My first major SPS issue. Picture heavy

Well the battle continues. Tested Ca, Alk and Mg tonight again and the alkalinity seems fairly stable but Ca and Mg is still a major issue.

Alk: 8.2
Ca: 313
Mg: 1000

Can I really drop from 379 to 313 in just 24h? Did the test twice. One time with my Hanna Checker and one time with the Red Sea Pro kit. They both matched. Granted I have reduced the dosing for Ca due to it being in the 500 before. Will up the dosing some and try to manually bring it up with about 40 ppm per day.

Mg was 1100 last time I checked 4 days ago. A water change happened between as well. Seems like a big drop for just 4 days unless the 1100 was really 10XX instead.

On the good side is that I have not seen any further STN/RTN. Hopefully I have stopped the fall by now.
 
Looks like you have dinos and cyano as well on top of that parameters swing.
a dino plague alone can produce a condition like what you have.
Some of your corals look like mine did after last years week long vacation.
 
Don't think it is dinos as it does not have the characteristic string with a bubble at the end. I do think you are correct regarding cyano. Have some red cyano on the sand bed, mainly in the rear corners. Need to get more flow there.
 
Darn vacations, seems like something always happens when we are away. Last fall, my ATO went berserk when I was on vacation and it caused parameters to get out of whack... then I had a cyano breakout. Like someone here said, patience and diligence will pay off. It took several months for my system to get stability around the parameters again. The cyano is a pita. Just a lot of siphoning, water changes, GFO, elbow grease. I have a few small patches of cyano left, but its on the decline. Many folks suggested higher flow...perhaps areas of lower flow allow more nutrients to accumulate providing fuel for the cyano to thrive.

Hang in there. I was fortunate that I didn't lose any of my sps, but the majority were damaged, and all of them have come back.
 
ojonas81 said:
Well the battle continues. Tested Ca, Alk and Mg tonight again and the alkalinity seems fairly stable but Ca and Mg is still a major issue.

Alk: 8.2
Ca: 313
Mg: 1000

Can I really drop from 379 to 313 in just 24h? Did the test twice. One time with my Hanna Checker and one time with the Red Sea Pro kit. They both matched. Granted I have reduced the dosing for Ca due to it being in the 500 before. Will up the dosing some and try to manually bring it up with about 40 ppm per day.

Mg was 1100 last time I checked 4 days ago. A water change happened between as well. Seems like a big drop for just 4 days unless the 1100 was really 10XX instead.

On the good side is that I have not seen any further STN/RTN. Hopefully I have stopped the fall by now.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't chase Ca and Mg. If you get your Alk / PO4 stable, then the other levels will fall in line with water changes, dosing, etc. I would worry about alk stability first.
 
Alkalinity seems to be stable again. Phosphate is going down and hopefully soon back to a better level. Going the right way. Need to replace the GFO tomorrow.
 
MAG helps to stabilize ALK and CA. I would get your MAG up to the 13XX range then work on stabilizing your ALK (Which sounds like your doing good there) then work on your CA. I wouldn't trust your CA readings at this point and would expect some ups and downs with your water changes BUT again, if your MAG is low, I would expect weird readings on your ALK and CA until your MAG is back up correctly.

I know by personal experience that when my MAG was low (1100) my CA readings (Red Sea Pro Kit and API) went from 340 to 500 randomly day by day and I still don't know why.

Good Luck
 
This is just an observation and probably not very helpful but you say the tank has been up about a year but I don't really see any significant coraline growth on the overflow. At one year if all your parameters are stable within in acceptable ranges and you have a good light source that entire overflow should be covered in purple. Obviously not the case if you scrape the back but it looks like you have some tiny tube worms on the overflow which suggests to me you at least don't scape that part. Could it be you have had some other issues going on prior to the vacation? Obviously that dosnt explain the swing in the other parameters. Anyway something to think about. I always used coraline growth as the first indicator that my tank is ready for sps.
 
dtum said:
Has anything about your lighting change recently?
Click to expand...

Not before vacation. I have reduced the intensity some after in order to help with the suffering SPS. Nothing major though.

kalgra said:
This is just an observation and probably not very helpful but you say the tank has been up about a year but I don't really see any significant coraline growth on the overflow. At one year if all your parameters are stable within in acceptable ranges and you have a good light source that entire overflow should be covered in purple. Obviously not the case if you scrape the back but it looks like you have some tiny tube worms on the overflow which suggests to me you at least don't scape that part. Could it be you have had some other issues going on prior to the vacation? Obviously that dosnt explain the swing in the other parameters. Anyway something to think about. I always used coraline growth as the first indicator that my tank is ready for sps.
Click to expand...

I do have coraline growth all over the rock work and in my fuge but for some reason it wont grow as good on the overflow area. At least not in the front.Used to check the big three one every other to third week before the trip and nothing unusual in any of those readings.

Here is a picture of the side of the overflow and for some reason it has a lot more coraline growth than the front. This is a place that do not get a lot of light although it is alo one of the few places in the tank that are experiencing some, very short but still, indirect sunlight.

_MG_3529-Edit.jpg


Here is a picture of the drain pipes in my remote fuge that is plumbed into the same system as the main tank (teed off the main return line). As you can see, it is loaded with coraline here. Not sure why unless the lights in the fuge is way more advantageous for coraline growth than the main DT?

_MG_3530-Edit.jpg
 
The results are in for a fresh mixed water with my IO Reef Crystals.

Alk: 7.0
Ca: 471
Mg: 1200

To me this seems a little strange and might be one reason why I am having such issues. According to the label it should mix with Ca at 450, Mg at 1355. There are no information regarding alkalinity on the box but it seems like most people get somewhere around 10-13 with a new batch. Something is definitely off here.

Tested the main tank as well and it came up with the following:

Alk: 8.1
Ca: 393
Mg: 1100

Going the right way slowly and steadily. Will change out the carbon and GFO tonight in order to further reduce the phosphate which still is a little on the high side.
 
Seems like I have both Ca and Alk. in check now. Last nights testing gave the following results:

Alk. 8.4
Ca: 388

Will work on raising Ca to about 440 over the next couple of days. Will also start working on bringing Mg up as well. Think it is about time to hook up my Mg doser from BRS now as the consumption has started to raise.
 
New tests are in. Still stable so hope it will stay that way. Got Ca where I want it too. Phosphate still a little high but coming down slowly. Will increase magnesium next as well. Mixed up my very first magnesium batch tonight using BRS stuff. Thinking of putting my doser online for it too but the tank does not consume a lot of it yet.

Alk: 8.1
Ca: 433
Mg: 1100
PO4: 0.10
 
I can't agree more this was the one thing that was missing in my tank for the longest time. Now that I dose mag my alk and calcium is always in check 7.7 dkh and 420 ppm calcium (running biopellets that's y alk is lower lol) I would try to get mag up to 1350 then concentrate on calcium and alk. Your phos is a bit high, I would add a bit of gfo to your tank not to much start slow. Are u using rodi water?


Gagonzalez said:
MAG helps to stabilize ALK and CA. I would get your MAG up to the 13XX range then work on stabilizing your ALK (Which sounds like your doing good there) then work on your CA. I wouldn't trust your CA readings at this point and would expect some ups and downs with your water changes BUT again, if your MAG is low, I would expect weird readings on your ALK and CA until your MAG is back up correctly.

I know by personal experience that when my MAG was low (1100) my CA readings (Red Sea Pro Kit and API) went from 340 to 500 randomly day by day and I still don't know why.

Good Luck
Click to expand...
 
Working my way up with the Mg. In the 1200 today. Hopefully in a couple of days I will be right at 1350 or thereabouts.

I am working on reducing the phosphates. I am running GFO and have been doing so since day 1 of the tank. Had an issue after the vacation where the media solidified and I had to get a new media holder. It is going down now slowly but steadily. I am, and always have been using RO/DI water from my own unit. The filters are up for replacement but I still have TDS = 0.
 
Latest testing reveals that I am very stable with my alkalinity. My magnesium is finally up at better levels, 1400 but my calcium is low at 346. I contribute that to the fact that the tank has started to recover and thus use more calcium and to the fact that I probably need to increase my dosing amounts per day. I had Ca lower than my alk. and they should really consume about the same. My SG was also a tad bit low at 1.025 so will raise it back up to 1.026 as well. Things have started to regain some color which is a good sign.
 
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