Pinpointing the problem with my tank

[serbusfish]

For around 12 months my tank thrived, softies, LPS and SPS all thrived and showed good colour and growth. I was buying 1" SPS frags and seeing them grow into large colonies, I was seeing Acans rapidly growing new heads, and I was seeing Monti Caps spreading outwards quickly.

Then something went wrong, now I have STN/pale SPS and a couple of LPS such as my Torch coral are losing heads quickly. I always keep parameters in check, but for peace of mind I just tested everything and they are:

Nitrate - 10
KH - 9.8
Cal - 430
Mag - 1400
SG - 1.025
Temp - 25.2'c
Phos - 0.03
PH - 7.92

I run a skimmer, GFO, and activated carbon which I change every few weeks. I do weekly 12% water changes, and only dose KH and Cal buffers. I target feed LPS with pellets or Mysis a couple of times a week.

I have only had the Torch a few weeks then it lost 2 heads in 48 hours for seemingly no reason. SPS are the main problem area though, almost every single one has STN, my Monti Caps have gone grey and an Elephant skin has gone brown. I have already lost a Stylo, birdsnest, and Acros, yet for some reason the only SPS which is still nice and colourful is a Monti Digi.

I really need to find the cause of this, its driving me insane spending money on corals only to see them die, how can a thriving tank take such a dramatic U turn when nothing about how I take care of it has changed?

 

[jiminy_crime]

Nitrates look like the issue to me. Do you dose carbon?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Horace]

Gotta disagree...nitrate don't cause stn..I've seen tanks with 40 nitrates look great, and im talking sps..not softies.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[serbusfish]

Nitrates look like the issue to me. Do you dose carbon?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I stopped dosing Carbon last week which is probably why the Nitrates are at 10, before they were at 2 but I suspected Carbon dosing might have caused something bad to happened since everything was good before I started dosing.

 

[mikeatjac]

If you are dosing carbon then you need to keep the KH low, below 8. Since you stopped dosing it it will take awhile for recovery.

 

[Crush Coral]

I agree that it will take some time to recover. Expect all corals with stn to die though. I have never seen one start to stn and recover. That is my experience anyway.

 

[Sonyardo]

Spent carbon block filters. Residual ammonia in makeup water is my guess.

 

[serbusfish]

Spent carbon block filters. Residual ammonia in makeup water is my guess.

My RO unit Carbon and Pre filters were changed recently but the RO membrane was only changed a few days ago. I had only run the previous membrane for a year but the flow from it was very slow, 4 hours to make 25 litres of water instead of 2. TDS still showed 0 but I changed it due to the slow flow rate. Surely ammonia would show TDS?

 

[Sonyardo]

Actually Ammonia/ Chloramines and Chlorine could be present at 0 TDS reading. TDS is not your biggest issue with water treatment. It the Disinfectant and other chemicals in the water. Most of which do not show up in the TDS reading. Also most of which is what the purpose of the Carbon aspect of the filter is there for. It's one of those Pink Elephant issues that people don't touch on much. Not all Carbon filters are created the same.

 

[Bent]

Actually Ammonia/ Chloramines and Chlorine could be present at 0 TDS reading. TDS is not your biggest issue with water treatment. It the Disinfectant and other chemicals in the water. Most of which do not show up in the TDS reading. Also most of which is what the purpose of the Carbon aspect of the filter is there for. It's one of those Pink Elephant issues that people don't touch on much. Not all Carbon filters are created the same.

I was unaware of that.

 

[Meshmez]

Actually Ammonia/ Chloramines and Chlorine could be present at 0 TDS reading. TDS is not your biggest issue with water treatment. It the Disinfectant and other chemicals in the water. Most of which do not show up in the TDS reading. Also most of which is what the purpose of the Carbon aspect of the filter is there for. It's one of those Pink Elephant issues that people don't touch on much. Not all Carbon filters are created the same.

I unfortunately just went through the same thing as the OP. everything was going great for a couple years, and then i lost just about everything within about a month. I think it was because my carbon blocks were bad and letting chloramines through. it really sucks to think i lost the tank because i was too lazy to change out $20 filters...

anyway, i have new filters now, and total/ free chlorine test strips for the ro/di water... hope you can save your tank!

 

[Bent]

I unfortunately just went through the same thing as the OP. everything was going great for a couple years, and then i lost just about everything within about a month. I think it was because my carbon blocks were bad and letting chloramines through. it really sucks to think i lost the tank because i was too lazy to change out $20 filters...

anyway, i have new filters now, and total/ free chlorine test strips for the ro/di water... hope you can save your tank!

Where'd you buy these strips from?

 

[Meshmez]

Where'd you buy these strips from?

BRS has em(http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/insta-test-free-total-chlorine-strips-lamotte.html)
I'm sure pool supply places have them. mcmaster, amazon..

 

[Bent]

Amazon has everything.

Add to cart.

 

[vikinglord13]

serbush if you're willing to put the time and effort into it, you may be able to save your sps colonies buy cutting the parts with STN off. I've seen some people have success by doing so

Granted, if you can't identify the actual source of the problem that might just be a waste of time.

 

[serbusfish]

serbush if you're willing to put the time and effort into it, you may be able to save your sps colonies buy cutting the parts with STN off. I've seen some people have success by doing so

Granted, if you can't identify the actual source of the problem that might just be a waste of time.

I have done this with my birdsnest and the frags have been cut for around 3 weeks and havent developed and STN. I tried with a Stylo but the new part died. The remaining SPS I have are too far gone to frag I think, the Monti's re grey though so I dont know if they will regain their colour?

 

[Highweigh]

Could it possibly have anything to do with your lighting? What sort of lighting is it?

 

[zsuman101]

you can try re fragging it works sometimes, did you switch salt? I ve had issues switching salt. good luck zsu

 

[serbusfish]

Could it possibly have anything to do with your lighting? What sort of lighting is it?

Maxspect Razor 15K 320W. I have had the lights since September 2015 so I dont think they could have cause the issues?

 

[boxfishpooalot]

Id send a sample to triton labs, imo you will be wondering what the cause was over the years.

If you havent checked your alk kit you should. 1.135 grams of baking soda in 1 gallon of pure water = 10dkh. Have a pharmacist weight it out if you dont have a good scale. This may not work for hanna checker, but will for acid based kits.

Do you have kids? I found a crayon in my tank today, been there weeks lol.

Your sump is in the basment? Anything from the ceiling could fall in? Dust?

Your ph seems too low for my taste, but rarely its a problem, but makes me suspect the alk again, check the kit. Dont buy another expecting manufacturers make them right, sometimes they dont.