Sps frags turning a light brown, yet

[Lagger]

I have a fairly 'new' tank also, my observations from reading your thread, I'd chalk it up to nutrients. When things went bad--> 1. When you "re-arranged", did you stir up alot of the sandbed? 2. Is the new "big mass of rock" fully cured from a running tank?

I also think you need more fish, or feed your corals directly. Phyto really doesnt help. The plankton maybe, but i'd look into oyster/rotifers/cyclops as more of a sps feed.

Its tough when you have the all right equipment & things dont go well from the start. Takes time for everything to mesh & turn the corner. It takes patience, and Im one ancy mofo :lol: Seems like you're doing everything else right. Just dont re-arrange any futher & keeps param's stable. They'll come back in a few months :thumbsup:

 

[Versus]

yeah its just GRRRR, i dont know.. When things like this happen to me I feel "slow" as I should know certain things by now.


for a food source, Yes I need to kick the BW stuff.. You would think florida would have fantastic LFS's .. Unfortunately the best one is WWC who people on here buy from directly but its in the tourist part and considering the snow up north etc a 34 min drive turns into a 2 hour drive.

Soo yeah, no eggs, no cyclo, nada on anything. I think ill buy a bottle of rotifiers though.


Possibly losing another frag today.. im moving most of the rock mass to the sump its too high for me to place my vortec properly.

As for the cycle. The rock had sat in a brute container with a lid on it for a year. I had a real bad algae outbreak before in my 90g ended up selling off all my corals etc.

So it was pretty much cured and had been rinsed several times.

 

[phoenix001]

Be careful about making too many change at once. If you make too many changes and things don't improve, you will not know what to change back. As far as changing your salt, there is a thread somewhere on RC where someone compared the ALK, MG and CA content of various salt mixes. you can use that analysis to decide what's best for you. For SPS, the three I mentioned are key. I still feel like your main problem is your salinity swing. You must figure this out. The possibilities are fairly small. 1. You refractometer is bad - can you have someone else check your salinity? 2. You have a leak somewhere and your adding too much RO/DI thus lowering your salinity over time - unlikely since I'm sure you would notice a leak. 3. Your reading your refractometer incorrectly - I doubt this one but had to mention it - sorry. 4. Your ATO is somehow adding RO/DI above your water level in your sump - unlikely because that would either cause your sump to eventually overflow and you would notice that. That's all I can think of for now.

 

[Versus]

well I have 2 hydrometers , and both are within .03 of what the refract is reading so I am going to assume this is pretty correct (not to mention 2 labgrade calibration solutions were both spot on 1.26) . Im going to slowly bring my salinity back up. I just finished a 35% water change and its now at .21 and a half id say.

I put a mark on my top off container I am going to see how much its dropping.

But I would guess the evap would have to be pretty bad for in 2 weeks the water going from around .25/.26 to go back down to .20 .. maybe when I read it the first time there was an air bubble and i never actually had gotten the salinity up?

 

[phoenix001]

I'm sure you know this, but salt does not evaporate, so even if you have a high evap rate, as long as your adding RO/DI to keep the water level in your sump at the exact same level, your salinity will not drop. In your last paragraph you mention an air bubble - what do you mean? Can you explain this a bit more.

 

[Lagger]

prob skimming too wet. That cone's sucking the salt right out :lol:

 

[phoenix001]

prob skimming too wet. That cone's sucking the salt right out :lol:

A possibility

 

[Versus]

I'm sure you know this, but salt does not evaporate, so even if you have a high evap rate, as long as your adding RO/DI to keep the water level in your sump at the exact same level, your salinity will not drop. In your last paragraph you mention an air bubble - what do you mean? Can you explain this a bit more.

Yeah i know salinity does not evap.. but it must of gone somewhere? or it wasnt reading correctly and its always been overly low.


Air bubble as in when you put your water on the refractometer sometimes you get the air bubbles on the lense and you have to repress down to smush em out.

which gives you an incorrect reading.

 

[williamjhitchcock]

I had same problem, upgraded to some blue'r ATI bulbs problem solved.

 

[phoenix001]

Yeah i know salinity does not evap.. but it must of gone somewhere? or it wasnt reading correctly and its always been overly low.


Air bubble as in when you put your water on the refractometer sometimes you get the air bubbles on the lense and you have to repress down to smush em out.

which gives you an incorrect reading.

Oh, Ok - I understand about the bubbles. Again, I would mix up some saltwater to 1.030 and use as your ATO over the next several day's to get your salinity slowly back to where you want it. I think you mentioned this, but its possible that you never got your salinity back to an acceptable range when you had the same problem before. Can you take a closer pic of your sump - especially the section where you have the tunze osmo stuff? Also, again, I would stop dosing anythign you can't test for - probably doing more harm than good. So, in summary, fix the salinity and stop dosing - be patient and you will be fine. You have a great set-up, so no reason why you can't be successful.

 

[preef]

How wet is your skimmate and how often do you have to empty the skimmer's cup? If you are skimming really wet you'll drop your salinity. The skimmer is pulling out salt water and you are replacing that water with fresh.