!!!!??? It's happening again!

[asylumdown]

The only other thing I can think is alk. While I was doing the water changes and re-setting everything it got as low as 5.5, then over the course of 2 weeks I got it up very slowly back in to the 7-7.5 range. Things started recovering the fastest when it was around 6. I haven't tested it since last weekend, but today it's 8.5. Like last time I'm not sure if the spike was because the corals have stopped growing or if it slowly crept up and caused damage. In any case I turned off the dosing pump to get it to come back down in to the 7s.

My tank is no where near low nutrient at this point though, so even with (a very small amount of ) biopellets on the system, I just can't accept that an alk of 8.5 would cause so much damage.

Params:
Alk: 8.5
Calcium: 415
Mag: 1260
Nitrate: about 2ppm
PO4: 0.11

I hadn't been running GFO for the past two weeks as the pellets weren't kicking in with PO4 levels of 0.008ppm, which is where they sit with the reactor running. The nitrates are finally starting to fall from a high of about 5ppm. Anyone think those numbers would indicate coral damage?

[Aquattro]

As for rust, that wouldn't do it. I have hose clamps in my sump that have been there for years. Rusted solid. No issues. I also have add magnets get exposed and rust up, again, no issues.

[Myka]

Put one of those color-changing Poly Filter pads in the system and see if it turns any colors.

[Reef Pilot]

There was a problem with some carbon, but that was a couple years ago.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog...or-reef-carbon

I think a couple of people here on Canreef ran into that.

[Dearth]

Could it be something in your tank releasing toxins (ie. Sea cucumber, injured fish) I've read on Reef Central about people who were having mystery die off and it was found to be an injured critter releasing low enough lvls of toxins to not affect fish/inverts but could hurt coral.

It's a long shot in the dark and I've looked but I can't find the article on Reef Central to link

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by Myka

Put one of those color-changing Poly Filter pads in the system and see if it turns any colors.

This is exactly what I think I need, can you get them locally?

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

There was a problem with some carbon, but that was a couple years ago.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog...or-reef-carbon

I think a couple of people here on Canreef ran into that.

I remember this disaster for people, I thankfully avoided it because I almost never run carbon. I actually haven't been running carbon since this all began, though tonight I put some ROX carbon in a bag in my filter sock in case this is somehow an organic toxin.

Originally Posted by Dearth

Could it be something in your tank releasing toxins (ie. Sea cucumber, injured fish) I've read on Reef Central about people who were having mystery die off and it was found to be an injured critter releasing low enough lvls of toxins to not affect fish/inverts but could hurt coral.

It's a long shot in the dark and I've looked but I can't find the article on Reef Central to link

Originally Posted by FishyFishy!

What about Ferdinand? Could he be releasing a chemical due to stress of some sort? I know box fish can do that. But I have read about mystery die off being an issue with toxins from a critter as well.

It could also help to ditch the pellets and DI like kein and tony said. I would start from the beginning and bring it back to simple.

I also can't remember...are you running a calcium reactor?

This thought keeps crossing my mind. I know they produce more ostracitoxin when they're stressed, but if there ever was a fish that seemed un-stressed it's this guy. The only time he looks stressed is when he's doing his belly-against-the-glass fin wiggle when he's decided it's time for me to feed him. I'd re-home him if I could find a tank he'd do well in, but at 10 inches there aren't many of them around. None of my sessile inverts or my other fish have exhibited anything I'd call symptoms of poisoning or illness though, so I'm having a hard time pinning this on him. I added GAC back to the tank tonight on the off chance this is somehow an organic toxin.

And no, no calcium reactor. I've always dosed a three part mix and switched to the tropic Tropic Marin 3 line after this all went to h*ll in March. I thought I had brought it back to basics when this all started, but without dosing my alk drops to deadly levels in 48 hours, and without pellets my nitrates just keep going up. I'm not sure where they'd stabilize, but it was going to be in the many tens of ppm for sure.

Originally Posted by Delphinus

If I take out my gfo or let it go too long, I lose sps. Exactly the same as what you describe. And I think I mentioned this before, but testing po4 is next to meaningless. I never get a reading that "explains" it. I just know, no gfo = sps losses.

Maybe ditch the pellets for now. I don't think they're doing anything for you.

It's death at the growth tips? What do you think causes it? I know GFO adsorbs more than just P. Based on this I put the GFO back online tonight as well as the GAC. I feel like those pellets have me by the balls though. Without them, my nitrates rapidly leave the range acceptable for SPS, but I can never rule them out as a cause for this.

Originally Posted by Scythanith

Professional aquarium water testing.

http://aquariumwatertesting.com

Thank you, I'm going to contact them tomorrow.

[waynemah]

I think your spot on with the ALK... A swing from 5.5 to 8.5 is pretty big within a couple of weeks. My tank went from 6-8 and I lost several colonies and almost all growth tips were burnt. I opted to stick with reefers best and reef crystals salt due to the low ALK in the mixture. Fluval is very high in ALK which was my problem.

On a side note, I would do some calculations on how much you should be dosing and measure to ensure it's dosing the right amount. After messing with dosing for a couple of months, I dropped it and picked up a calcium reactor. I would never do an SPS tank without one again.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by waynemah

I think your spot on with the ALK... A swing from 5.5 to 8.5 is pretty big within a couple of weeks.

My alk recently went south and I raised it from about 4 to 8 over a few days, no issues with anything burning. Not sure I'd blame alk.

[reefwars]

Gfo also messes with your alkalinity not a huge amount but it drops a bit , Randy has it noted and how much roughly it pulls out, this is a concern to sps guys who keep low alk or carbon dose.



I lost most my sps a while back remember to a alk overdose , the climb from 6-9 dkh resulted in rtn and then I pulled the doser the drop caused me as much harm as the raising did.

The cow fish is a concern too I would think.

Do you make your own food? If so Is it Possible that something changed and maybe contaminated?