Calling out all Chemists!!!!

[Dr. Reef]

well nitrates have been 0 (salifert) from day 1 as i ran sulfur denitrator and now biopellets. i think i can afford to take them off as well.
i have 200lbs of LR totals.

 

[csauer52]

I would definitely take them off too. Start from the basics and see what's causing the issue. Easier to rule things out one by one.

 

[tmz]

I'd take them off line and monitor nitrates and PO4. I'm not a pellet fan but do like organic carbon dosing for a number of reasons mostly NO3 reduction.

 

[Sokretys]

Howdy Mike, hows it been going of late? Seeing as how you just installed the biopellet reactor, i doubt its having much effect on your system at this point. But none the less, less is more haha. I would still however keep running the carbon to remove any impurities like we had talked about on the phone. I would also take a high power led flashlight or something like it. And after you have turned off the return, to have a thorough peak into your sump for fallen debris

 

[Dr. Reef]

hi Nate. i cut everything off. i am running a basic system tank sump and skimmer heater chiller. no reactors just cal reactor only.
i am going to watch for changes over next 2-3 months. i already did 2 x 35gal water changes since i took the reactors off.
planning on doing 35 gal every sunday. lets see what happens.
Thanks for checking up on me.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I know it doesn't mean much, but I think you are doing the right thing here. I'll watch this thread and look forward to hearing how things go. Best of luck.

 

[Gsxr600]

rock: dry rock custom made in specific shapes. 150lbs source reefrock.net
sand: caribsea Bermuda Pink (2.5 - 5.5mm)
denitration: biopellets source BRS reactor: reef octopus
carbon: rox source BRS, 2 BRS reactors 4 cups total. daisy chained.
gfo: high capacity source BRS. 3 BRS reactors daisy chained.
3 reeflo dart pumps all external. 1x4300gph, 2x 3600gph
4 sea swirls 3/4" and 2 hydor power heads 3200gph each.
closed loop 10 different outlets across the tank pushing 3000gph
4x 300watt titanium heaters.

just throwing it out there, but i never trust anything but LR straight out of fiji, tonga, wherever.. ill even steer clear of the caribean farmed stuff.

custom made has soo many variables, i mean its hard to say maybe as it was being created, a different brand of something was used and thats causing a problem somehow.

 

[garydan]

I saw the controllers, and the first thing that popped to my mind is that the RKE (and i hear the APEX also) have some plugs that are not relay, they're solid state. For low current devices, they can sometimes get stuck on. I've also seen where whether or not they get stuck on depends on what else is running, i had my ALK doser get stuck on only when the auto water change pumps were running (which were on the relay plug), otherwise it didn't get stuck on. Really frustrating because i was doing extra alk dosing that wasn't scheduled, but it appeared to be working properly every time i looked at it.

Do you have anything on the non-relay plugs on the controllers?

 

[Dr. Reef]

no nothing on non relay plugs.

 

[Dr. Reef]

well guys i have somewhat good news i think. i want you guys to confirm.
i got my Apogee par meter. i was running my Vegas at 30%.
here is what i found
lights are 9" awl.
AT
30%
1" below vegas : 500
at water line (9") 300
1" below water (10" from led): 260-280
12" under water (21" under led): 120-130
15" under water (sps frag rack) :50-75
24" at sand bed: 25-30

Now at 100%
1" below vegas : 3000
at water line (9") 900-1000
1" below water (10" from led): 860-900
12" under water (21" under led): 520-560
15" under water (sps frag rack) :160ish
24" at sand bed: 125-140

i have concluded my par was not strong at 50 where my frag rack was at 15" under water line thus starving the sps (light hungry) corals.
please advise,
i have set my leds to come on at 2pm ramp up for 2 hrs till 4pm to 100% on all colors
4pm to 11pm (7hrs) at full 100%
11pm to 1am (2hrs) ramp down to 0%

so 2 hrs ramp up, 7hrs 100%, 2 hrs ramp down a total of 11hrs.

what do u all think?

Note: todays parameters;
sg 1.026 (milwuakee digital)
temp 78.1 (apex)
amm 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 0 (api,api,salfert)
phos 0.05 (hanna low phos)
alk 8.2-8.5 steady within last 7 days (hanna checker)
cal 450-460 steady last 7 days (salifert)
mag 1350 steady last 7 days (salifert)

 

[slapshot]

By George I do believe you've got it

 

[Ron Reefman]

As somebody said a week ago...

I know you are running your Vegas at 30% and that shouldn't be the problem.

Two points: A fellow club member was having similar issues with his 'inexpensive' leds and he was sure it was too much light. I took my PAR meter over and he was at 300 an inch or 2 into the water and 20 at the sand 28" down. So have you any way to get PAR readings? I think leds are making PAR meters a much more useful tool. We all knew t5 were OK and most MH are too. But it's easy for dimmable leds to be too dim or too bright and our eye really has a hard time seeing the difference. I only wish I could offer more help.

and your 30% PAR numbers at 24" was almost exactly the same as my friend's tank!
Sounds like you may have found some of the answer. Congratulations!:celeb1: And you should find the PAR meter very useful with your leds. I get to see lots of other club members tanks when I take my PAR meter to measure their PAR levels.

 

[keithhays]

Serious question this time; normally if you have lighting strong enough to have SPS, it bleaches out the coraline, how do you keep the coraline growing everywhere? It could be this only happens in my tanks.

aha!! vindication! JK...congratulations. That's too nice a setup not have full of coral.

 

[Dr. Reef]

well i am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping this is the problem.
will this (low par) cause sps corals mostly acros to bleach from base up?

 

[keithhays]

That's the only weird part is that stuff was dying so quickly. I have had crappy lights in past and took me months to kill something.

It like almost everything else; there is very rarely a single cause to anything.

 

[TampaSnooker]

will this (low par) cause sps corals mostly acros to bleach from base up?

Yes. I went through the same with my sol blues until I got the lights dialed in.

 

[kenith]

Subscribed to thread. The sps should've been browning out and not bleaching, but perhaps the lack of light didn't allow them to brown out. Please update us!!

 

[Sokretys]

Hows the tank lookin?

 

[Bilk]

The only approach I could suggest at this time is remove everything from the tank including substrate if any, and replace all the water and see what happens. Oh take most everything off line too except the bare essentials and go from there, adding things online one at a time, with new media, etc. Maybe in deconstructing the system, you'll find something you may have missed.

 

[Dr. Reef]

well since i took everything off everything started looking good. i have made 30 gal water changes every other day and now 30 gal every sunday. i have so far done 15x 30gal water changes.
i place gfo and carbon back on and biopellets. took sulfur out and every thing went to normal.
i added a birdsnest 2" frag as an experiment, its been in for a little while now 3 weeks. lets see how things turn out.