Tank crashing...could it be due to these?

[Delphinus]

D'oh! I've forgotten the dKH to meq/l conversion. Is it 2.8? I.e., "8 or 9" is about "3.0 meq/l"?

How do you go about lowering your alk to 3.0 while maintaining Ca around 400? I've been targetting levels of 4.0 and 400, if I back off the reactor I sort of foresee it settling out at around 3.0 and 300.

I suppose a little slower growth couldn't hurt in my case since I'm dealing with a 75g with severe real estate issues at it is anyhow.

[Aquattro]

Yes, 2.8 is the conversion factor.

[Doug]

As Brad mentioned, around 8 or 9dkh as a top end. I have yet to figure out how to do that with my reactor, as not matter what I set it at, the tank alk. stays at 13dkh.

Also like Steve, there are some in the same threads that dispute these claims. I think more time is needed on this, as I remember when it was said we were running our alk. to low at 8dkh and needed to run at around 12dkh to help the sps colour.

Perhaps this was a self preservation move from the sps corals, as the alk. was raised.

[Doug]

As for my personal beliefs from my own limited sps experience and the reading of a million sps threads, ,

I do not like the higher temps that are promoted by some but have always run under 80, which follows the "preachings" of many very experienced aquarists, like Terry Siegel, Richard Harker, Greg Schiemer and others.

I also think the fruit stand overcrowded sps tanks have more RTN cases than the sparce look, letting the large growing sps colonies mature. It will be interesting to see down the road if tanks like Richard Harkers or Jerels, {Spanky}, do in the long run.

RTN is also an overused word, for the passing of corals that could have died for many other reasons. {perhaps like something being released from Brads sandbed disturbance for instance}.

Anyhow, just think of a packed sps tank, with alkalinity being overdriven to higher levels, temps run in the high end range and being blasted with high light to promote growth and colour. Perhaps its no wonder some of them get sick in our tanks.

To me, they are also very finicky at times. You look at them wrong and they bleach. Crap, no matter how many times I tried, I could not get montipora caps from Mikes 180, with 400w bulbs, to stop bleaching under my new Radiums. We also have a nice acro colony, that we can move back and forth between us, but every frag we have tried has bleached.

I sometimes laugh to myself when I think of Bobs anology, {is that a correct word}, of sps. Just fuzzy sticks that dont move.

Then I look at tanks like Brads before his problems and some other beautiful sps tanks here, or my favorite still, that picture Steve took of his digita, and you think its all worthwhile.

[Son Of Skyline]

Ok here's what I have so far...

Just calibrated and hooked up a pH monitor to the tank (thanks Shane!). As of 9:00pm it reads 8.07. Seems really low so I might go out and get more calibration fluid tomorrow and recalibrate in case I messed up the first time.

Alk: 10.9 dkh...higher than the "recommended" 8-9, but still within normal boundaries.

Ca: 380ppm...normal.

SG: 1.022 with a refractometer...a little low maybe?

Mg: 1140ppm...lower than the recommended 1300ppm so I dosed a little bit of Mg. Gonna test again tomorrow.

Did a 10% water change today, and I'm going to keep doing water changes every couple days for now.

Got some phosphate sponge. It's running through an Aquaclear 150. Pretty small but it's all I could dig up in the junk box.

One thing I still don't understand though, is why only our acropora are being affected. If there were water quality problems, wouldn't it affect all the corals?

That's all for today. The battle continues tomorrow.

[Son Of Skyline]

Originally Posted by Diomedes

Brad, Mason,
What about the growth of your acros and other SPS and their changing water flow requirements as they become larger? I know you have been doing this a long time, but are these colonies getting larger or are you fragging them a lot?

I'm not sure if the flow requirements are an issue here since it involves acropora of all sizes in all areas of my tank. But then again...I'm not ruling anything out at this point. I do have this covered though...I recently increased flow with a better wavemaker.

[Aquattro]

Mason, do you have any xenia? I had some that I couldn't kill before and could never get rid of. I realized lately that it has died off on it's own. I also notice my hammer doesn't extend like it used to. All other corals are fine though. Not sure why it's just the acro...

[Son Of Skyline]

Originally Posted by reef_raf

Mason, do you have any xenia? I had some that I couldn't kill before and could never get rid of. I realized lately that it has died off on it's own. I also notice my hammer doesn't extend like it used to. All other corals are fine though. Not sure why it's just the acro...

Yup, I have xenia. Mine aren't affected though. My xenia still looks good and is still spreading

[Son Of Skyline]

Ok....

Fri I did a 12gal (around 10%) wc, and I did an 8gal change on Sat. I ran the phosphate sponge for a couple days, but I don't think it did anything as the sponge media looked as good as new when I pulled it out.

My pH has been fluctuating from 7.9 to 8.1 daily. Not worried about the pH at this point.

I've been slowly increasing the salinity. I'm up to 1.023 now and I'm working towards 1.025 by Wednesday.

One thing I never thought about (still trying to cover all bases) is the possibility of electrical current in the tank. I don't have a grounding probe and I did feel some stray voltage on occasion in the past. Could something like this affect the life in the tank?

I haven't noticed any continued tissue recession over the weekend so that's a good sign, however my problems have been coming and going since they began.

Since my water parameters test ok, I guess the next logical step is to replace my carbon (can't hurt), and just keep doing constant water changes. I'm shooting for a 100% change over the course of 2 weeks.

Brad, did water changes not help at all in your case? What kind of water changes (outside of regular maintenance) did u try?

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Son Of Skyline

Brad, did water changes not help at all in your case? What kind of water changes (outside of regular maintenance) did u try?

I did weekly 20g changes for about 6 weeks and I found that made it worse. Although stopping these frequent changes didn't make it better. I am going to do a 100g change tonight or tomorrow, just for fun. Overall, my tank seems to be looking better for the last 2 weeks.

What type of PO4 sponge did you use? I am using Phosban, which lasts a lot longer than the Al based products.