Need some help please.

C

cardinalfish78

Member
I have had a lot of problems lately with my corals. I have asked many people if they had any idea what could be causing this problem, and I cant figure out whats going on. I am attaching a couple of before and after pictures of a couple of my corals to give you an idea of what I am talking about. almost everything has started looking bad except for the fish.
My parameters have all tested good, and have not changed at all from the time everything looked good until now.
Let me know what information I can provide that will help with this mystery.

Mark
 

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Hi Mark,
Let's start with listing what your parameters actually are. If you can give us some details about your setup that would help too. What are you doing to maintain levels, dosing, using a calcium reactor, kalk, etc? Are you tracking temp changes? How long has the tank been running?
 
How long has it been since you changed your ro filters too. I had an issue with chloramine now that it's fixed things are looking better.
 
I will try to answer all questions so far.
Tank has been up since early November 2014. I can not think of anything that is different now than it was when everything looked good.

Salinity - 1.025 (Refractometer), PH - 8.2 (API & DA Reefkeeper), Ammonia - 0 (API), Nitrite - 0 (API), Nitrate - 0 (API), KH - 10 (API), Phosphates - 0 (API & Hanna), Calcium - 14 (API), Alkalinity - 160 (Hanna).

Tank is 180 Gallon with Aqueon Proflex 4 sump used as refugium. Hydor Performer 705 Protein Skimmer. DA Reefkeeper Elite. 2 Evergrow 2080 32" LED. 2 Jebao RW-8 Wavemaker. 50 gpd Coralife RO system with DI cartridge added at the outlet. I added the DI canister around the first of February 2015 as well as replacing the sediment filter. I have not changed any of the other filters in the ro/di. It has been in use since around this time last year.

Tank stays at 78 degrees with no more than .1 variation. I use Reef Builder and Reef Buffer to maintain PH and KH.

I never thought of the chloramine problem. Do you think I should change out the carbon blocks in the ro/di?
 
Could be chloramine. Test for it using a Total Chlorine test of the water coming out of your DI. Watch the brs video on this subject. Testing your output from your RO/DI every two weeks to a month, depending how much water you make, will tell you when to change your carbon blocks. If you haven't changed your carbon blocks in a long time and can't change them right away, use Amquel + or prime to treat your newly made water to rid it of chloramines. I have even used it in my reef with no ill effects.

On the buffer your using for PH and KH, look into maintaining your calcium and alk with kalkwasser with a ATO or use two part. I wouldn't chase ph.
 
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run a poly filter and see if it changes color . meantime do a test on ro water and if its good do a change . could be leathers are "fighting " releasing toxins too
 
In my opinion, it looks like you need more flow. Judging by the diatoms sticking to the corals. What do you have for water movement?

Nick
 
cardinalfish78 said:
I will try to answer all questions so far.
Tank has been up since early November 2014. I can not think of anything that is different now than it was when everything looked good.

Salinity - 1.025 (Refractometer), PH - 8.2 (API & DA Reefkeeper), Ammonia - 0 (API), Nitrite - 0 (API), Nitrate - 0 (API), KH - 10 (API), Phosphates - 0 (API & Hanna), Calcium - 14 (API), Alkalinity - 160 (Hanna).

Tank is 180 Gallon with Aqueon Proflex 4 sump used as refugium. Hydor Performer 705 Protein Skimmer. DA Reefkeeper Elite. 2 Evergrow 2080 32" LED. 2 Jebao RW-8 Wavemaker. 50 gpd Coralife RO system with DI cartridge added at the outlet. I added the DI canister around the first of February 2015 as well as replacing the sediment filter. I have not changed any of the other filters in the ro/di. It has been in use since around this time last year.

Tank stays at 78 degrees with no more than .1 variation. I use Reef Builder and Reef Buffer to maintain PH and KH.

I never thought of the chloramine problem. Do you think I should change out the carbon blocks in the ro/di?
Click to expand...

Okay, so your alk is 9-10 dKh depending on the test kit, this is a hair on the high side but looks good. Your calcium is at 280 PPM though according to the API chart. Calcium needs to be between 380 - 450 PPM, so this would explain a lot. As others have said, move away from the reef buffer/builder and go with 2 part, kalk or a calcium reactor to maintain Alk/calc levels. I would also get a magnesium test kit if you don't have one. Magnesium stabilizes the calcium so if it's low you will have a hard time maintaining stable levels. Until you can decide what you want to do to maintain levels, I would do a few large (25%) water changes (a few days apart each so you don't shock the tank) to get the calcium levels back to at least being close in line. Here is some good reading on the subject:http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/

P.S. As others have also mentioned, it wouldn't hurt to take a water sample to a LFS and have them test it to validate that your kits are good before you make any major changes. Water changes are always a safe bet though. ;)
 
I want to thank everyone for the great input. I have been struggling with this problem for a couple of months and I have tried a lot of things. Now I have a couple more to look at.
As for double checking my test results, I have taken water samples to Marine Solutions and they have verified that what I am reading is correct.
I really never thought about the chloramine aspect of this and have decided maybe I should replace my RO filters. I am reading .005 on the TDS right after the RO membrane, and .000 after the DI canister. Do you think the RO membrane is OK and maybe just replace the carbon filters?
As far as the flow issue and the Diatoms, I am using 2 Jabeo RW-8's on opposite ends of the tank, and I have increased them to nearly 100% I will keep an eye on that part.
The last thing I need to do is the Calc dosing. That is probably the part that I have been putting off the longest because I'm not really sure which way to go. I know that there are as many opinions on how to do this as there are hobbyist, but I would like to know what the SLASH group thinks about this?
2 part, or Kalk? I dont really want to get into reactors with CO2.+
I also wanted to note that when I do a water change, It's about a 25% change and I do it about once a month.

By the way, can someone tell me what the second picture (Coral2.jpg) is? I'm not really sure.

Thanks again folks!
 
By the way, can someone tell me what the second picture (Coral2.jpg) is? I'm not really sure.

Thanks again folks![/QUOTE]


That is called a silver gorgonian....from the Gulf of Mexico...

Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com :spin3::spin3::spin3:
 
Brs 2 part is a pretty decent way to maintain levels it can be dosed by hand or doser and they have a mag additive also.
 
^This. But if your system is small and isn't loaded with Lps and sps, you can get by with kalk to maintain cal and alk. This works only if you do regular water changes with a good quality reef salt that has proper mag levels.

The easiest way this is done with kalk is added to your ATO top off water.
 
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