Came home to find this.......

[MartinsReef]

So I got home from the Broncos game to find my scolly half dead and my pink lemonade smoked! I just about put the tank up for sale two weeks ago when all my acans died! Now this! I was hard enough losing those but my scolly! Ugh!

I have never had this many issues in all my years in this hobby. I don't know if I have much left in me to keep going!

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[09bumblebee]

What's the cause of these issues? Are you having ph swings? Temp issues? Maybe a hitchhiker going to town in your corals?

 

[CRW Reef]

Martin what salt are you using?

 

[CRW Reef]

PS. Don't give up my friend, you'll see this through, just like the last 15+ years in the hobby. Wondering if you should setup a temp holding tank see what the heck is going on in the DT

 

[MartinsReef]

No pest just, ph swings that has stabled in the past three day to 8.3. Salt is kent pro coral.

Water parameters

Ph 8.2-8.3
Temp 78.9
Calcium 420
Magnesium 1250
Alkalinity 12.5
Nitrates 0.01
Nitrites 0.0
Ammonia 0.0
Phosphates 0.0

All sps have new growth all lps and zoas look good but lost all acans two acros and now the scolly. I just think my ph swings have caught up to these corals and they could not survive it any longer.

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[that0neguy1126]

Your Alk is really high as well, which may be contributing to those PH Swings.

Might be helpful to use http://reef.diesyst.com/flashcalc/flashcalc.html to calculate the ideal levels to balance the trinity out.

 

[MartinsReef]

Your Alk is really high as well, which may be contributing to those PH Swings.

Might be helpful to use http://reef.diesyst.com/flashcalc/flashcalc.html to calculate the ideal levels to balance the trinity out.

Could be but it has been high since day one I may try a new test kit.

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[09bumblebee]

Seems like all your levels are fine except alk seems high to me as well. In my sting tank I keep it at 8.0-8.5 ph is swinging normal from what you said. You've been doing this long enough that you know what your doing. Did you by chance switch to new salt, change ro from a different source? Think about the small changes you have made recently.

 

[MartinsReef]

Also I thought that natural dkh is between 8.0-12.4 which means my alk should be ok. This is what I have read and what the container says on my buffer.

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[DyM]

I think dkh of 12.4 is at the high end, but in itself not somthing to kill SPS. My mixed tank targets 9. The swings however will kill SPS though from my experience. If you've gone from 8-12 and back again within a period of a week, that would cause serious problems. I had an issue with my skimmer and it was taking too much tank water out - trying to dose and ballance caused the swings = some SPS loss a few yrs back.

Stay in, once you figure this out, I'd happly give you any new SPS I have to get you going again.

 

[09bumblebee]

Also I thought that natural dkh is between 8.0-12.4 which means my alk should be ok. This is what I have read and what the container says on my buffer.

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It is but stony's seem to like lower alk levels I don't know the reasoning behind this but this is what I've been told by others. Mainly my cousin who runs his own maintenance business. He's a marine biologist anyway I won't go on anymore. Stony are also sensitive to alk swings to ex. go from 10-9 in a matter of a few hrs. Skimmer overflowing causing your ato to dump a few gallons in your sump etc etc. I know this cause my skimmer has been doing this and my stony won't show PE for a day.

 

[Dbarnes]

Dont quit it will all work out!!!

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[MartinsReef]

As fussy as I get I will never quit! It just sucks. However I may go to kalk and a dosing system? I thought dosing three part would be fine and was until this summer. So I need to think about it and would like some advice.

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[reef dummy]

Also I thought that natural dkh is between 8.0-12.4 which means my alk should be ok. This is what I have read and what the container says on my buffer.

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I believe natural seawater has a alk level of seven but most believe sps do better with higher levels.

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[MartinsReef]

I believe natural seawater has a alk level of seven but most believe sps do better with higher levels.

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Everything I have read today is that it depends on the location of the reef in the world and it varies from 8.4 to 12.6

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[Cake_Boss]

I don't know what the natural alk is for the reefs at this elevation, but when I was playing with my numbers I noticed my tank likes an alk of 9-9.5dkh and mag of 1400ppm.

Maybe you've got some old tank syndrome creeping in?

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[MartinsReef]

I don't know what the natural alk is for the reefs at this elevation, but when I was playing with my numbers I noticed my tank likes an alk of 9-9.5dkh and mag of 1400ppm.

Maybe you've got some old tank syndrome creeping in?

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I don't think you should use that tone with me! OLD! Who you calling old! My tank is only a year and a half old! Lol

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[Cake_Boss]

Lol

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[Atari]

how old is your Carbon? you might have poison in your tank that you can't test for, carbon would help.

 

[MartinsReef]

how old is your Carbon? you might have poison in your tank that you can't test for, carbon would help.

I run two carbon reactors and a GFO reactor.

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