I can not keep SPS anymore :(

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bigbuckdown

New member
I had a nice setup a few months ago. Plenty of sticks. People would come over and love my reef tank. Then I upgraded and since then every time a stick goes in it comes out with no skin in a few weeks time. I have been driving myself crazy doing daily water tests especially alk using salifert and hanna meter and my tests come back perfect. When I setup the new tank 5 months ago the corals started taking off.Encrusting and growing fast then the road block hit and started losing corals every night. Im growing coraline like a mad man and I have no algae AT ALL in the tank. It takes at least 7 days before I have to clean the glass
ALK 8.3 to 8.7
cal 420 to 430
mag 1320 to 1350
po4 0.0 to 0,02
no3 .15 to .10
salinity 1.025
temp 76 to 78
ph 7.9 to 8.2
I run carbon and rowaphos
using red sea salt
I cant for the life of me figure out whats going on. I have lost all my old colonies of acropora,montipora,birdsnest,stylos nothing stays alive for more then 2 to 3 weeks. I have put polypads in with no color change,switched
salts,changed lighting schedules,took my calcium reactor offline i have tried everything and still cant keep any SPS alive.Now I had success ith SPS before the upgrade but now I cant keep anything alive :( Can anyone please give me advise on what to check for now? I am stumped and getting tired of it
 
This is just something I was thinking it could be since I checked almost everything already. Silicone from sump leaching something into water column. I used GE silicone to do 1 of the sumps. I let it cure for a week but who knows. I bought some rocks from another site members tank when I set it up maybe something is leaching from his rocks that Im not testing for or I went BB with cutting board maybe something is leaching from the cutting board? Like I said these are the last 3 things on my mind that it could possibly be
 
Possibly not enough nutrients? If your glass stays clean for 7 days and you are running rowaphos and carbon, you may think about taking the rowaphos offline for a while and see how things go.
 
Tried that for awhile with the same results. Had the GFO off for a month because I thought that was what was killing my corals. PO4 went up and corals were still dying. I have about 25 fish which include 6 tangs and i feed everyday sometimes 2 times with pellets and algae sheets. I do 25 gallons a week using ro/di on a 160 gallon of total water volume system
 
bigbuck, it could possibly be the cutting board. the owner of a LFS replaced his with the high quality stuff and his tank began to recover quickly. he said the original one was a cheap one.
 
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Hm, so the only things different from when you had success with them is the new rock/cutting bnoard and the silicone, nothing else changed equipment wise(except for the tank obviously)?

If it was the rock, like maybe copper in it, it should affect all coral not just SPS. If it is the board, could be what they used to seal it with although it shouldnt be anything bad since it is meant to be used with raw foods. Also for your Alk and PH you are giving ranges, how often do those values change and by how much? .3 to .4 can be a decent difference in PH and Alk if it is changing that much in a short time.
 
Sorry to hear this. Five months is a pretty short period of time for a new tank. My first suggestion would be to not change anything (i.e. don't switch salts or change calcium/alk dosing procedures if your parameters are stable). To echo chopper, my first guess would be too little nutrients, but if you have nitrates at 0.10 to 0.15, and phosphates up to 0.02, that isn't the case (in fact I would suggest maybe trying to bring your nitrate down to 0.05). I would suggest rowaphos as a potential culprit, did you make any drastic changes in this regard? Did you use any products that really cleared up the water and let the light torch the corals? Are you sure your source water is 0 TDS? Maybe if you post some pictures as well it could help point the potential source of the problem. If it is a plastic cutting board, wouldn't that be food safe? Maybe it could be the silicone... I thought the standard was to stay away from anything with additives in it (i.e. the mold resistant kind), I'd double check that it was reef safe.
 
Many cutting boards are infused with bisphenols such as Triclosan. Perhaps it is only in enough concentration to effect sensitive SPS corals.
 
The silicone had no mildew inhibitors. I asked on another board which silicone to use and people told me that this was the one. I bought this cutting board from cuttingboard.com and told them it was for a fishtank. They said many people have called for this. My SPS are not the only corals effected its also some LPS but zoas are doing fine. I have a ground probe in the sump. As for my ranges its varies within the ranges I gave. Not a big change so didnt think it is that. My old setup would jump alot more with no effects on my tank. Tds reads zero on my meter. I was losing corals using BRS GFO and still losing since switching to rowaphos. I am doing less then recommended with rowa and carbon
 
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I have used the cutting board for a long time with no issues at all. BUT

Is your cutting board HDP (High density Polycarbonate) or what ? There ARE some materials that look like HDP but it's not.

Make sure of it. Or simply remove it and see what happens.
 
bigbuckdown said:
What do you guys think of the Ecigarette smoke? Do you think that could be doing something to the water
Click to expand...

I vape around my tank, and am currently having some STN, but I've been vaping around the tank for over a year with no problems prior. :smokin:
 
Not talking about regular smoke Im talking about electric cigarettes. This started happening just about the time I started vaping. Could be just a coincedence though. Im trying to think of everything. This is so frustrating
 
The nicotine in the eliquid is very concentrated and it can absorb through your skin. If you put your hands in the water this could leach out. Even if you wash your hands it can still be there. Could be a possibility
 
also how do the SPS die ? STN ? RTN ? or loosing tissue form tips ?

have you dipped any dying ones to make sure no pest ?

lastly, are you calibrating the refractometer.
 
Went through the same thing recently. Im still trying to figure it out. Any SPS I put in dies after my tank crashed. The only things that died were SPS. Zoas, fish, inverts all completely fine.
 
They die in all different way. Skin melting over night,STN from the bottom up and some start from some of the tips. No pests,I dont know of any pests that eat birdsnests or chalices. I had my friend check my salinity with his refractometer. I use calibrating fluid every time I do a water change. I have checked all the usual suspects. Alk swings,temp,pests,salinity,polypads ph I ve done all the usual tests. I cant figure it out. I was even thinking maybe the flex hose I used but many peole have used that. I checked for rust on all my equipment,stray current there is something going on I cant test for and I dont know what :(
 
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