My 110 Gallon Peninsula SPS Tank

[Myka]

Originally Posted by sweet ride

oh thanks Myka! I just hope that am in the right side of the fence now! Ya I did the MH to T5 and it's actually from bio-pellets to vodka as i've also been having issue with the pellets clumping up. (this pellets have been in my system just over a year before I finally pulled them out)

As far as test kits are concern I wouldn't say that am having any nutrient issue, salifert says that I don't have any tractable nitrate, and hanna checker says zero phosphate. I also run GAC and GFO and I have always run them in my system. As far as skimmer is concern am using a euro-reef RS-180, I would say more that sufficient for my system. The only thing that I have not tested yet is the ammonia. I will be bringing a sample to one of the LFS and get them to check it for me.

If nutrients aren't an issue, why not drop the vodka too? Do you have any friends that could check phosphate with D-D or another high sensitivity kit? I had that same skimmer on my 90 and it did a good job as long as it wasn't overflowing (which it did often!). I just switched to a SWC 180 Cone. If you use any ammonia products like Prime, AmQuel, etc make sure they use a salicylate kit, not a Nessler. You can check nitrite too...will tell you if there was ammonia present recently.

I can't believe so many "numbers" are good, but there is so much havoc! Have you checked pH at all? Preferably with a meter, not a kit.

[sweet ride]

Originally Posted by Myka

If nutrients aren't an issue, why not drop the vodka too? Do you have any friends that could check phosphate with D-D or another high sensitivity kit? I had that same skimmer on my 90 and it did a good job as long as it wasn't overflowing (which it did often!). I just switched to a SWC 180 Cone. If you use any ammonia products like Prime, AmQuel, etc make sure they use a salicylate kit, not a Nessler. You can check nitrite too...will tell you if there was ammonia present recently.

I can't believe so many "numbers" are good, but there is so much havoc! Have you checked pH at all? Preferably with a meter, not a kit.

I finally had a chance to stop by the LFS and they checked the water sample that I brought, all test was done with salifert test kit. They tested the water for nitrate, nitrite & ammonia, all the test came back ok. Oh and I've never used any ammonia product.

As per the skimmer it have always worked well for me also, there was only several times that I could remember the skimmer overflowed.

The only number that am having an issue with is PH. This is monitored 24/7 via american pinpoint PH monitor and Reef Keeper Lite. The probes are calibrated on a monthly basis. I have now been adding kalk to the system for about a week and still no luck. the PH continue to hover just over 7.7 day time and 7.5 night time.

[Myka]

Tests ok, as in 0? Or did they carry a value?

Ah ha, I knew it would show up as pH. You have big fish in there? Some tangs maybe? How do you treat your sandbed? How deep is it? Any conchs or other stirrers/sifters? What kind of sand? You buy it new?

[sweet ride]

Originally Posted by Myka

Tests ok, as in 0? Or did they carry a value?

Ah ha, I knew it would show up as pH. You have big fish in there? Some tangs maybe? How do you treat your sandbed? How deep is it? Any conchs or other stirrers/sifters? What kind of sand? You buy it new?

test all came back with zero or no value. what do you mean by "Ah ha, I knew it would show up as pH"?

Ya I have 3 tangs in the system. what do you mean by how do i treat the sandbed? The sandbed is around 1" to 1 1/2" deep. I have nassarius snails & cerith snail, I also have 3 wrasse as well as 2 clown fish that keeps the sandbed stirred up. I have sugar size and yes they were purchased new.

[Myka]

How do you treat it as in, what do you do with it? The sandbed is probably trapping more crud than you think. I vacuum mine with a gravel vac while doing waterchanges. Makes a big difference. I think your low pH is probably caused by a large bioload.

[sweet ride]

Originally Posted by Myka

How do you treat it as in, what do you do with it? The sandbed is probably trapping more crud than you think. I vacuum mine with a gravel vac while doing waterchanges. Makes a big difference. I think your low pH is probably caused by a large bioload.

because am using sugar size sand, vacuuming it is out of the question. I have tried this several times and because of it's size all the sand just end up in the bucket with the water.

any recommendation in helping me raise the ph without affecting the alk or ca?

[sweet ride]

As the system recovers I would like to share a handful of pics of the corals that are starting to recover.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by sweet ride

because am using sugar size sand, vacuuming it is out of the question. I have tried this several times and because of it's size all the sand just end up in the bucket with the water.

any recommendation in helping me raise the ph without affecting the alk or ca?

You can still vacuum sugar sand, but it takes good technique. Use a short hose so you can put your thumb over the end, or use soft hose so you can pinch it (you can get different wall thickness, thin is easier to pinch). Buy a vacuum with a small hose, like 1/4" ID so the flow isn't so fast either. Then just shove it into the sand, and as soon as the first bits of sand get a little way up the vacuum pinch it off so the sand settles, you can play around with it like that and get the detritus out without the sand.

I bought a vacuum (I think Hagen..?) that uses a 1" pipe for the vacuum part. I bought a 36" piece of 1" pipe (it's used for undergravel filter uptakes) and cut the pipe to be just a tad shorter than how deep my water is. Looks really well. The extra length helps to get the detritus out while leaving the sand in the tank.

Low pH has many causes. The most common being either high bioload or too much CO2. Do you ever open the windows in your house for fresh air? Check for an oily film on the water surface. Pretty much any skimmer works well for off-gassing CO2, but if the house has concentrations of CO2 then all the off-gassing in the world won't help. Bioload also lowers pH as fish poop is acidic, and there are also acids released when organics are broke down through the nitrogen process. Sometimes if everything is "good" simply dripping kalkwasser at night as part replacement for calcium and alkalinity dosing will keep the pH from falling so much at night which enough to keep the pH higher during the day too.