Alexandre Góes
New member
Hi everyone,
I'm having a recurring problem with my reef tank. It has 300l in the display, with a total of 500l of water, including the sump and 2 frag tanks. It was set up about 3 years ago, and everything was fine until the corals started to die. The LPSs wouldn't open as before, the SPSs would start to lose tissue until they all died. When I did a total water change, the situation stabilized. With that, I figured it wasn't a problem with lighting or circulation since the total water change resolved it. After a few months, the situation repeated. I began to think that the old rocks and/or substrates might be leaking some heavy metal. I even made a new 100% water change, but then the problem occurred again.
In the meantime, there was an accident, and one of the aquarium glasses became unglued. So, I dismantled it and spent more than a year without it.
I decided to set it up again at the beginning of the year. Everything was fine until about a month ago, even though I was battling a problem with hair algae, when again the corals started to die. I am using a new substrate and other rocks to avoid the chance of it being a problem with leakage of some toxic substance from them.
I did a Triton test and saw, most critically, low iodine and also phosphate (which I already suspected because of the problem with the algae). Here's the link: https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/icp-oes/193322
I corrected the iodine, raising it to 70µg/l, but it did not resolve. The SPSs continue dying, and some of the LPSs, like Euphillyas, are increasingly closed. Trumpets and acantastreas are doing well. Then I changed 30% of the water, but SPSs continue dying.
I have a refuge with chaetomorpha growing well; I believe this will help with phosphate levels. I am going to change the activated carbon today (which has been in the aquarium for quite some time and certainly no longer works) and will add GFO to help with phosphate removal.
What do you think could be the cause of the problem?
I'm having a recurring problem with my reef tank. It has 300l in the display, with a total of 500l of water, including the sump and 2 frag tanks. It was set up about 3 years ago, and everything was fine until the corals started to die. The LPSs wouldn't open as before, the SPSs would start to lose tissue until they all died. When I did a total water change, the situation stabilized. With that, I figured it wasn't a problem with lighting or circulation since the total water change resolved it. After a few months, the situation repeated. I began to think that the old rocks and/or substrates might be leaking some heavy metal. I even made a new 100% water change, but then the problem occurred again.
In the meantime, there was an accident, and one of the aquarium glasses became unglued. So, I dismantled it and spent more than a year without it.
I decided to set it up again at the beginning of the year. Everything was fine until about a month ago, even though I was battling a problem with hair algae, when again the corals started to die. I am using a new substrate and other rocks to avoid the chance of it being a problem with leakage of some toxic substance from them.
I did a Triton test and saw, most critically, low iodine and also phosphate (which I already suspected because of the problem with the algae). Here's the link: https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/icp-oes/193322
I corrected the iodine, raising it to 70µg/l, but it did not resolve. The SPSs continue dying, and some of the LPSs, like Euphillyas, are increasingly closed. Trumpets and acantastreas are doing well. Then I changed 30% of the water, but SPSs continue dying.
I have a refuge with chaetomorpha growing well; I believe this will help with phosphate levels. I am going to change the activated carbon today (which has been in the aquarium for quite some time and certainly no longer works) and will add GFO to help with phosphate removal.
What do you think could be the cause of the problem?
