Tank is crashing :(

[Myka]

Originally Posted by MitchM

Your tank setup looks fine, but your tank has been through a lot of changes in the last 6 months including light changes, changing from dosing to a calcium reactor, alk fluctuations and the use of carbon dosing plus you have a mixture of lps and sps. You didn't mention if you were using activated carbon, so that may be a good idea to compensate for the allelopathy (chemical warfare) between your corals.
Bottom line I think your tank needs some stability, but start with a regular water change schedule.
Turn down the lights and increase water circulation. Water circulation is as important, if not more important than lighting.
imo

I totally agree with this!

I think the issues you're seeing is from the wild fluctuations in the tank and all the changes made. Get it stable for at least 4 weeks, then add a new coral to "test the water". Chances are that what you're seeing is damage from the past, rather than current conditions.

[iceman86]

Originally Posted by dcw1sfu

Are you carbon dosing at all. I almost wiped my tank with a nopox overdose and experienced losses in the same manner you describe.

No I'm not carbon dosing. I've ran it on previous tanks with great success but I tried to get away from it on this tank.

[iceman86]

I lowered my led intensity a bit as well because I've noticed that the couple chalices I have are starting to get a little pale. Should I do a large water change just in case it's something in the water?

[Frogger]

If the issue with your tank is stability associated with all the changes that have happened how is a large water change going to help with stability. You might be better with many smaller water changes.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Frogger

If the issue with your tank is stability associated with all the changes that have happened how is a large water change going to help with stability. You might be better with many smaller water changes.

I don't think a large water change is a good idea.

[iceman86]

Ok I'll let it roll for a few weeks and see how it goes. Parameters are perfectly steady so fingers crossed!!

Thanks for the help everyone!

[Myka]

Originally Posted by iceman86

Ok I'll let it roll for a few weeks and see how it goes. Parameters are perfectly steady so fingers crossed!!

Thanks for the help everyone!

That's the trickiest part! Keeping the numbers steady for weeks and months at a time. When the numbers are steady for a long time we get lax on testing/monitoring and we do stupid things like let a doser run out of fluid or don't test for a month and find out that growth has taken off or even tapered off and KH is at 5 or 12 dKH. Ugh.

Two months ago I accidentally turned the doser off on my own tank, and didn't notice until I could see the corals reacting to low KH. The KH hit 5.7-5.85 dKH (depending which test you believe), and the damage was already done. The first thing I did was turn the T5s down by 50%, then I corrected the KH by taking a week to slowly bring it back up, and then I sat back and waited for the apocalypse. After about 3 weeks I started seeing the affects. It takes quite awhile to see the affects - usually just when you start to think you're in the clear. Now two months later the Acros still aren't back to where they were - maybe another month.

[tang daddy]

How long has your tank been set up?

When did you introduce the acros or they grew from frags?

Doesn't look like a lot of rock in the display, could this be happening because of a lack of nutrients/bacteria?

If they only started dying when you changed your t5 to led it is a possibility that it was the light but even usually if it's the light it takes a bit of time i.e. Bleaching, stn.

Did you check to see if predatation is a factor?

[iceman86]

Originally Posted by tang daddy

How long has your tank been set up?

When did you introduce the acros or they grew from frags?

Doesn't look like a lot of rock in the display, could this be happening because of a lack of nutrients/bacteria?

If they only started dying when you changed your t5 to led it is a possibility that it was the light but even usually if it's the light it takes a bit of time i.e. Bleaching, stn.

Did you check to see if predatation is a factor?

I've had some of these acros for about 5 years. I grew them out from frags and have been in this tank for almost a year. They have been happy up until recently.

I've never really had nutrients issues and I do feed lots so I don't think that's where the problem is coming from. I also was adding amino acids. I was also adding bacteria 2x per week.

I have also looked for bugs on them and I can't find anything. It's been a while since I've added any new corals.

[iceman86]

I was sitting at work this morning and thinking about this lol I then realized that I added a clown tang around that sane time the problems started happening. The tang was fat when I bought him, but slowly got skinnier and skinnier even though I was feeding him a ton to try to fatten him up. He ended up dying 2 weeks ago. Found his skeleton on the sand bed. All my other fish and tang are healthy and happy.
Could it be that this fish brought in a coral killing disease?