LPS corals receding

[gmann]

Originally Posted by Wheelman76

Salinity is pretty high at 1.028 , I would buy a Salifert nitrate test to get a better idea where it's at for sure. If the nitrates are truly 0 then your LPS are not going to be happy , and as someone already mentioned will make your tank no3 limited and not allow bacteria to consume po4.

I also agree with investing in an rodi system. How often does the film algae regrow on the glass after cleaning ?

I had one Jess, but it took forever to get to the level of water I needed so I decided to just start buying 5 gallon cdn spring jugs. Glass gets dirty ever 4 days or so.

[gmann]

Originally Posted by Ryan7

Are you filling 12 canadian springs bottles to do water changes?

How do you get your water?

They deliver once a month, but for my weekly top offs I pick up from this place in steveston or a crappy tire. I eventually plan to switch over to the steveston shop for my monthly water changes also.

[gmann]

Originally Posted by Myka

Sorry, more nitrate...auto correct typo. Get a better NO3 kit to conform your testing - I like Salifert or Red Sea Pro.



Lighting looks fine. Your CUC is sadly lacking. I'm betting if you added a bunch of CUC the algae would get eaten and not come back as long as the CUC is alive still.

You said 60 gallons is about 25% wc, so your tank is probably a 180 or 230 depending on sump?? If so, I'd suggest 10 Trochus (15 if they are small) and 20 Scarlet Hermits (not other types) to start. See where that gets you - you may need quite a bit more.



Basting is one of the best ways to help combat an algae problem.

I missed that 37 ppt...that's walking the edge of safety and if your calibration is off this could easily become 30 ppt which could cerainly kill your corals on its own. Natural seawater is typically 35 ppt and there is no reason to aim for any other number in a reef tank. Make sure you calibrate with a SEAWATER calibration solution (not sodium chloride solution, not ro water).

I already calibrate with solution, so I believe it is pretty accurate. as for the clean up crew, I will grab more along with a new test kit this week. Thanks for your feedback.

[dino]

I used to use the spring water until I started to measure the tds in it and would sometimes get 15-25 tds so I switched to r.o and never looked back. cleared up a lot of algae issues and corals are happier

[H2o2]

Just a thought stray voltage

[Animal-Chin]

Personally I'd stop dosing foz down or any other chemical that you're using that isn't just the basic alk, cal and mg. I find if I use any "reef safe" treatment for anything I'm gonna loose a coral or two.

Are your Scoly's under direct light? maybe shade them a bit.

I'd suggest a big water change or two but I know thats hard with your volume of water especially if you aren't making RODI at home. Still when things go buggy I like a couple of big water changes to remove anything that may be in your water.


Are all your other coral totally fine? What else do you have? Do you have a lot of coral and its just a couple that are going bad but everything else is fine?

[gmann]

Originally Posted by Animal-Chin

Personally I'd stop dosing foz down or any other chemical that you're using that isn't just the basic alk, cal and mg. I find if I use any "reef safe" treatment for anything I'm gonna loose a coral or two.

Are your Scoly's under direct light? maybe shade them a bit.

I'd suggest a big water change or two but I know thats hard with your volume of water especially if you aren't making RODI at home. Still when things go buggy I like a couple of big water changes to remove anything that may be in your water.


Are all your other coral totally fine? What else do you have? Do you have a lot of coral and its just a couple that are going bad but everything else is fine?

I just did a 90g water change last month due to a cyano outbreak. I have scheduled a WC this week as the cyano is back and I am about to put in chemiclean.

As for my other corals, zoas, doughnuts, and acans are fine, as are some of my scolies.

as for adding stuff, I am going to stop dosing zeobak and fozdown going forward, and try this carbon dosing that some others have suggested. although I still plan on using prodibio bio digest every 2 weeks.

[gmann]

thanks again everyone for your feedback. really appreciate your advice and tips.

[Animal-Chin]

Just remember that stopping 2 things, starting up a major thing and also adding chemiclean is a lot on your system. Coral hate that...lol

Chemi clean tells you to turn off your skimmer for 2 days, don't do it! just take the collection cup off and let the skimmer just overflow back into the tank. Cutting off the skimmer really reduces the oxygen in your water. This will make your fish and coral very unhappy......trust me......been there....

If your nitrates are already reading 0 why start carbon dosing? When I started using NOPOX as a carbon source my tank went a little wonky and I lost a couple of big sps colonies.

Oh and carbon dosing usually ends up in a cyano bloom when you first start out, a lot of people report this. I had it happen.

I really like bio pellets. They start off slow and sort of gradually ramp up giving your system time to adjust then you just forget about it and re fill the reactor when needed. Pretty stable way of carbon dosing IMO. My nitrates were at 80 when I started and now they are down to 5 but it took 3 months. Nice and slow.

Just some stuff to think about. I can't tell you how many tank crash stories I've heard from reefers trying to quickly fix an issue with dosing or adding chemicals.

Lastly, if you're worried about your scoly's, feel free to give them to me. I'll take them!!! lol

[gmann]

[quote=Animal-Chin;1001760]
If your nitrates are already reading 0 why start carbon dosing? When I started using NOPOX as a carbon source my tank went a little wonky and I lost a couple of big sps colonies.
QUOTE]

im not sure tbh, ive been trying to research this topic all morning at work. it seems to me that nopox will reduce my nitrates, but I need the opposite it seems, and need to introduce nitrates into my system