Coraline algea and acros dying

[Sorry if this has been mentioned]

You say you just replaced your RO/DI filters about 2 months ago, and you're saying your problem started 2 months ago.

I didn't see you mention anything about chloramines -- You say your TDS reads at 0, which is good -- But from what I understand Chloramines do not register as TDS. You can have 0 TDS, and a lot of chloramines.

Buy chloramine test kits, and if there present, make sure to by a Pentak ChlorPlus chloramine filter. Designed specifically to remove chloramines. We have a LOT of chloramines in our water, and the debate about 'any carbon block will remove chloramines' is LONG dead -- They will NOT remove chloramines.
 
I test alk with a Hannah checker. Have been through 3 different bottles of reagents. Also use a Red Sea test kit. Alk never moves.
 
danrobberg said:
I called my local water supply company and they don't use chloramine.

Problems started about 1 month ago.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. Well it sounds like you're in a tough spot. Sometimes things go wrong and we don't or can't know what happened or why it happened.

Not trying to Hijack your thread -- But a week ago I got some V20 food, they're a nice high quality brand and I decided lets give 'em a shot. Within a few minutes of eating the krill pacifica my melanurus became paralyzed at the back 1/4 of her body (tail) and my Flasher wrasse became completely blind... They're having me hold the food so they can test it.

My point is, no matter how careful you are, *something* can still find it's way in. It breaks my heart when I see my flasher wrasse slithering along the sand trying to sniff out mysis -- Because that happened as a direct result of me trying new food for them, to make their lives better.

So as a last resort -- Consider a Triton test. $50 is assuredly less than it cost to buy the corals you've got in there, and a far cry from what it will cost to replace corals.
 
Removed the weir from the overflow but didn't see any rust on the magnets. I was really hoping that was going to be it.
 
markalot said:
I'm going to go back and question this:



I highly doubt this, I think you might have a bad Alk test kit.
Click to expand...

This was exactly my thought while reading through this..
Why not get a salifert alk test kit? I know it seems like a lot of redundancy but I've never really seen a reef that keeps stable alk with only biweekly waterchanges..

2 ppm n and o p is pretty low nutrients.. low enough to stop the growth of corraline algea and cause acros to pale out and rtn, imo.
Recently, I had a significant alk drop and proceeded to keep alk low for several weeks. I found that my corraline algea softened and began to drop off. Growth completely stopped.

It's possible that the addition of the stump remover raised the nitrate but pushed p to undetectable levels. The acros and corraline wouldn't like this at all..
 
Got my triton test back. Nothing to out of the ordinary. Phosphate were almost non existent. 0.0016. I found some red bugs on an acro frag. That could explain some of the corals stn'ing. Still not sure what could have caused the Coraline algea to die off as much as it did. Didn't see an alk reading in the triton test. My calc was up at 520. I knew it would be a little high because I dosed 20 ml of bionic calc a few days apart to try to raise the calc to see if that would cause my alk to lower which it did not. I tested my new salt water before a water change and got 8.3. Then I tested my tank water before the water change and got 8.8. I think the real reef rock is deffenatly raising the alk a bit. On a good note two of my favorite corals seem to be unaffected. My Oregon tort looks great and my Texas red stag just sprouted a small branch. My reef raft Kendari and rainbow loom however are goners. My red planet acro regained a lot of its green color but is starting to recede at the base. This is very disappointing because this was my fastest grower. It has really based out in the rock nicely. I am going to do 10% water changes every week for a few weeks and see if that helps. Also my tank will get its first fish in it after being fallow for 72 days in under two weeks. Can't wait for that. I've had a regal in quarantine for about 6 weeks who eats like a pig.
 
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Corals will die from stress if there's not enough food in the system. Likewise, there may not be enough phosphate to get coralline algae to grow. The reason your alk is not getting used up is that coral growth has stopped. Fish will help to get those nutrient levels up to useful levels.....................Jim
 
I hope so. I'm about 2 weeks out for adding the first fish back. I didn't know phosphates played a role in Coraline growth.
 
Phos is to low, you need a bit of it. I try to keep my system around 0.045 in po4. That's where my colors and growth are best. But every system is different, but you will end up with problems if you are to low in nutrients.
 
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