Tank slowly declining

[2Wheelsonly]

did you also dose nutrients, or just stop gfo and carbon?

I just stopped GFO & carbon, I feed pellets at noon daily with my auto feeder and I give frozen food every day with the occasional seaweed when the clip gets empty. I also dose acropower 6ml 2 times a week and this alone seems to bring my no3 up from 1-2 to 10.

The only thing I dose is acropower via my dose pump (twice weekly) and I drop 1 drop per 25g of coral vitalizer nightly (this has never increased my nutrients in the past). I may discontinue dosing those eventually; I used them in the past because I had a hard time keeping nutrients in the tank.

 

[dvbrien]

Thanks for the replies. I just purchased a GFO Reactor with a carbon reactor too... just shut it down. The PO4 is already immeasurable. NO3 is around 5

 

[sfin52]

I stopped gfo not ac. I also had to dose po4 to get my levels back up. Nitrates never worried about them. Their numbers are always good.

 

[wopadobop]

GAC removes DOC (dissolved organic carbon) which has been shown to be much more damaging to coral mortality than nutrients. I run it 24/7 on very slow flow with small amounts and change bi weekly.

http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps2006/314/m314p119.pdf

 

[cumbeje]

I agree with several comments about the low phosphate and nitrates. Let the nutrients build up to around phosphates of .03-.05 and nitrates 2-5 ppm or so. i think your water might just be too clean. Also ICP test is a great tool in finding trace elements that are missing. I use ICP tests every two months on my 700 gallon sps tank. I also do not run carbon at all. I use GFO as needed to keep phosphates in check and do nothing for nitrates. Feeding fish takes care of keeping nitrates at a low level. I check my phosphate and nitrates weekly.

 

[Klatt]

I shut off GFO and carbon dosing. Going to watch lvls for a week before I start dosing nutrients.

 

[Flippers4pups]

I would have to agree with everyone that your system has been to "clean".

You may have to resort to dosing KN03 to raise N03. For P04, I'd just let your food supply that, because you only need a trace.

Once your nutrients are in line, it may take sometime for your corals to respond. Keep them stable. It may seem like it isn't working at first, but give it some weeks and you'll slowly see them improve. Don't become impatient and try changing something else, like your lighting.

Coming out of a ULNS condition takes a little time, but it will improve.

 

[ycnibrc]

Is your icp test coming back yet? Get ready to dose iodine and molybdenum and potassium those 3 element go as fast as your alk cal and mag.

 

[ReefManKen]

New bulbs could be strong and melting your coral. Lots of people also like higher salinity but to me .26 is too high. I’ve kept mine at 24 and my hard and soft corals thrive and always have. Also the old saying goes sometimes too much is almost as bad as not enough. Honestly I’d look to your lighting and see if that is the issue. Seems from what you said that’s when your problems started and depending on he fixture height and such it could be causing a problem. Maybe bad bulbs. Zoas I hope you’re checking your iodine and chems that they depend on. Just a few thoughts.

Hello, I have a 100G tank that has been slowly declining over the past 5 months and I cant seem to figure out why and was wondering if anyone here could point me to some possible causes. History on the tank: The tank is 2 years old, and from July of 2016 to June of 2017 I finally found the tanks sweet spot. The corals were all thriving, growing very well. I was dosing Alk and Cal with Kalkwasser in my ato water. Around June of this year I noticed about 50% of my corals were starting to struggle. And about that same time I was starting to have issues with alk and cal levels. I had been slowing adding more and more kalk into my ATO water each time I refilled the reservoir until I got the the highest recommended dose of kalk in to RODI water. I was then supplementing the kalk with sodium bicarbonate and calcium chloride to keep the levels up, but when I would miss a day or two I would create large level swings. This was the reason I assumed my corals were struggling, so I decided to upgrade my system to a two-part automated dosing system (two BRS 1.1 dosers connected to my apex). I added the dosers in July and after 3-4 weeks of dialing them in, the tank's Alk and Cal have been back to normal and consistent (9.2 dKh and 460 ppm). But I am still seeing corals struggle and die. Nothing else has been changed in the tank (except for bulb replacement on my T5s). Ive had no issues with my fish. My monti caps were the first to go, but ive also lost some of my euphyllias, and zoas are looking terrible as well.

Other levels:
Salinity 1.026
Mag 1395
Phosphate 0 (hanna ULR)
Nitrate 0 (salifert)

I use Red Sea Coral Pro Salt, and do water changes every 2-3 weeks. Ive just purchased a Triton ICP-OES test kit to check everything in the water for any other reasons for the decline. I do use No3Po4x for Nitrates. Ive seen no change in skimmers output, but I have noticed a little green cyano on the sand where i cant reach to clean the bed. Is there any other thing I should look into that may help me find my problem?

Thank you!
Joel

 

[Klatt]

Its only been 6 days of no carbon and no GFO and my phosphates are at .04 and nitrates are up to 8.5, no dosing necessary. I started dosing carbon again at half strength, and will need to dial it in to keep nitrates up, but not too high. I also turned on my GFO again, and will have to find a way to keep PO4 in check (maybe only having reactor on a percentage of the day?). Seems like both went up really quick, especially when you guys said I would have to dose.

I just sent in the ICP test, so Im sure it won't be back for a few weeks.

If it were the bulbs wouldn't things have evened out by now. I do have a Neptune par meter and I haven't noticed any issues with my par during the decline.

I think what ill do is keep levels where they are at now for a month or two, and watch and maintain the nitrates and PO4 with the new levels to see if things look up. Then move on to the next idea you guys give me to check. Don't want to change more than one variable at once.

 

[kinter]

Please check your equipment to see if there are any that is leaching rust into the tank. I had the same thing happen to my tank over the past year where my corals that were thriving slowly started tanking and algae taking over. Turned out one of the power heads started leaching into the tank and once it was removed, the coral started coming back to life.

Good luck!

 

[BigBearMD]

Is your icp test coming back yet? Get ready to dose iodine and molybdenum and potassium those 3 element go as fast as your alk cal and mag.

I completely agree. Holy cow, I added the Triton recommended iodine, potassium and a few others and things rebounded like crazy.

Hopefully you’ll get a quick turnaround and be able to make those adjustments.

 

[Klatt]

https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/50050/

looks like potassium, iodine, and boron are a bit low. do not see any other issues.

been keeping nitrate at around 6-8.5 but phosphate has been tougher to keep up. Going between 0 and .02.

 

[ryanuy]

Are there any updates Klatt? Hows your tank doing now?

 

[Tommy's Reef]

Nopox is dangerous look at the warning in the booklet it will starve your corals if not used properly. I've had a reef tank completely wipe out.
And an alk swing will last and effect corals for weeks and months and hopefully they will come back, ive seen both wipe on my reefs before. Complete nukes bro. We learn from our mistakes bro!

 

[Klatt]

It seems my corals have stabilized. I have not noticed any more losses or declining corals, although my zoa garden is still closed up pretty tight. Nitrates are staying around 3-5 ppm and phosphates have slowly risen to .04 ppm.

Made several larger water changes last month in hopes to "reset" my trace elements, especially the three that the triton test showed were low.

Still hesitant to start rebuilding with new corals quite yet, may try a small monti at end of Feb and see how it does. (Cant wait to start restocking though!)

Also been thinking of dosing iodine like triton test recommended, hoping the zoas will respond.

Have been resisting changing anything else in the tank (working on 1 variable at a time). Although I did just upgrade my refugium light from a home depot special to a kessil a80.

 

[ryanuy]

It seems my corals have stabilized. I have not noticed any more losses or declining corals, although my zoa garden is still closed up pretty tight. Nitrates are staying around 3-5 ppm and phosphates have slowly risen to .04 ppm.

Made several larger water changes last month in hopes to "reset" my trace elements, especially the three that the triton test showed were low.

Still hesitant to start rebuilding with new corals quite yet, may try a small monti at end of Feb and see how it does. (Cant wait to start restocking though!)

Also been thinking of dosing iodine like triton test recommended, hoping the zoas will respond.

Have been resisting changing anything else in the tank (working on 1 variable at a time). Although I did just upgrade my refugium light from a home depot special to a kessil a80.

I had a tank a couple of years back that experienced the exact same thing. I wasnt able to trace what happened back then and that caused me to quit for a few years. Looking back it was probably the biopellets in conjunction with a few other things. Corals really dont like the water too clean so for the tank I have now, I dont do any carbon dosing at all.

Are you still dosing NOPOX? Hows your alkalinity level? Red Sea Coral Pro has a crazy high alk level that isnt very well suited to carbon dosing since the high alk causes the sps to burn their tips.

 

[Klatt]

No, stopped NoPox. Have always kept alk at 9. Over the next few weeks Im planning on lowering it to 8 in preparation to the switch to triton.

 

[Joe Batt]

I have had a very similar problem. I increased my Po4 up to around the 0.05-0.07 mark with the No3 around the 6-7 mark. Things have not really improved so I have decided to go for a complete refresh and 100% Triton. Hope things improve for you, I know how frustrating it can be.

This is the new build thread
Re-building a RedSea Reefer 350 and converting to Triton
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/r...and-converting-to-triton.353730/#post-4417687

 

[wopadobop]

Running Gac is not the same as carbon dosing. It wont hurt anything except maybe strip out some extra iodine. Regardless of that if your going to run triton. Your gonna have to dose it daily anyway.