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Paradox

Paradox

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SO my tank is NOT loking good as of late and I would very much appreciate some assistance.

Long story short, I started a new job a few weeks ago that has taken up a lot of time and has been a lot of stress. Its been difficult to even face my tank.

Heres what is going on:

-Some SPS are losing tissue at the tips or random spots. Other SPS are looking better then they ever have.

possible problems: (I have a FEW problems going on)

-RODI has been malfunctioning and I havent been able to figure the cause. I have a TyphoonIII and trying and am currently trying to get help from Air Water and Ice on it. Problem is that if the membrane section is hooked up, no water comes out of the output. I currently have to bypass this section, but my water is outputting at 23 TDS.

-My skimmer is not keeping up or just s*cks in general, so my nitrates have gone up and is probably around 20 right now.

-A week a go, I noticed my calc (500+) and mag 1400+ was really high, so I did a water change

Current parameters:
Salinity - 1.027 (lil high)
Calcium - 500 (lil high and was waiting for it to go down)
Alk - 9.8
Mag - 1300

These numbers are still a lil high,but im afraid to do another water change because my TDS is 23.

Can anyone tell me what they think out of all my current problems is causing the SPS decline in some of my colonies?


Thanks in advance!
 
I'd say high nitrates and high s.g. are the main probs.

Also, double check that your refractometer is calibrated properly. Or s.g. might even be higher than you think.
 
RO unit issue, how are the pre-filters on it? If they get gunked up pretty good they could potentially drop the water pressure quite a bit that it can't squeeze water through the membrane.
 
thanks for the tips...

Ill try and do more water changes tommorow or this weekend.

-The Ro unit just had replacement prefilters a4-5 months ago and dont actually look that dirty compared to what ive had before.

Any other suggestions..
Thanks!
 
OK sorted out some problems because I finally had some energy to look at it this weekend. I 'think' the system will stabilize now.

-The RODI unit had a membrane that was defective and clogged the whole system. TDS is good again.
-Did a few water changes and am probably ordering a MSX 200 to replace my existing skimmer.

I lost one SPS colony and have some tissue loss on a couple others. Overall, everything is not as bad as I first expected. In regards to the tissue loss on the surviving colonies, should I cut these parts off to stop it from spreading?

Thanks!
 
1.027 is not bad at all. It's at the upper end of RHM's recommended range...

Salinity 35 ppt sg = 1.026
34-36 ppt sg = 1.025-1.027
Click to expand...

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

I thought skimmers didn't do much in the way of removal of nitrates. I do know water changes help with nitrates :)
 
This was my assumption.. And please correct me if Im wrong.

Waste left in the system through bio filtration becomes ammonia-->nitrite-->Nitrate
The Skimmer will remove waste before this process even starts, so if my current skimmer isnt doing a good job, there is more left over waste that needs to be dealt with via biological filtration...

So wouldnt getting a better skimmer to remove more waste and reducing the nutrient load that my biological filtration needs to handle result in lower nitrates?
 
protein skimmers remove protein which is the source of N (nitrogen atom). protein is practically the only ways to get substantial N into water (out of proteins, carbs, fats, trace elements) besides directly as ammonia waste (fish pee). The decomposition of proteins results in ammonia-->nitrite-->nitrate.

so no, skimmers don't remove nitrates, but they remove a precurser to nitrates (the decomposition pathway ONLY, not the fish pee pathway)


oh...and... imo :p
 
Took my skimmer pumps apart and found that one was clogged at the air intake, so pretty much the skimmer was working at 1/2 power for the last few weeks!

Now that its fixed, Im gonna hold off blowing money on a skimmer and waste it on something else like my other expensive hobbies lol!


So how do you get fish pee out? :)
 
What type do you have? I notice that on my soft tank the venturi air intake on my Sedra 5000 pump will typically gets salt creep inside the hole right where the water/air barrier interact and will relatively quickly choke off air to the point where the skimmer isn't doing what it should... not exactly sure how to fix that (other than lots of routine maintenance)
 
I have to check, but I think its a sedra 5000. Mine wasnt clogged with salt creep. I have tons of baby snails and a shell from one got lodged in the air intake.

At some pt I really should upgrade the skimmer, but having been unemployed for 6 months in a row, Ive got a lot of things to catch up on money wise (now that I have a job again).
 
sfsuphysics said:
What type do you have? I notice that on my soft tank the venturi air intake on my Sedra 5000 pump will typically gets salt creep inside the hole right where the water/air barrier interact and will relatively quickly choke off air to the point where the skimmer isn't doing what it should... not exactly sure how to fix that (other than lots of routine maintenance)
Click to expand...

doser pump that every so often pushes some RO water through the ventruri air intake. I've seen it done. Problem with that on some skimmers is when you remove the air the water overflows into the collection cup :( I tried it on mine and it's a no go.
 
Gomer said:
ammonia-->nitrite-->nitrate-->nitrogen

either by anaerobic bacteria or consumed by algae ;)

OR...water changes!!!
Click to expand...

Algae LOVE ammonia :)
 
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