Please Help

[bgolpmp]

I have to be doing something wrong. The only coral I can keep alive if you call it a coral is a pulsating xenia which grows like a weed. Besides that coral the only other coral in the tank is a few zoas which have not been doing very good. They are slowly dying off. I want my tank to look like the ones in the fish store. I want to be able to have corals and have them grow not die.

My tank is a 60 cube with a sump under the tank. I have an asm protein skimmer and just a filter sock (I wanted a refugium with he tank but I listened to the guy at the fish store and he told me they are phasing them out of the hobby haha) The tank has been running for 2 years now and I have no problem with fish. I have had the same 5 fish for almost as long as the tank has been up. I am also running a kessel 360 light

All my numbers seem to be good except calcium is high

Alk 9.8
Cal 700
Salinity 1.024
PH 8.0
Ammonia 0
Nitrates 0

I did a water change on the 25th of november and tested the water and got
almost the exact readings today that I got then. Calcium was high and everything ese seemed ok to me. I have not done anything to the tank except clean the filter sock and empty the protein skimmer since the 25th of november.

The only thing I can think of is my ro water has been a little dirty. My tap water is coming out of my well is about 600 ppm tds and the ro water was in the 120 range. Last week I purchased a ro/di system hoping this will help. I still have a little high tds at around 25 but I need a booster pump. My wekk swings from 35-50 psi. I know there is a lot of rust in my well warter. Could the dirty "fresh" water I am using to top off the tank have anything to do with my failures in this hobby????


Also shouldn't the calcium come down on its own?????


Please help me!!!!

Thanks

Andy

 

[jubei2006]

Calcium of 700 is way too high and could be part of the problem. Would double check with the fish store to varify that reading. Corals are also not tolerant of metals in the water supply. Are you having problem with just corals or all inverts? If so, would run some filter floss to check for copper or other metals. Unsure why just xenia would survive, though most on this site hold it in the same regards as aptasia. Need good quality ro and probably major water changes to detox the tank. Hopes that helps some.

 

[Reefpuck]

As already mentioned, your calcium is way too high. Need to bring it down to at least the mid 400s. Do you have algae problems? Might be worth checking your phosphate level as well.

Do you have a water softener installed in your home? The water softener helps remove dissolved solids...which can provide cleaner water that is fed to your RO/DI unit.

 

[bertoni]

I agree that the calcium level is very high, but many people run tanks at high levels. I would check some freshly-mixed saltwater, to see what the calcium level is. If the mix is too high in calcium, there's no point in water changes.

The water might be a problem, even though it's RO/DI. The membrane doesn't seem to be working properly. The output of the RO should be more like 12-15 ppm or so. Until that issue is resolved, I wouldn't bother with the DI cartridge, because it'll die very rapidly. The membrane might not be seated properly or that water pressure might be low enough to cause problems. A defective membrane could cause this issue, but that's rare. Do you have the manufacturer's specs for the membrane, or the model id so that we can do some research?

 

[bgolpmp]

Thanks for all the advice!! I will check some fresh salt water to see what the calcium is at. I am using reef crystals I believe. The ro/di system is a brs 5 stage 75 gallon per day. It was the 150 gallon per day unit but I took off the 2nd ro unit because my water is so dirty I also just started using softened water. I always had an ro filter but I picked up this brs rodi unit a few days ago and just got it set up.

Give me a day and I will repost my findings on newly mixed salt water. Now I have to figure out how to lower calcium. I was figuring it would lower itself Was I wrong!

 

[bgolpmp]

I just checked my tds meters and the water going into the filter is 554 ppm
the water going into the di filter after the ro is 97 ppm and after the di it is 3ppm I think I need the booster pump!

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

You are on well water & it is notorious for having too much CO2 in it.
You need to degas the water then pump through the ro & di.

 

[bertoni]

I agree that degassing might be needed. If the water from the RO is aerated for a while, does the TDS drop? That would indicate degassing would help.

A 75 gph membrane should remove around 98% of the TDS, except for carbon dioxide.

 

[perksr11@gmail.]

Hey! I am having the same problem keeping corals and my water is perfect. I’m thinking it’s the Kessel lights. I can’t Keep friggin mushrooms/zoas. I wrote the company to figure out a good lighting schedule/intensity settings and still nothing. I have 2 KESSEL 160 over a 57 rimless.

 

[mcgyvr]

I just checked my tds meters and the water going into the filter is 554 ppm
the water going into the di filter after the ro is 97 ppm and after the di it is 3ppm I think I need the booster pump!

Your RO membrane is likely shot or you have not modified the system properly to account for the 75 vs 150gpd membrane change.. Did you change the flow restrictor..
You are getting a 82% rejection rate which SUCKS.. You should be getting 93-99% with 97% being "typical"..


You can also just adjust your well pump to increase pressure vs adding a booster pump.. That way you get better pressure in the whole house so showers are better,etc...