Roger's SPS 75G - NEW FTS PG 36

[TheKleinReef]

  

25 minutes ago, M. Tournesol said:

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

 

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

 

i did a big 20G WC yesterday, which is why that day is different. 

 

not sure it'd be nitrate. I've never been above 20ppm, it's only gone up since I started paying attention to it. 

I can test calcium but on 2/12 it was 440. which is where it usually sits. 

[M. Tournesol]

Then it's a mystery. All easy answers are out.

[TheKleinReef]

1 hour ago, M. Tournesol said:

Then it's a mystery. All easy answers are out.

At least it’s not 9.0 anymore. Might just wait a bit and see what happens. 
 

I can try another wc too. 

[TheKleinReef]

Did some digging on this alk spike that occurred. This is from Randy Holmes-Farley:

 

"Consumption of nitrate in a reef tank boosts alk. If the nitrate came from foods (from organics to ammonia to nitrate) that process depleted alk and the consumption and reuse adds back the exact amount lost. So the net effect is no alk change. But if you add supplemental nitrate, you missed that first depletion step and got only the second part where alk was added."

 

I'm not sure if this applies in my case as alk will go up as nitrate is consumed, not added.

Thoughts?

[A.m.P]

The Chemistry is really weird and I don't think I'm qualified to offer meaningful advice past stating I've chanced across a few old forum threads where tanks went through something similar.

I'm not going to claim -in any way- that I know exactly what happens/happened, the only thing I've gathered from past reads is that it *might* be similar to "the opposite of a precipitation event" (Can also be caused by low P04).
But I don't know what/where significant Denitrification would be occurring in your system and believe it's more likely that the N03 dosing fed bacteria which, alongside increasing DKH, basically completely eliminated bioavailable P04 in your system (could potentially cause a PH swing as well, but yours looks normal).

Maybe send a PM to Randy, I think they still check their R2R inbox on occasion, because this is over my head.

[TheKleinReef]

Managed to get phosphate up to .8 with some seachem phosphorus I had on hand. Looked it up and people have used it to dose for reef tanks. Didn’t take much either. 2x3mL total took it from  .01 to 0.8 I did not expect that at all. 
 

little faster than I’d like but no ill effects yet and I dosed it Friday and Saturday 

[ninjamyst]

No more death??  

[TheKleinReef]

1 minute ago, ninjamyst said:

No more death??  

No more death but there’s still burnt tips, skin sloughing off, and stn lines. It’s just a waiting game to see what survives. I don’t know what else to do. I only have one more batch of salt able to mix too. 

[A.m.P]

55 minutes ago, TheKleinReef said:

Managed to get phosphate up to .8 with some seachem phosphorus I had on hand. Looked it up and people have used it to dose for reef tanks. Didn’t take much either. 2x3mL total took it from  .01 to 0.8 I did not expect that at all. 
 

little faster than I’d like but no ill effects yet and I dosed it Friday and Saturday 

I really hope it helps turn things around, I actually dose seachem phosphorus and nitrate in my own systems.
I'm a bit confused as to the volume used to hit 0.8 though, Seachem's dosing calculator says you'd need 50ml, 6ml should have been just enough to hit 0.1 (Which is a great target, granted Tidal gardens and others have grown plenty of coral in 1.0+ P04 but I'd not usually recommend it).

[TheKleinReef]

44 minutes ago, A.m.P said:

I really hope it helps turn things around, I actually dose seachem phosphorus and nitrate in my own systems.
I'm a bit confused as to the volume used to hit 0.8 though, Seachem's dosing calculator says you'd need 50ml, 6ml should have been just enough to hit 0.1 (Which is a great target, granted Tidal gardens and others have grown plenty of coral in 1.0+ P04 but I'd not usually recommend it).

Yeah that’s what I read too. Unless my phosphate was higher than .01 due to tester error? 
 

i figured 6mL would be safe but I’m okay with it being a little high right now. 

[TheKleinReef]

Did another 15g water change. 
i have one batch of salt left and the whole scandal with TM pro is making the salt hard to find. Might need to switch 😧

[M. Tournesol]

4 hours ago, TheKleinReef said:

Did another 15g water change. 
i have one batch of salt left and the whole scandal with TM pro is making the salt hard to find. Might need to switch 😧

If you want to change salt, you should do it by first mixing a little of the old salt in the new salt.

you could do a water change with 90% old and 10% new. Then, 80% old 20% new for the next water change ...

[xiaoxiy]

On 2/19/2022 at 9:31 AM, TheKleinReef said:

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. 

Was yours still manufactured from Turkey before the issues started coming from light?

[TheKleinReef]

6 hours ago, M. Tournesol said:

If you want to change salt, you should do it by first mixing a little of the old salt in the new salt.

you could do a water change with 90% old and 10% new. Then, 80% old 20% new for the next water change ...

Might not have enough to do that unfortunately. I burned through a lot of my salt doing these last 3 water changes. 

 

3 hours ago, xiaoxiy said:

Was yours still manufactured from Turkey before the issues started coming from light?

Nope. Germany. I thought of that too but I checked as soon as the allegations started. 

[TheKleinReef]

set up temp and pH alert/alarms on the GHL. I don't know how I haven't had this done yet. it was a manner of clicking the box.

 

Hoping to see the alk below 8 when I test today.

Would like to see things start growing again so I can start using kalk to get the pH up.

I'll snap a picture showing the after math in a little bit.

There's some PE on the bonsai and slimer, but I doubt the slimer will survive.... big sad. It was doing so well.

 

patience Roger, patience.

[TheKleinReef]

Alk is 7.1?

 

I never thought I’d be so happy to see 7.1 lol. Not quite sure how it’s 7.1?

 

tested again and it was 8.0.
 

time to do a reference test with Red Sea.
 

but some of the stressed sps look okay now. Some PE is back. 
 

Edit. 
Red Sea is 7.8 

must have rushed the first test. 

[TheKleinReef]

changing salts, TM is too hard to find.

 

debating between red sea blue bucket and brightwell neo-marine.

 

anyone have any input? both mix at that 7.5 mark.

[TheKleinReef]

I’m lost. 
 

i haven’t dosed in 3 weeks and did 55g total in water changes and my alk is STILL not going down. If anything… It’s going up. 
 

help. 

 

what ever killed my sps was a big enough of an event to have killed most of the coralline algae as well. 

 

 

[TheKleinReef]

 

also. Why does this happen ^^

 

@Christopher Marks

[M. Tournesol]

🤯 your case is really confusing. 

What new brand of salt did you finally choose?

[TheKleinReef]

5 hours ago, M. Tournesol said:

🤯 your case is really confusing. 

What new brand of salt did you finally choose?

Went with brightwell neo marine.

But it’s not here yet.

 

The water changes were with the salt I have been using, TM pro. From what i know all of the buckets  of TM pro I bought were from Germany.  

[ninjamyst]

Did your coralline algae turn white??

[TheKleinReef]

2 hours ago, ninjamyst said:

Did your coralline algae turn white??

I'm not sure, I was so busy worrying about the SPS i didn't even notice the coralline was gone until I took that picure yesterday. I'm sure it did.

 

I just have no idea how my alk is going up when I'm not dosing anything.

[TheKleinReef]

updated damage list:

digi

that mystery tenuis

mystery cc

oregon

aussie gold

red dragon

paletta pink tip

 

corals that are 90% gone

slimer

 

 

corals that seem to have stabilized after some tissue loss:

yellow tip

setosa

spongodes

mille

bonsai

JF barney

 

corals with some slight rtn:

blue slimer

 

corals with burnt tips but otherwise okay looking:

myagi

kat

 

corals 100%

all LPS

zoas

[TheKleinReef]

I currently have 2 large media bags of seachem matrix, I hate the bags they’re big and clunky. Does anyone know of a solid small plastic bin with a lot of holes to store it. I have about 1.5L worth of media. Maybe smaller stackable baskets?