Asking for help because I am at a complete loss

[Thespammailaccount]

Did your ICP test check for chloramines/chlorides?

That is exactly what I was thinking but I think they said they are on well water

 

[UncleSalty]

I would stop doing water changes.

 

[Thespammailaccount]

Did the first tank you had that was successful run on the same well water? Maybe there is something in the well water maybe need to be softened or a bacteria or fungus or something of the like

 

[ReefGeezer]

Have you thought about where you are buying corals and where they come from? Wild or aquacultured corals are not terribly hardy. If mishandled prior to being sold, they often appear to die for no reason. Tank raised corals might be acclimated to very high PAR levels and slowly die off if PAR is too low. And some corals just don't like particular systems. For example. smooth skin Acro's don't like mine for some reason.

 

[Glott3133]

This issue is specifically frustrating when I KNOW I can be successful at this given my past tanks and to be running into this mysterious problem that I can't solve. I went through great lengths to try and take all the knowledge I have gained in the last 15 years of this hobby and put it all together into this dream tank hahah.

I guess this hobby wouldn't be the same without these oddball challenges. This one is driving me nuts though.

You mentioned that you bring things from the office. Is your office setup thriving?

 

[tripdad]

That is exactly what I was thinking but I think they said they are on well water

I am on a well also however, at least by me, it has become common practice for people to chlorinate their wells yearly to combat bacteria, etc.. If they share the same source water it may have been possible, not very likely, but who knows. Anyway the OP says it checks negative.

 

[Softhammer]

Has no one else noticed the Parrotfish on the stock list? Those fish make it their life’s work munching EVERYTHING, including coral. Your setup looks great but a parrot fish is as far from from reef safe as you can get. Remove that fish and I’ll bet things turn around for you. If that setup is growing coraline, it will grow coral.

 

[Thespammailaccount]

I am on a well also however, at least by me, it has become common practice for people to chlorinate their wells yearly to combat bacteria, etc.. If they share the same source water it may have been possible, not very likely, but who knows. Anyway the OP says it checks negative.

Did not know that good to know. May move to an area with well water so following those post

 

[Luis1992]

I make my own RO/DI water. I have the 6 stage BRS filter because well water has a ton of CO2 and it was burning up my resin incredibly fast.

No volts in tank aside from induced voltage from the pumps. I have a ground probe in the tank anyway to avoid that issue since I have had it in the past.

Lighting and Flow are posted in the OP.

I feed a DIY food blend that contains Reef Roids and Coral Aminos to cover that. I also have tried target feeding the chalice before it died but could never get a feeding response.

I would do an icp test. Your flow and lighting seem great imo

 

[HWDylan]

Wew! Lots of replies! Thank you everyone for the input on this. It really is helpful to just listen to everyone's ideas. Now let me follow up on some of these replies:

If you haven't already, consider adding Pods and dosing live Phyto for a while along with the suggestions in the above thread.

Very frustrating indeed. I culture and dose Nanochloropsis and I have purchased pod kits from Algae Barn to get a population going way back when I started the tank. The amphipod population specifically is insane in this tank. I also have various brittle stars and bristle worms that I intentionally introduced into the tank to increase the biodiversity.

I agree that he should stop doing water changes if he is doing it for no reason. I havent done water changes for years...yes I do run into an occasional problem just like everybody else. But I personally find that I am able to keep my reef more stable without waterchanges.

The auto water changes have been turned off for about a week now in an attempt to see if that helps anything. I do chock my stellar ICP tests up to the constant water changes though. The purpose of water changes is to reduce NO3 and PO4

Did the first tank you had that was successful run on the same well water? Maybe there is something in the well water maybe need to be softened or a bacteria or fungus or something of the like

Actually no. This is a new house for me. The reason I had to break the old tank down was the move and I figured why not upgrade while I have the chance (typical addict behavior haha)

This is the only tank I have ever done on this water source... hmmm. I am pretty strict about keeping my TDS at 0 with the RODI filters but I know not everything will show up on a TDS meter.

This really has me thinking. I never considered the water source to be an issue.

A little more clarification on my water source. I live in a small town and everyone gets their water from the city water supply but that is pumped up from a series of 4 wells according to the water report from my city. I have attached the most recent report I could find on their web site for further info if anyone is knowledgeable on the subject.

What I do know is that the water coming into the house is VERY hard and so we have to use a whole house softener (RODI plumbed in after the softener as suggested). I also know that the water is very high in CO2. I can only get about 70-90 gallons of water out of a single mixed bed DI resin charge. I use the BRS Pro series resins to help combat this a bit.

Have you thought about where you are buying corals and where they come from? Wild or aquacultured corals are not terribly hardy. If mishandled prior to being sold, they often appear to die for no reason. Tank raised corals might be acclimated to very high PAR levels and slowly die off if PAR is too low. And some corals just don't like particular systems. For example. smooth skin Acro's don't like mine for some reason.

Nearly everything I have put into this tank as a test coral is from my work tank which has all been happily growing for around 4 years now. Nothing wild collected at all has been put in. I tried to use a variety of different coral types to test and basically everything has died except for the few Zoas that are hanging on but not growing.

You mentioned that you bring things from the office. Is your office setup thriving?

Very much so.

Has no one else noticed the Parrotfish on the stock list? Those fish make it their life’s work munching EVERYTHING, including coral. Your setup looks great but a parrot fish is as far from from reef safe as you can get. Remove that fish and I’ll bet things turn around for you. If that setup is growing coraline, it will grow coral.

This is not a coral eating parrot. Scarus quoyi is a algae eating species. I have kept them before and many people on these forums have them in reefs as well. I have never seen him pick at anything but the rocks and power heads. If he were picking at the corals it would be obvious, his beak is serious business.

I would do an icp test. Your flow and lighting seem great imo

I have my most recent ICP results pinned to one of the earlier posts. I have done 3 diff ICP tests on this tank in the last year and have never had a single element deviate seriously from NSW values and never have any heavy metals shown up which was my first thought when this problem really started to show itself.

 

[BeMoto]

Has no one else noticed the Parrotfish on the stock list? Those fish make it their life’s work munching EVERYTHING, including coral. Your setup looks great but a parrot fish is as far from from reef safe as you can get. Remove that fish and I’ll bet things turn around for you. If that setup is growing coraline, it will grow coral.

Completely missed this on the stock list.

I would also start here!

 

[HWDylan]

Completely missed this on the stock list.

I would also start here!

I really genuinely don't think it is him. Quoyi are not coral eaters like many parrots. I suppose anything is possible but I spend a lot of time observing this tank (why else have one) and he has never once picked at any corals. Also the corals all look perfectly fine until they very slowly start to show tissue recession and then die. If the parrot were stressing them by picking you should be able to see damage from his beak. It also does not explain why zoas close up and slowly melt or just stagnate and refuse to grow.

I may just try and catch the Parrot and move him into the QT system just to eliminate variables though.

 

[Brew12]

I agree with stopping the water changes and running carbon. Change the carbon every week or two. Do this for a month and try again. What do you use for a storage container? Do you ever check the TDS of your RODI after it has been in the container for a few days?

As an FYI, I doubt the problem is chloramines. When they get through the RODI system it creates an ammonia problem. With all of the organics in a reef tank the chlorine has plenty of company for the oxidation reaction. It doesn't last long. Chloramine is basically chlorine with ammonia added.

 

[BeMoto]

I've never seen one in a tank to be honest, I didn't even know people kept parrot fish.

Just looked like a coral eating machine when I googled an image of this fish.

 

[Brew12]

Oh.. and a slightly different topic. Try soaking your conductivity probe in a citric acid solution overnight once a month. That should help with the readings if the probe isn't faulty.

 

[HWDylan]

I agree with stopping the water changes and running carbon. Change the carbon every week or two. Do this for a month and try again. What do you use for a storage container? Do you ever check the TDS of your RODI after it has been in the container for a few days?

As an FYI, I doubt the problem is chloramines. When they get through the RODI system it creates an ammonia problem. With all of the organics in a reef tank the chlorine has plenty of company for the oxidation reaction. It doesn't last long. Chloramine is basically chlorine with ammonia added.

Both are well underway at this moment. I will be diligent about changing the carbon as well.

For storage I use Norwesco 65gallon farm tanks. I purchased them brand new and cleaned them with vinegar/RO/DI water. I have tested the TDS in the barrel and it comes in around 1-2tds. I have heard that CO2 leaching into fresh rodi water can cause the TDS to creep up a bit when sitting in a container.

I've never seen one in a tank to be honest, I didn't even know people kept parrot fish.

Just looked like a coral eating machine when I googled an image of this fish.

Its a cool fish for sure. Odd personality. Acts like a lost puppy with my Blonde Naso and just follows him around.

Oh.. and a slightly different topic. Try soaking your conductivity probe in a citric acid solution overnight once a month. That should help with the readings if the probe isn't faulty.

I'll have to give this a try. I pretty much gave up on that thing after calibrating it a bunch of times only to see it still reading a few points high all the time. At least it is consistent I guess? haha

 

[Brew12]

For storage I use Norwesco 65gallon farm tanks. I purchased them brand new and cleaned them with vinegar/RO/DI water. I have tested the TDS in the barrel and it comes in around 1-2tds. I have heard that CO2 leaching into fresh rodi water can cause the TDS to creep up a bit when sitting in a container.

Those storage containers should be fine. Wish I could come up with more ideas for you.

 

[tripdad]

As an aside to the main topic.....on your DI usage. Have you tried putting your source water into a storage container with a power head to stir it for a couple days to help outgas the CO2 and then pump it thru the RODI set up? This may make the DI resin last longer.

 

[HWDylan]

As an aside to the main topic.....on your DI usage. Have you tried putting your source water into a storage container with a power head to stir it for a couple days to help outgas the CO2 and then pump it thru the RODI set up? This may make the DI resin last longer.

I was actually doing this for a while back when I first set it up. It works but its an annoying step to add to the process of making water since everything else is basically automated. The cost of extra resin is worth the convenience to me.

 

[jeffchapok]

It was through Triton so no chloroamines test.

Here is the ICP test data

I have some chlorine test strips I can use real quick and see if those show any chlorine.

EDIT: Chlorine tests strips show 0 total and 0 free chlorine

I can tell you from my experience in swimming pool keeping that chlorine test strips are worse than useless. I say this because they so often give false readings that can give a false sense of security. We typically tell people that the only thing they are good for is measuring the depth of your trash can.

You can get a FAS-DPD titration test kit from any pool store, and that will give you accurate free and combined chlorine readings. But even a $15 drop test kit from Wal Mart will give you a reasonably accurate total chlorine reading (TC = FC + CC). Since it should be zero, this is probably good enough. But anything is better than test strips.