Cant figure out what the problem is...thining of giving up

[jugger]

For the last 6 months i have been struggling with unhappy and near death or dyeing coral and I cant figure out why. I had an original 20 gallon set up for over 2 years and everything was going great with very healthy coral that grew more than I could keep up with. Currently thatââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s not the case since I move to a new house and setup an additional 20 gallon tank and sump.

Coral in SPS tank
Tort started off growing fast with beautiful color then PE stopped and now it looks as if some of the tips are starting to peel and flake off but not like STN

Monit cap stopped growing, turned brown

Slimmer colony STNed because of what I thought was a crab eating it. Had to frag it and one *** is doing ok but no growth. The other frag is an ugly brown with no PE

Birds nest went through phases where it had STN and then grew over the STN spots and then started again real bad now

Green digitata awesome color but hasnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t grown an inch

Orange and red digitata ugly dieing color and never grown as well

Four different millis have grown well with great color but only where they have grown. Where they havenââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t grown their on the brown side. All but one has great PE

Also had a crocea clam die recently that I had for 3 years

Coral in softy tank are doing better than ever. Even the left over SPS frags attached to the rocks are growing fast with great color and their under PC lights and very little water flow.

The SPS tank has
two seio 1100s and a 300gph maxijet
305 watt MH/PC lights with 20K bulb
50 lbs of live rock
no sand

both tanks have overflows that re-circulate into a sump with cheto( which grew very fast and now just sits there with an odd light brown color) and a CPR back pack skimmer with a bag of charcoal in it.

I only have 2 small fish in the softy tank and thatââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s it for fish or shrimp

Calcium 430 ppm
Alk 9.1 dKH
Salinity 1.026
Nitrate undetectable
Nitrite undetectable
Phosphate undetectable
Ammonia undetectable
6 gallon water changes every 2 weeks with ocieanic salt
feed frozen or flake food every other day
I dose b-ionic two part
I guess im at my end with trying to figure out whats going on and would love some suggestions. Is it possible theres just not nearly enough crap in the water because I only have two fish? Ive looked and looked for any thing that might be eating or attaching the SPS corals but found nothing. Is it because Im not using RO/DI water? If so why are the SPS in the softy tank as happy as ever?

thanks

btw heres an old picture before the SPS tank had any SPS in it
<img src='http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-3/676355/ALL.jpg' width=800 height=600 >

 

[oosurfin]

i will assume that all these tanks are a common system sharing water. so looks like you got some leathers in the tank on the right. leathers put off a chemical that inhibits growth for sure and possibly kill sps(not sure tho you should double check). a possible remedy to this would be to run some carbon in the system (which i dont see) to help remove these chemicals. the fact that you are not using ro/di could be possibility that im sure some others will touch on. you might want to think about picking up ones of the aqua-safe or filtersdirect ro/di setups from ebay ~$100 .hth or is even in the right direction because i cant really tell exactly what you have in your tank on the right

 

[IkevinI]

doyou know what your magnesium levels are? that could be an issue with sps growth. i also second the use of carbon to remove chemicals in the system.

 

[JAANDGC]

He has a "cpr with charcoal in it" Which is carbon

 

[RichConley]

You moved, right? And you use tap?

Sounds like your tap in the new place may be a lot worse than the tap in the old place.

 

[Sk8r]

There could be copper pipe somewhere in the house water system, could be leaching iron from old pipe, or getting something like arsenic from town well, hard to say, but ro/di is certainly the place to start. You don't have to plumb it in, just do temp connections. I use the washing machine coldwater faucet.

 

[shelburn61]

It's not necessarily your problem now, but I think purified water is a must.

I would do some major water changes with RO water from the LFS over the period of a few weeks. Keep everything else the same and see if things improve.

grounding probe? magnesium?

 

[fishypets]

Agree with using RO water. You might also be starving your tank.

 

[Sand Dollar]

Like the other guys said above...buy a good RODI unit...sounds like there is something different between the tap water at the new house and the old house.

 

[jugger]

sorry if i was miss leading with the charcoal meaning carbon

the two tanks are connected to the same sump

last time i measured my Mg it was on the low side @ 1100ppm...never really added it but i have heard it does help keep other levels more stable

RODI might be the last thing i try as i have move to a different city where the water is most likely different....this house is only one year old with new plumbing....the thing i dont understand is why the SPS frags still in the softy tank are all very happy showing signs of good growth and color....if it were the tap water i would suspect they would also have a problem

if my cheto wasnt growing anymore would that mean a low nutrient content that would effect the coral in the ways described above? The cheto started out the size of a baseball and within three months is now the size of a basketball...and hasnt grown since

 

[jugger]

the other thing i noticed is my skimmer doesnt really skim that much...i can see very little micro bubbles in the skimming chamber...but after i do a water change theres so many micro bubbles in the chamber i cant see through it....but after about a week it goes back to minimal micro bubbles and doesnt skim

what would that indicate?

 

[RichConley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7435273#post7435273 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fishypets
Agree with using RO water. You might also be starving your tank.

What makes you think that? I really doubt it if his softies are doing well.



What type of skimmer do you have? Sounds like it needs a good cleaning.

Also, what are you testing your salinity with.

 

[jugger]

the skimmer is a CPR ill give it a cleaning but its just odd it skimms very well after a water change

all the softies and LPS are great....i have a candy coral the size of a canalope that put on about 25 heads in the last 6 months

im using a refractometer to check salinity

 

[Sk8r]

jugger, is the skimmer intake clogging up after a little? I put a coarse particulate filter over mine [blue/white filter floss with a rubber band] and change it weekly.

Also someone in another thread just mentioned oxygen deprivation at night as a tank crash cause. If the skimmer isn't working right, contributing its bubbles, maybe there's a problem with oxygenation. Does the light run all night on the cheato? You know that plants produce oxygen and absorb co2 during the day and do the reverse at night...

 

[zoazoa]

You have to fix your skimmer. You know softie like little bit dirty water but SPS likes clean water. You skimmer has problem so softie is better than SPS. You have to clean the air injector of your skimmer. Usually air injector is clogged, skimmer can not make great bubble.

 

[shelburn61]

water changes will make your skimmer produce more for a little while. Sounds like your skimmer needs some work though. try adding a limewood airstone and upgrading to a small needlewheel pump or mj 1200 w/ venturi. this helped alot to make my old bakpak work better, but IMO they don't cut it on a SPS tank.

Since both tanks share water, a bad/old bulb, electrical current leak, etc. might be your problem. But there could also be explanations for water quality issues doing more damage in one tank than the other: the rock in ths SPS tank could be leaching something, the DSB in the softy could be adding/sinking something that explains why you have more problems in the other tank

I believe necrosis at the tips commonly indicates alk problems. what is the brand and age of your test kit? they can be unreliable.

... but I still think pure water should be the FIRST thing you try. they sell it cheap at the LFS?