I think i mess up!

[leicobra]

Hi fellow reefers,

I got a little problem with my tank that I couldn't solve. I started the tank in Feb this year. Although I can't say for sure is water related issue, I am looking for some answers.

my tank is a Nuvo 40 with and custom 10 gallon sump ( 45 GL total - all the rocks) chaeto in sump with 1LT seachem matrix. 40lb of live rock with no sand bed.

I use reef crystal and do about 10% weekly water changes.
paramater are:

ALK 9.8 red sea
Cal 470 red sea
Mag 1400 red sea
nitrate 5-10 salifert
phos 0.06 hanna
For reasons I don't understand my ph always stays at 8.5
I know my nitrate got a little high when my tank started to have algae and some of my sps started to brown out. Tested (close to 50) phos still low due to the phosban reactor. so I did a water change 10%. tested after 8 hours ( nitrate at 25) still high but was okay for me in 1 day. next morning waking up my table acro started peeling off the tip. today it turned white top to bottom along with some other acro. slimmer has no PET. color are kind of paled as well. monti are doing well. btw. I remember recently I stop use carbon. could that be one of the reason? could there be more undissolved organics in the water cause this?

Lee

 

[chgoblknazn]

8.5 is not bad for ph. Is this what you are concerned with? The other numbers seem fine to me. Also, what light are you using?

 

[leicobra]

8.5 is not bad for ph. Is this what you are concerned with? The other numbers seem fine to me. Also, what light are you using?

I have a 6 bulb Sun power by ATI. 12.5 inches above the water.
Channel 1 2 blue plus on 11am -8pm channel 2 ( 4 bulb on 12pm to 4:30pm)
When I had my big tank I struggled to keep my ph up. Level are alway at 8.0-8.3. I guess I am new to this 8.5 thing.

 

[bertoni]

I agree that 8.5 is fine for pH. There might be some accuracy issues with the measurement, but photosynthesis can drive the pH up quite a bit. The nutrient levels (nitrate and phosphate) are a little high, and that sometimes is correlated with stony coral problems. I might cut back on the feeding for a bit to see what happens. I'd also restart the activated carbon. Given that corals are receding, a few 15% water changes might be in order, too.

 

[OoNickoC]

If you drop your nitrates a bite by backing off on feeding it might dampen the chaeto growth and will not consume as mush CO2...
thus dropping the PH a bit. That is really fine tuning that that completely unnecessary, anywhere from 8-8.5 is more than fine in a basic setup as long as its consistent over time. I noticed that with the chaeto reactor on my 10 gallon that I actually had to throttle back my pruning as ph would drop from 8.2 to 7 ish if i went ham on it. In a sump the swing can be much harder with pruning considering the bio-mass can be far higher than in a reactor.

 

[leicobra]

I agree that 8.5 is fine for pH. There might be some accuracy issues with the measurement, but photosynthesis can drive the pH up quite a bit. The nutrient levels (nitrate and phosphate) are a little high, and that sometimes is correlated with stony coral problems. I might cut back on the feeding for a bit to see what happens. I'd also restart the activated carbon. Given that corals are receding, a few 15% water changes might be in order, too.

Thanks Bertoni,
I am planning to put in a bag of Chemi pure. As far as water changes. I will do 2 15% this week maybe 3 days apart. Stoped feeding 2 days ago and monitoring nitrate level.
I understand that this is a nutrient export related issue. Thinking of using more either marine pure or siprox for long term solution. Would you recommend these things?

 

[crawlerman]

I know people set up tanks and have success with sps from the start, but every time I put acros in a tank less than a year old they STN/RTN. Seems like at about a year diatoms, cyano and hair algae are gone and the coralline takes off, then all is well. At least until I screw something up.

 

[bertoni]

The MarinePure and the siporax both would be useful to reduce the nitrate level. I'm not sure how much they'll help with the phosphate, but giving them a shot is reasonable. Hopefully, the water changes and carbon will help in the mean time.

 

[leicobra]

The MarinePure and the siporax both would be useful to reduce the nitrate level. I'm not sure how much they'll help with the phosphate, but giving them a shot is reasonable. Hopefully, the water changes and carbon will help in the mean time.

Thanks Bertoni, I think I have the miss understanding of carbon is bad. in the past i run them in a reactor for a few days. they always get clog up for some reason. finally, i had enough and took them out. how long do you run them in your tank before you change it out?

 

[bertoni]

I changed the carbon (along with the GFO) every month. You might want to change it more frequently for a while, since the tank is having problems. The carbon might be saturated fairly quickly.

 

[leicobra]

I changed the carbon (along with the GFO) every month. You might want to change it more frequently for a while, since the tank is having problems. The carbon might be saturated fairly quickly.

got it will do that. Thank you.

 

[leicobra]

good news is my water seems clear then 2 days's ago. put in some carbon and purigen.
starting to see more polyp extension. still not feeding yet.

Nitrate still a little hight 15 - 20
phosphate 0.02
calcium 450
alk 9 dkh
mag 1400

again I have to bring up my PH. this afternoon my apex show 8.6. I grab my salifert ph test kit. 8.6 as well. should I be worried about it? calcium and Alk seems not balanced also. I think may be because of the water changes.

 

[bertoni]

The calcium and alkalinity levels are fine as is. I'm not sure what you mean by "balance" here. 8.6 is high enough that I'd look into adding more aeration, but it should be safe. Any higher could start to be a problem.

 

[leicobra]

The calcium and alkalinity levels are fine as is. I'm not sure what you mean by "balance" here. 8.6 is high enough that I'd look into adding more aeration, but it should be safe. Any higher could start to be a problem.

thanks for the reply Bertoni

tested my water just now.
Alk 9
mag 1400
ca 440
nitrate 5-10
phos 0

aeration? isn't high ph cause by lack of CO2 in the water? I also need to make a note that I use 4 tsp of seachem reef builder in my Ato to keep my alk stable. Now come to think of it. I didn't have a high Ph issue when I used Kalk. Could it be the reef builder I am using?

 

[leicobra]

thanks for the reply Bertoni

tested my water just now.
Alk 9
mag 1400
ca 440
nitrate 5-10
phos 0

aeration? isn't high ph cause by lack of CO2 in the water? I also need to make a note that I use 4 tsp of seachem reef builder in my Ato to keep my alk stable. Now come to think of it. I didn't have a high Ph issue when I used Kalk. Could it be the reef builder I am using?

I have just read the article on aeration to lowering ph. my bad. I will give it a try.