Does anybody know what happened?

[kttran_2005]

Hi All,

After reading many threads related to the ATS, I decided to do one for my tank. Everything is working fine for the first few weeks and something wrong happened. It's been running less than 2 month now. I don't see much green and brown/red stuffs on the screen much. Instead I got many brown/red stuffs all over my display tank. Looking like those stuffs didn't colonize on the turl's screen some how. The worst thing is I start losting my SPS corals. So far my SPS corals almost completely dead. I only have a few frags but I don't think they are going to make it either. I am thinking the nitrate was the main killer. Could someone tell me what next do i have to do or check for? I read many threads but didn't see anybody out there reported this kind of problem that i had. Please let me know. Any comments or suggestions would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,
Ken

 

[Allmost]

a couple questions,

were SPS doing fine before you installed ATS ? or did you just get the SPS as well ?

what is the lighting ? flow ? KH, CA++, MG++ at ? temp ? salinity > ?

what is the lighting on the turf ? Im assuming you are using aquarium safe material.

do you test for no3 and po4 ?

and lastly, how did the SPS die ? RTN ?? STN ? are just brown ? ....

all above needs to be in good shape for SPS ...

cant really comment without knowing more about the system.

 

[kttran_2005]

yes, all my sps are doing fine before the ATS. All the parameters are stabling until now. Nothing changes much.

180 gal (~60x36~18 --- it's frag tank)
6 HO T5 (50/50) 48"
KH = 9.6
CA = 490
MG = 1475
TEMP = 77.6
Salinity = 1.029

Light Turf = 2 40Watt daylight phillip bulbs

All the SPS died by pealing off their skins. This happened within 2-4 days from big colonies (10" at least wide) to nothing - RTN in this case.

I tested out the P04 and N03 with regular Pharm. test kits and only N03 is a little be above 0 but nothing way high.

I also did 20gal water change but no help. I guess it was too late.

 

[Allmost]

RTN is mostly caused by KH swings.

 

[battplus]

Turf scrubbers are kind of old school, similar to bio balls, they work great for some applications, but not others. Every scrubber I have seen, the tank has more nuisance algae. I'm just guessing, but the scrubber may leach nitrates into the tank along with some other biological chemicals that are harmful to the corals more than benefiting them. Similar to refugiums, before we used Chaeto, several types of algae would grow like crazy and then die off, leaching toxic chemicals into the tank if it was not maintained.

 

[chrissu]

Turf scrubbers are kind of old school, similar to bio balls, they work great for some applications, but not others. Every scrubber I have seen, the tank has more nuisance algae. I'm just guessing, but the scrubber may leach nitrates into the tank along with some other biological chemicals that are harmful to the corals more than benefiting them. Similar to refugiums, before we used Chaeto, several types of algae would grow like crazy and then die off, leaching toxic chemicals into the tank if it was not maintained.

Sorry to chime in like this but I wouldn't agree with these comments, not by a long shot. I believe that there is more to this story.

 

[kttran_2005]

[ RTN is mostly caused by KH swings. ]

I am going to measure the KH again tonight to see what the current level is. I don't measure them everyday but bi-weekly. i might feed the Kalwaser (by ATO) a little more due to more water evaporated. Everything else is pretty much in automated mode. Hmmm....still scratching my head.....

For those whose setup with ATS, is it normal to get all the brown/red stuffs in the display tank?

 

[Chyendra]

Is there a reason that you keep your specific gravity so high?

 

[battplus]

Sorry to chime in like this but I wouldn't agree with these comments, not by a long shot. I believe that there is more to this story.

I see you use one, and yes it could be something else, every scrubber I've seen, it seemed that there was more algae in the tank? Maybe I've never seen an effective one that was set up properly, or it wasn't set up correctly?
I don't want to bag on your scrubber by any means, let's keep this thread going and maybe a solution can be found for kttran.

 

[kttran_2005]

Ok, i just measure the parameters again, and things swing a little bit.

KH = 10.2
CA = 430
MG = 1430
SAL = 1.025

I guess 'allmost' was right. The KH swings a bit. Since, I don't measure oftenly maybe it was higher when the corals bleached. However, I still think some p04 and no3 were released back to the display tank. I cleaned my glass Wed's night and now, i saw some green and brown/red algaes again. Anyway, I hope to hear some more comments from others especially those had ATS setup. So far thank you so much for all the responses. I really appreciate that.

Thanks,
Ken

 

[kttran_2005]

Hi All,
I posted the same question in the DIY section hoping for more answers. I got a few questions that i just answered it. More likely there was a root caused there. Anyway, here is the post (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1975176). Please let me know if you can confirm the problem. That way i can learn from my mistakes.

Thanks,
Ken