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Coral confusin

Roc

Roc

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So I am having some tank issues and honestly I am very confused. 1st a little background.

My tank was set up in May 2008, I orginaly had a 120 gal tank, 55 gal sump, EuroUSA PS135 skimmer, ehiem 1285 return pump, dual overflows (90 % to skimmer area, 10 % to fuge) and a Aquactinic TX5 light.

About 4 months ago I upgraged the bulbs to

Blue + X 2
Aquablue Special X 2
Pure Actinic

I have had issues in this tank with certian SPS, the strange part was it was ones ppl consider to be easy (bridnest, monti cups) I had some monti eating nudi's and have since fixed that issue (basicly I lost all my caps)

I never had issues with zoas or LPS in fact they always seem to florish in my tank.

Over the last 4 months I have added some more SPS and noticed that my cal seem to be low. I started dosing B-ionic 2 part and currently dose 50 ml a day.

A lot of ppl mentioned I was lacking in the flow dept so I added 2 K4's about 3 weeks ago.

Now to my issues

All of a sudden I am seeing canyo on sections of my sand bed and rock work. I alos seem to be losing some of my chalices (slowly white spots come in from the edges, I tried fragging and now the once healthy parts are showing signs) I am also showing bad signs on a bridsnest but the acros all seem to be doing well. I have a clam and it seems to be doing well.


I'm kinda lost as to why this is going on now that I have better lighting, more flow and am dosing
 
I honestly have no clue but just to give a suggestion... Is it possible it might be a coral disease spread from coral to coral? That is just a though. Not even sure if there are diseases that corals can get. Do any diseases come to mind? When you say they are turning white, could they be bleaching? When was the last time you changed your lights? If they are in a water-proof area near the surface, sometimes algae can grow and block out the light. Try checking that... otherwise I have no clue what is wrong. (Those are just suggestions...)
 
[quote author=Elite link=topic=6183.msg78294#msg78294 date=1233715331]
You know people will need your water parameters in order to help you out. Have you tested anything yet??
[/quote]

+1
...and frequency and percentage of water changes.
 
[quote author=Euphyllia link=topic=6183.msg78293#msg78293 date=1233715330]
I honestly have no clue but just to give a suggestion... Is it possible it might be a coral disease spread from coral to coral? That is just a though. Not even sure if there are diseases that corals can get. Do any diseases come to mind? When you say they are turning white, could they be bleaching? When was the last time you changed your lights? If they are in a water-proof area near the surface, sometimes algae can grow and block out the light. Try checking that... otherwise I have no clue what is wrong. (Those are just suggestions...)
[/quote]

I'm not aware of a coral diease that attacks some chalices and not others and bridnest SPS but not acros

Not bleaching, losing tissue

Read above bulbs were changed 4 months ago

Lights are in TX5 casing and are not getting water on them

No algae on top of tank

To Phong


I did a 20% WC last weekend to try and combat some of these issues, no change

Water perameters

Cal - 440
Dkh - 9
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 0
Amonina - 0
Phos - under .20 (test kit offers 0 and under 20 as very very close colors)

I don't know my Mag, but I figured since my Alk and Cal seem to stay consistant (with the dosing) it must be fine.
 
Your assumption about mag could be off base. Your level of mag is really dependent on the salt you use. Your dkh and calcium could be fine while your mg could be extremely low. Also if you are adding 50ml of two part a day think about how much magnesium is also being used up. If you are not adding any magnesium you probably are going to have a problem.
 
[quote author=iani link=topic=6183.msg78309#msg78309 date=1233717447]
Your assumption about mag could be off base. Your level of mag is really dependent on the salt you use. Your dkh and calcium could be fine while your mg could be extremely low. Also if you are adding 50ml of two part a day think about how much magnesium is also being used up. If you are not adding any magnesium you probably are going to have a problem.
[/quote]



+1
 
How old is that Calcium test kit. If its off and your overdosing Calcium that might be causing all your issues. Too much Calcium could raise water hardness which can lead to the cyano and the corals stressing. Have you tried either cutting out the bionic or reducing the amount your dosing to see if that helps.
 
[quote author=70Cuda link=topic=6183.msg78332#msg78332 date=1233722390]
How old is that Calcium test kit. If its off and your overdosing Calcium that might be causing all your issues. Too much Calcium could raise water hardness which can lead to the cyano and the corals stressing. Have you tried either cutting out the bionic or reducing the amount your dosing to see if that helps.
[/quote]

I haven't tried that. I am gonna take some water in to the store today and have them test it, just to compare.
 
Well the Mag tested low. I bought the kit cuz I want to retest when I get home directly from the tank as the water I bought to the shop seemed a little outta wack, not sure if temps have anything to do with testing in Mag like they do in salinity
 
1230 should not cause that problem. Just a question, what are you using to test salinity and what is your salinity.
 
I was thinking the same about the Mag reading. It's a little low but as Iani says, I also don't think that causes the problem.
 
[quote author=iani link=topic=6183.msg78480#msg78480 date=1233786867]
1230 should not cause that problem. Just a question, what are you using to test salinity and what is your salinity.
[/quote]

At home I have a bulls@it hydrometer and it was 1.026
 
Are you sure the hydrometer is not off. If I were you I would pick up a refractometer and some calibration solution. Salinity is pretty important.
 
[quote author=Roc link=topic=6183.msg78497#msg78497 date=1233791974]
[quote author=iani link=topic=6183.msg78480#msg78480 date=1233786867]
1230 should not cause that problem. Just a question, what are you using to test salinity and what is your salinity.
[/quote]

At home I have a bulls@it hydrometer and it was 1.026
[/quote][quote author=iani link=topic=6183.msg78500#msg78500 date=1233793756]
Are you sure the hydrometer is not off. If I were you I would pick up a refractometer and some calibration solution. Salinity is pretty important.
[/quote]

I have 2 different hydrometers. I noticed that they did not measure the same, so I took them to the LFS to check them out. One was measuring .002 low and the other was measurng .006 low! It was a good thing I tended to undersalt and I didn't have corals at the time. I wrote the discrepancies on the hydrometers to make sure I take that adjustment into account. One of these days though, I'm going to ask for a refractometer for my birthday. :D
 
Ok Things are not looking good, I just retested everything and the results were not as expected.

1st of all I didn't dose yesterday as I wanted to gain control of what I am doing.

here are the test results I can read

Salinty - 1.0255 (confrimed with known 1.025 water from friends tank which was tested with refractormeter)
DKH - 9.52
PO4 - 0-0.25ppm (hard to tell with this nutrafin test kit, but the water looked very very lite blue, less then the color for .25ppm)
Nitrate (this was suprising) - .20ppm
Calicum - 400
PH - 8.4

the mag test is VERY confusing, it's a red sea test kit (only one available), so if anyone can help read this or explain I would like them to do so.

The instuctions say to fill a 1 ml sirange (after adding the solutions). Then you are to add .4 ml leaving .6 in the sirange. Then you are to add 1 drop at a time until the solution turns blue. So 1st of all after 3 test my solution goes from pink to purple, but never blue (hoping this is just a color issue with there color chart)

now the confusing part. It states to tell your mag you have to read in .001ths of a ml. I had .23 left in the sirange. What it doesn't tell you is are you posed to count the orginal .40 you put in the test tube, or not.

without adding the .40 I would have added .37 which would equal 740ppm, but if you are posed to count the .40 my mag would be at 1540 which seems way high
 
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