Why does this happen?

[mermaid_life]

One day it's fine. Next day, gone. Everyone else looks happy.

Params stable last few weeks:
Ca 465
Alk 11.7
Mg 1350
Ph 8.13.... can't get this to stabilize any higher
NO3 25.... I know.... Can't get it down but it's been this way
PO4 0.1.... actively trying to reduce

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Probably bc you’re trying to bring down a perfectly good po4 level with an elevated alk

 

[mermaid_life]

My PO4 was at 0.5 two weeks ago and I have hair algae that out competed my chaeto which is why I thought I should reduce it. It's at 0.1 for the last week and I haven't touched it.

I thought ideal was anything less than 0.2 but not zero?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Were your corals dying when it was 0.5?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Dropping po4 from 0.5-0.1 too fast will definitely kill sps. You should be trying to lower your alk to 8.5, slowly, instead of worrying about po4 or algae growth. What was your po4 reduction method? Asking for a friend? (@SeaDweller)

 

[mermaid_life]

Were your corals dying when it was 0.5?

My corals were not dying, but I was scrubbing gha every week. Took me 3 hrs each time. Some gha started talking over frags

 

[mermaid_life]

Dropping po4 from 0.5-0.1 too fast will definitely kill sps. You should be trying to lower your alk to 8.5, slowly, instead of worrying about po4 or algae growth. What was your po4 reduction method? Asking for a friend? (@SeaDweller)

I was using phosphat-e from brightwell

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Probably dropped it too fast. How old is the tank? Reef flux from blue life will wipe out all your gha with probably just a 1/2 dose. Take 1-2 weeks but it won’t harm your sps. Bring your alk down to 8.5-9 and don’t drop your po4 too fast.

 

[mermaid_life]

I'm confused because I use red Sea salt pro coral. I'm just going off the params on the bucket and everything I've seen on brs tv.

They say 10-12dkh?

 

[mermaid_life]

Probably dropped it too fast. How old is the tank? Reef flux from blue life will wipe out all your gha with probably just a 1/2 dose. Take 1-2 weeks but it won’t harm your sps. Bring your alk down to 8.5-9 and don’t drop your po4 too fast.

Sorry tank is about 1 yr old

 

[Mical]

I've found that ramping Mag up to about 1600 will slowly kill off GHA without disturbing corals.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I've found that ramping Mag up to about 1600 will slowly kill off GHA without disturbing corals.

That’ll work too

 

[SeaDweller]

Coral pro is an old school salt, and the Alk is high on purpose. Back then, alot of reefers use to keep alk high and virtually no nutrients. Chaswood is telling you that its very possible the combo of your alk being high(er than most people like to keep) and your relatively low nutrients could be causing your issue (despite them being good levels). The act of stripping your water too quickly of PO4 could have caused your issues., when you were fighting the GHA

I just watched an interesting talk about chemistry from MACNA that most of us could benefit from watching. The guy was talking about how coral polyps can survive in NO NO3 environments but their mechanisms for uptaking PO4 is rather poor, so they can't survive in NO PO4 situations. In fact, I see this in my own tank. My NO3 runs at 1.0 ppm and my PO4 is 0.10+ (I run GFO and a sulfur reactor), and my results have never been better at these levels.

So at this point you need to maintain some PO4 in your tank.

 

[SeaDweller]

I think everyone could benefit from this video. Very informative:


He lays out his thoughts very well and it’s easy to follow. I would pick his brain if he were local to me.

 

[mermaid_life]

I think everyone could benefit from this video. Very informative:


He lays out his thoughts very well and it’s easy to follow. I would pick his brain if he were local to me.

Yep watched it yesterday. It was very helpful in learning about the balance.

My plan now is not to add or take anything away. Just going to do my weekly water changes and check Ca Mg Alk levels weekly. Only add Ca and Mg as needed. Does that sound ok?

 

[SeaDweller]

Yep watched it yesterday. It was very helpful in learning about the balance.

My plan now is not to add or take anything away. Just going to do my weekly water changes and check Ca Mg Alk levels weekly. Only add Ca and Mg as needed. Does that sound ok?

it might be tough because of your salt; when you do your weekly WC and you're replacing with a high alk salt, your alk may never really drop enough. you can lower the alk in the WC water with muriatic acid or seachem acid buffer. if you're not committed to RSCP, I'd suggest trying their regular red sea blue bucket salt, or switch to something else.

 

[KrisReef]

Other parameters that can influence coral tissue are salinity (ie top off water methods) and temperature. These work in concert with the other parameters you mentioned and "stability" is often listed as the "key," but I think the disappearing tissue-issue is a lot more complicated than one or two parameters.

But dang if this doesn't happen to most of the folks who keep reefs once in awhile. I also noticed that there are 3 frags on the rack that are still kicking so you are still doing some things right.

 

[mermaid_life]

it might be tough because of your salt; when you do your weekly WC and you're replacing with a high alk salt, your alk may never really drop enough. you can lower the alk in the WC water with muriatic acid or seachem acid buffer. if you're not committed to RSCP, I'd suggest trying their regular red sea blue bucket salt, or switch to something else.

Thank you. I'll look into it.

 

[mermaid_life]

Other parameters that can influence coral tissue are salinity (ie top off water methods) and temperature. These work in concert with the other parameters you mentioned and "stability" is often listed as the "key," but I think the disappearing tissue-issue is a lot more complicated than one or two parameters.

But dang if this doesn't happen to most of the folks who keep reefs once in awhile. I also noticed that there are 3 frags on the rack that are still kicking so you are still doing some things right.

Thank you for saying that. I really needed it.

It was just so surprising that everything was ok last night and then this morning that's what I woke up to. No other coral is giving any indication that they are upset. I'm hoping that this isn't going to be the first of many to go down hill overnight.

 

[Mono]

Would I be wrong to say shy away from acros and stick with Montis until you are more sure of your parameters.