What the H#%* Happened

Mg is now a bit low, 1200+. No nitrites at all, between 5 and 10 on Nitrates. Mg could be causing shift in Alk. I usually keep Mg at 1400+
 
Mg is now a bit low, 1200+. No nitrites at all, between 5 and 10 on Nitrates. Mg could be causing shift in Alk. I usually keep Mg at 1400+


Yes it very well could but not that quickly IME.

Becareful not to change too many things at one time. As someone posted earlier sometimes this just happens as frustrating as it is. :(
 
Agreed, I am staying composed and not over reacting. I did not dose A B today because when I tested earlier it appeared that everything was good. That is the only thing I did besides dipping, I dosed as I would do each day. Will wait until tomorrow to see what the parameters are and how things look.

One last thing, spotted some Cyno on the back wall just a bit ago. Never saw that before. Just another mystery to try to figure out. No way my nutrients are high and my phosphates are zero.
 
One last thing..Again...the tank stinks tonight. Real fishy odor, very unusual. Protein skimmer doesn't look at all out of the ordinary. Not a skimmer type of smell. Not the Coral Rx smell (Pinesol for sure). Fishy, very Fishy!
 
All inverts accounted for that are a decent size as well as fish?

Dosing Vodka and the presense of small patch of cynobacteria, something to watch for.......Vodka can be a tricky thing if not right on the mark.

Your mystery gets more and more complicated...........
 
Yes and no. All fish are accounted for an look great, no problems except they are a pain at feeding time.

Everything else looks ok, just ok. I have some LPS that have looked better to me but others would say they look beautiful. On opposite sides of the tank I have a colt and a leather. The colt has looked better but seems ok. same with the leather. My hammer never looked better but I have a brain that looks a little like crap. Big clam, he's cool looking ok, frag rack in back right corner and all frags (sps) look fantastic. A few zoo colonies look excellent. Maybe I am overreacting a bit. On a normal day I would probably say the tank looks great.

What's that damn smell!!!
 
which salt mix are you using? the reason i ask is because i just did a water change with reef crystals 4 days ago and the next morning i had a millie i grew from a frag stn on me, 2 acros wash out, and got a spot of cyano. Several customers at the store where i work also reported similar casualties right after a water change, all with the same salt. Of course i can't speak for their tanks but mine was in great shape until 4 days ago.
 
Red Sea Max Coral Mix. I am about 2/3 down in the bucket and have done quite a few changes with this salt. Seemed ok in the past but I was looking for a better alternative. Seems that after a water change I have to boost my Mg and Ca back up. They also say the pH is 8.4 but I have tested it ten ways to you know what and I can't get above 8.25.
 
Here is the after shot. Dipped and trimmed.

IMG_8501 (Small).JPG

Here is two of my favorites. Forgive the poor photography.

IMG_8500 (Small).JPG
 
First off i hate purigen. I added it to my tank once and it crashed mytank within 2 days. It may work for some but for me it was a disaster.How long have you been running it? How long have you been dosing vodka and how many gallons total is your system and how much vodka are you dosing?Are you dosing a bacteria source along with the vodka? Is there a reason your running a phosphate reactor and dosing vodka at the same time? It is reccomended that if your going to do this to get your vodka dosing set up and going then to add the phosphate reactor later on down the road if your even going to run one(which is not reccomended to do while vodka dosing). Are you running a fuge with macro algae in it? if so whats your lighting schedule on that?What is you regular lighting schedule? You are running the carbon and your water is still smelling? When was the last time you changed the carbon?What else do you dose/add to the tank?There is something going on it seems and you need to get to the bottom of it. Dosing vodka can cause cyano as well as it feeds on the carbon source.You may have phosphates and nitrates but not know it because the cyano/macro algae is taking it up. Dont do anything drastic at all because then you wont know what is causing or fixing the problem. What do you have for flow in the tank? Is the leather touching other corals?As someone else said though sometimes corals rtn out of nowhere and for no reason.
 
Lots of questions, let me see:

1. running purigen for about 8 months. BUT took it out yesterday and added Seachem DeNitrate to the reactor instead.

2. Been dosing vodka now for about 2 months. The total system volume is approximately 80 gallons of water less the rock and the sump volume.

3. I didn't think it mattered. I was running phosphate and carbon in the same reactor before Vodka and never took it out.

4. No fuge and that is the primary reson for a current project to relocate the sump to the basement. I also have a 210 gallon tank waiting in the wings to go into the same room. I eventually want to put both tanks on one big sump with a fuge.

5. The tank lighting consists of 2x 250w Halide's 20k. They are on from 0900 to 1900. I also have two T5 act's which are one from 0600 to 2100. LED's are on from 2100 to midnight. Lights out from midnight to 0600. Same lighting schedule for over 6 months.

6. I have carbon in the reactor, new yesterday, and a large carbon bag in the sump, new 2 weeks ago.

7. I dose A/B every other day. I run a Ca reactor that has a 9:1 mixture of argonite and NeoMag. I maintain Ca and Mg levels typically at 460 - 480 and Mg around 1300. I also use Koral Color twice a week, 3ml as prescribed.

8. Makeup water RO with Kalk and RO without Kalk; Due to weather issues I might loose more water than I want to add with Kalk so I makeup 50/50

9. No leather's near the corals. Opposite sides of tank.

I am going to suspend Vodka Dosing.
 
Are you going to slowly back off the dosing of vodka or halt all together.

Personally I think dialing back is a better idea. Gives the bacterial bed some time to adjust.

How are the frags looking today?
 
I was dosing 0.5ml twice per day. I am only going to dose 1x/day for a few days, then cut back to .25ml/day for a few days then kill it completely.

The frags look ok today. The colony has another stalk going white. The dip didn't seem to stop the problem or maybe it slowed it down a bit. It doesn't look good for this colony.
 
I'm loosing it. Can't do anything else. Don't want to mess with the tank, it's solid in all other respects. I guess I will just watch it die.

IMG_8514 (Small).JPG
 
Frag off the good branches now. If the STN has reached the base you won't be able to frag off the dead branches.
 
Well it's over, 3:40 PM EST. I made frag's out of whatever I could that looked healthy. It wasn't much. Took the coral out of the tank.

See ya all on another thread. Hopefully a better one.

BTY, that odor I was talking about earlier that was stinking up the tank. Now it's stinking up the garbage. Tank smells fine. Stinks real bad.
 
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