Sticky Water / Coral Recession / Nutient Levels

[RobZilla04]

I'd work on lowering the phosphate level. The carbon dosing should help at least a bit, although the tank might need some GFO.

I'm getting in to the "swing" problem. Get them down to <.05 and then there is too much light / Alk is too high. Then back the other direction <.05 and the algae creeps in.

Just trying to find the sweet spot and how to stay there. Learning something new everyday though. Thank you.

I think your nutrient levels are fine. Stability is the key and I don't think reducing them will help. Are you starving them for light? With higher nutrient levels you can increase intensity of lighting and get strong growth.

As I mentioned they were much much lower so I cut the lights way down. Now that they are up I don't want blast the lights right back up. These SPS certainly are tricky, tricky, tricky <----- Cue RUNDMC intro.

 

[RobZilla04]

Well things are getting worse. More SPS frag tissue recession from the top down. Alk is now 8.0, nitrates 10/15, and phos .1

Some trumpet corals now seems to have developed an algae or something along the top edges. Water it is seems to be destroying the poly heads. I can try to get pix if necessary for ID purposes. I'm setting up for another WC this weekend but at this point I don't know that it will make a difference.

Anyone got ideas/suggestions?

 

[bertoni]

I'd probably stop all feeding and do some 15-20% water changes. Some fresh carbon might help, as well. I'm not sure what's happening, but the algae might be releasing chemicals that irritate the corals.

 

[Phixman]

+1 on water changes.

 

[RobZilla04]

It's baffling me because the algae will grow on health coral tissue. I had activated carbon in a mesh bag (high flow area) for a while and thought that might be irritating the corals. Also thought maybe the Vibrant bacteria blend combined with slight organic carbon dosing was causing the irritation.

Stopping feeding is an interesting thought.

Water changes are easy but as I am finding out, they aren't doing much.

 

[bertoni]

If the problems is chemicals from the algae, it's going to be hard to do much.

 

[RobZilla04]

If the problems is chemicals from the algae, it's going to be hard to do much.

Did a 15g wc this morning. At this point if I lose the sps frags so be it. I hate to let them go but I've got to bring everything back under control and stable.

Still no GAC, just poly pad plus blue/white filter pad, skimming, uv 12hr daily, and organic carbon dosing, going to do the maintenance Vibrant routine and keep the water changes at two weeks for a while.

Good news is the sticky feeling of the water is gone. Not sure if it was from the GAC or lack of filter pad.

Thanks for keeping an eye on this, I'll check back

 

[Tripod1404]

In continuation of the other discussion; with N and and P of 10 and 0.08. I would raise alk to 9dHK, maybe 9.5 dKH. Make sure alk doesn't swing, try to keep it as stable as possible.

 

[RobZilla04]

Thanks, looks like I may have swung both in the opposite directions inadvertently. Slowly They are working their way toward your recommendations. I'll re-evaluate from there, thanks.

 

[bertoni]

Is the "sticky" feeling going away?

 

[RobZilla04]

Is the "sticky" feeling going away?

Completely gone. That happened rather quickly after going back to mechanical filtration with blue/white plus polyfilter.

:thumbsup:

 

[bertoni]

Okay, well, at least that's getting better.

 

[RobZilla04]

A little update on progress. Earlier this week I began running GFO in a reactor (haven't don't this since the eradication of GHA a couple of year back). I've stopped dosing Vibrant (strongly suspecting this caused the original STN of SPS though I have no direct evidence).

Also increased organic carbon dosing (20ml total daily over 4 doses). This plus the GFO has really taken a toll on the green growth on my back glass. Also knocking down the red turf which is spotty on the rocks yet overrun on the overflow divider.

Shooting to keep Alk in the low 8's / high 7's dKH.
Cal - 400-420
Mg - 1400ish (hard to get an accurate reading)

Gotta get some more current No3 & Po4 readings soon. Maybe this weekend.

All in all STN seems to have finally stopped. New growth, however not so much

 

[bertoni]

Well, at least the STN has stopped. The growth might get better once the algae problems are gone. That's only a possibility, though.

 

[RobZilla04]

Another update:

At this point I am beginning to suspect possibly the UV Sterilizer is causing some issues. All parameters are within the desired ranges. Tested yesterday and got

Alk 8.6 dKH
Cal 395
Mg 1300
N 10
P .03
1.026

Something is definitely irritating the corals. No new growth. LPS trumpets never look full, though their feeding tentacles do come out at night. Very slow GSP growth on back glass, and no growth of torches. Monti's are holding steady and SPS fade in an out (the few frags remaining).

Done several water and filter changes over the past 6 weeks. Put in GFO for 10 days as some green algae was increasing on the back glass and over flow. Pulled it a few days ago and got the above test result yesterday.

Working on bringing down the nitrates slightly to <5ppm. Going to maintain Alk around 8.5 dKH.

The plan is to remove, dismantle, and inspect the Aqua UV sterilizer. Hoping to not find any corrosion or rot.

 

[bertoni]

I hope the UV is okay and not rusting into the water column. That could cause some serious problems.

 

[RobZilla04]

I hope the UV is okay and not rusting into the water column. That could cause some serious problems.

Clean as a whistle. Peace of mind now as I know that would cause major issues. This was the last piece of equipment to check for rust/corrosion.

Went ahead and did a 15g water change so it will be interesting to see how the coral respond.

Really feeling stuck on what could be the issue(s) at this point. :headwalls:

 

[bertoni]

Lots of tanks have problems that we can't diagnose. I don't have anything very useful in the way of new ideas.

 

[RobZilla04]

Thanks for checking back in anyhow.

Now I'm going to dose trace elements every other day for a while. Right after water changes of course all the coral pop full and extend. Hopefully they are simply depleting something minor that I can easily replace.

Running out of ideas also.

 

[Poopapotamus]

I had a similar slight downturn in my coral well being. I couldn't figure out what the issue was. All my parameters that you would normally measure were spot on. I think I might have figured it out though... I think I left my RODI in bypass mode by accident onetime... I went downstairs and heard it running, and I normally run it in bypass just before taking water, so I must have just left it running. I am guessing a bunch of impurities including probably some chlorine got into my RODI water vat, and I was gradually adding this to my tank with top-ups and water changes. I shut off the RODI and emptied the vat once I got the suspicion that this was the case and allowed it to refill... after doing this everything has slowly been bouncing back.
Any chance you are having an issue with your RODI unit, or the water in your area is particularly bad right now, or your cartridges are old? May want to look into it.
Good Luck