I too have been having a lot of difficulty in the past few months keeping SPS. I've had several new colonies and frags RTN shortly after introduction to the tank. I've read Marie's earlier posts on the CO2 and have planned to change my Reactor return to feed into my skimmer to help burn off any residual gas.
I was also looking back at some photos of my tank from a couple years ago and was shocked to see how much it has changed, and not for the better. In looking back, I found that this all started about the time I began with the Reefresh system to try to deal with a briopsis outbreak. I have not been able to find anyone local carrying the product anymore anyway. I talked to J&l about why they dropped it, and they said they had less than favourable feedback from users. I have run out of some of the product, so I have decided to take my tank off drugs for a while to see if that helps.
I was also reading the links and info on the potassium dosing and the symptoms of low K levels. It all seems to fit what I'm experiencing as well, so it too may be a factor. I tried to find a K test kit, but so far have come up with notheing, but in the meanwhile I am trying dosing K-balance to see if thing improve.
I suspect the real answer is that it is not really any one thing, but a combination of factors. I suspect that the Reefresh system has possibly depleted my K levels. There may also be some other long term effects of the probiotics that eventually causes a decline in the system since it requires you to balance the water paramaters on a knife edge to keep it working. Also, its possible a new colony that is not aclimatized to the ultra low nutrient environment may not have the resources to deal with it when introduced. I do have one acro that has been in the tank for quite a while and is doing OK (not great though) Further, it is possible that the non-food grade CO2 has just enough impurity in it to add a final blow to an all ready vulnerable system.
I will be following this thread as well and will try to keep track of my success/failure with these steps and post the results.
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I retired and got a fixed income but it's broke.
Ed
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50 gallon FOWLR, 10 gallon sump.
130 gallon reef, 20 gallon sump, 10 gallon refugium.
10 gallon quarantine.
60 gallon winter tank for pond fish.
300 gallon pond with waterfall.
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