900 Gallon Reef Project
- Thread starter Bennytheblenny
- Start date
scubasteve06
Jeeper Reefer
Have you tested K yet by yourself? The only two things that were consistent in any of those tests were low potassium and low calcium. Low potassium causes colors to fade which you say you are experiencing. I think low K would be worth looking into. What is your Ca level that you yourself are getting when you test?
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
Considering it was taken from a bucket of water pulled from the sump after the filters socks and not from a sample of moving water.
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
CA levels when I test on my own are in the 410-420 range. And my potassium reads as border line high. Since I was using the AWT results, I was dosing Brightwells Potassion product regularly. Also I am not seeing color fade, I am seeing full on bleaching and then colors coming back very slowly in chalices, and full on bleaching in SPS with no recovery. Okay I'll have to put up some pictures now.
killerbee181
Here fishy fishy!
you try running lots of carbon to help get whatever chemical is floating around in your tank? Sounds like that pump leached something nasty into your tank that your not able to test for.
dahenley
New member
have you tested your PAR?
i know LED's have some amazing numbers, and you might just be over lighting them and because the clams are low, they are cool, as well as the LPS.
have you put any of the SPS on the sand to see if that helps or changes anything?
(just throwing Ideas out there.....)
i know LED's have some amazing numbers, and you might just be over lighting them and because the clams are low, they are cool, as well as the LPS.
have you put any of the SPS on the sand to see if that helps or changes anything?
(just throwing Ideas out there.....)
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
I have toned down the lights and I have a birdsnest up top and I mean 12 inches from the light that is doing well as well as a stylo. I also have a lobo on the bottom that is having issues. Most of my sps are mid to low in the tank. I broke the lighting in over a period of weeks. Okay here comes a video and some pics.
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
I ran something like 2 gallons of carbon that I changed out 2x a week for 2 weeks when I noticed the pump blew. My concern is that some of the sand/rock absorbed whatever it was.
killerbee181
Here fishy fishy!
I would keep running extra carbon until things start looking better hoping that if the sand and rock did absorb it, that when it leached it back out the carbon would catch it before it does more damage.
Terry
Terry
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
dahenley
New member
i still say you need to test your PAR...
it looks like the corals dirrectly under the fixtures are doing well, and the ones off to the side are the ones stressing.
those lights might not put out the required light off to the sides, even though it looks like it.....
i had 400w MH under my 24in tank, and was running spider reflectors... it looked great, but the growth was just ok...
i upgraded to DIY reflectors and it looked like 3 spot lights.... the PAR went up, but it didnt look as good because the light wasnt spread as much.
so i got some manufactured fixtures, and i have good coverage and even more par...
i went from 100ish under the water to 500+ just under the water. with over 100 in the sand in areas...
you might be getting some amazing light in areas and just a little light in others due to the "shotgun" effect as some one put it
im sure someone local has one or will loan you one. (its an easy way to mark that out) (if someone has one that is)
with corals dying, it doesnt take long for the water to have ammonia... (i had a few things dye in my frag tank and it doesnt take long to spike the ammonia. i got some of those ammonia absorb filter pads. and it took care of the ammonia)
it looks like the corals dirrectly under the fixtures are doing well, and the ones off to the side are the ones stressing.
those lights might not put out the required light off to the sides, even though it looks like it.....
i had 400w MH under my 24in tank, and was running spider reflectors... it looked great, but the growth was just ok...
i upgraded to DIY reflectors and it looked like 3 spot lights.... the PAR went up, but it didnt look as good because the light wasnt spread as much.
so i got some manufactured fixtures, and i have good coverage and even more par...
i went from 100ish under the water to 500+ just under the water. with over 100 in the sand in areas...
you might be getting some amazing light in areas and just a little light in others due to the "shotgun" effect as some one put it
im sure someone local has one or will loan you one. (its an easy way to mark that out) (if someone has one that is)
with corals dying, it doesnt take long for the water to have ammonia... (i had a few things dye in my frag tank and it doesnt take long to spike the ammonia. i got some of those ammonia absorb filter pads. and it took care of the ammonia)
I'd run ROX carbon continuously
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/products/carbon-and-gfo/bulk-carbon/rox-0-8-high-performance-carbon
you may indeed have a heavy metal poisoning from your pump mess, this will persist until it's chelated out with carbon, the pump failure of that nature is inexcusable IMO, shame on them
as you correctly stated the lab results you posted are worthless
LPS would suffer with too little nutrients, what are you feeding with?
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/products/carbon-and-gfo/bulk-carbon/rox-0-8-high-performance-carbon
you may indeed have a heavy metal poisoning from your pump mess, this will persist until it's chelated out with carbon, the pump failure of that nature is inexcusable IMO, shame on them
as you correctly stated the lab results you posted are worthless
LPS would suffer with too little nutrients, what are you feeding with?
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
I run ROX continuously, about 4 liters worth. When the pump went I changed it out every 3-4 days for 2 weeks. Normally it gets changed out every 3 weeks. I feed a combination of hikari biopure mysis and PE mysis daily along with cyclopeze frozen. Every other day I put in a 3x6 inch piece of nori in the tank along with some Ocean Nutrition flake food. Also all the mysis get rinsed in fresh water to prevent putting in extra nutrients. Also its funny that they go to the thousandths and make it seem like they are getting you so much accuracy when they are off by so much from one test to the other. Its such a joke.
try posting this in the chemistry forum, I believe you have toxic metals from your pump accident, persisting despite running carbon, water changes, and skimming, see if any of the mods in that forum can narrow down the culprits and possibly suggest a method of removal, they are a smart group
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
If anything cooking the corals was more of a concern. Again under direct T5 lighting the corals react the same way. A couple of corals, frags really, dying in 1500 gallons of water wouldn't cause much of a spike in ammonia.
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
Here is a video:
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dahenley
New member
is your grow out tank connected or a totally separate system?
if connected, is there a way to put a small tank under it to act as a sump?
because you have a nice TEK light (if i remember correctly)
you should be able to make a fresh batch of Salt water and have a system local. (just corals can do fine with no skimmer, just run some carbon and youll be fine. )
i would do that and pop some corals over there and see what happens? (that would let you know if maybe it has to do with your water/salt.) or it could tell you if there is still something in the water from your old skimmer....
do you own a multi meter?
i would pop both probes in the tank and see if you have any stray electricity leaking in the tank? (i had that happen once, and it was so settle that the fish were fine, but the corals did suffer)
it came from a skimmer pump and the electricity ran through the water from the return pump into the main tank...
just another suggestion being thrown out there....
if connected, is there a way to put a small tank under it to act as a sump?
because you have a nice TEK light (if i remember correctly)
you should be able to make a fresh batch of Salt water and have a system local. (just corals can do fine with no skimmer, just run some carbon and youll be fine. )
i would do that and pop some corals over there and see what happens? (that would let you know if maybe it has to do with your water/salt.) or it could tell you if there is still something in the water from your old skimmer....
do you own a multi meter?
i would pop both probes in the tank and see if you have any stray electricity leaking in the tank? (i had that happen once, and it was so settle that the fish were fine, but the corals did suffer)
it came from a skimmer pump and the electricity ran through the water from the return pump into the main tank...
just another suggestion being thrown out there....
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
I have done the stray voltage check and have a grounding probe just in case in the sump. When I take the corals into my cousins 125 setup, they bounce back within a week or 2 and he is running T5s over the tank. If it is the lights, I am so going back to halides.
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