just tested my salt! could this be the reason why my sps are not happy??
- Thread starter murphreef
- Start date
I'm glad to hear your tank is making a recovery.
My tank is starting to bounce back after switching to IO salt. My montipora is starting to color up and extend the polyps. The green slimer which I thought was 100% dead is extending quite a few polyps so there may be hope.
My tank is starting to bounce back after switching to IO salt. My montipora is starting to color up and extend the polyps. The green slimer which I thought was 100% dead is extending quite a few polyps so there may be hope.
Tomoko Schum
New member
I am having the exact same problem with a few of my acros and I have been using IO. But my case is really confusing, mixed with quite a few added factors.
My water parameters are pretty close to the original poster's, except for alk. (Ca: 450, alk: 10 - 12, Mg: 1250, Sg: 0.025, temp: 80 to 81)
The problem showed up during this summer. When I did a large water change, all my acros which were exposed to air and my MH (a aquamedic pendant with two 250DE 14K Phoenix bulbs) slimed really badly. My green slimer slimed the worst, of course. Then the green slimer started showing the problem - the loss of tissues on the surface exposed to the light. So in my case the exposure to the DE lights seems to have triggered the problem.
Shortly after that, a bag of my IO salt got some moisture in it and it started mixing poorly. The problem seemed to spread to a few other acros, but not to all including those exposed to air and MH light. I recently switched my salt to Seachems salt, but the problem is not improving (I only did one 15% water change so far so the result is not conclusive at all.)
I am also thinking about a nutrient imbalance as one of the causes.
I have been trying vodka and prodibio along with coral vitalizer and HCAA (trying to imitate something I read in Iwan's method) since this spring (started with vodka one month ahead of prodibio.) The problem showed up at two months into the prodibio addition (dosed accordingly to manufacturer's suggestion) incidently. My phosphate had been zero, but my nitrate lingered around .1 to .5 ppm level. This never changed. Then my blue eye and yellow striped cardinals started dissappearing one by one over a couple of months on top of the acro problem so I stopped vodka, prodibio, coral vitalizer and HCAA addition. It was about a month ago. My fish stopped dissapearing, but the acro problem is still there. I really don't know if these supplements are related to the acro problem, but it might have caused some nutrient imbalance issue.
In late summer I tweeked my calcium reactor to raise my alkalinity which was hovering right around 9. It has gone up to 12 recently and I am trying to bring it down to around 10. However, this fluctuation did not seem to worsen the condition of acros.
Sorry about my long post. I am just at my wit's end with this. I am trying to take my tank back to the original condition when all my corals were thriving - bringing the alk back down to 10, getting rid of the bad salt and all the supplement additions. No luck so far, though.
Tomoko
My water parameters are pretty close to the original poster's, except for alk. (Ca: 450, alk: 10 - 12, Mg: 1250, Sg: 0.025, temp: 80 to 81)
The problem showed up during this summer. When I did a large water change, all my acros which were exposed to air and my MH (a aquamedic pendant with two 250DE 14K Phoenix bulbs) slimed really badly. My green slimer slimed the worst, of course. Then the green slimer started showing the problem - the loss of tissues on the surface exposed to the light. So in my case the exposure to the DE lights seems to have triggered the problem.
Shortly after that, a bag of my IO salt got some moisture in it and it started mixing poorly. The problem seemed to spread to a few other acros, but not to all including those exposed to air and MH light. I recently switched my salt to Seachems salt, but the problem is not improving (I only did one 15% water change so far so the result is not conclusive at all.)
I am also thinking about a nutrient imbalance as one of the causes.
I have been trying vodka and prodibio along with coral vitalizer and HCAA (trying to imitate something I read in Iwan's method) since this spring (started with vodka one month ahead of prodibio.) The problem showed up at two months into the prodibio addition (dosed accordingly to manufacturer's suggestion) incidently. My phosphate had been zero, but my nitrate lingered around .1 to .5 ppm level. This never changed. Then my blue eye and yellow striped cardinals started dissappearing one by one over a couple of months on top of the acro problem so I stopped vodka, prodibio, coral vitalizer and HCAA addition. It was about a month ago. My fish stopped dissapearing, but the acro problem is still there. I really don't know if these supplements are related to the acro problem, but it might have caused some nutrient imbalance issue.
In late summer I tweeked my calcium reactor to raise my alkalinity which was hovering right around 9. It has gone up to 12 recently and I am trying to bring it down to around 10. However, this fluctuation did not seem to worsen the condition of acros.
Sorry about my long post. I am just at my wit's end with this. I am trying to take my tank back to the original condition when all my corals were thriving - bringing the alk back down to 10, getting rid of the bad salt and all the supplement additions. No luck so far, though.
Tomoko
murphreef
Active member
interesting....
well just keep up on your water changes if i were u id do some larger changes more like 25%.... do one every week for a couple weeks and see how that does....
all i can say is that im extremely happy with TM salt all my acros are healing nicely ill post a pic later of the yellow acro and how its almost healed up in just a short amount of time.....
and BTW Sea Chems salt is the brand that had major issues with low alk and high borate levels so if i were u id switch to a higher quality salt asap and not do anymore water changes with that salt unless u test all parameters b4 doing a water change and supplement whats lacking in the water....
if your levels are in the good range and u have adequete flow and lighting then change ur salt and do some major water changes... 15% wont do much to help a coral rite away.... ive changed out about 125g outta my 180 in the last 2 weeks and everything has done great so do larger changes....
other then that i dont know what else to tell u... i have no experience in dosing vodka or prodibio
well just keep up on your water changes if i were u id do some larger changes more like 25%.... do one every week for a couple weeks and see how that does....
all i can say is that im extremely happy with TM salt all my acros are healing nicely ill post a pic later of the yellow acro and how its almost healed up in just a short amount of time.....
and BTW Sea Chems salt is the brand that had major issues with low alk and high borate levels so if i were u id switch to a higher quality salt asap and not do anymore water changes with that salt unless u test all parameters b4 doing a water change and supplement whats lacking in the water....
if your levels are in the good range and u have adequete flow and lighting then change ur salt and do some major water changes... 15% wont do much to help a coral rite away.... ive changed out about 125g outta my 180 in the last 2 weeks and everything has done great so do larger changes....
other then that i dont know what else to tell u... i have no experience in dosing vodka or prodibio
Tomoko Schum
New member
Thanks for your input. I am going to get some TM salt, do a few water changes over the next two weeks and see what happens.
Tomoko
Tomoko
murphreef
Active member
update....
ive done 4-30g water changes so far since the beginning of this lol
and so far so great!
something in the salt did make my acros unhappy...
anyways heres a pic from today of the healing yellow stag type acro in my tank
i also had a dead orange monti cap that i thought has been a goner for a long time and around the edge on the rock a 1/2" pieces has grown back all orange and polyped out... and growing by the day... this is the main show off that it was the salt i have never had a monti live in my tank and now i have that growing back an orange digi 100% healed and a yellow with purple polyp cap thats growing
anyways just an update heres the pic
ive done 4-30g water changes so far since the beginning of this lol
and so far so great!
something in the salt did make my acros unhappy...
anyways heres a pic from today of the healing yellow stag type acro in my tank
i also had a dead orange monti cap that i thought has been a goner for a long time and around the edge on the rock a 1/2" pieces has grown back all orange and polyped out... and growing by the day... this is the main show off that it was the salt i have never had a monti live in my tank and now i have that growing back an orange digi 100% healed and a yellow with purple polyp cap thats growing
anyways just an update heres the pic
liquidfunk
Premium Member
anyone know where to find the borate impact on alk? IE, if Borate reads XXppm, how much will that effect alk?
BTW, hi Greg and Tomoko
joel
BTW, hi Greg and Tomoko
joel
Covey
New member
He is a good read on Boron
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/dec2002/chem.htm
After pointing out the Borate issues I red up on it and actually switched to Seachem Reef Salt.
I like the logic behind the elevated Borate...
With in reason.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/dec2002/chem.htm
After pointing out the Borate issues I red up on it and actually switched to Seachem Reef Salt.
I like the logic behind the elevated Borate...
With in reason.
