I am Slowly Murdering my Coral

[Madcrazyroyboy]

I had a bad situation with the coral pro mix because it would make my alk too high. So I use the regular red sea. I do gotta douse some calcium but not much. Defiantly mix the bag for quite a while to get a full mix because all the stuff slowly goes to the bottom and can mess up the mix if it was sitting for awhile in the store.

 

[Masoniac]

I would say it isn't the lighting if their just fading away over time and not bleaching.

 

[skywhitney]

Any improvement with the corals?

 

[scottayy]

Okay, update. I've been dealing with stray voltage issues and I'm like 100% positive you didn't read 0.0v in your tank (unless you have a grounding probe, in which case you should unplug it/remove it before you test). Maybe you had the meter on DC current instead of AC current or a bad meter or something. I'm starting to think around 20 or so volts is normal but if for some reason yours is much higher than that it could be an issue.

 

[fort384]

Perhaps I did not have the meter setup correctly - will have to borrow it from work again next week and retest. I am pretty sure I had it set to read AC, but maybe I had it on DC. I really don't think voltage would be my problem - while there is no doubt some stray voltage could travel up the returns, there is nothing electrical inside the DT at all - the powerheads are MP10's, so all the electric is on the outside of the tank. The rest of the electrics are in the sump. But I will check again.

In the mean time, I have made some changes to the tank:

I added a BRS carbon reactor and am running Rox 0.8 carbon in it. I thought my tank was clear before but holy cow, there is a noticeable difference in the water clarity.

I changed my lighting duration to be a bit less - it was recommended to me by a couple of reefers over on RC. I now have 12 hours of total light, but only 6 hours at the peak intensity of 35% white, 45% blue.

I have been watching my alk closely - and it is dropping weekly. I wonder if the swings in alk caused by doing water changes is a contributor to my issues? I am looking seriously at a 2 part auto dosing system. If I rely on manual dosing of 2 part, I know I will get lazy and skip doses. Automation is my friend. For now, my alk seems to be around 10-11 after a ~15% water change, but tests at ~8-9dKH before a water change.

The good news is, the hammer I added a few weeks ago is actually doing pretty well. This is a record for me, as I have killed 3 hammers previously, and they all died much faster than anything else I have added to the tank, inside a week or 10 days I would say. This one has no noticeable decline and actually is looking pretty good. Maybe the increase in water changes and the slight changes to lighting have had a positive effect.

We shall see...

 

[scottayy]

Perhaps I did not have the meter setup correctly - will have to borrow it from work again next week and retest. I am pretty sure I had it set to read AC, but maybe I had it on DC. I really don't think voltage would be my problem - while there is no doubt some stray voltage could travel up the returns, there is nothing electrical inside the DT at all - the powerheads are MP10's, so all the electric is on the outside of the tank. The rest of the electrics are in the sump. But I will check again.

In the mean time, I have made some changes to the tank:

I added a BRS carbon reactor and am running Rox 0.8 carbon in it. I thought my tank was clear before but holy cow, there is a noticeable difference in the water clarity.

I changed my lighting duration to be a bit less - it was recommended to me by a couple of reefers over on RC. I now have 12 hours of total light, but only 6 hours at the peak intensity of 35% white, 45% blue.

I have been watching my alk closely - and it is dropping weekly. I wonder if the swings in alk caused by doing water changes is a contributor to my issues? I am looking seriously at a 2 part auto dosing system. If I rely on manual dosing of 2 part, I know I will get lazy and skip doses. Automation is my friend. For now, my alk seems to be around 10-11 after a ~15% water change, but tests at ~8-9dKH before a water change.

The good news is, the hammer I added a few weeks ago is actually doing pretty well. This is a record for me, as I have killed 3 hammers previously, and they all died much faster than anything else I have added to the tank, inside a week or 10 days I would say. This one has no noticeable decline and actually is looking pretty good. Maybe the increase in water changes and the slight changes to lighting have had a positive effect.

We shall see...

Sweet, voltage in the sump means voltage in the DT as well. Water is good at conducting!

Wonder why your alk is dropping so fast. Are you keeping an eye on calcium as well because they go hand in hand to form calcium carbonate.

Congrats, looking forward to a thriving hammer!

 

[Keithhjs]

Glad to hear the hammer looks good and the others rebounding. I firmly believe with the change of water (I,e. your new batch of salt), increased water changes, increased light, & adding carbon will make the difference!

 

[fort384]

Scottay, Ca has not been dropping much at all, just alk. There has been a ton of coralline growth over the last few months, so maybe that is soaking up the excess carbonate, but it has definitely not been a linear relationship between Ca and Alk levels.

Saltwater is a good conductor, but I think it would take a heck of a lot of current in the sump in the form of stray voltage to really get much stray voltage at all to the DT. I will check it again next week and you can say I told you so if I get some abnormally high reading, but I am doubting this is the culprit. It is worth a recheck to verify though, and I will check just about anything at this point!

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Scottay, Ca has not been dropping much at all, just alk. There has been a ton of coralline growth over the last few months, so maybe that is soaking up the excess carbonate, but it has definitely not been a linear relationship between Ca and Alk levels.

Ah. It may be magnesium and strontium that's low. Coralline algae growth taxes strontium and magnesium hard. From what I've read coralline algae is made up of strontium but also requires magnesium, bicarbonates and calcium and when it has a burst of growth it can drop those levels.

Some people struggle to get it to grow by carefully monitoring their calcium and alkalinity without success. Magnesium and strontium also play a role in keeping your dKH levels stable. It's worth reading up on. May even have a sticky on it somewhere on here.

 

[fort384]

Mg is not low at all. It was on the high end of the scale (1400).

Have not tested strontium.

I did go ahead and order some kick butt components to get an automated 2 part dosing system up and running. Should be here next week.

 

[scottayy]

I've always had high mg too. It reads just above 1500. I have coral growing, but not the best of growths. I wonder if high mg is a common thread.

(btw, I don't want to tell you i told you so - just trying to help! but i do get the same voltage readings in sump as i do in dt and the only thing i have in the dt is 1 koralia pump)

 

[fort384]

(btw, I don't want to tell you i told you so - just trying to help! but i do get the same voltage readings in sump as i do in dt and the only thing i have in the dt is 1 koralia pump)

LOL I know, and I do sincerely appreciate it!

 

[ccCapt]

Scottay, Ca has not been dropping much at all, just alk. There has been a ton of coralline growth over the last few months, so maybe that is soaking up the excess carbonate, but it has definitely not been a linear relationship between Ca and Alk levels.

Ah. It may be magnesium and strontium that's low. Coralline algae growth taxes strontium and magnesium hard. From what I've read coralline algae is made up of strontium but also requires magnesium, bicarbonates and calcium and when it has a burst of growth it can drop those levels.

When calcification occurs, as in hard corals growing the skeletons or coralline algae growing, there is a defined amount of elements used in this process. For every 1 meq/l (2.7 dKH) of alkalinity used, the process also uses aprox 18ppm calcium, 1ppm magnesium and 1ppm strontium.
This is a great article on the subject...
When Do Calcium and Alkalinity Demand Not Exactly Balance? by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
"Another reason that calcium and alkalinity demand is not exactly balanced in many aquaria has to do with water changes. Many aquarists (including myself) do not attempt to match the calcium and alkalinity levels in water change water to the aquarium water. Consequently, each water change will alter these levels in the aquarium, and will alter the observed balance between calcium and alkalinity demand. What direction the change takes, however, will depend on the salt mix chosen and the aquarium water parameters. Commercial salt mixes vary from high calcium and normal alkalinity to high alkalinity and low calcium.
For example, if the aquarium is maintained at 420 ppm calcium and 4 meq/L of alkalinity, and the water change has 500 ppm calcium and 2.5 meq/L of alkalinity, each 20% water change will increase calcium by 16 ppm, and will drop alkalinity by 0.3 meq/L. Using the same water change scenario used in the nitrate calculations above (10 changes of 20% each over the course of a year), these water changes will increase calcium by 160 ppm and drop alkalinity by 3 meq/L."

 

[fort384]

Larry great info and link.


I guess I am confused then - I have seen my alk drop pretty consistently weekly and when I do a water change it brings it back up. My Ca hardly moves though.

Do you think I am making a mistake starting 2 part, or will this help eliminate alkalinity as a cause of my coral woes.

For what it is worth, the increased water changes over the past 3-4 weeks and the changes I made to lighting (increased intensity, lowered duration) seems to have had a good effect. I haven't noticed much decline in the last couple weeks and my 3 week old hammer is still opening up which is a record for me (I previously killed 3 hammers, and they all went pretty quickly in contrast to my other coral which has been a slow decline).

 

[fort384]

Ok 2 part auto dosing system installed. I am pretty sure nothing else is gonna fit in this stand...

I am starting at dosing the BRS 2 part recipe at 0.3mL/gallon and I will adjust from there.

 

[Sniperhank]

Looks great fort. Good job getting it all in there. If I need help packing for a vacation I'm calling you in for support. Lol.

 

[fort384]

I swear that after 2 days of dosing, my coral already looks better. My zoas are opening bigger, my SPS look healthier, and the hammer is more open than I have ever seen it. My frogspawn is growing a new head as well. I don't want to jinx it, but I really hope I have turned the corner here.

 

[Hondatek]

That's great to hear fort . Hope it will continue to progress for ya.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

We're all breathing a big sigh of relief for you man. It's crazy how one hiccup in water parameters can make everything go downhill but you ID'd and overcame the problem. Definitely a first rate job in my book!

 

[Keithhjs]

Crossing fingers lol.