started redsea no3po4x last night on 125g.

[tmz]

I use halide and vho lighting and have little experience with led lighting for sps beyond using some for supplemental lighting( reef brites ,par 38 bulbs too). The par 38's have bleached a few frags but some others other s color better with them. The bird of pardise seriatoora does fine with and without them. Ehanced water clarity from the organics reduction asociatedwith the dosing could play into it as well.

Eric Borneman wrote a series of atricles( entitled; " The Right to Breathe", IIRC, on hypoxia which can effect sps as oxygen producing photosynthesis stops for the night. Flow patterns play an important role in preventing localized hypoxic conditions .

FWIW, I run alk around 9.6 and have for 3 yrs without stn issues.

 

[mos90]

i can only guess as to what may be causing stn. there are few things i should probably rule out. im sure the nopox is not causing any of these issues.

1) temp--steady at 78
2) cal/mag 450/1400
3) flow-plenty
4) trace elements.. 10% w/c every 2 weeks. i should not need to dose.

im going to have to lean towards 1 of 3 things. alk, lack of light or possibly stress from light changes. im sure dosing chemi clean for cyano didnt help.

it is getting to the point that i may not keep any sps. i just dont have the time to dedicate or should i say troubleshoot their needs. it seems, for me at least, every little change ends up as an issue. i dont want to end up hating this hobby.


my other tank (28gal)is much more enjoyable with a few softies,lps's,zoas and an anemone. besides a small hair algae issue a had before and the fact that i picked up mantis shrimp hitchhicker in my live rock(that kills all my snails and a few fish) it has been great.

 

[mos90]

i talked to redsea on this stn issue. i was advised to stop nopox and let nutrient levels rise some while still maintaining reef energy dosing. while letting alk slowly fall back to 8ish and see if corals show any improvment in a few weeks. if not i may have a huge frag sale.):

 

[mos90]

im going to try a different salt ,the reef crystals i have been using mixes up nice but dkh is over 12. i have a bucket of redsea salt laying around not the pro coral salt the standard salt thats close to nsw. it mixes up around 7.8dkh and calcium is still over 400. im going to do a 20gal w/c with it within the next few days. cant hurt anything. im getting low on reef crystals anyways.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Ok sounds like a fine plan.

 

[Trini 2D Bone]

Had the same thing happen in my tank with stn so I stop dosing Nopox

 

[mos90]

In my case the nopox didn't cause the start of the stn but it may be accelerating it some. I didn't totally stop dosing it, I backed off to 1 ml per day instead of 4. I'd like to see nutrients rise some before I increase dosage again.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If the STN is caused by a bacterial infection, it makes sense that dosing a form of carbon that those bacteria consume would be undesirable.

 

[mos90]

we may never know what the cause is. im very surprised that it has not been narrowed down a little bit over the years. if it is bacterial then i will need to to frag and dip. i hope it doesnt spread.

update

1ml. nopox a day 16ml reef energy each per day. there was just a little cyano in the fuge again. i removed it manually. macro algae still growing.

no3-.75
phos .03
alk 157ppm
temp 78.3 slowly raising it some to 78.8 -79

did a 10gal w/c last night with the redsea salt. i will do another 1 on saturday, i like this salt.. at 1.027 alk was at 155ppm. r/c was at 210ppm. calcium was a bit lower 410 compared to 450 but i could use to lower my calcium anyways.

 

[mos90]

did a lights out for 2 days on the fuge. all cyano is gone.

still at same dosage.

no3-1ppm
po4-.03

alk is close to where i plan to keep it at 145ppm(8.1dkh).. im shooting for 135-140 and holding it there.

all corals looking good except the 1 birdsnest. might have to frag it. the funny thing is i have another frag of the same birdsnest on the other side of the tank getting the same waterflow but just a little less light and it seems to be doing fine. odd.

 

[mos90]

update.. corals looking great. ive noticed good growth over the last month. dkh still steady at 145 per hanna 7.6dkh per redsea. i think the light is dialed in close now. might need to go slightly more intense.

i raised the nopox dosage from 1ml to 2 per day. id like to lower no3 from 1ppm to about .5 . the only coral thats browned (only tips colored)is my purple nana. the others are starting to color up nicely. ill snap a few pictures this weekend.

 

[bertoni]

Okay, that sounds like good progress!

 

[mos90]

tested a new batch on redsea salt. according to redsea alk should be 8.2dlk at 1.026. i tested it at 1.027 and according to hanna tester it was 172ppm(9.6dkh) and the redsea kit it was 8.4dkh. i thinking the red sea test is more accurate for some reason.

i also tested the tank. 140ppm per hanna and 7.2 dlk according to redsea.from now on im going to treat the hanna meter as reading a full 1dkh higher then it should. the elos test read 7 also. most of the corals were doing there best at about 165ppm, so thats where i plan to keep it. 140 is definately causing an issue.

also a few corals were showing some signs of bleaching. so i lower led intensity some. 4% and 1/2 hour off peak.

 

[jimrawr]

Yup, hanna reads 1dkh higher than most other test kits. This is documented in these forums others having the same results

 

[mos90]

Yup, hanna reads 1dkh higher than most other test kits. This is documented in these forums others having the same results

that would not good if your using hanna to stay at nsw levels. instead of 7dkh u would be at 6 and wondering what your doing wrong.

i have seen this posted elsewhere and in this forum also.

 

[MarcWeaver]

that would not good if your using hanna to stay at nsw levels. instead of 7dkh u would be at 6 and wondering what your doing wrong.

i have seen this posted elsewhere and in this forum also.

That very thing happened to me. I was losing SPS and didn't know why. In testing with several kits and averaging my results, I now multiply my ppm reading from my Hanna by .84, then .056 to get dKH reading. I have my alk at 9 dKH now (which is 190 on my checker after correcting.) Red sea pro was 1/2-3/4 dKH high as well. The closest one was API, which I based everything off of in the end based on a month's worth of testing and observation on my SPS and LPS coral. No other changes were made. As soon as I get my hands on a reference solution, I'm going to check that as well.

 

[mos90]

How do u know that your dkh is actually at 9? It seems so many different results from test kits.

 

[mos90]

Update.

Still at 1ml no pox and 16ml of each reef energy.

Temp. 78.5
Alk 8.2
Phos 2ppb (.006ppm). Little to low
No3. 1ppm
Cal 455
Mag 1350

I started using filter sock a few weeks ago. I change them out about every 5 days. Water clarity is better.

I have notice a few corals bleaching at the tips Backed off LEDs a bit more.

I had to frag one of the birdsnests and most likely the other 1 will not make it either. If someone wants the frags I will give them away. I'm worried if I frag the large 1 my acro crab will not make it. He is very picky.

 

[mos90]

while i was tring to remove the frag plug for the birdsnest i had a little rock shift. i did the best i could to steady it with out removing all the rock in the center. now my diamond goby wasnt out this morning. im hoping he didnt get crushed under a rock. if he isnt out tonight i will have to move all the rock..

the birds nest corals are not going to make it. i might have to toss the frag i made also.

 

[RegalAngel]

What test kit are you using to measure Nitrate?

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2134647