STN: I'm In desperate need of advanced help.

[jda]

Alk swings can most certainly have SPS STN, mostly from the tips. It looks like tissue is melting off. Alk swings can be as bad as high alk in a ultra low nutrient tank.

I also agree that there is no such thing as too much good light. You can get too much bad light. I would be happy to have 1000-1300 of MH PAR, but I would not want that much in LED par.

Don't worry about your PH - just ignore it and forget that it exists. Keep the alk rock-solid and don't let it even flux .1 or .2 in a day if you can, find a calcium number that corresponds and keep it rock solid too.

 

[slavetonet]

Alk swings can most certainly have SPS STN, mostly from the tips. It looks like tissue is melting off. Alk swings can be as bad as high alk in a ultra low nutrient tank.

I also agree that there is no such thing as too much good light. You can get too much bad light. I would be happy to have 1000-1300 of MH PAR, but I would not want that much in LED par.

Don't worry about your PH - just ignore it and forget that it exists. Keep the alk rock-solid and don't let it even flux .1 or .2 in a day if you can, find a calcium number that corresponds and keep it rock solid too.

I have done experiment on my tank full of colourful sps with alk swing.
1.5dkh per day. Up Down up Down up DOwn up Down for about 1 week.
The corals continue to grow as if nothing happened.
You can throw that theory out the door. :dance:

 

[jda]

I am not going to argue alk swings melting SPS since there are hundreds of posts on here about it already. You can go a give your little week-long experiment on all of those threads and see if any of those folks believe you.

OP - alk swings can certainly cause issues. Do not overlook it. The SPS fake acronym is that Stability Promotes Success not Swings Promote Success.

 

[ADVRESOURCE]

There's a lot of variables with sps growth. I get my sps from the lfs. They need light acclimation especially since I have high par led's. I can grow sps with polyp extensions even when they're dying at the lfs. But, my parameters are stable and I don't remove water and have alk swings like the lfs has.

Cheers!

 

[ADVRESOURCE]

Malx,
My suggestion is to go through the large reef forum and sps forum. Look for picture os great tanks filled with sps and ask questions regarding water change routines, alk, CA, mg, phosphate, nitrate, etc. to get an idea of what great sps reefers do. Some of the suggestions here are all over the place and can have you spun up pretty good.

 

[djbon]

I was amazed with your equipment lists and dosing regimes. WOW. These are the only few items I have under my tank (picture). Back to your issue, i personally agree with some replies that you are pushing yourself too hard, chasing every possible parameters to perfection will stress your system. Go slow with it. Take one step at a time, and monitor your inhabitants a few days after for any effects. Nothing good happens if rushed in this hobby.

 

[malx]

Good advice everyone. Right now he only change I have been making is slowly adjusting my calc reaction down so it can maintain my alk at 7 as stable as possible. Three days it was 9.1, then 8.7, today was 8.3, im hoping tomorrow is around the 7.8 range.

Next, my T5 bulbs are 5 months old this month. I'm migrating off of KZ bulbs and going to four ATI Super Blue bulbs as I've heard the results of that were outstanding. I don't think my KZ bulbs are the issue, but when I added them, I didn't see any change in coral health or growth. Wondering if I'll get better results with ATI. Will change one Bulb a month for four months.


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[malx]

Hi, Everyone.

So quick update here. No real change in my corals aside from the following.

1: I lost a montipora digitata
2: two acro frags are growing
3: A plating monitipora is growing
4: I have another acro that looks like it's gone dormant.

So I'd say, no real change with the way things look at the moment.

With that said, over the past week I've slowly lowered my alk from 9 to 7.5 and I've gotten the results of my Triton test. Nothing on this test seems to be so far off that it's causing the catastrophes that I have.

You can download it from this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BybcqBy9K5RpSjh6U2Uyc2k0Tlk/view

Let me know what you guys think!

 

[2una]

The Start has Lanthanum in it?..... Maybe hitting the PO4 a bit hard?

 

[atrain]

Time, lots of time. Keep it stable. I can't say for sure you had same problem as me, but I wasn't able to save anything that was in decline prior to switching my alk back. I waited 4 months before adding more sps back. Even then I still had sps that was still hanging on

 

[malx]

The Start has Lanthanum in it?..... Maybe hitting the PO4 a bit hard?

So are you saying that the PO4 is low possibly because of an overdose of Start? I did cut back on my start dose right after this test from .6ml / day to .25ml.




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[malx]

Time, lots of time. Keep it stable. I can't say for sure you had same problem as me, but I wasn't able to save anything that was in decline prior to switching my alk back. I waited 4 months before adding more sps back. Even then I still had sps that was still hanging on

Well I wouldn't mind waiting a few months. In the mean time I'll have a few more fish in the system by then hopefully to help add a bit of dissolved organics.


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[2una]

So are you saying that the PO4 is low possibly because of an overdose of Start? I did cut back on my start dose right after this test from .6ml / day to .25ml.

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The Lanthanum is possibly Lanthanum Chloride - a PO4 remover.
I'm not a zeohead so maybe its in one of the other bottles but that would be my guess that its maybe in the Start unless you've been dosing something else.

Back off on that some more & let that Po4 get a little higher - that low Po4 & your higher Alk before perhaps what was doing the damage.
You seen your I & K is low too huh.

 

[jackson6745]

I've seen so many threads like this, most have one thing in common, Red Sea Coral Pro salt. I have personally witnessed local systems rebound after switching to a less buffered salt. When you have a system that should running 7.5-8.5 DkH, and do water changes with a salt measuring 13DKH, that's a big swing a IMO the likely culprit. If it was my tank, I would get simple Tropic Marin or Instant Ocean a perform a larger WC.

 

[malx]

I've seen so many threads like this, most have one thing in common, Red Sea Coral Pro salt. I have personally witnessed local systems rebound after switching to a less buffered salt. When you have a system that should running 7.5-8.5 DkH, and do water changes with a salt measuring 13DKH, that's a big swing a IMO the likely culprit. If it was my tank, I would get simple Tropic Marin or Instant Ocean a perform a larger WC.

Good point. I've just switched my salt to this http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/hw-marinemix-reefer-salt-mix.html?gclid=CPPW-KjDg9ICFUiDfgodwYMOOA

which mixes at 9dkh and not 11. I'll be swaping a few gallons of water every week. My alk right now is holding solid at 7.5.

Cheers,
Joey

 

[malx]

The Lanthanum is possibly Lanthanum Chloride - a PO4 remover.
I'm not a zeohead so maybe its in one of the other bottles but that would be my guess that its maybe in the Start unless you've been dosing something else.

Back off on that some more & let that Po4 get a little higher - that low Po4 & your higher Alk before perhaps what was doing the damage.
You seen your I & K is low too huh.

The ZEOvit guys recommended a slightly less aggressive dosing schedule and time. Going to go that route. Also doing some small water changes weekly to normalize elements. I dose K, so even though it's low, there's constantly K in the water.

 

[jda]

This is way off topic, but don't buy any particular salt for the alk content. A few MLs of Muratic Acid will can bring any salt down to where you need it.

 

[malx]

This is way off topic, but don't buy any particular salt for the alk content. A few MLs of Muratic Acid will can bring any salt down to where you need it.

So you put muraitic acid in high alk salt?


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[Bagabaga]

Putting muriatic acid in fresh salt mix seems dangerous for corals. Anyone else do this to high alk salt? My Kent reef mixes to about 11kh and I'd like to know if this helps and what ratio to use specifically.

 

[jda]

Of course. You need to aerate it for a day or two afterward to blow the CO2 off and raise the PH back up. People have been doing this for years and years. A PH Pen can really help with this.

Gallons * dKh drop * .123 = MLs of Muratic to use. I think that this assumes the 20 Muratic like at Home Depot (31% stuff). If it works out too low, then add some baking soda. If too high, then add some more Muratic.