Good luck Dan
DanW's 187 SPS Dominated Reef Journal
- Thread starter DanW
- Start date
Good luck Dan
saltyg135er
New member
I hope you find something in your sump so you can take it out and then get back to your normal waterchanges. I know how you feel about weekly waterchanges. 
GL
GL
Well let hope you cna find whats going on. Good luck!
. I know how you feel about weekly waterchanges.
Hey now, Weekly water changes are kind of like going to the gym for some of us. Its not fun, but the results are proven and the tank looks better when we do
pookstreet
Registered Stick Killer
Dan, sorry to hear of the recent issues. Hope the simple cure is more frequent water changes, at least for the near future. I am sure something will work out later on. Good luck!
Reefer08
New member
Dan, hope you find the reason for the tissue damage. Is your sand bed still getting kicked up due to the new power heads? Any ideas what could be dissolving in your tank? How are your parameters?
DanW
Certified Stick Killer
Thanks for all the good vibes fellas looks like I’m going to need them. I did a 55 gallon WC yesterday completely emptying out the sump. Although I was hoping for a smoking gun, I found nothing out of the ordinary. I had put a bag filled with CupriSorb two weeks ago and there was no blue color change. Poly filter put in two weeks ago also had no tell tale color change and was light brown. I tested my parameters before the WC and they were solid, I’ll test again tonight to see if they are still good but I don’t expect to see a change. Terry (Stryker) stopped by last night and suggested that I look into my Alk levels since I’m back on Probidio (Bio Digest). Anyone know if the probiotic guys (or the Zeo guys) keep their Alk down really low? My Alk is currently at 8 DKh (Elos). He also had a thought that if I believe that something is dissolving/corroding that perhaps it’s my CA Rx since it’s the only thing that I am actively dissolving but after the first incident it was cleaned and refilled with a different brand of media. Although I think it’s doubtful that it’s the CA Rx, I’m going to take it back offline. The other thought that I had was food supplements. I feed with mysis and brine soaked in Seachem GarlicGuard, Brightwell Vitamarin C and Brightwell Vitamarin M, thoughts? The only other things I’m dosing is BRS 2 part & Mg as necessary and on an irregular basis (once a week or once every other week) ~ 5ml Brightwell Potassium. :sad2:
Just curious, why are you adding all of those chemical to your food? When our systems are presenting problems, I feel it is always better to simplify them instead of adding unknown chemicals to them. I keep my alk 8-9 with the prodibio. I'd Stop the Potassium as well.
Dan, I think you have been reading too many threads were people swear by products in a bottle
If it was me, I would K.I.S.S and do water changes for 30 days to see where it gets you. Adding supplements is to tinker with, but IMO, I would get the tank stable and go with what is known to work :thumbsup:
Dan, I think you have been reading too many threads were people swear by products in a bottle
If it was me, I would K.I.S.S and do water changes for 30 days to see where it gets you. Adding supplements is to tinker with, but IMO, I would get the tank stable and go with what is known to work :thumbsup:
Dan, I agree with Mark, get back to the basics. I always followed the rule... If you can't test for it don't add it. Weekly water changes, weekly testing, dosing Ca, alk, and Mg. Poly filter and carbon are great insurance.
BTW I run my alk between 8-9 dKh, while my corals arn't as good as Mark's, my corals seem to do fine.
BTW I run my alk between 8-9 dKh, while my corals arn't as good as Mark's, my corals seem to do fine.
aquariumclown
New member
Dan, I keep my alk between 7.5 and 8. Recommended for UNLS is 7.2 natural sea level I think. I was going to shoot for that but I realized that if my test kit is +/- 1.0 then if i test to 8.0 then it might be 9.0 or 7.0. So I think that's safer than if i shoot for 7.0, then it might be 6.0 or 8.0. I'm always allowing for test kit inaccuracies now.
DanW
Certified Stick Killer
I've always added vitamins to fortify the fish food believing that it would be good for the fish, used to use Selcon but didn't like the oily slick that it would leave behind. I started using potassium about 2 years ago based on AWT tests that seem to always come back with low potassium readings and I usually do an AWT test ~ every six months. So from a stability perspective I'm doing what I've always done, perhaps a build up of some sort finally reaching a toxic level? Yup, at this point I'm going back to weekly WCs and stopping all supplements to see if it will get better. If it is like the last time, it will take about a month for everything to come back. I think I'll keep my dKh target at 8 as it seems to be the right number.
Dan, sorry to hear about your problems. The only thing that comes into my mind with the damage on your SPS is a too High Potassium Level.
I read on the Zeoforum that an overdose of Potassium supplements can cause damage and tissue loss on the tips of Acropora.
Stopping with all dosages and frequent waterchanges seems the best options to me too. Good luck!
Leonardo
I read on the Zeoforum that an overdose of Potassium supplements can cause damage and tissue loss on the tips of Acropora.
Stopping with all dosages and frequent waterchanges seems the best options to me too. Good luck!
Leonardo
DanW
Certified Stick Killer
Thanks Leonardo. Can anyone recommend a potassium test kit? I've heard horror stories about how difficult and inaccurate they are. Maybe it's just best to lay off the K supplement and do water changes.
DanW
Certified Stick Killer
Here were my test results from last night:
CA 470 (Salifert)
Alk 8 (API)
Mg 1400 (Elos)
PO4 0.05 (Hanna)
NO3 1 (Elos)
CA and PO4 are a little high, hum? I replaced the GFO last Sunday so hopefully it will take down the PO4 a bit. The CA reading is strange because I've not supplemented any in a long time.
CA 470 (Salifert)
Alk 8 (API)
Mg 1400 (Elos)
PO4 0.05 (Hanna)
NO3 1 (Elos)
CA and PO4 are a little high, hum? I replaced the GFO last Sunday so hopefully it will take down the PO4 a bit. The CA reading is strange because I've not supplemented any in a long time.
If I remember correctly Korallenzucht, Aqualight and Faunamarin make Potassium testkits. I never bothered testing because I don't add a lot of K. (exept for a drop a day when dosing Iodine)
The KZ and Aqualight test are basically a waste of money because they are very hard to read accurately. The Fauna Marin test is the easiest to read, so probably it will give you the most accurate results. I don't have first hand experience with them though.
Your levels look good. I should double check the Ca with another kit
Leonardo
The KZ and Aqualight test are basically a waste of money because they are very hard to read accurately. The Fauna Marin test is the easiest to read, so probably it will give you the most accurate results. I don't have first hand experience with them though.
Your levels look good. I should double check the Ca with another kit
Leonardo
There is a relationship between the CA, Alk and Mg. Sometimes when I dose MG, my CA will bump up a bit. As Leonardo said, those numbers look good
I like those number!
DanW
Certified Stick Killer
Thanks guys. I have no idea why the CA is reading so high. I've not dosed either CA or Mg in a long time (using TMP). I have a back up CA kit (switching to Elos) so I'll test with the new kit tonight to see if I get a different result. I'm also going to switch over to 100% frozen based on the discussion on Kenny's thread to see if I can lower the PO4 a bit.
Dave's Reef
New member
If I remember correctly Korallenzucht, Aqualight and Faunamarin make Potassium testkits. I never bothered testing because I don't add a lot of K. (exept for a drop a day when dosing Iodine)
The KZ and Aqualight test are basically a waste of money because they are very hard to read accurately. The Fauna Marin test is the easiest to read, so probably it will give you the most accurate results. I don't have first hand experience with them though.
Your levels look good. I should double check the Ca with another kit
Leonardo
I've got the KZ potassium test kit and can say first hand it's a PITA to read! I think I'll try the Fauna Marin kit after seeing this from you Leo....
Sorry Dan, but I don't remember hearing back from you on when your receding problems began for you on your corals? Was it once you changed out your lights? I was / am (sort of) still having some issues of my own after changing out my t5's recently.
I went from UVL Super Actinic's to ATI Blue + and I had several pieces that didn't like the change too well. I didn't think changing out the t5's, being supplemental, would have such an impact but I was definitely wrong. I had to back the photoperiod down considerably for the t5's and the corals are a little happier and beginning to adjust finally.
Good luck with the K+ kit and let me know when your troubles began when you get a chance.
Thanks!
DanW
Certified Stick Killer
Sorry Dave, My initial problems began after I had the following 3 issues:
1) Salinity: Refractometer was out of calibration so what I thought was 35 ppt was actually 30 ppt.
2) Alkalinity: PH tester for my CA Rx was out of calibration, which increased the potency of the effluent causing the alk to increase from (IIRC) 8 to 12 dKH over a weeks time.
3) Lighting: Changed my MH bulbs and acclimated the corals over about a week (perhaps too short of a time?).
I don't know if any of these issues either singularly or in combination actually caused the problems and my initial thought was that it would be pretty coincidental that the problems manifested in conjunction with the issues so I assumed that those were the causes. However after doing large weekly water changes over the course of a month or so the problems went away. Then after switching back to bi-weekly WCs for the last month there now is a reoccurrence of the exact same problems, so my thought now is that something is leeching or dissolving in my system.
