coral necrosis newbie help fish death diatom algae everywhere

[champion6sigma]

was strontium important or is that more of an SPS need?

 

[champion6sigma]

I'm going to a different store for salt water tomorrow. Will get another panel of tests done. I will get a kent magnesium if those numbers are low..as per sk8er instructions. I probably won't get my tests from BRS until next week. They are having free shipping this week regardless of order size. but its economy shipping.

 

[Sk8r]

Don't change too many things until you get and run those tests. Then we'll have a real picture what's going on in there.

 

[CStrickland]

was strontium important or is that more of an SPS need?

No. Don't worry about those little chems.
Youre testing to see how well you're replacing stuff the tank uses, and removing extra stuff you add when you feed. Think of alk, ca, and mg as measuring how well your salt and water changes are keeping up the the tanks use of those; and nitrate and phos as how well your waste export and water changes are keeping up with the food (poop).

Little chems like strontium will go along for the ride with alk, ca, and mg, because the salts we use are balanced like that.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Besides Stronium is in your salt mix as well as different coral foods. No real need to add it. It's one of those IF you do add it be very careful of how much and monitor it closely. In all the years I've been keeping saltwater tanks I've never added Stronium.

 

[gone fishin]

My alkalinty was 20 plus(he said thats very bad). Calcium was at 200. Magnesium he didn't have a test for. Nitrates were low 0.X or near there he didn't say number but he mentioned insignificant, not a worry. I got impression he didn't really want to do more tests because he doesn't do dosing in his large coral tank. only water changes.

I told him about me dosing the seachem marine buffer for the PH. That my ph has not been consistent, it drops rapidly after dosing. He says that marine buffer is more than likely what caused the alkaline spiking...and this in turn is hurting my coral. He had no explanation for my two clown deaths except that maybe they did have ich and didn't survive or had another illness. Green mandarin may have died from starvation or due to fact they are hard to keep.

Do Not use any pH buffer. This could be one of the issues here. The buffer will only temporarily increase the pH while raising the alkalinity. Additionally each time there after the buffer is used it will take more buffer to get the pH to move while increasing your alkalinity to the point you may get a snow storm in the tank.

By driving up the alkalinity it will wreck your chemistry balance and have adverse affects on your coral and livetock. Good luck just my 2 cents.

 

[champion6sigma]

Yes, I wish every LFS would just know that simple fact of ph buffer. In fact, why even sell it, I guess there is no true reason to ever use it.

So today got water tested elsewhere, got water. I do not trust the tests that were run. According to them I have 0 ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, my ph was 8.3, salt 1.026, calcium 300, hardness (alkalinity? ) 180, phosphate 0.

Paid 12 bucks and I think the guy didn't know what he was doing in the back. I do not on any account have a ph 8.3 or salinity of 1.026. They probably write that crap on everyone who comes in. The other tests I don't know. He actually had to get my scores out of the trash cause for some reason they were thrown away while i was walking around store.

This place uses coral life reef salt . I think reef salt. At minimum he said it is coral life brand...

My RODI system is in, pump in, salt in, tests will be in next week. Probably only ones I can trust will be my own salifert ones. This store didn't have magnesium tests either, I don't understand why...

I'm doing the 20 percent change today.

 

[heathlindner25]

People use pH buffer to adjust their alkalinity consumption when they also have a pH problem .... it is a viable product if used properly.... having said that ,I've raised my DKH to 19 befor using pH buffer when I was a rookie..lol

 

[champion6sigma]

I'm looking forward to getting those test kits....probably will arrive Wednesday or thursday.

 

[davehead86]

The bubbles on the frags look like a possible dinofagellte not bubble algae. Can you post pictures of the tank under some whiter light, not SOOOO blue.

 

[champion6sigma]

I'll be taking new pics tomorrow. I've been attempting to configure my RODI, ended up having a busy weekend.

I was able to clean up some of the gunk on sand manually. I've got 5 gallons water to change out tomorrow.

I tried reaching spectrapure today but no luck, I need some assistance in the RODI system....

The new test kits will be here on Thursday.

It actually looks like I may have a cyano outbreak. Which is what I cleaned up, its maybe coming back slowly. When I moved the powerheads (mp40's) it took me days to realize I had no water movement going on at top of tank. I had a complete thick layer of gunk on the water surface. There wasn't any rippling water or surface breakage from the output nozzle or powerheads because they are too low. I've since changed the powerheads again, this time there is agitation above.

I will try to focus in on the bubbles on sand, rocks, they rise by themselves also, and of course there are bubbles deep in sand bend along glass which I can probe sand and they will all rise.

Corals are looking better. I do not see any necrosis dying heads...I'm still unsure why the leathers are not looking better. The finger leather actually has a hole in it...which I hadn't seen before.

I'll take the pics under whiter light. in about 12/13 hours.

3 fish are doing good. No signs of ich. Theres a good chance I never had it, might have been an isolated condition to the two clowns, a different type of sickness

 

[CStrickland]

You're really earning your name, champion!
A lot of people would have thrown in the towel after all that :thumbsup:

 

[champion6sigma]

You're really earning your name, champion!
A lot of people would have thrown in the towel after all that :thumbsup:

Thanks CS.

I've been through a lot.....having my spine broken, vertebrae crushed, metal implanted in back, lost a right hip, and I'm walking now without a hint that I'm disabled. And those physical things are not even what makes me truly disabled in the eyes of the government. I have an additional ailment to thank for that. Life is tough. We have a 1 year old who is walking now...so between her, the house, fishtank, wife, and everything else, I've got my work cut out for me.

I'll get this tank fixed. I'm finally starting to learn from all these mistakes that patience is more important than anything. Knowledge from research and patience, dedication, and help from others...and money lol...thats all thats needed.

I've got some new pics, not very pretty, but I'm uploading now.

 

[champion6sigma]

Just had a short power outage...about 30 min ago. Water quality is a little murky again, glass is dirty...will need to get out magnet cleaner.

My RODI system is ready for water production...soon I'll have some quality salt water to put in.

 

[champion6sigma]

Quality is so low on DSLR that not sure if its glass interference, water particles or just camera settings making details not too sharp. That white finger leather has a considerable hole in center and some yellow gunk just moved to that area today....
I may need to get it into the open for better water movement.

 

[champion6sigma]

Our green anemone has not seen happy in long time....

 

[champion6sigma]

I'm thinking the darker purple on the bottom may be cyano. It comes off in sheets or blankets together. I got most of it 2 days ago but its already reappearing. The bubbles are everywhere, on the frag rack , on the frags, on the sand, on the purple, the rocks, in the sand.

The pop by themselves and rise to the surface occasionally.

 

[ijnoj09]

coral necrosis newbie help fish death diatom algae everywhere

It kind of looks like cyano. Keep doing water changes, removing as much as you can manually, cut back on how much your feeding the tank and increase the water flow. What do you have your mp40's set at? You may need to cut down on your lighting schedule to until you get this under control.

 

[champion6sigma]

Vortech_6_1: 4
00:00 4% Constant
07:05 5% Constant
10:20 8% Constant
12:25 7% Constant
19:30 5% Constant
23:55 8% Constant
Vortech 6_2
00:00 4% Constant
07:31 5% Constant
10:02 5% Lagoon
10:20 15% Constant
15:23 13% Lagoon
23:54 10% Lagoon
23:59 5% Constant

Radion I'm doing a modified coral radiance I believe with a max value at 45 percent which has been a slow increase over last 3 months. I haven't always done the coral radiance preset plan....but I've never ran the radions high...I've done acclimation modes and I used to be as low as 20 through the 30's. The peak at 45 is only a short amount of time...As far as the individual LED's....they all vary but my day time light is a common curve starting at basically nothing and ending at moonlight from 9am to 7pm.

vectra is run at 35 to 48 percent of my max operating level for "my" tank...not max of 2000

i just realized on pics i uploaded the bubbles are very hard to see which is different than the viewfinder i looked through...I'll have to work on increasing the quality of the pics while remaining under the upload limit

 

[champion6sigma]

vortech 6.1 is the very low one on right. on right side of glass...in rear of DT

vortech 6.2 is the on on left sorta of high. on true back of tank...black glass.