These punks have been eating my LPS. ID anyone?

[eraserhead187]

Maybe I shoujld

I've always kept mine at 1.027 personally. I was taught that is about the range you're looking for. When your water evaporates the salt is left over, so your ATO should keep it stable. Your water changes are more of replenishing trace elements, not really keeping salinity stable.

Maybe I should keep my ATO up at 1.030 for a while and let it climb slowly that way. I lose the typical amount when pulling out filters, emptying the skimmer, water testing and that is just getting replaced with RODI water in my ATO. I guess over time that would cause a drop, huh?

 

[eraserhead187]

1.024 - 1.026 is the recommended salinity that’s been in place for decades now. And yes, MG is VERY low.

Thanks, I will keep boosting and monitoring the Mg in addition tot he salinity.

 

[sfin52]

I wouldn't put salt in the ato. I would turn it off and replenish evaporation with salt water.

 

[eraserhead187]

I wouldn't put salt in the ato. I would turn it off and replenish evaporation with salt water.

Is that for fear of a malfunction overdosing the tank or the salt screwing up the pump?

 

[tehmadreefer]

Your adding saltwater to saltwater. The idea is that you want your tank let’s say to be at 1.025 and add in small increments of freshwater to make up for the evaporation which increases salinity. I’m surprised that you’re is going down as you shouldn’t be losing that much saltwater to where your salinity is going down from actual water removal. How many gallons is your tank?

there would be evap from the ato water if you use sw this increasing the salinity.

 

[eraserhead187]

Your adding saltwater to saltwater. The idea is that you want your tank let’s say to be at 1.025 and add in small increments of freshwater to make up for the evaporation which increases salinity. I’m surprised that you’re is going down as you shouldn’t be losing that much saltwater to where your salinity is going down from actual water removal. How many gallons is your tank?

there would be evap from the ato water if you use sw this increasing the salinity.

It's only a 32 gallon tank, probably total water volume of 20 gallons or so. I change the filter floss regularly and lose a little like that, and my skimmer frequently gets wonky and ends up full of water which I'm not going to dump back in. Then the ATO fills it back with fresh water, so it makes sense that the salinity would drop a little. I've always kept it 1.023-1.026 because that's what I have always read. I've never heard 1.027 but if the consensus is that it is safe that high, I'd give it a shot.

 

[Softhammer]

You need to very seriously re evaluate your system and general practices if you are seeing SG fluctuations of any kind. A simple water change can fix you parameters very easily. ATO should NEVER have salt in it unless you are a commercial shipping facility. If your skimmer is pulling enough water to affect your SG, you need to set it to run drier or get a new one. Bristle worms are literally everywhere in reefs and feed on detritus and decay. they didn’t kill your corals sounds to me like your water did.

 

[flsalty]

If you are doing maintenance that causes you to lose a lot water you should do it all at once in conjunction with a water change. That way you are replacing SW with SW. The ATO should only be for freshwater replacement of evaporated freshwater. It sounds like you are trying to get away with no water changes. That's not going to happen in a tank that small without dosing. Water changes would be a much easier way to go.

The bristleworms are just a coincidence. They are inhabiting new real estate caused by the polyp bailout.

 

[eraserhead187]

You need to very seriously re evaluate your system and general practices if you are seeing SG fluctuations of any kind. A simple water change can fix you parameters very easily. ATO should NEVER have salt in it unless you are a commercial shipping facility. If your skimmer is pulling enough water to affect your SG, you need to set it to run drier or get a new one. Bristle worms are literally everywhere in reefs and feed on detritus and decay. they didn’t kill your corals sounds to me like your water did.

Maybe you just didn't see the first few parts of the thread. I never said there have been fluctuations in SG. It had been stable between 1.023 and 1.026 since the tank has been set up. It has pretty much run 1.023 for years. No fluctuations to speak of. I am being told to raise it to 1.027, advice I am willing to try. This die off happened suddenly after introducing a new piece of coral. It essentially hit my LPS one by one, and did not affect anything else in the tank. The water did not cause this. If you could have seen the damage it was clear it was being eaten. The SG changes that our critters experience when acclimating from the LFS to our tanks is orders of magnitude more dramatic than anything that happened in this tank. I monitor the SG almost daily and it always pretty much right on at 1.023. Thanks for all the help.

I'm going to correct the MG issue and slowly adjust the SG up to 1.027 as suggested, let it run a while with no LPS for a while, and see what happens. The same corals are recovering well in another tank and growing (Which also is at 1.023, but will slowly raise that one too) for the time being.

We are all here learning and asking for help. There is no need to be condescending. Not all of us are experts. That's why this forum exists.

 

[eraserhead187]

If you are doing maintenance that causes you to lose a lot water you should do it all at once in conjunction with a water change. That way you are replacing SW with SW. The ATO should only be for freshwater replacement of evaporated freshwater. It sounds like you are trying to get away with no water changes. That's not going to happen in a tank that small without dosing. Water changes would be a much easier way to go.

The bristleworms are just a coincidence. They are inhabiting new real estate caused by the polyp bailout.

I figure that the bristle worms were eating whatever dead humps of flesh remained in the skeleton. I do 20% water changes about once a month (I know, I know). I have always run the ATO with just RODI water, was just asking if that would be a good way to slowly raise the salinity until it is up where people are suggesting. Not as a water change replacement. I've seen that suggested numerous other times here in the past.

 

[eraserhead187]

They can sometimes, but usually there are certain ones that go after sps. I would remove them as they multiply fast.

Either pull them out with your hands or get a harlequin shrimp, they eat starfish.

I FINALLY located a Harlequin shrimp who ought to be here early next week, but when he's done his job he will need a place to go. We have an amazing reef supplier really nearby (Premium aquatics) that has been on the hunt for them, so I bet they would take him. I don't really want to have to buy asterina to feed him after this. I have manually removed a lot of them and seem to have gotten ahead of their multiplication, but don't have access to the tank at night so who knows. I have seen these guys on the coral and they do seem to be irritated, but not all the time. However, I can't see what's going on at night. And the corals are recovering well in a different tank that does not have the asterina, so could be? Thanks for the advice!

 

[eraserhead187]

If you are doing maintenance that causes you to lose a lot water you should do it all at once in conjunction with a water change. That way you are replacing SW with SW. The ATO should only be for freshwater replacement of evaporated freshwater. It sounds like you are trying to get away with no water changes. That's not going to happen in a tank that small without dosing. Water changes would be a much easier way to go.

The bristleworms are just a coincidence. They are inhabiting new real estate caused by the polyp bailout.

I've seen no evidence whatsoever of polyp bailout. The three mushrooms that took off were from a horribly overcrowded rock, and they just found shells and pebbles to attach to, never looked bad or got eaten. I ended up giving them to a buddy that was restocking. Haven't seen any other polyps anywhere else in the tank searching for new homes. These mushrooms drive me nuts. Started out with three and now there are about 40 crammed around this one rock. I have to keep the rock slightly separated from the rest of the rock work so they don't take over. My RBTAs went nuts too. One eventually turned into 10 that were taking over the tank. Luckily I found 7 of them other homes so now I just have three. Still too many for my tank IMO, but they do NOT like to come off their rocks.

 

[Paul Howard]

Raising sg from 1.023 to say 1.026 is going to raise Mag. significantly??

 

[eraserhead187]

Raising sg from 1.023 to say 1.026 is going to raise Mag. significantly??

No I will dose MG also.

 

[Paul Howard]

Be careful, I'd bet if you did not dose mag it would go up a couple hundred points w/ salinity increase...

 

[eraserhead187]

Be careful, I'd bet if you did not dose mag it would go up a couple hundred points w/ salinity increase...

Hmmmmm OK. Thanks for that, so I should probably monitor it very closely then. I Do you think I should dose the magnesium modestly, maybe to 1400 or so, before messing with the salinity? Then raise salinity slowly and see where the magnesium goes, then once I have my salinity where I want it, dose Mg to where it needs to be?

Or should I not mess with mag much until I get salinity up?

Thank you!

 

[Saltyreef]

Start fresh and your mind will be at ease.
Heres step by step to get you back on track.

1. Mix 5 gallons of saltwater to 1.026sg.

2. Empty your ato reservoir and refill with fresh 0ppm RoDI water.

3. Make sure your biocube is at the full water mark with everything running (return pump and skimmer)

4. Take a salinity measurement of the tanks water.

5. If low, Remove 1 of water from the tank and replace with 1 gallon of salt water you just mixed.

6. Take salinity measurement and continue step 5 again one day later to let your tank slowly recover from the low salinity.

As long as your ATO isnt sticking on, and you pay close attention to the water level its refilling to, (good idea to sharpie on the mark) just replace any water that comes out of the tank (cleaning skimmer cup, bagging up corals or making coral dips) with your 1.026 sg salt water mix. I always keep a few gallons on hand for this purpose.
The ATO will take care of fresh water evaporation.

 

[Saltyreef]

Start there, dont dose anything. The salt mix will help stabilize your event vs dosing.

And who knows, the elegance being added could have just been coencidence as ive had lps last a while in sub par conditions and randomly melt at once with the water parameter swings.

 

[eraserhead187]

Start there, dont dose anything. The salt mix will help stabilize your event vs dosing.

And who knows, the elegance being added could have just been coencidence as ive had lps last a while in sub par conditions and randomly melt at once with the water parameter swings.

Thank you! I will do this. Very much appreciated!

 

[minus9]

I would shoot for a target of 35ppt for your SG, all your test kits are made/designed for this SG, so your testing will be skewed until you reach that target. What ATO are you using currently? I would turn off your ATO when testing or doing maintenance that requires you to pull water from your tank that would otherwise initiate the ATO to start up. The two things that will derail a nano reef are salinity fluctuations and temp swings. A range of 1.023 to 1.026 is not stable and should be avoided. Adjusting your skimmer (dry vs. wet), setting a smaller range for your float valves/sensors on your ATO (or get a better ATO?) and calibrating your refractometer with the proper solution will all help.
The other thing that I would recommend for nano reefs would be using a higher quality salt mix. I'm sure there will be people countering my advice, but for nanos, using a high quality salt mix is one of the keys to success and makes water changes a breeze and uncomplicated.
Getting back on topic a little, bristle worms will never attack or eat healthy tissue. This notion that bristle worms are bad and should be removed from a healthy system is simply wrong. There are polychaete worms that do attack and consume living tissue, but they are not bristle worms. One day I would like to write an article about bristle worms, but I don't have the time right now. There numbers are based on food supply, that's it. If you have lots of them, then check how much you're feeding and how much goes uneaten? Sorry, I have a huge soap box about bristle worms.
To the OP, your elegance could've had something that moved to your other LPS and initiated the problem? There are too many variables to look at and pin down the culprit.