Roger's SPS 75G - NEW FTS PG 36

[ninjamyst]

You making me want to actually test my alk and nitrate and phosphate....haven't done that in....months....I am the worst ...

[pokerdobe]

33 minutes ago, TheKleinReef said:

0.01 phosphate

I would suspect this would be more of the issues - and generically overall, fluctuations around nutrient levels that are negatively impacting your corals. If you're having difficulty keep nutrients higher, it could be worth dropping your alk pretty low - like 7. 

 

Truth be told, My tank runs at 6.7 to 7 most of the times for alk too, and it handles low and high nutrient levels pretty well. 

[TheKleinReef]

35 minutes ago, pokerdobe said:

I would suspect this would be more of the issues - and generically overall, fluctuations around nutrient levels that are negatively impacting your corals. If you're having difficulty keep nutrients higher, it could be worth dropping your alk pretty low - like 7. 

 

Truth be told, My tank runs at 6.7 to 7 most of the times for alk too, and it handles low and high nutrient levels pretty well. 

I have always had trouble getting phosphate up. I had the tank at 8.0-8.3 for a long time. Sub 8 scares me cause I’ve also ran into low alk problems cause I’m lazy with testing. 
 

I’ll let it keep falling towards 7-7.5. Thanks for the advice, really appreciate it. 

[TheKleinReef]

1 hour ago, ninjamyst said:

You making me want to actually test my alk and nitrate and phosphate....haven't done that in....months....I am the worst ...

don't be a me, test. it's not that hard 😛

especially with the hanna alk, UL phosphate, and HR nitrate. All 3 take 6 mins total.

[TheKleinReef]

Entering give up mode. 
tank is crashing. 
 

went south so fast. 
Thought I had it on a good path. Gotta just wait to see what survives. Don’t know what to do. 

[mitten_reef]

33 minutes ago, TheKleinReef said:

Entering give up mode. 
tank is crashing. 
 

went south so fast. 
Thought I had it on a good path. Gotta just wait to see what survives. Don’t know what to do. 

Wut?  How?  Something went off somewhere that you’re not seeing…

based on all the unhappy corals mentioned, and parameters, it doesn’t seem like it’d lead to a crash

[TheKleinReef]

6 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

Wut?  How?  Something went off somewhere that you’re not seeing…

based on all the unhappy corals mentioned, and parameters, it doesn’t seem like it’d lead to a crash

I’m pulling my hair out trying to figure it out. 
 

one by one tissue is sloughing off. Not from the tips or the base but from the middle. Some look good but the dying coral list is getting bigger and bigger. 
 

The only thing that i can link to it is these whiteish purple little circles started to pop up but that’s it.  

[ninjamyst]

Only SPS or everything else too??  Got pics of the damage?  

[TheKleinReef]

22 minutes ago, ninjamyst said:

Only SPS or everything else too??  Got pics of the damage?  

Montis have been gone. 
80% of acros are peeling. 
some look good, lps are fine. 

[xiaoxiy]

That sucks :(. Low Phosph can manifest as burnt tips, dry-looking acro skin, and even RTN. The hard thing about acros is that crashes can sometimes be caused by things that were changed weeks ago.

 

Like Pokerdobe, I like running lower-alk levels in general as acros seem to be more resilient when I run alk between 7-8dkH.

 

Also, what salt are you using?

[TheKleinReef]

1 hour ago, xiaoxiy said:

That sucks :(. Low Phosph can manifest as burnt tips, dry-looking acro skin, and even RTN. The hard thing about acros is that crashes can sometimes be caused by things that were changed weeks ago.

 

Like Pokerdobe, I like running lower-alk levels in general as acros seem to be more resilient when I run alk between 7-8dkH.

 

Also, what salt are you using?

Nothing I can do now then except wait for the alk to come down or WC. 
 

just seems strange it was at 8.5 for almost 1.5 years then all it took was 9.0 to crash 

 

using TM pro. 
from Germany, I’ve read about the bad batches from Turkey but this bucket was bought before the crisis and I checked the bucket/lot number. 

[mitten_reef]

48 minutes ago, TheKleinReef said:

just seems strange it was at 8.5 for almost 1.5 years then all it took was 9.0 to crash 

This part is a little bit curious and puzzling to me.  And not necessarily saying it was the cause, but @Cannedfish had previously documented that he can't keep/test alk high enough.  in fact when he was using AFR, his alk tested as low as 4 (maybe even lower), but he dosed a ton, to the point eventually he had to supplement AFR with traditional two-part. 

 

so what IF, in order for you to test 8.5 or 9, the bioavailability of alk was already to high?  what's the recommended alk level to shoot for when one uses AFR?  

 

 

[A.m.P]

17 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

so what IF, in order for you to test 8.5 or 9, the bioavailability of alk was already to high?  what's the recommended alk level to shoot for when one uses AFR?  

I'm not aware of suggested DKH in particular (outside their usual suggestions which match their salt mix), my tank's hardly a standard or guide because I keep PAR low and nutrients/flow sky-high, but my Alk bounces between 9-12.
And I do mean bounce, the corals basically set the alkalinity through consumption and I just force it back to the right numbers when I catch it...

That said, phosphate is really important to the tank's ability to buffer PH and ALK, if phosphate was trending down past undetectable and then things suddenly swung/corrected (from 8ish to 9?) and sucked all the excess P04 out to use as buffer it could harm things.
I genuinely don't know though, I don't have enough experience to do anything but spitball with what little I understand about chemistry.
What I do know is that my P04 drops (sometimes to near-0 for a few days) when I correct my DKH from 8-9 to 11.

[TheKleinReef]

2 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

This part is a little bit curious and puzzling to me.  And not necessarily saying it was the cause, but @Cannedfish had previously documented that he can't keep/test alk high enough.  in fact when he was using AFR, his alk tested as low as 4 (maybe even lower), but he dosed a ton, to the point eventually he had to supplement AFR with traditional two-part. 

 

so what IF, in order for you to test 8.5 or 9, the bioavailability of alk was already to high?  what's the recommended alk level to shoot for when one uses AFR?  

 

 

 

I wouldn't be surprised if AFR is the or contributing  cause. It hasn't been dose in 14 days and it's only dropped .5 likely due to a few reasons

1. i'm assuming stuff stopped growing

2. there was so much formate to break down still?

 

regardless, I'm done with AFR

[TheKleinReef]

Corals lost list:

digi

that mystery tenuis

mystery cc

oregon

aussie gold

 

corals that are 90% gone

slimer

yellow tip

setosa

spongodes

mille

dragon

 

corals with some slight rtn:

blue slimer

mili

bonsai

 

corals with burnt tips but otherwise okay looking:

myagi

kat

 

 

doing a big 20G (25%) waterchange today

 

[TheKleinReef]

Losing acros by the hour and I don’t know what to do. 

[TheKleinReef]

Managed to get alk sub 8. 
time to see what survives. 

[M. Tournesol]

2 minutes ago, TheKleinReef said:

Managed to get alk sub 8. 
time to see what survives. 

I hope you didn't loss all your sps 🤞

[ninjamyst]

Sorry this hasn't stopped yet.  I will be more than happy to send you setosa, orange Digi, starburst montipora when things recover.  Just pay shipping =P.

[TheKleinReef]

15 hours ago, ninjamyst said:

Sorry this hasn't stopped yet.  I will be more than happy to send you setosa, orange Digi, starburst montipora when things recover.  Just pay shipping =P.

 

you da best. 

 

Once I got alk below 8 i noticed some polyps coming back out. went in and fragged the burnt tips off. hoping it's stopped. 

 

 

updating this post as it goes.

[TheKleinReef]

Alk yesterday was 7.6 today it’s 8.4 

 

how. 
 

 

how. 
 

HOW. 

 

no AFR has been added in 14 days

i did a 20g water change yesterday that mixed to 7.3

 

I don’t understand. 

[TheKleinReef]

 

got this organized. Salt bucket has 5g of kalkwasser solution at 1/2tsp per gallon. (Don’t worry the doser is off still). Just wanted to get this done now. 
 

still dosing nitrates. Would like to dose some trace elements too. Curious if I can make a solution with the TM K+ and A- solutions have left. 

[M. Tournesol]

12 minutes ago, TheKleinReef said:

Alk yesterday was 7.6 today it’s 8.4 

 

how. 
 

 

how. 
 

HOW. 

 

no AFR has been added in 14 days

i did a 20g water change yesterday that mixed to 7.3

 

I don’t understand. 

fluctuation of ph with co2 level?

[TheKleinReef]

13 minutes ago, M. Tournesol said:

fluctuation of ph with co2 level?

 

here's the last 5  days of pH. I can't shrink the graph much more

min: 7.8

max: 8.1

average: 7.9

 

usually stays in that h-7.99 range

[M. Tournesol]

Your ph seems to fluctuate normally 🤔(except yesterday). I suppose you started lowering your kh yesterday.

 

Maybe your Ca level or your Nitrate level? this is what I found on the net.

Quote

High alkalinity can be caused in a handful of ways. The first and most likely cause for your high alkalinity level is that the calcium level is way too low in comparison. Since this is the most common reason for the increase in alkalinity then a great way to balance it out is to increase the compensate the calcium level in the tank.

It can also increase due to quickly declining nitrate levels in your reef tank. Test your nitrate levels to see if this is the reason for the increase in alkalinity in your reef tank. if your nitrate level has fallen by 50 ppm or more there could have been an increase in alkalinity by as much as 2.5 dKH.