Mark's 150 gallon

[drawman]

Did you mean PO4? I just realized that I tested a day before and after I sent the Triton test and got .03 and .08 via the Hanna ULR. Could it be jumping around that much?

Sample was taken on the 21st and sent out on the 22nd.

Yeah that's quite the difference but it's probably tough to know what the Hanna ULR is doing with a control to test. Do the vials look dirty at all (fingerprints, etc.)? I haven't had too much of a chance to get used to my ULR yet so maybe others can speak on it.

 

[rovster]

What is your nitrate at?

 

[markalot]

What is your nitrate at?

5 to 10, fairly stable via Salifert kit.

 

[afernandez]

Wow interesting results !

On another note glad things are making a comeback !

Your making me want to get this triton test done .

 

[mhucasey]

I think the tank was just plain filthy due to poor exports and irregular water changes. I notice now the colors of both the male and female anthias have improved as well as the midas blenny. Food is the same so this must be water quality.

Sandbed is still covered in green cyano so I think the best plan of action is to continue larger than normal water changes, at least weekly if not twice a week. I did another deep cleaning of the skimmer and will see how it performs over the next few days. I've got it skimming wetter which used to work ok but lately leads to overflows. Perhaps not sucking air from outside will help.

Something interesting from Joes thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=24439841&postcount=391

 

[reefmutt]

Did you mean PO4? I just realized that I tested a day before and after I sent the Triton test and got .03 and .08 via the Hanna ULR. Could it be jumping around that much?

Sample was taken on the 21st and sent out on the 22nd.

Yeah that's quite the difference but it's probably tough to know what the Hanna ULR is doing with a control to test. Do the vials look dirty at all (fingerprints, etc.)? I haven't had too much of a chance to get used to my ULR yet so maybe others can speak on it.

Isn't there a margin of error in the checkers of +/- .04? I seem to recall that number..
I have to say that I have owned/used at least 7 hammer checkers.. Mostly the ulr but also the regular one and I have never but never been convinced of having decently reliable results.. Whether it's the reagent issues or the margin of error or just their inconsistent behavior...
I went back to titration testing and never looked back. The Elos High Resolution test kit being my favorite.. But the red sea isn't horrible either..

The zinc discussion is interesting - as is the link to Jo thread on the i group in triton testing..

All the more reason to look into Micro e... Thanks, Matt..

Mark things are looking better and better..
Have you ever considered a ca reactor?

 

[biggles]

Great to see the water changes having a very positive impact Mark, keep doing them mate as it's obvious there was something present or lacking in the water that had a toxic effect on the corals by the looks of things.

 

[markalot]

PO4 .05 (16) this morning after feeding just 3 small rounds of flake yesterday. Obviously something I'm feeding is raising PO4 temporarily, or at least fooling the tests. GFO may have brought it back down, last changed 3 weeks ago.

Most corals continue to improve. All stags have hard encrusting edges now near damage both on the tips and at the base. My little frag of green w blue polys monti is showing green again while my near dead blue monti digitata is coming back to life. Red cap is ok, still a long way to go.

I have noticed that any coral put on the sandbed suffers quickly. I have a lepastrea that has receded while all the others in the tank, higher up on the rocks, are fine. Possibly it's wicking up nastiness from a dirty sandbed?

Water changes and vaccing small areas of the sandbed each time is the rule for now. Aiming for twice weekly until I'm convinced the tank is ok again.

 

[markalot]

*sigh*

Unfortunately the news is not as good as I though. The slimer was irritated when the lights came on and it appears recession might be continuing. So whatever is happening is not testable and seems to continually come back in waves?

I took a bunch of macros with pumps off and a tri-pod. Will post smaller thumbnails, click to see full size.

All of these taken about 2 hours after a 20 gallon water change. There were no visible changes pre to post change.

This is the test frag, it's losing tissue in this area only.


Slimer base that is irritated and has lost color.


Slimer tip that was half dead and now nearly recovered.


Valida has 5 discolored tips now, some missing skin. Here is the most recent to start suffering.


Palmers Blue with one damaged tip, one partially damaged, and one apparently unscathed.


Base of the blue stag, apparently no longer receding.


Flashlight view of a dead slimer area. Thankfully nothing there except dead.


Cousin It milli with some damage but thankfully does not appear to be getting worse.

 

[markalot]

Monti's do appear to be slowly improving without any regression.





This was grey and colorless just a few days ago.


Stylo frags doing well.


Other frags holding color so far, and the Hawkins echinata is improving daily.


I have NO FAITH in this tank and I assume eventually everything will show a decline. Really getting tired of this crap. :headwally:

 

[nemodan]

Unfortunately Mark we are on the same boat.

Based on your previous postings I though the tank was improving, but this last one......

The test Acro is a big Question.....Why ??????


I wish you the best !!!!!!

Daniel

 

[Bpb]

Have you considered going acro fallow for a period of months and trying again? I know it's an obvious suggestion but it could be a pest

 

[markalot]

Have you considered going acro fallow for a period of months and trying again? I know it's an obvious suggestion but it could be a pest

Doesn't explain acros, montis, pocis, and stylos all suffering. Maybe?

But yes, if they all die I will go without. Certainly no more SPS purchases for a long while!

 

[markalot]

Unfortunately Mark we are on the same boat.

Based on your previous postings I though the tank was improving, but this last one......

The test Acro is a big Question.....Why ??????


I wish you the best !!!!!!

Daniel

Thanks Daniel!

 

[markalot]

The Hanna ULR checker failed me this evening, but I suspected it would. FOr 2 days I avoided feeding reef roids. Hanna started at .14, next day was .04, and the next day, just before feeding, was .05 (within margin of error). After taking yesterdays reading I fed flake and 1/4 tsp Reef Roids. Today, 24 hours later, Hanna reads .16 (55). I test again, 53.

Pull out the Elos Pro kit, colro is clearly in the very low range between .04 and .02.

3 days ago after the .14 reading I had increased flow to the GFO reactor. The red cap had lightened again over the last few days, I suspect due to low PO4 from the very beginning.

Today I backed off the GFO to just a trickle.

So why in the world is Reef Roids fooling the Hanna so bad?

 

[mhucasey]

The Hanna ULR checker failed me this evening, but I suspected it would. FOr 2 days I avoided feeding reef roids. Hanna started at .14, next day was .04, and the next day, just before feeding, was .05 (within margin of error). After taking yesterdays reading I fed flake and 1/4 tsp Reef Roids. Today, 24 hours later, Hanna reads .16 (55). I test again, 53.

Pull out the Elos Pro kit, colro is clearly in the very low range between .04 and .02.

3 days ago after the .14 reading I had increased flow to the GFO reactor. The red cap had lightened again over the last few days, I suspect due to low PO4 from the very beginning.

Today I backed off the GFO to just a trickle.

So why in the world is Reef Roids fooling the Hanna so bad?

Because it's a piece of Crap. That's the technical explanation:lol: I'd stick with the Elos kit. I chased so much bad data from Hana checkers, never again!

 

[Acronic]

Hey mark. Sorry you are having issues. I just went over most of your thread. While reading I kept wanting to skip ahead and post my thoughts but you are ticking most the boxes now.

My suggestions for you would be to remove the carbon source from the equation. Consider switching from kalk to dosing alk on a peristaltic pump for increased control.

Do bigger water changes. If alk is too high in your asw bring it down with some muriatic acid. Make sure PH is within 0.3 and temp equal. Do a 30% change and four 25% changes back to back.

Don't worry about the Po4 and No3 so much. Keep the GFO to a minimum and use water changes to combat.

Basically take a step back and really evaluate any interactions with the tank. Know what you are trying to achieve with dosing stuff.

Getting back to the basics is your best bet.

Good luck. And I hope things keep improving for you.

Edit. Also wanted to add that a few pages back it was noted that you have dinoflagellates. I believe this is true and would be a good idea to take this into consideration.

 

[markalot]

Hey mark. Sorry you are having issues. I just went over most of your thread. While reading I kept wanting to skip ahead and post my thoughts but you are ticking most the boxes now.

My suggestions for you would be to remove the carbon source from the equation. Consider switching from kalk to dosing alk on a peristaltic pump for increased control.

Do bigger water changes. If alk is too high in your asw bring it down with some muriatic acid. Make sure PH is within 0.3 and temp equal. Do a 30% change and four 25% changes back to back.

Don't worry about the Po4 and No3 so much. Keep the GFO to a minimum and use water changes to combat.

Basically take a step back and really evaluate any interactions with the tank. Know what you are trying to achieve with dosing stuff.

Getting back to the basics is your best bet.

Good luck. And I hope things keep improving for you.

Edit. Also wanted to add that a few pages back it was noted that you have dinoflagellates. I believe this is true and would be a good idea to take this into consideration.

Hi Kevin, thanks for commenting. I think I've checked all those boxes except two. I'm still dosing about 15ml Vinegar a day via topoff and Kalk, and I'm using Kalk and not two part due to low PH issues if I stop Kalk dosing.

I must say since pulling the skimmer line to the outside I was able to get the skimmer dialed back in to a nice thick brown chunky liquid, filling a quarter of the cup nightly, half the cup in 24 hours. This is where I want to be.

 

[markalot]

I dipped the teal stag last night (Bayer) with the goal of keeping it mainly intact. Once in the dip the base started to peal up from the dead area so I chopped it up into 7 large pieces and then mounted most of them back on the rock. A blue stag forest.

Decided to do the same to the slimer. Good god I forgot how much slime this thing can produce. Cut into 3 large pieces, I think I got all the dead areas out. Slime on me, on the carpet, on the side of the tank, on my shirt ... wife asking what that smell is. :lolspin:

The skimmer overflowed about halfway through to put a special bouquet on the slimer smell.

Now hopefully things will continue to improve and both the stags will do some encrusting.

The dip contained a lot of specs, hopefully bugs, but nothing that looked like a flatworm or any other recognizable pest.

 

[andrewbram]

Hi Kevin, thanks for commenting. I think I've checked all those boxes except two. I'm still dosing about 15ml Vinegar a day via topoff and Kalk, and I'm using Kalk and not two part due to low PH issues if I stop Kalk dosing.

I must say since pulling the skimmer line to the outside I was able to get the skimmer dialed back in to a nice thick brown chunky liquid, filling a quarter of the cup nightly, half the cup in 24 hours. This is where I want to be.

You can make your own two part to dose using Randy Holmes Farley recipe and not bake the baking soda and that'll help with ph I agree 2 part will give will give you a little bit more stability at the moment. The reason being you can set it to give it at exactly the same times for a period of time