Very frustrated...I can't keep SPS and idk why

[Biff0rz]

Yeah based on that death this doesn't seem likely there is a "bad" param. You mentioned you have no name powerheads...you sure they are not causing a voltage leak? Maybe take them out and continue water changes/carbon for a week?

You may find you can ditch those no name powerheads all together and stick to the mp60s.

Any sprays/diffusers/cleaning practices near the tank by chance? Tested for metals? Also, test chlorine in your city water as typical water filters in this hobby don't filter it. Home depot sells a test kit.

Yea, they are not causing a voltage leak but happy to test. Would placing multimeter probes in the water tell me if voltage is present?

No sprays or cleaning, the tank is in the basement and it's a controlled space by me - aka my man cave lol.

How do I test for metals?

We do have chlorine in our water but doesn't the rodi filter remove this?

I will second the leaking voltage possibility. SPS seem to be more sensitive to it then LPS and softies. Do you have a grounding probe? If not, perhaps add one and see if the issue resolves. If it helps, then you may have a device leaking current into the water.

I would try a monticap. If any SPS is going to be a good test coral, it is a monticap.

I do not have a grounding probe. Most of my equipment was purchased new. I'd be more apt to find the possible leak vs adding a ground. How can I test for voltage?

Monticap seems to be the way

Re: metals… check any/all magnets in your system for rust. Pump magnets, ATO float switch magnets, etc. Look in the bottom of your sump for anything metal that may have fallen in undetected (screw, razor blade, etc).

All magnets look healthy, sump is clean. That said, taking a large magnet to the sump might be useful. Before investing a ton of time into that how can I test for metals?

 

[Tamberav]

I will be honest. I rarely test or chase or do anything and never add a chemical fix.

but my once dry rock has been wet over 10 years now and my new rock was all live ocean rock.

I have tons of huge leathers and don’t run carbon and have acros with them too. They are old school acros but still…. I tried to chop them out and replace them with more exotic softies and some are growing back across the rock as if they were a pest lol

Actual aged live rock makes keeping old school acros pretty easy. I also have t5 which is dummy proof but sounds like you dialed in your lights anyways.

You can test and test and test but so many biological things you can’t test for.

Hopefully it is something easy like co2 but if you chase your tail around long enough. Might be time to question if it’s biological.

 

[homer1475]

You can test and test and test but so many biological things you can’t test for.

This right here x10000000000 ^^^^^^

 

[Biff0rz]

I will be honest. I rarely test or chase or do anything and never add a chemical fix.

but my once dry rock has been wet over 10 years now and my new rock was all live ocean rock.

I have tons of huge leathers and don’t run carbon and have acros with them too. They are old school acros but still….

Actual aged live rock makes keeping old school acros pretty easy. I also have t5 which is dummy proof but sounds like you dialed in your lights anyways.

You can test and test and test but so many biological things you can’t test for.

Sure, I agree, and I'm not trying to chase. However, I'm having issues that are related to something that is not normal. So... What are you suggesting I do? Not test, not run carbon, and hope for the best? Because honestly.... That's not working either.

 

[Chrisv.]

We do have chlorine in our water but doesn't the rodi filter remove this?

They meant cloramine not chlorine. Chloramine is not efficiently removed via rodi. Need carbon block

 

[ninjamyst]

This happened to my frag tank twice. Both times were caused by me and nuked frags of birdsnest and Digi while zoas were a little ticked and survived.

First time: I used too much aiptasia-x.

Second time: I dipped palys in H202 and they released toxins into the tank.

So I agree with others that this is a chemical issue with your water. Large amount of carbon, large water change, and then let things stabilize.

 

[WhiskyTango]

So, I started my tank a long while ago (check my build thread, 08/2020 technically, ty rona). I started with what I was told (hah) was live rock, it ended up being dry rock. Anyhow, I had a long hard-fought battle with dinos. I've since battled them into submission and the tank has matured and stabilized. I have a very large UV running 24x7 on the display and I keep it well maintained. I recently added an ATS and more algae are growing in there vs the display. I have balanced & stabilized all of my nutrients too. I run an alkatronic and mastertronic. All parameters have been steady, not fluctuating. Everything I feed is weighed/measured. I did this to reduce the amount of variance introduced to the tank. I haven't added fish in a while, but when I do it's not like I'm piling them in there. I have recently been adding softies and LPS successfully. I have mushrooms growing well (duh) and now some really nice torches growing nicely and splitting. Goni's have started to spread/grow, as have some paly's. I've tried sps a few times - most times have been way too early and they all nuked. Those were my fault for sure. As of late, I tried one easy sps - a forest fire digi. This recently nuked - the tips turned brown (looked dino-ish) and the stick experienced some stn. The polyps have also sunk back in and barely show. Needless to say, it's not doing great. I got the stick from a local reefer who's been my mentor, he's helped me immensely. He has a very successful setup and beautiful acro tanks, so I trust his advice. He's also very stumped with my situation. The stick came from his tank, was encrusting on the plug, so it's not like it was freshly cut. He measured par in his tank before taking it out and I matched the same par on my tank. I've also mimic'd his dkh so I can make transfers even easier.

Flow: two mp60's & two no-name variable speed powerheads. The tank as a LOT or a little flow, essentially no dead spots and I can dial it up or down with my apex.
Lighting: 5x Kessil a360we blue's. Par is measured with a seneye, and ranges from 400 (surface) to ~100 at the sandbed. Obviously this changes around the tank but I try to par-match corals when they come in.
Parameters:
SG: 35ppt
Temp: 78* +/- .2*
dKh: 8.25 - I very seldom experience large swings. The alkatronic and carx help keep this super stable. I've made changes along the way but it's been done slowly and with good Sodium Bicarbonate and small additions. You can see the past 90 days here (green, min ~8, max ~8.6, yellow is ph):

NO3: this used to be high before the tank settled, and swung a lot. It used to sit around 30-40 and could have +/- 10 swings. As of late, the past 3mo, it's been steady, slowly coming down, from 15 and currently sitting around 10. Chart:

PO4: this was a similar pattern to no3. I started adding (and actually maintaining gfo). It's now slowly rising but stead around 0.04-0.06. Chart:

CA: its a little high but it's been sitting at 520
MG: also a little high, sitting around 1500
I2: I also have been tracking iodine as of late, sitting around 0.04

Next plan of attack is to get an ICP done. Other than that, I am out of ideas. Thoughts? Ideas?

p.s. I hate dino's, they suck and can DIAF.

When using dry rock, it’s literally a year before your tank is ready.

 

[Biff0rz]

They meant cloramine not chlorine. Chloramine is not efficiently removed via rodi. Need carbon block

I do have a carbon block on my rodi.

When using dry rock, it’s literally a year before your tank is ready.

Yea, in 3 months it'll have been almost 2 years...

 

[Biff0rz]

Took a pic this am with my camera / flash and lights off.

 

[Tamberav]

Sure, I agree, and I'm not trying to chase. However, I'm having issues that are related to something that is not normal. So... What are you suggesting I do? Not test, not run carbon, and hope for the best? Because honestly.... That's not working either.

No… I am just saying it might be something you can’t test for. You started with dry rock and I wouldn’t call dry rock from 2020 aged or old.

When all the biological stuff is in place… it makes keeping SPS.. at least the heavily aquaculture ones (I never tried wild stuff) fairly simple even if you screw up or even if something is wrong you can’t figure out.

I would try carbon first and make sure it’s not a pH issue as those are easy fixes but if nothing works and you tried it all…

just saying… a reef wasn’t built in two years and maybe you are missing something biological in the puzzle. Adding some good live rock to the tank wouldn’t be a bad idea. It won’t fix it overnight but may provide some help in the future.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

I do not have a grounding probe. Most of my equipment was purchased new. I'd be more apt to find the possible leak vs adding a ground. How can I test for voltage?

Monticap seems to be the way

You can test by grounding the negative lead in the ground pin of an outlet and placing the positive lead into the tank with a setting of AC voltage. You can also test current the same way.

You will always see some voltage, so the challenge is knowing how much is too much.

I just went an tested my tank to provide a comparison.

With grounding probe in place

A/C voltage 1.8V
A/C current 0.0 uA

With grounding probe removed

A/C voltage 1.8V
A/C current 0.7 uA

In the past, I noticed that my grounding probe had a clump of precipitated calcium carbonate on it. I assumed I had a voltage leak and was causing the precipitation. So I removed the probe, got my meter, and found a Jebao pump that was leaking current into the tank. I removed the pump and the precipitation has not re-occurred.

 

[SPSDomination]

I would send out an ICP anyway… Lets see what comes back.

 

[Chrisv.]

if I'm not mistaken, you need more than just the standard carbon block for chloramine. I've not had to deal with them, but that's one place to look.

As for carbon in the DT, carbon or chemipure blue is a good option as a catch-all. I like chemipure blue but it does contain some gfo, so you may want to be careful if you go for that.

I actually wonder if you accidentally blasted this guy with too much light. Honestly I wouldn't count the ones you killed early on against the tank's track record. They were likely added too early in the life of the system. If we can agree to that, we're talking about one dead Digi. This level of polyp retraction could easily be from accidentally giving too much light, or from a fish picking at it and annoying it.

Since Digi grows like a weed, I'd find a friend with a big colony and try a couple of one inch frags at different heights in your tank. Acclimate then from the sand bed to the various heights over the course of a week or so. Maybe try putting that angel in a qt system for the first couple of weeks to see if it makes a difference. I've had sneaky fish nipping at coral without me knowing for months. The coral would look bad and I'd wonder why, and then one day I would happen to see the little devil in action. Something to seriously consider.

Personally, I think adding carbon, trying different par locations in the tank, and moving the angel out for now will get this coral growing in your tank within a month.

 

[Chrisv.]

Took a pic this am with my camera / flash and lights off.

It's pretty high up. Do you know what the par is where it's located? How did you acclimate it to that position?

 

[Biff0rz]

No… I am just saying it might be something you can’t test for. You started with dry rock and I wouldn’t call dry rock from 2020 aged or old.

When all the biological stuff is in place… it makes keeping SPS.. at least the heavily aquaculture ones (I never tried wild stuff) fairly simple even if you screw up or even if something is wrong you can’t figure out.

I wouldn't call it old either. However, many have been successful with it in a shorter amount of time and then there are others like me struggling.

So it's been 2 years. When would you say I'm able to add them? 3? 4? 10? I mean, I think it makes sense that it's been 2 years and if I'm having issues I should try to identify the source.

 

[Chrisv.]

I wouldn't call it old either. However, many have been successful with it in a shorter amount of time and then there are others like me struggling.

So it's been 2 years. When would you say I'm able to add them? 3? 4? 10? I mean, I think it makes sense that it's been 2 years and if I'm having issues I should try to identify the source.

If we don't count the ones you added very early on, this is one dead coral.

 

[Biff0rz]

It's pretty high up. Do you know what the par is where it's located? How did you acclimate it to that position?

120-150. It came from a tank where it was at 150.

 

[homer1475]

Purely out of curiosity, whats the all the brown crap on that frag rack?

 

[Tamberav]

I wouldn't call it old either. However, many have been successful with it in a shorter amount of time and then there are others like me struggling.

So it's been 2 years. When would you say I'm able to add them? 3? 4? 10? I mean, I think it makes sense that it's been 2 years and if I'm having issues I should try to identify the source.

yes people can certainly be successful but we can’t test all the differences between your tank and theirs.

I don’t think you understand what I am saying. If you can’t come up with the source and tried everything. It might be something you can’t test for. It’s still a problem that needs to be fixed.

I am saying some more biological diversity may be helpful if can’t find something obvious to fix.

 

[Biff0rz]

Purely out of curiosity, whats the all the brown crap on that frag rack?

Great question - I do not know! I've brushed it off a few time but it always returns. More pics.

The brown stuff is not local to that frag rack either, it is on a few things...and I do frequently remove it. However, it's not on everything as you can see on the rocks.