I am so frustrated!!

[seanoman]

Over the last few months, we have been battling something with our tank. It is a 220 gallon sps tank. It has now been up for about 15 Months. It seemed to be right around the 1 year mark when everything started going wrong. We had great growth and good colouring on everything. Then all of a sudden it has gone down hill from there. We have lost several colonies and continue to battle to hold on to some right now. Some corals shows no signs what so ever, and then others do. They start to lose flesh, in no particular spot, then eventually completely die. I have checked all my parameters, and they all seem ok to me, except for my alk which might be a little low.

Calcium - 460 (maybe a little high)
Alk - 6 - 6.5 DkH
MG - 1150
PO4 - less than .01
Salinity - 1.026
Nitrate - undetectable
Nitrite - undetectable
Ammonia - undectable

These were all done with Elos test kits aswell.

Every time I do a water change, I do notice an improvement, but within 3-4 days after, it seems to decline. Now I have tried to look up the affects of low DkH, but haven't been able to find much. Is it possible that low Dkh will have this affect on corals? I am trying to slowly raise my Alk with dosing kalkwasser. Any help or advise on this would be greatly appreciated. I am so lost and losing a lot of interest in the hobby. I am not about to give up though, because I know when we figure this out, it will be much better afterwards.

Thanks in advance.

[Oceanic]

Originally Posted by seanoman

Over the last few months, we have been battling something with our tank. It is a 220 gallon sps tank. It has now been up for about 15 Months. It seemed to be right around the 1 year mark when everything started going wrong. We had great growth and good colouring on everything. Then all of a sudden it has gone down hill from there. We have lost several colonies and continue to battle to hold on to some right now. Some corals shows no signs what so ever, and then others do. They start to lose flesh, in no particular spot, then eventually completely die. I have checked all my parameters, and they all seem ok to me, except for my alk which might be a little low.

Calcium - 460 (maybe a little high)
Alk - 6 - 6.5 DkH
MG - 1150
PO4 - less than .01
Salinity - 1.026
Nitrate - undetectable
Nitrite - undetectable
Ammonia - undectable

These were all done with Elos test kits aswell.

Every time I do a water change, I do notice an improvement, but within 3-4 days after, it seems to decline. Now I have tried to look up the affects of low DkH, but haven't been able to find much. Is it possible that low Dkh will have this affect on corals? I am trying to slowly raise my Alk with dosing kalkwasser. Any help or advise on this would be greatly appreciated. I am so lost and losing a lot of interest in the hobby. I am not about to give up though, because I know when we figure this out, it will be much better afterwards.

Thanks in advance.

Couple of questions......

- Are you using Zeovit or any other Ultra Low nutrient systems ie Vodka, prodibio, Fauna Marin?

- How much carbon and what kind are you using?

- Is your make up water ZERO TDS

- Do you run a CA reactor?

- Have you checked your Potassium levels yet?

- What is your basline PH? Does it drop too low at night?

- Refugium?

- what are your daily temp swings? Whats your baseline temp?

- What Salt are you using?

- Does your fish room have good ventilation to outside air?

Until I get some answers I would start by saying that your MG is too low, I run mine at about 1400+. Your ALK is low especially in contrast to your low MG levels and High CA level. Your Specific gravity is good and not to worry about.

[seanoman]

Originally Posted by Oceanic

Couple of questions......

- Are you using Zeovit or any other Ultra Low nutrient systems ie Vodka, prodibio, Fauna Marin?

- How much carbon and what kind are you using?

- Is your make up water ZERO TDS

- Do you run a CA reactor?

- Have you checked your Potassium levels yet?

- What is your basline PH? Does it drop too low at night?

- Refugium?

- what are your daily temp swings? Whats your baseline temp?

- What Salt are you using?

- Does your fish room have good ventilation to outside air?

Until I get some answers I would start by saying that your MG is too low, I run mine at about 1400+. Your ALK is low especially in contrast to your low MG levels and High CA level. Your Specific gravity is good and not to worry about.

Hey Ian thanks for the reply to answer your questions,

- no
- I run a phosban reactor full of carbon (marineland is the brand)
- RO/DI water is reading 0 TDS
- yes i have a calcium reactor
- haven't checked potassium
- ph seems to be right in line when i test, haven't done day and night comparison though
- no refugium
- temp at night gets to 78 and then about 81 throughout the day
- seachem salt
- yes i have two fans that run for ventilation in my fish room. One just for the lighting canopy and the other for the rooms humidity

[Bryan]

I think your alk is too low. I would shoot for around 2.8-3.0 and keep it stable. I have found my caps do not like alk above 3.2 meq/l and my SPS do not like alk below 2.5 meq/l.

[Aquattro]

I ran my current tank with an alk below 2 meq/l for 6 months and everything was fine (well, no growth, but no death) so I wouldn't blame that. I would get it up over 3 though..
Ca is a bit high, but that wouldn't do this either. Have you tried dipping any near dead colonies, see if any flatworms come off?

[wickedfrags]

Sorry, but IMO - try not to get overwhelmed (specifically by the post above). SPS = stability promotes success.

Assuming you have not dosed any supplements or other things which could have drastically altered your levels (alk, ca, mg), I would work at dialing in that calcium reactor to maintain a DKH of 3.5 (+/- 0.5), once you have it set (based on your current SPS load), memorize how you did it and leave it alone for a month or so. Check DKH every other day until stable. Chances are your tank improves after a water change because of the increase in DKH, again, JMO.

I have never checked Potassium, have never experienced Ph issues, refugium issues, salt issues or ventilation issues. But that is just my system.

[Oceanic]

Originally Posted by wickedfrags.com

Sorry, but IMO - try not to get overwhelmed (specifically by the post above). SPS = stability promotes success.

Assuming you have not dosed any supplements or other things which could have drastically altered your levels (alk, ca, mg), I would work at dialing in that calcium reactor to maintain a DKH of 3.5 (+/- 0.5), once you have it set (based on your current SPS load), memorize how you did it and leave it alone for a month or so. Check DKH every other day until stable. Chances are your tank improves after a water change because of the increase in DKH, again, JMO.

I have never checked Potassium, have never experienced Ph issues, refugium issues, salt issues or ventilation issues. But that is just my system.

The questions asked are not meant to be overwhelming but instead are informative for those that are wanting to help find the solution. A fancy acronym will do nothing for you, stability is elementary and I think we can assume you already know that.

Things like the salt brand are important, Seachem is notorious for having a high borate content that tends to causes test kits to read on average 1.25 DKH higher than actuality! (especially when using Salifert test kits) The is especially true if water changes are often.

Because you are using Seachem salt you should be aiming for an Alk reading of 9.5 - 10 DKH thus resulting in a actual DKH closer to NSW or a little higher. Your tests that show about 6.5 may only be 5.25 DKH in actuallity!! (Not good!)

Knowing what you are dosing is also important, using ZEOvit or any other ULNS will result in "stripped" water over time, in other words, your system does not contain enough nutrients that the Corals need to thrive. Also when using these systems Potassium also gets low resulting in the need to supplement.

Ventilation is also important, a stuffy room with the windows closed can and will cause PH issues due the Co2 that builds up in the air.

Keep searching, an answer with stability as the advice will do you nothing, there is more to your problems that what has been assumed.

[marie]

It could also be something as simple as using air fresheners (bad idea, especially if you use one that kills bacteria as well... like febreeze) in the same room as the tank.

[wickedfrags]

Really - never heard that before. How does this occur?

Originally Posted by marie

It could also be something as simple as using air fresheners (bad idea, especially if you use one that kills bacteria as well... like febreeze) in the same room as the tank.

[wickedfrags]

Your right...

Originally Posted by Oceanic

The questions asked are not meant to be overwhelming but instead are informative for those that are wanting to help find the solution. A fancy acronym will do nothing for you, stability is elementary and I think we can assume you already know that.

Things like the salt brand are important, Seachem is notorious for having a high borate content that tends to causes test kits to read on average 1.25 DKH higher than actuality! (especially when using Salifert test kits) The is especially true if water changes are often.

Because you are using Seachem salt you should be aiming for an Alk reading of 9.5 - 10 DKH thus resulting in a actual DKH closer to NSW or a little higher. Your tests that show about 6.5 may only be 5.25 DKH in actuallity!! (Not good!)

Knowing what you are dosing is also important, using ZEOvit or any other ULNS will result in "stripped" water over time, in other words, your system does not contain enough nutrients that the Corals need to thrive. Also when using these systems Potassium also gets low resulting in the need to supplement.

Ventilation is also important, a stuffy room with the windows closed can and will cause PH issues due the Co2 that builds up in the air.

Keep searching, an answer with stability as the advice will do you nothing, there is more to your problems that what has been assumed.