Hopefully this is OK under RC, but I am a desperate guy at this point and this may get a little lengthy.
I have a 210g mixed reef, mostly ricordia and zoos but there are some frogspawn, hammers, blasto and three montipora.
The tank came mostly from a 125g that came from a 90g that came from a 75g so some of the stuff in there mostly rock is close to 10 years old. The 210 has been up for 3 years this May. Up to about 2 years ago it was just soft corals and LPS, everything grew great, never an issue. Then I got the SPS bug but not the dedication required to keep them. I did not keep my PH, Alk and Calcium in check, after my last episode of the kalk reactor creating a snow storm, I cut my losses kept only a few SPS. My fish are 3 small gobies, purple tang, powder brown tang, scribbled rabbit fish, african cleaner wrasse, hippo tang and flame angel. Since my kalk snow storm I have not been able to reliably keep zoos. I do have colonies with over 100, but if I were to bring in 4 frags tomorrow, 2 of them could be gone the next day and perhaps the other 2 a month later. For example, I had 3 large rocks of blue zoos they all slowly disappeared leaving just a melted gray film, then nothing all in about 3 days time. I can buy frags and throw them in my 75g tank at my office and they do fine. I do fewer water changes, never check anything, have a raggedy skimmer, PC lights, a nothing special standard reef but the zoos will grow and grow.
I have bought $100s of dollars in zoos over the past year just to watch every other one melt away.
Here is what is not causing my issues....
1. It is not due to salinity - 1.025, 2 refractometers calibrated.
2. It is not due to water changes - 65g monthly.
3. skimmer ASM GX4 skims wetter, fills up 3 days.
4. lights, just changed MHs 250wX2, 400wX1, with 360w actinics.
5. MHs 9 hours per day, actinics 10
6. Temperature - 77-80.
7. PH 8.1-8.35, recently calibrated.
8. Salt was IO, now Oceanic
9. Stray voltage - yes, but not today as I watch 1 melt, normally grounded - it was another failed experiment.
10. alk is normally between 10-12 dKH.
11. calcium is normally low around 320.
12. no measureable nitrates or nitrites.
13. circulation is high, 2 tunze 6100s, mag 12 return, mag 7 on a sea swirl, mag 9 on a closed loop, external 1200 g/hr. on a closed loop, 2 koralia3s (my stray voltage source).
14. I dose a little vitamin C from time to time powder 100% pure.
15. zoos are spread throughout the tank and do equally poor in every area = everything else is thriving, no non-zoo causalties.
16. have searched at night and evening for any zoo preditors, never seen any and think it is extremely unlikely since it is almost always any new zoo that is introduced even if there is 1 on each side of the tank.
17. ATO is RO/DI water through a kalk reactor with pickling lime. I got my reactor, RO/DI and lime from the same place some of you got yours and RO/DI is in good shape, less than 10 ppm.
18. I realize the rabbit fish, hippo tang and flame angel have been zoo or coral nippers. I am not seeing that. I am not seeing it randomly. It is new coral and sometime (like today) something that had been fine for months.
If someone would solve this mystery, I would leave them a $50 gift certificate at the their choice Reef shop ......as I watch a rock full of zoos that were open nice yesterday and everyday for the last few months melt away before my eyes. The colony today is in 2 sections on 1 large rock. One section is melting away the unattached 2nd section is doing fine.
Any help would be extremely appreciated. This is not BS, not only a gift certificate but also frags - I am quite desperate. Over the years I have made it through cyno outbreaks, hair algae, calupera, ICH, kalk snow storms, bubble algae, just about any bad thing that could happen but there was always a solution, perhaps a hard one but an answer. I need an answer.
I have a 210g mixed reef, mostly ricordia and zoos but there are some frogspawn, hammers, blasto and three montipora.
The tank came mostly from a 125g that came from a 90g that came from a 75g so some of the stuff in there mostly rock is close to 10 years old. The 210 has been up for 3 years this May. Up to about 2 years ago it was just soft corals and LPS, everything grew great, never an issue. Then I got the SPS bug but not the dedication required to keep them. I did not keep my PH, Alk and Calcium in check, after my last episode of the kalk reactor creating a snow storm, I cut my losses kept only a few SPS. My fish are 3 small gobies, purple tang, powder brown tang, scribbled rabbit fish, african cleaner wrasse, hippo tang and flame angel. Since my kalk snow storm I have not been able to reliably keep zoos. I do have colonies with over 100, but if I were to bring in 4 frags tomorrow, 2 of them could be gone the next day and perhaps the other 2 a month later. For example, I had 3 large rocks of blue zoos they all slowly disappeared leaving just a melted gray film, then nothing all in about 3 days time. I can buy frags and throw them in my 75g tank at my office and they do fine. I do fewer water changes, never check anything, have a raggedy skimmer, PC lights, a nothing special standard reef but the zoos will grow and grow.
I have bought $100s of dollars in zoos over the past year just to watch every other one melt away.
Here is what is not causing my issues....
1. It is not due to salinity - 1.025, 2 refractometers calibrated.
2. It is not due to water changes - 65g monthly.
3. skimmer ASM GX4 skims wetter, fills up 3 days.
4. lights, just changed MHs 250wX2, 400wX1, with 360w actinics.
5. MHs 9 hours per day, actinics 10
6. Temperature - 77-80.
7. PH 8.1-8.35, recently calibrated.
8. Salt was IO, now Oceanic
9. Stray voltage - yes, but not today as I watch 1 melt, normally grounded - it was another failed experiment.
10. alk is normally between 10-12 dKH.
11. calcium is normally low around 320.
12. no measureable nitrates or nitrites.
13. circulation is high, 2 tunze 6100s, mag 12 return, mag 7 on a sea swirl, mag 9 on a closed loop, external 1200 g/hr. on a closed loop, 2 koralia3s (my stray voltage source).
14. I dose a little vitamin C from time to time powder 100% pure.
15. zoos are spread throughout the tank and do equally poor in every area = everything else is thriving, no non-zoo causalties.
16. have searched at night and evening for any zoo preditors, never seen any and think it is extremely unlikely since it is almost always any new zoo that is introduced even if there is 1 on each side of the tank.
17. ATO is RO/DI water through a kalk reactor with pickling lime. I got my reactor, RO/DI and lime from the same place some of you got yours and RO/DI is in good shape, less than 10 ppm.
18. I realize the rabbit fish, hippo tang and flame angel have been zoo or coral nippers. I am not seeing that. I am not seeing it randomly. It is new coral and sometime (like today) something that had been fine for months.
If someone would solve this mystery, I would leave them a $50 gift certificate at the their choice Reef shop ......as I watch a rock full of zoos that were open nice yesterday and everyday for the last few months melt away before my eyes. The colony today is in 2 sections on 1 large rock. One section is melting away the unattached 2nd section is doing fine.
Any help would be extremely appreciated. This is not BS, not only a gift certificate but also frags - I am quite desperate. Over the years I have made it through cyno outbreaks, hair algae, calupera, ICH, kalk snow storms, bubble algae, just about any bad thing that could happen but there was always a solution, perhaps a hard one but an answer. I need an answer.
