I'll almost guarantee you that if your feed your corals with a filter-feeding food they'll be much better in a month or two. You should feed them at least once a week. Dramatic temperature swings could also be your problem. Also check for any potential predators that only come out at night. You may have some sort of worm that's become huge in your system and it may be forced to start feeding on corals due to lack of other food. Still so many possibilities after water parameters but feeding your corals more often can only help. Good Luck!
Tank crashing - need help
- Thread starter MatthewScars
- Start date
x3 for nutrient problem
you run a fuge and 1" sand bed and still have nitrates which says that your fuge and sand bed are not adequately removing your nitrates or you over feed. 10ppm of nitrate is not a cause for alarm but the fact that you have a reading is. my experience with sand is either you go DSB or BB, there is no in between, 1" of sand does not have enough depth to process nutrients and only ends up becoming a "sink" meaning when the sand bed re-releases those nutrients into the water column, you get algae blooms, sps may lose there coloration and cyano outbreaks.
you run a fuge and 1" sand bed and still have nitrates which says that your fuge and sand bed are not adequately removing your nitrates or you over feed. 10ppm of nitrate is not a cause for alarm but the fact that you have a reading is. my experience with sand is either you go DSB or BB, there is no in between, 1" of sand does not have enough depth to process nutrients and only ends up becoming a "sink" meaning when the sand bed re-releases those nutrients into the water column, you get algae blooms, sps may lose there coloration and cyano outbreaks.
- Location
- Brooklyn
Youre suggesting to tank the sand out? I have a massive amount of rock that im sure can more than make up for the lack of sand.
There are no peditors. i check often. things arent being eaten, they are just slowly withering away.
Even if my reading is 10 but minus the cyano eating another 10ppm of nitrates, is 20 ppm of no3 enough to kill almost all corals?
mandown123
Advanced Reefer
- Location
- Staten Island, NY
it doesn't help. I say IMO your problem is too elaborate to be caused by ~10 nitrates and some phosphates. Run carbon like a nutjob. do a major water test of phosphates and all to see what the level is. Who cares if the test is inaccurate its better than pure speculation.
Definitely have to disagree here. I have tested water with a hanna meter with a phosphate level of 1.2ppm and salifert says 0. Think about just how inaccurate that is. The difference between pristine water conditions and a crashing tank but salifert was unable to show a color change????? If you have cyano, you have high phosphates.
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taking the sand out at this point would only give you headaches, if you like the sand then i would add more to establish a DSB. continue running carbon and GFO. after about 6 weeks, i would add some sand sifting snails and such to keep the sand clean.
mandown123
Advanced Reefer
- Location
- Staten Island, NY
cyano and my frogspawn have co-existed peacefully in my tank. that's all im saying.
- Location
- Brooklyn
Yeah, its 0. 0 top off. 0 when i put it in the brute bucket before i dump salt in it.
I got some carbon running now and a 30g wc going tomorrow.
I don't get this? If you have 0 TDS coming out of RO/DI, how can pure water gain TDS sitting in an essentially closed tubing?
- Location
- Far Rockaway 11691
i had a similar issue in which i was adding water with a higher TDS to my top off reservoir. my RO/DI was running to a float valve in my reservoir for a continuous fill. but the problem with that is after the RO/DI has stopped producing water after some time the TDS of the first couple minutes of water will not be 0. Some people dont notice this if they have a large resevoir
- Location
- Brooklyn
its tough, my RODI is 4:1. so to fill 30 gallon it takes 7 hours. im not home that long so i leave the rodi over night with a PH circulating it and goes from 0 to 11. i doubt <15 TDS can cause massive damage but, i dont know how to keep it at when filling a 30 gallon bucket of several hours.
I've read through this thread and have to agree, this tank is not healthy. I, like a few others who commented here think that the test kits can be suspect as far as result comparisons. Looking at the pix I think the tanks nitrate level is suspect. Try taking a sample to a few LFS's and doing a comparison. I think your nitrates are alot higher than you think. The water changes are always good. Your Monti is showing signs of RTN (rapid tissue necrosis). I see the streak up the center. Once it starts, the best way to deal with it is to frag the unaffected areas, keeping it as intact as possible. If your Monti's decline takes more than 10 days or so, it's STN (slow tissue necrosis) and you have a better chance of saving it. Your softies are looking stressed. Get more accurate test results if you can. Cause I only have API test materials, I take my sample to more than one different LFS. Try improving your nutrient export. You did say you were running a fuge?
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- Location
- Brooklyn
Yeah, 30 gallons with chaeto and other macro algea. Water changes just mask the larger issue. What can i do besides turkey blast the tank and suck as much crap as i can get out? Phosban? pads? filter socks?(see tds issue above)
- Location
- poughquag, ny
as i said before id put my money on the ro water and to the windex, this didnt happen over night, the cap i would say alk had a flux or it too high or low. only thing that sux with test kits is drops being put in arent always the same size or amount never allowing us to get a %100 reading, ive had cyano in my sump for 8 months with no ill effect to me system,
Actually, water changes don't mask, they can cure. You're right about fixing the underlying problem though. Phosban will definetly help as phosphates and nitrates will go out of wack, together. NYreefNoob is so right about the drop sizes being consistent in your testing. When using API kits, I've learned to take my time adding those drops. My results are more in line with results I get from my other sources. Again, retest your nitrates and phosphates. They may be the problem judging by the pix.
- Location
- Flushing, NY
Or you can simply buy a flush valve kit
- Location
- Brooklyn
I bought:
Phosban
Filter Socks
Nitrate Sponge media
Red Slime Remover
more Carbon
Polyfilter
if there is any nitrate or phos left after this war, i quit! Stuff comes next week, ill see how it goes. tonight is a 30g water change and vigurous turkey blasting
Phosban
Filter Socks
Nitrate Sponge media
Red Slime Remover
more Carbon
Polyfilter
if there is any nitrate or phos left after this war, i quit! Stuff comes next week, ill see how it goes. tonight is a 30g water change and vigurous turkey blasting
Matt,
Similar problem happened to JLAudio all his parameters were stellar. For some reason we couldn't figure out what was happening. He had the same exact "symptoms" your tank was having. Bring a water sample to Steve at WWOF.
It could possibly be your Iodine. Macroalgae (depending on which) can use up a lot of it. Iodine is needed for your corals to grow. Just a thought and I didn't see anybody else mention it.
Similar problem happened to JLAudio all his parameters were stellar. For some reason we couldn't figure out what was happening. He had the same exact "symptoms" your tank was having. Bring a water sample to Steve at WWOF.
It could possibly be your Iodine. Macroalgae (depending on which) can use up a lot of it. Iodine is needed for your corals to grow. Just a thought and I didn't see anybody else mention it.
just an FYI, don't put too much GFO in your system at one time as it can cause your ALK to drop (thx DVS) and cause some bleaching/RTNing. Start off with a few scopes (maybe 3 or 4) in a reactor and double it with every WTC until your running about half (maybe more) a reactor full.
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