Trouble with acropora and sps corals

[IslandLifeReef]

Is the tank in question the one in your profile pic? If so that's a lot of macros.. the corals and algae will be battling for the same nutrients and most times the algae will win. If nutrients are gone the coral growth will slow dramatically, and if you dose for Cal/Alk your numbers could get out of whack from the stop in growth. I would do a WC and start keeping track of nutrients as often as Alk. Acro Power is a decent product ime, just don't over do it.

Did you see that he said his ULR phosphorus checker read 200?

 

[Esquire805]

Depends on your salt, but most salts do not mix to a dKH greater than 12 or so. If your salt mixes to a dKH of 8 or 9 and your current dKH is 20.... the water changes will bring down your alk as long as your not dosing anymore baking soda or alk additive. Check your salt to see what alk it mixes to with a salinity of 1.025

I use Instant ocean I know the dkh is about 7.7

 

[Esquire805]

Is the tank in question the one in your profile pic? If so that's a lot of macros.. the corals and algae will be battling for the same nutrients and most times the algae will win. If nutrients are gone the coral growth will slow dramatically, and if you dose for Cal/Alk your numbers could get out of whack from the stop in growth. I would do a WC and start keeping track of nutrients as often as Alk. Acro Power is a decent product ime, just don't over do it.

Yes that is a old pic of a different tank but it's a lot of macros I need to sale more of it

 

[Esquire805]

Did you see that he said his ULR phosphorus checker read 200?

Yes it was blinking 200

 

[Esquire805]

Yeah, your water is way off. Have you had your water tested by your LFS to confirm those readings? If not, I would, just to make sure that you aren't doing anything wrong. If those readings are correct, you need to bring down both your Alk and your phosphates. If your phosphorus is reading 200, your phosphates are 0.6ppm or higher. It's hard to tell since you maxed out the scale. What are your nitrates? I wouldn't do anything with increasing feedings until you know those. Increasing feedings will raise phosphates as well, and you don't need that.

As far as bringing down your Alk, you need to do a lot of 10% water changes to bring it down slowly. Depending on what Alk your new saltwater mixes at, it could take a couple of weeks of water changes to bring it down to acceptable ranges.

Nitrate are 10 I have phosguard in also won't that bring it down. And I just vodka dosed today to help bring things down

 

[29bonsaireef]

I did, but with the macros, phosgaurd, and chemipure I'd be skeptical if that number is correct.

Best thing you can do is some WC now and start testing, but knowing that heavy macro algae can and will deplete your nutrients is important. It can be a good export method alone, but run with chemicals they can drain your nutrients to the point the corals will not benefit.

 

[Esquire805]

Yeah I might get rid of phosguard I put in in every so on to make sure nothing gets overboard

 

[Esquire805]

I did, but with the macros, phosgaurd, and chemipure I'd be skeptical if that number is correct.

Best thing you can do is some WC now and start testing, but knowing that heavy macro algae can and will deplete your nutrients is important. It can be a good export method alone, but run with chemicals they can drain your nutrients to the point the corals will not benefit.

I will watch it i got a new 4stage from brs so I should have clean water by today

 

[Acroporaaddict]

Stop thinking about adding more chemicals to the tank (acropower, nitrates etc...) You need to do water changes. Alot of them until your alk is at a reasonable number. 20dkh is ridiculously high and that is more than likely the cause of all your issues. Shoot for a dkh of 8-9 or so.

 

[Esquire805]

Stop thinking about adding more chemicals to the tank (acropower, nitrates etc...) You need to do water changes. Alot of them until your alk is at a reasonable number. 20dkh is ridiculously high and that is more than likely the cause of all your issues. Shoot for a dkh of 8-9 or so.

Will dosing more calcium bring it down also but yea I stopped dosing all together

 

[Acroporaaddict]

Water changes will lower your alk and raise you calcium. If the water you are mixing has a dkh of 8.0 and Ca is 440ppm every water change you do will get your tank closer to those numbers.
Example (number may be slightly off, but gives you the idea)
Your tank:
20dkh
380ppm Ca
Doing a 50% would roughly bring your alk to 14dkh and you ca to 410ppm

 

[Esquire805]

Water changes will lower your alk and raise you calcium. If the water you are mixing has a dkh of 8.0 and Ca is 440ppm every water change you do will get your tank closer to those numbers.
Example (number may be slightly off, but gives you the idea)
Your tank:
20dkh
380ppm Ca
Doing a 50% would roughly bring your alk to 14dkh and you ca to 410ppm

I might have to do that it might stress the coral but I'm loading either way right now

 

[jda]

Gonna have to get back to basics.

Stop dosing and supplementing everything except for fish food.

Change some water. Change more water every few days until the Alk gets back on the scale.

If Calcium gets much lower, then dose a bit of that, but not much... 375-400 is fine when alk is so high.

Once the alk gets to around 12, then let it get lower to 9 or 10, but then it is time to bring the calcium up to 425ish.

Blinking 200 means that you have more P than the thing can read... more than .60 ppm.

BTW - I has an alk of around 11 for me. I have to use muratic acid in the fresh mix to get it down to 7. If you have some muratic acid, you could use 4 mls in 10 gallons of fresh water change mix to lower the alk into the 7s - this needs a few days to aerate to raise the PH back up and drive off all of the CO2. Using muratic acid is safe if you can handle it correctly and you wait for the PH to raise back up.

 

[Esquire805]

Gonna have to get back to basics.

Stop dosing and supplementing everything except for fish food.

Change some water. Change more water every few days until the Alk gets back on the scale.

If Calcium gets much lower, then dose a bit of that, but not much... 375-400 is fine when alk is so high.

Once the alk gets to around 12, then let it get lower to 9 or 10, but then it is time to bring the calcium up to 425ish.

Blinking 200 means that you have more P than the thing can read... more than .60 ppm.

BTW - I has an alk of around 11 for me. I have to use muratic acid in the fresh mix to get it down to 7. If you have some muratic acid, you could use 4 mls in 10 gallons of fresh water change mix to lower the alk into the 7s - this needs a few days to aerate to raise the PH back up and drive off all of the CO2. Using muratic acid is safe if you can handle it correctly and you wait for the PH to raise back up.

Yes I have been reading about it the only thing I have at home is neutral regulator ph to 7.0. My brs 4 stage came so I'm doing a water change now

 

[mstockmaster]

Instant ocean and I have a 40 g plus 20 gallon refugium nitrates 10. I was dosing baking soda because of low ph but I know that's why it's high

The baking soda is your problem and caused the alk imbalance. Plain baking soda raises alk and lowers pH. So adding baking soda to raise pH only made your problem worse. If you wanted to raise the pH you want sodium carbonate, not bicarbonate. In either case the pH effect is only temporary, the alk though will remain.

 

[Esquire805]

The baking soda is your problem and caused the alk imbalance. Plain baking soda raises alk and lowers pH. So adding baking soda to raise pH only made your problem worse. If you wanted to raise the pH you want sodium carbonate, not bicarbonate. In either case the pH effect is only temporary, the alk though will remain.

Yes I will just let it drop how long do you think it can take

 

[mstockmaster]

If your acropora is toast then I'd just stop all dosing and do weekly regular water changes until things get back in line. Don't do anything too drastic. If you start adding more calcium it's likely that you'll cement your sand bed.

 

[Esquire805]

If your acropora is toast then I'd just stop all dosing and do weekly regular water changes until things get back in line. Don't do anything too drastic. If you start adding more calcium it's likely that you'll cement your sand bed.

Yes I'm not adding anything

 

[ycnibrc]

Is there any coral in the tank now? If no then just do 100% wc and adjust the alk n cal in the new water to proper level. Then try to maintain the level for a month before adding any new coral. Trying to fix your old water chemistry will be tough since the level is too far out of wack. DKH 20???? How did it get there in the first place?

 

[Esquire805]

Is there any coral in the tank now? If no then just do 100% wc and adjust the alk n cal in the new water to proper level. Then try to maintain the level for a month before adding any new coral. Trying to fix your old water chemistry will be tough since the level is too far out of wack. DKH 20???? How did it get there in the first place?

Yeah still fish and coral would be hard to try