SPS crash (on vacation of course!) Any advice when to start Acros back up?

[rds85]

Background:
75gal mixed reef (no softies). 55 gal Sump with 4 sections: 1st is live rock in drain section, 2nd is Vertex Omega 150 Skimmer, 3rd fuge with miracle mud, cheato, calurpa, 4th is return pump.

Dosing:
I dose B-Ionic 2 part daily via BRS dosing pumps (dosed twice a day, which i did not put online till recently). I also carbon dose vodka. Recently i have been bumping the doses due to small nitrate spike.
ATO is RODI water

Filtration:
Vertex Omega 150 skimmer, BRS HC GFO in reactor(currently running recommend amount and think i added to much the first time about 1.5 months ago (did run rowaphos before HC), also run BRS r.0x carbon in reactor. Two foam pads to trap air bubbles in sump.

Lighting:
2 Gen 3 radion pros

Flow:
2 Ecotech MP10 W es's on reef crest @ 100% ( looking to upgrade potentially)

Fish:
2 Dispar anthias, 1 Kole tang, 2 snowflakes, 1 Mandarin

Misc:
3-2 inch sandbed. Tank is a upgraded tank from a 55 gal ( upgrade was on Jan 2nd 2014 and 55 was 1.5 years old prior to upgrade)


Story:
I went on vacation to Lake Havasu for a week. Rose nem got caught in overflow grate 2.5 weeks before vacation and had to slice her in half in order to remove her. Both new nems survived and healed. One found a good spot and hasn't moved. The other of course moved (hitting montis on the way and got into the nano power head i had in the back of the tank while on vacation ( tank sitter removed it and broken the pump as well). Now i did notice some recession on some of my acros before i left for vacation but nothing crazy! Came home to SPS graveyard execpt my ORA green planet and Stag not looking good. Lost almost a quater SPS all others STN'ing daily and not RTN.
Alls acans, LPS, and maxima doing fine!

I have attached my tank parameters Log book. I might have some holes in it.


But overall i want to know when the best time to essentially start stocking the SPS back up. ( i have been trying to run the system @ 7.7 alk due to the carbon dosing)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[animalkingdom]

the increasing alk tells me either there is too much being dosed or things stopped growing. Was it pretty steady before the time points in the chart? If so then when it started going up is when things stopped growing which means that the causative event happened then or before.

 

[rds85]

IT was steady at 7.7 prior to that but i didn't have the log book at the time. Yeah i am thinking the same thing but i do not know what the hell caused it. When do you think i should begin to try acros again?

 

[polleke]

Do you still have any SPS? I would say as soon as they start to look well and grow. Or get some small frag as a try out.
Water parameters are ok I would say (unless PO4 is really 0.00, would aim for 0.02-0.04).

 

[xtlosx]

I recently had a huge alk swing event, lost some mini colonies, and had recession on probably 90% of everything else. After about one month to one and a half months of stability, it has passed and I am now growing everything again and have zero issues.

Give it some time, but normally I would say run several weeks to a month of stable parameters and try again, otherwise you'll likely end up killing frags in the process. Good luck, it was a heart breaking event for me.

 

[rds85]

Do you still have any SPS? I would say as soon as they start to look well and grow. Or get some small frag as a try out.
Water parameters are ok I would say (unless PO4 is really 0.00, would aim for 0.02-0.04).

I use the Hannah checker and it reads 0.00 every time which scares me. Salifert phosphate readings also say 0.00 but its not that accurate. So i have two tests for it and both read 0 so i don't truly know. I do feed my fish frozen twice a day everyday.

 

[rds85]

I recently had a huge alk swing event, lost some mini colonies, and had recession on probably 90% of everything else. After about one month to one and a half months of stability, it has passed and I am now growing everything again and have zero issues.

Give it some time, but normally I would say run several weeks to a month of stable parameters and try again, otherwise you'll likely end up killing frags in the process. Good luck, it was a heart breaking event for me.

My question is do you think from my log that i had a huge alk swing? because i figure it was relatively gradual but was on the rise.



I have two frags that are still alive the ORA green planet and Stag is doing ok. I will use them as tests for the next few weeks

 

[xtlosx]

My question is do you think from my log that i had a huge alk swing? because i figure it was relatively gradual but was on the rise.



I have two frags that are still alive the ORA green planet and Stag is doing ok. I will use them as tests for the next few weeks

To be honest, no... My swing went from around 9dKh to 6. Within a few days, it was large, but the effects didn't manifest for several weeks. Growth just stopped, and one day, bam RTN\STN all over.

 

[rds85]

To be honest, no... My swing went from around 9dKh to 6. Within a few days, it was large, but the effects didn't manifest for several weeks. Growth just stopped, and one day, bam RTN\STN all over.

That's why i am thinking something else caused it and when they stopped growing the dosing was not changed until it got to around 8.2 and i dropped the dosage. So i don't think it was the alk swing to be honest with you. I think it was before that. But i don't know what. Maybe GFO change from rowa to BRS HC and adding to much?

 

[polleke]

Why do you use gfo? Your po4 is already 0...

 

[rds85]

Why do you use gfo? Your po4 is already 0...

Because I always have I guess ever since running the tank. I mean I still get some Algea very now and again. I just am worries about taking it offline and name phosphates shoot up and stress everything out. Maybe I should drop the amount of GFO to a tiny amount and only add more
If phosphates rise to much?

 

[polleke]

That is what i would do, corals do not immediately die if phosphate rises to 0.1. So you have plenty of time to measure and adjust if needed. Corals can however die from 0 phosphates.
But that is all just my opinion

 

[rds85]

Ok I agree I will take the GFO offline and wait till I test phosphates levels near 0.1 then add very little GFO and watch my levels so they don't drop to low. Thanks for the advice. I have thought of this just needed another person to tell me as well. So thanks. I will see how it goes. I mean it can't hurt most my sps are gone!

 

[rds85]

Also after taking it offline how long do think I should wait to start adding sps again?