Howdy,
I started my 470g Acropora dominant tank January 12th with fresh live rock from Fiji, about 400 pounds total.
By January 30th I was cycled with Nitrate of 9ppm. Nitrate continued to climb because I stocked heavily with fish (45 in total-most small) I had in a large tub since I had taken my tanks down last year for a new look.
Nitrate readings over the next few weeks were:
March 9th 15ppm
March 27th 18ppm
April 13th started vinegar dosing. I have been at 130cc/day vinegar and one shot glass of vodka for a few months. Today I decreased the dosing pump on my vinegar down to 65cc/day based on the below readings.
May 4th 26ppm
May 8th 35ppm
May 31st 17ppm
June 9th 11ppm
June 21st 4ppm
June 29th 9ppm
July 7th 4ppm
July 17th 1ppm
During this time period, I bought frags from four hobbyists here on RC with solid, awesome frags. The issue I am having is the frags have been turning brown, then dying off...some from the tips, some from the sides, some from the bases.
Of note, my alkalinity has been 7.1-7.4 this whole time without any dosing regimen or calcium reactor hooked up yet. Phosphate has consistently been 0.03 to 0.06 on Hanna low range fancy meter.
One other factor during this time period was switching out my four 250 watt Radiums on M80 ballasts to four 400 watt Ushio 14K on M135 pulse start ballasts. I didn't acclimate to light and many acropora turned brown on the tips or sides facing the light. I wasn't anticipating this light change to cause issues, but perhaps it was responsible for some of the issues.
My question now is, do you think the carbon dosing has been contributing to the decline of my acropora frags and eventual death? Or, was it just the lighting change on June 7th? I can not put my finger on why I am losing stuff. My flow is four Tunze Streams 2 6205's and two 6105's, looks like a lot of flow.
I am just at a loss because I have some really nice stuff from folks and have been slowly seeing things STN.
I started my 470g Acropora dominant tank January 12th with fresh live rock from Fiji, about 400 pounds total.
By January 30th I was cycled with Nitrate of 9ppm. Nitrate continued to climb because I stocked heavily with fish (45 in total-most small) I had in a large tub since I had taken my tanks down last year for a new look.
Nitrate readings over the next few weeks were:
March 9th 15ppm
March 27th 18ppm
April 13th started vinegar dosing. I have been at 130cc/day vinegar and one shot glass of vodka for a few months. Today I decreased the dosing pump on my vinegar down to 65cc/day based on the below readings.
May 4th 26ppm
May 8th 35ppm
May 31st 17ppm
June 9th 11ppm
June 21st 4ppm
June 29th 9ppm
July 7th 4ppm
July 17th 1ppm
During this time period, I bought frags from four hobbyists here on RC with solid, awesome frags. The issue I am having is the frags have been turning brown, then dying off...some from the tips, some from the sides, some from the bases.
Of note, my alkalinity has been 7.1-7.4 this whole time without any dosing regimen or calcium reactor hooked up yet. Phosphate has consistently been 0.03 to 0.06 on Hanna low range fancy meter.
One other factor during this time period was switching out my four 250 watt Radiums on M80 ballasts to four 400 watt Ushio 14K on M135 pulse start ballasts. I didn't acclimate to light and many acropora turned brown on the tips or sides facing the light. I wasn't anticipating this light change to cause issues, but perhaps it was responsible for some of the issues.
My question now is, do you think the carbon dosing has been contributing to the decline of my acropora frags and eventual death? Or, was it just the lighting change on June 7th? I can not put my finger on why I am losing stuff. My flow is four Tunze Streams 2 6205's and two 6105's, looks like a lot of flow.
I am just at a loss because I have some really nice stuff from folks and have been slowly seeing things STN.
Sorry for the derail, but I wish that I had known about these years ago.