sps woes

poknsnok

poknsnok

New member
hey guys.. lately Ive serious coral problems and I need some input. Im gonna list as much info as I can so this may be a long read

about 6 months ago i started dosing vodka. all was good with the tank but I wanted to eliminate my nitrates which were about .05( Lamotte). Worked great but i thien noticed I had redbugs and treated for 3 weeks and discontinued vodka during that time. I began vodka dosing again after the redbug treatment

I began getting burnt tips on some of my sps and my caps began to look stressed. I attributed this to the vodka and had read it would correct itsel with your alk being at NSW levels ( 7-8).. my nitrates had actually risen to about .09 during the vodka dosing which reached 8.5ml on my 280 gal system.. I talked to "genetics" the author of the Vodka article in RC magazine. and decided to cut the vodka dosing in half or less. Since it wasnt severly elevated.

Another issue ive had is a low ph enviornment for some time.. My ph will run 7.65 to 7.9 most days. If I ope up the windows I can get it to 8.1. my alk and phos for the last several months have been between 7 and 8 and .001 consistently. However I continue to lose sps
I have no pests I can see and an interesting issue Im seeing is bleaching on the tops( sides that face the light) on several of my acros.. I run 3x400 watt reeflux on a 24" tank. Too much light maybe? Im doing a complete water change over the next couple days to see if that helps and am comsidering removing my reactor set up and adding a macro fuge to help with the co2 buildup. Ive discontinued all vodka dosing

My params as of this morning are
no3-4.4 (lamotte 1.0 color match x4.4)
alk-9.18-lamotte
ca-440-lamotte
ph 7.7


any have any ideas?
 
I would maybe toping off with kalk to get your ph up using a kalk reactor. If you are running a controller you can have it dose until your ph gets to a certain level and then switch to fresh water. How long are you running your lights for.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14062778#post14062778 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by brucem
I would maybe toping off with kalk to get your ph up using a kalk reactor. If you are running a controller you can have it dose until your ph gets to a certain level and then switch to fresh water. How long are you running your lights for.
Click to expand...


about 5 hrs of halides
 
oh i thought you were doing zoe,i dont think it is your PH since mine ran low for a while without burnt tips or color loss.
 
To help with the pH you can try running your airline for your skimmer outside. If you have access to do that it should raise your pH up.

What brand vodka were you using to dose with? If it was one of the cheaper brands that could be why you saw a rise in nitrate while dosing. The cheaper brands are highly filtered like say Smirnoff and you could have been adding impurities to the tank.

How old are your bulbs?

Do your parameters stay pretty stable?

Your corals could be stressed from the treatments also. IMO the low pH and fluctuation could be adding to that stress. And if your corals are stressed im not sure if i would do such a large water change either. I think that would continue to add to the problem.
 
what type of calcium supplemntation are you using. calcium reactor, kalc top off, 2 part, three part? whats the distance from your light to the tank for the lights/? what temp is your tank at? can all lead to burnt/stressed tips. the low ph is another problem all together. i have the same problem but what i do is run kalc water in my top off and that does the trick. also try to keep the windows open helps alot. as sugested above run a air return line to open air limke a window or something from a skimmer.
does not soound like pests because its happening from the outside in
 
Try cross checking your salinity with someone elses hydrometer or better yet with a refractometer. If you Use a refractometer try checking with someone elses, salinity may not be the problem but it's a good place to start since an inacurate hydrometer can lead to the symptoms you have, also most of the tests are based on specified salinity ranges if salinity is out of wack the test will not be accrate.
 
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im using the geo knockoff calcium reactor that we all made a while back with a secondary chamber. the bulbs are a couple months old.. I calibrate my refractometer often with calibration fluid.. but Ill check it against Mikes today.. I was using Smirnoff vodka but the problems started while I was using a cheaper brand
 
There's cheaper vodka than Smirnoff??? :) I think a previous post had it a little backwards. Saying the cheap vodka's are filtered more. They are actually filtered/distilled less. I know Belevedere is filtered/distilled 7 times. Thats one of the good ones.

Anyways.... Yeah your PH is a little low. Either the airline trick or start to top off with kalk and adjust your reactor back for the addition of kalk. I don't know why you'd be dosing vodka when your trates were soo low anyways.

I might also cut my lighting back a little until your tank PH gets back up there and stable.
 
after the interceptor did you use lots of carbon to remove the medicine.If so i know i had very similar problems after i treated my system with interceptor.I did 3 treatments at weekly intervals and then the recommended water changes weekly with the carbon being changed weekly also.My tank was healthier with the red bugs then after the treatments.I have been red bug free for a couple years now but it took 6 months for my tank to start looking right again.not sure if it was related to the interceptor,the carbon or the water changes or all of the above.possibly the water clarity was the cause but i am not sure.anyway good luck and i hope it passes fast.If you think its from light burn maybe adding some eggcrate to difuse the light will help.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14069492#post14069492 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cwegescheide
There's cheaper vodka than Smirnoff??? :) I think a previous post had it a little backwards. Saying the cheap vodka's are filtered more. They are actually filtered/distilled less. I know Belevedere is filtered/distilled 7 times. Thats one of the good ones.

Click to expand...

Sorry that was a typo. The cheaper stuff is NOT filtered/distilled as much. Smirnoff is triple distilled.
 
Joe, sorry to hear about the trouble.... I am finally climbing out of the 'hole of trouble' myself so I feel your pain watching things go awry...

I don't recall, do you have any sand in the tank? cheap vodka impurities / bacterial die-off settling into sand ....

How bout your RO system? filter age, DI, Choloramines? would guess it is pretty good if Mike ever sees it, he treats his water right!

Keep the info coming, we will find the culprit yet
 
Joe, I know you and I know you are doing everything right. Not really sure what to tell you but this is what I would do...

Start mixing kalk with your top off water. Add a fuge with some cheato for the nitrates. Check your bulbs to see if you have any cracks in the glass, I always recommend running a glass shield.

I'm most likely to believe something got in the tank, maybe sunscreen? Do you wash your hands before they go in? Or maybe a family member got some in or something else? I always make sure my hands are clean before they go in. It's good your doing a large water change just for this reason. Or could just be a cracked bulb?

I would not worry about your PH to much my tank runs consistently at those levels with no problems, but I would try and get it higher if you can.

Hope this helps.
 
Were you running GFO during your vodka dosing? If so, that may have been the reason. IME, running a ULNS usually brings the alkalinity down as well as the ph. I recently started dripping kalkawasser as my ph was low too. My corals were peeling at the base, browing out, little PE, overall just not looking colorful. Since dripping kalk, my ph is up, alk around 9, and CA at 410. When dosing vodka, the carbon source usually makes your skimmer go nuts and work more effeciently, could be taking out trace elements too quickly, even with frequent water changes. There could also be a K defeciency, especially since reporting montis stressing. All in all, c-source dosing can be aggressive in terms of export, which IMO requires so additional supplementation, especially aminos.....JME...good luck
 
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