick to a siphon hose and suck them into a sock.

What is the blackout supposed to accomplish for you? I missed that part. I have done blackouts against dinoflagellates before but that is all.
Personally, I run heavy in and heavy out just feeding fish.

 

[KrisReef]

Would it have been better if it changed from after my water change yesterday?

I would have expected dKh to increase after the water change, going up slightly with the new water, but I was commenting more on the loss of life than the parameters/stability.

 

[Waffen06]

I would have expected dKh to increase after the water change, going up slightly with the new water, but I was commenting more on the loss of life than the parameters/stability.

It did increase from before the water change to today after the change

 

[Waffen06]

So to sum everything up alk is now up from 5.6 to 7.3 after the water change. Salinity is also up to 1.025, reading 0 nitrates and possibly 0 phosphates.

Now do I need to get those up? (Best way to do that?)
Or do I follow what Vetteguy said and do a 5 day blackout, dose peroxide and bacteria, dont feed corals and see what happens?
Or someone have another suggestion?

 

[Dkmoo]

I think you may be trying to too much too quickly. Whats happening is that the low Ph and Alk probably cause coral stress and die off releasing nutrient into the water. These nutrients are then absorbed by algae, causing the algae bloom, which further absorbed the nutrients and sending the tank to a downward spiral. Its a competition issue now instead of a nutrient issue. I would just focus on getting the alk and PH up to 9dkh and ph above 8 to stabilize the tank. Remove the algae by manual removal instead if any commercial products which could further upset the already sensitive balance in your tank. Ur tank has low nutrient bc the algae absorbs it too quickly. Don't try to chase the no3/po4 numbers bc it will only make it worse and feed the algae.

Corals need no3/po4 to grow and encrust, but it only needs light (at least in the short term) to subsist. So, I would only focus for now on getting your ph and alkalinity back in line will stop the deterioration bc at low ph the water literally pulls calcium bicarbonate out of the coral tissue.

whats ur mag lvl? Didnt see it but if it's low that could be why ur alk was so low (due to precipitation). It will take a few months to correct since it took a few months to get to this point. Just be patient and have faith that it will as long as u keep water as stable around 8.2ph, 9dkh. 450ppm calc, 1300ppm mag. Good luck!

 

[Waffen06]

I think you may be trying to too much too quickly. Whats happening is that the low Ph and Alk probably cause coral stress and die off releasing nutrient into the water. These nutrients are then absorbed by algae, causing the algae bloom, which further absorbed the nutrients and sending the tank to a downward spiral. Its a competition issue now instead of a nutrient issue. I would just focus on getting the alk and PH up to 9dkh and ph above 8 to stabilize the tank. Remove the algae by manual removal instead if any commercial products which could further upset the already sensitive balance in your tank. Ur tank has low nutrient bc the algae absorbs it too quickly. Don't try to chase the no3/po4 numbers bc it will only make it worse and feed the algae.

Corals need no3/po4 to grow and encrust, but it only needs light (at least in the short term) to subsist. So, I would only focus for now on getting your ph and alkalinity back in line will stop the deterioration bc at low ph the water literally pulls calcium bicarbonate out of the coral tissue.

whats ur mag lvl? Didnt see it but if it's low that could be why ur alk was so low (due to precipitation). It will take a few months to correct since it took a few months to get to this point. Just be patient and have faith that it will as long as u keep water as stable around 8.2ph, 9dkh. 450ppm calc, 1300ppm mag. Good luck!

Have a salifert mag test coming this week. I have two part, you recommend dosing that in small doses over a period of course to get the numbers up? What do you suggest to raise my ph?

 

[I’m Batman]

I only dose 6 drops of each weekly from b-ionic 2 part part in a 20g AIO.

 

[Dkmoo]

I think general consensus is that 1 dkh, 10 ppm calc, and 50ppm mag a day is the max recommended change but I would half that to be conservative. As to how often you dose that depends on how much ur system needs daily. Ie, if your daily alk consumption is .3 dkh a day, then you would dose .8dkh a day but split that too 2 rounds of .4 dkh each.

Raising PH - in a healthy and balanced water condition, 8.3ph can be achieve at around 9dkh. If you can't get there, then there are a couple of reasons.. most common is excess co2 - a few things to try are 1) if ur 2 part use bicarbonate, switch to carbonate (soda ash) 2) get a co2 scrubber. Excess bacteria activities could also contribute to high co2, that's again an excess nutrient issue (note that again, "low readings" doesn't mean you have low nutrient, it just means you have low nutrient LEFT in the system) so that will correct itself once your system begin to achieve balance.

 

[SaltISlife]

Alk, calcium and magnesium all intertwine together.. If your calcium is low, or magnesium are low, alkalinity will have issues, or if the alk is too high, it can lower calcium, and vise versa..

You should start dosing calcium and and alk, and test for magnesium and see what its at. You need to start dosing too. Keep the alk at around 8-9 and calcium at 430-440. and magnesium at 1300-1400 in that range. Id probly do a huge water change in the range of 60-70% to stabilize the tank, and then keep it stable with dosing and testing, to see how much alk and calcium and so forth are dropping so you know how much to dose.

Also as people said nitrates at 0 is bad. My tank is usually in the 30-40ppm range but i have a ton of fish and they eat alot so i cant be stingy on the food

 

[I’m Batman]

Alk, calcium and magnesium all intertwine together.

 

[SaltISlife]

neat little chart

 

[Waffen06]

Ok an Update. They didn't look any better yesterday so I accumulated them to my reefer and moved them in the glass cup with netting over the top to keep them in place. So far today they are both open and the one is three times larger then Ive seen it before.

So now Im deciding what to do as something is really bothering the corals/nems