need help please!!!!

[moonp13]

So i just got 10 new sps corals in two days ago. The lokani was doing kinda poor cuz he broke off the base but i glued him back on and hes doing fine now. The pearlberry that I got however is 95% bleached.

I looked at my parameters and i have:
520 calcium
6 dkh
0 nitrate, 0 phosphate, 0 nitrite, 0 ammonia

Im pretty sure the alkalinity is pretty low for that high of calcium. Actually, I dont even know why its that high. I havent added any calcium supplements.

Any help would be appreciated. I dont want to lose any other coral and the ones I have know are looking kinda wimpy.

 

[moonp13]

oregon tort
your reef austera
setosa
lokani
pearlberry
roscoes
HOC
Clints Red stag
Palettas Blue
Limeade Nasuta

these are what came in if it helps.
My temp is 80.7

 

[Reef264]

Your Calcium being high, and Your Alkalinity being low, It leads me to believe your Magnesium levels are suffering.

Try to keep your temp at around 78, Temperature above 80F is a common cause of Rapid Tissue Necrosis (RTN).

Hope your corals do very well!

 

[moonp13]

mag level is 1700ppm according to Red sea pro mag test kit.

And unless the #1 component of the two part bionic alkalinity supplement raised the magnesium, I havent dosed anything to make it that high. I use reef crystals salt mix.

Lol, not sure if this is normal, but I tested my pH and its ~7.4. I think this is normal after adding alkalinity supplement right?

 

[moonp13]

Its(pH) back at 8.0 now...lolz

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

I would test again, or have someone else test to verify. How old are your test kits?

 

[moonp13]

the calcium and alt test kits are about a year old. the mag test is not even 3 months. i tested the pH three more times after the first and each said ~8.0. The first test I did was right after I added the alk dose.

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

What salt are you using?
How long has the tank been running?
How big is the tank?
How many corals?

Pretty hard for calcium to get that high, esp. if you are not adding calcium.

 

[moonp13]

I am using reef crystals salt mix from instant ocean.
The tank has been running since 9/20/2011
It is a 65 gallon.
Currently, there are:
Blue hawkins
hammer coral
unknown small test sps coral
oregon tort
your reef austera
setosa
lokani
pearlberry(dead basically)
roscoes
HOC
Clints Red stag
Palettas Blue
Limeade Nasuta

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Water changes?

Have you ever added calcium?

 

[moonp13]

just did like a 45% water change about 2-3 weeks ago. I also JUST got those corals 2 days ago. and my nitrite/nitrate/ammonium/phosphate are all ~0. I have never added calcium.

The only remarkable things in my tank right now are cyanobacteria(covered my tank for 4 days to try and kill them. One patch left.Also before new arrivals) and a bunch of little white speck sized tube worms(And I mean a lot! Maybe a thousand throughout the tank).

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

I would still question your test kit. Try different brand, or take it to a shop that tests.

If you never add calcium, I just don't see it being that high. It should be precipitating out, and crusting up on pumps and such at that level.

 

[moonp13]

I'm taking some water to the LFS in a bit

 

[moonp13]

Hydrometer was reading wrong. Actual was 1.03/ 40 ppt. What's best course of action?

 

[Zack33]

Use a series of water changes to slowly lower your levels until you get it to the level you want it at. Just take it slow, changing it to faster can do more harm than good, maybe try to change it by .002 each time or so, maybe even a little less.

HTH,
Zack

 

[FragIt Dan]

Salinity ar 1.030 would be a smoking gun for me. If it were my tank I would pull the salinity down to 1.027 pronto, like over the next few hours, and then pull it down to 1.025 maybe 12 hours later. I would do this by replacing a gallon of tank water with a gallon of fresh water until you hit your target. (salinity may take a while to reflect the dilution so don't overdo it).

I had some corals not doing so well a while ago and attributed it to my salinity being at 1.028, I pulled it down to 1.025 within a few hours and they slowly recovered over the next few days.

This is only an opinion and I might be wrong about this, so if someone posts something different with confidence, you might want to take their word on it. This was just my experience and it could have been something unrelated to salinity, but IMO, it was the salinity. I had ruled out all the other usual suspects.

Either way, best of luck!