failure to thrive
 

My tank has been doing really well until about a month ago. (3yrs, soft and hard corals). My 2 cleaner shrimp died within two days of each other.( 3yrs old) and then the frogspawn that was big is still alive but barely, and today I noticed that the mushrooms are disintergrating. What is up?. Temp 80 fairly consistent, lights are 4 months old, no chemistry problems other than pH is 7.7 which I have trouble keeping at 8.0, it is the only culprit that I can find. Fish seem fine. Rachel

Low pH is a pretty obvious culprit. Has it always been that low?

yep, I can not get it to 8, any suggestions. I do think it is slightly lowere than normal. I don't have monitor, I do the eyeball guress with color. Very techinical.

I agree. First step get that ph back up. Could this be a another aging sand bed issue?

I need to know how to increase the pH.

possible loss of all trace elements
 

possible loss of all trace elements, I have also heard that a low magneseum count makes it hard to keep your ph up, r u useing test kits , what r the parameters of the tank??

calcium, alk, and ph r all directly related they all effect each other...

Any algae issues?

Well, eyeballing color changing test kits can be tricky. I would see if you could borrow a pH monitor.

How about water changes?

Ok, I do 10% water changes once a week, I have no idea about magnesuim levels as I don't have that test. phosphate, nitrate and ammonia are basically nil. Ca 430 Kh is 10.5 salinity 1.026. I will try and borrow a pH monitor. Thanks for all the input so far, I have to go to bed now 430 comes early! rachel

Rachel,

I was having consistently low pH for awhile too. I did a test to measure CO2 in the room my tanks were in. Took some water from a bucket of NSW, vigorously aerated it for 10 minutes with an air stone, all the while monitoring pH change with a pH monitor. Did this in the room where the tanks were as well as outside (in January). pH change in the room was very low, about (edit here) .2. pH change outside was something like (edit here) 1.5.

I was astounded at how much CO2 was in our very air-tight condo :eek: After finding out much CO2 and how little O2 we were living with, we decided to open two windows and pretty much kept them open a bit all winter. Now that it is spring, keeping windows open is easy and exchanges the air throughout the whole house, including the tanks.

What is your alkalinity test at? and what do you supplement your reef tank with (calcium, buffers etc)?

If you are talking to me, I supplement with Ca and kalk/baking soda. Am soon getting magnesium to get those levels back up where they should be.

Sorry the question was intended for Rachel.

If you are talking to me, I supplement with Ca and kalk/baking soda. Am soon getting magnesium to get those levels back up where they should be.[/quote]

I dose with kalk about once a week as I don't have a Ca reactor. The point about dissolved O2 in tank is a good one, one of my chem lab experiments this year (a month ago) was to measure the O2 conc. in seawater and I used the water out of the tank, the results were not low. I have had a small cyano algea problem which had almost dissappeared but is starting again. I went and got some carbon to run as well as liquid marine buffer to raise pH as well as some trace elements to try, Still having losses but maybe it will turn around soon. Tommorrow I am doing another h2o change. Will post again with results. thanks for all the suggestions. Rachel

like
Bev says o2 is a big factor too.

I had a big problem until i got some fresh air to thetnak or if the tank is not drilled you will have to get the air into the tank, I found tha worked maybe a air stone then you haveto worry about salt creep too. but that is not a worry .

Did 20% h2o change and measured the pH again. (visual method) and its up to 8 again. mushrooms dying left ,right and center. lost the toad stool as well. Funny enough the sps seem to be doing ok for the most part

Oh no, went browsing by the fish tank tonight and took out more dying mushrooms, one of the hard corals not looking good and then i noticed the FISH ARE BREATHING REALLY FAST. They ate like pigs though, but the sailfin tang is struggling to swim I think. :sad: . I just rechecked all the parameters. the amonia, nitrate and phosphate are no longer zero but not a lot higher, I 'm not surprised due to all the decay going on. the Ca is 450 but the Kh is 12.5!!! Should be 8.WHAT DO I DO????? I think I'm gotting to be sick if I lose everything. Rachel

Sorry to hear about your disaster. Something similar happened to my 180g a few years back. Turns out something toxic died that I did not notice. I ran carbon in my filtration system for 24 hours then threw it out. I also did several 25% water changes, which added up to one heck of a lot of water in a 180g :eek:

Saved less than half of my fish. Corals were untouched. Fish that were affected by the toxin breathed heavily until dead :cry:

I don't think I want to get up in the morning.

WELL, NO FISH DIED. THE CORALS LOOKS SLIGHTLY BETTER BUT PALE. MAYBE THINGS ARE LOOKING UP.

I spoke too soon. Just noticed that the coraline algae is bleaching. What is going on??? :cry: rachel

Rachel,

I have never heard of such devastation. I wouldn't worry too much if the KH is 12.5. That's just a little over the recommended high value of 11.5.

Have you been running any carbon since this began? If so, how often have you been changing it? If this was my tank, I'd change it daily and be doing at least 30% water changes once a day, maybe twice if possible, with RO, RO/DI or distilled water along with your salt mix. The new salt water should be aerated and heated to tank temps for as long as possible before going into the tank.

Thanks, i will try more water changes and carbon as well.

Hey Rachael,
How is your tank fairing. Did the carbon and water changes do the trick?
Or was it something else. Anyway I have a few extra shrooms around if you need some supplimentation.

I'd check the alk on newly mixed water before doig any more water changes. If you have one of the old bad buckets of IO, you could be doing more harm than good. Does the water look like skimmed milk after 20 or 30 minutes of mixing? Check alk right away.
And as I told you the other week, feel free to come by with water to check with my kits.

Hello,

Wow that is some tank break down. Please let us know how things are now. But I'll be doing what Beverly recommended on the strict water change with RO/DI water aerated and corrected to room temperature.

Carbon is good but relying on carbon when there is serious trouble is not good. Also eyeballing test kit color is definitely a no no.

I am curious also at what type of skimmer are you using. Aeration is very important and a power skimmer can do a heck of a lot, usually better than running airstones.

Titus

maybe you have a stray current coming in from the tank, Or is there any pumps in there that have oil in them to keep lubricated to run. Maybe there is your problem.


mike

p.S maybe its the DSB is the sand from a crappy old tank or that may have a oil bse on it ...

Brad, what do you mean, BAD IO SALT!!!!. Now that you mention it, i started new bucket not too long ago. It is one of the buckets from last year when they went on sale and you brought it back for me. When it is first mixed, it looks like milk but it does go clear. Some of the stuff that does not completely dissove at the bottom of the bucket looks pretty cloudy. I am plannng to come by and take you up on your offer. How does 9-930 am on Thrus morning sound??.

Titus, the skimmer I have is very similar to Brads, as I copied it. It is a beckket type on and seems to works very well.

Mike, I have no pumps that have to be lubricated or have oil in them that I know of (powerheads). As for stray current, I jus thave the return pipe from the sump, which I don't thnk is a problem.

John, thanks for the offer of shrooms, I will think about you when the tank is more stable. I am currently still loosing corals but decidedly more slowly and wonder if its a sign that things are slowly turning around??

Rachel, there was a bad batch of IO salt that when added to a tank, proceeded to kill most of the livestock. You could tell by measuring the alk of the water after mixing. The level was really high, like 30dKh or something.
Thurs am will probably require me to be at work. PM works though

Ok Brad, how about 300 pm??? rachel

nope. I have a 9-5 job,so it would need to be after dinner.

I had similar problems with a bucket of I.O. bought last june at J&l. the corraline algae stopped growing first than i started losing my montis and my lps. By xmas my tank looked horrible. It took many water changes with new salt to bring it back. Interestingly the bad batch of salt tested at only 3.5 dkh and no cloudiness when mixed so it took me a long time to blame the salt.

Hmmm.... I guess I am making a trip to Vancouver. Brad I'll call and set something up next week perhaps. Rachel