I don't like the growth I see..........

Here is where I am at today.

Have not run GFO.
Have not dosed vinegar.

My levels went up in a few areas, some shot up.

Nitrate - 30-40
Nitrite - 0ppppm
ph - 7.4
Alkalinity - 143ppm
magnesium 1500
calcium 400ppm
phosphate 1.0

The nitrate used to be 0... GFO and vinegar shut off made it jump.

So what do you guys think I need to focus on and improve level wise?
 
You will need to moderate the amount of dosing to get your nitrates down to 2 to 10 ppm. And also your phosphates slightly. Birdsnest and GSP are very low light so beg or borrow a PAR meter to check on your light levels to help with the rest of your coral. On your light do you have 2 x 16" or one 32"?
 
alton said:
You will need to moderate the amount of dosing to get your nitrates down to 2 to 10 ppm. And also your phosphates slightly. Birdsnest and GSP are very low light so beg or borrow a PAR meter to check on your light levels to help with the rest of your coral. On your light do you have 2 x 16" or one 32"?
Click to expand...

I figured it is only a matter of time I started dosing, just starting fresh and getting the right level.

I have one large light shown below as attachment
 

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I know some people say to let pH be, but 7.4 seems really low. Oceans are about 8.1 and with climate change, they used to be slightly higher. Even at just below 8.1 corals in the wild start dying in droves. Obviously a tank isn’t the ocean so not exactly comparable. But still, 7.4 is really far below.
 
Oiler3535 said:
I know some people say to let pH be, but 7.4 seems really low. Oceans are about 8.1 and with climate change, they used to be slightly higher. Even at just below 8.1 corals in the wild start dying in droves. Obviously a tank isn't the ocean so not exactly comparable. But still, 7.4 is really far below.
Click to expand...


I am not sure why.. I thought it was vinegar overdose.. so I wheened that off. GFO off as well.
 
I have to add my tank is in my basement. I also have glass tops on the tank, and the refugium has partial glass top.
 
Low pH can be caused by poor gas exchange (which can be exasperated by the glass tops) and/or high levels of CO2 in your home. You can test for this fairly easily with a cup, a small air pump, and an air stone. Take a cup of your tank water and put it next to your tank. Put the airstone in it with the air pump running for about 30 minutes and then measure the pH of the water in the cup. If it's significantly higher than the pH of the water in your tank, then your tank isn't getting enough gas exchange.

If the pH hasn't gone up significantly, then take the cup and the air pump and put them outside and let it run for another 30 minutes, then test the pH again. If it's gone up this time, then it's likely caused by high levels of CO2 in your house. If this is the case you may be able to help with the pH levels in your tank by running your skimmer's air intake to the outside.
 
Ahh
My brain coral is melting. Is half the size
Torch coral starting to get small exposed skeleton

Phosphate 1.0 and nitrate 20ppm

Not sure if i should vinegar dose again or gfo
 
BrettDS said:
Low pH can be caused by poor gas exchange (which can be exasperated by the glass tops) and/or high levels of CO2 in your home. You can test for this fairly easily with a cup, a small air pump, and an air stone. Take a cup of your tank water and put it next to your tank. Put the airstone in it with the air pump running for about 30 minutes and then measure the pH of the water in the cup. If it's significantly higher than the pH of the water in your tank, then your tank isn't getting enough gas exchange.

If the pH hasn't gone up significantly, then take the cup and the air pump and put them outside and let it run for another 30 minutes, then test the pH again. If it's gone up this time, then it's likely caused by high levels of CO2 in your house. If this is the case you may be able to help with the pH levels in your tank by running your skimmer's air intake to the outside.
Click to expand...

I took the 3 jebao pumps and pointed them upwards, disrupting the top of the water so lightly. Measured PH, and it is 8.2-8.4.
is that even possible?
 
chunders said:
I took the 3 jebao pumps and pointed them upwards, disrupting the top of the water so lightly. Measured PH, and it is 8.2-8.4.
is that even possible?
Click to expand...

Possible? Sure. A pH of 7.4 (call it +/- 0.2 with kit and interpretation error) is very very low and probably indicates, as others said, poor gas exchange as well as a reduced buffering capacity in your water. If I were you I'd ditch the glass tops and keep at least one of the powerheads pointed up for a week or so and see what happens. Try and just change one variable at a time, i.e. don't adjust vinegar, GFO, feeding, light schedule, powerheads, etc all at once.

If you need a top for jumping fish, consider a mesh or screen top.

edit: also, try and test your pH around the same time of day if possible. pH swings lower overnight...my tank goes from 8.2 during the day to 8.0 at night as measured by my probe
 
zachogden said:
Possible? Sure. A pH of 7.4 (call it +/- 0.2 with kit and interpretation error) is very very low and probably indicates, as others said, poor gas exchange as well as a reduced buffering capacity in your water. If I were you I'd ditch the glass tops and keep at least one of the powerheads pointed up for a week or so and see what happens. Try and just change one variable at a time, i.e. don't adjust vinegar, GFO, feeding, light schedule, powerheads, etc all at once.

If you need a top for jumping fish, consider a mesh or screen top.

edit: also, try and test your pH around the same time of day if possible. pH swings lower overnight...my tank goes from 8.2 during the day to 8.0 at night as measured by my probe
Click to expand...


Thank you for the feedback.

I put glass covers over 75% of the refugium about 2 months ago. I think I will start there by removing those and seeing how the water changes.

But my questions is why the coral brain looks flattened in some areas on the other edge, fused with the rock, and half the size.

I am trying to understand if that is a high nitrate, or high phosphate or even ph issue.
 
So my ph is 8.0. All I did was change the 2 jebao peacemakers to point up a s cause a ripple at the top of water.

One of my corals starting to show skeleton.
Nitrate 50ppm
Phosphate 1ppm

Just started gfo

Let's see what happens
 
If you can try and run an airline from outside to your skimmer intake and see if that helps even more with the PH.

Didn't you mention you had an APex and were tracking PH all the time now?
 
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