Desperate plea for help.

[twiatr2001]

Remember too large of a water change an cause the tank to cycle, that's why it's good to do 10% and adjust only if necessary.

 

[dolpator]

Regular drop of .5 - 1 in dkh is quite normal if you don't have a dosing pump;

Mixed reef are the most difficult tank to keep stable;

To make everyone happy in the tank I'll personally stay in the following range:

Alk 8.0/.9.0
CA 420ppm
Mg: 1400
No3: 5-10
Po4: .05 - 0.1

This is where I want to be....This is where I started. Things just got out of hand with Kalk...I have since taken it out of the system, and will be going back to one of the other systems and staying there...

 

[dolpator]

Remember too large of a water change an cause the tank to cycle, that's why it's good to do 10% and adjust only if necessary.

Did not know water changes could start a cycle. Doing 10 gallon water changes sure would be easier on my back.

 

[twentyleagues]

The numbers were within the tank parameters margins. Like the bag was 8.8 Alk, and my tank at the time was 9.5. The Calcium was 430 and my tank was 515 at the time, I was hoping it would have at least help drive it down some. as with the Magnesium.. My salinity was maintained the same...

Thats less than a 1 point swing so yeah not that much and 30g wouldnt drop total alk by 1 point anyway. I get the frustration. Its unfortunate that you are having these issues. I have no real advise to give seems all is good, stuff should be growing. I have 2 sps corals they are growing slow but I can see growth and they are in maybe 175-200par. Its not ideal but they seem happy color is good but growth is slow. So your par shouldnt be the reason. I recently brought in bjd to my tank and lost some of my lps, not happy seems I have gotten it to subside atm.

 

[Gabbone]

Then to avoid any shock, just 10-15% weekly WC and stop dosing; let the values fall naturally.

I also recently switch from Red Sea Coral Pro Salt to TM Pro Salt which has 7-8dkh and very basic CA/MG level;
In this way, I can dose according to my preference.

This is where I want to be....This is where I started. Things just got out of hand with Kalk...I have since taken it out of the system, and will be going back to one of the other systems and staying there...

 

[dolpator]

So I would reduce the complexity by far. A good bet would be to do a large water change, reduce light intensity by a lot, and do weekly water changes until you start seeing a demand. Keep your tank flow as high as it can be without moving stuff out of place and only use a skimmer for nutrient export. At this point I wouldn’t be worried about nutrients, ph, or manipulating water chemistry. Once you see your calcium and alkalinity dropping regularly and you are noticing growth, then add 2 part. You can gradually add light intensity once you start seeing things stabilize. I feel like you got so much stuff happening that is unnecessary if corals aren’t growing. Cut everything out to get a very simple system, and only add things that are needed to fix an actual problem.

We did a 30 gallon water change this weekend. Lights were reduced a little not much like we went down to 10% whites from 30%. Should I change the intensity as well?

 

[twentyleagues]

Remember too large of a water change an cause the tank to cycle, that's why it's good to do 10% and adjust only if necessary.

Can you explain this?

 

[Cell]

Remember too large of a water change an cause the tank to cycle, that's why it's good to do 10% and adjust only if necessary.

Not a thing.

 

[twiatr2001]

I've had a bacterial issue and did a water change of a larger amount, this caused an ammonia spike in the tank, which I can only correlate to a cycle and the water change causing it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I don’t have confidence in magnesium testing and I do t see any chemical reason for corals to die.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I've had a bacterial issue and did a water change of a larger amount, this caused an ammonia spike in the tank, which I can only correlate to a cycle and the water change causing it.

I don’t believe that a water change caused cycling to restart. The ammonia might be in the new salt water. It may also be test error.

How much ammonia did you see?

 

[twiatr2001]

I do not remember this number, as it was done with an API test kit and it was well into the highs level color spectrum on the chart, this happened to me years ago and this is why i've kept it to 10%, I feel that too large of a water change can negatively affect you nutrient levels and then the corals are not getting enough nutrition.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I do not remember this number, as it was done with an API test kit and it was well into the highs level color spectrum on the chart, this happened to me years ago and this is why i've kept it to 10%, I feel that too large of a water change can negatively affect you nutrient levels and then the corals are not getting enough nutrition.

Nitrate might be an issue with too large of water changes. I suggest maintaining at least 2 ppm nitrate in most cases.

 

[twiatr2001]

So do you believe that I most likely had a nitrate issue that caused a cycle? Or ammonia to spike?

 

[JayM]

Hanna CA you must use deionized water. RODI it's not the same and it will read higher number.

You do realize that the “DI” in RO/DI stands for “deionized”?

 

[Rjukan]

So do you believe that I most likely had a nitrate issue that caused a cycle? Or ammonia to spike?

Respectfully, start your own thread. It's bad form to hijack someone else's, and it becomes confusing for the pros to follow the OPs issues.

 

[Beefyreefy]

We did a 30 gallon water change this weekend. Lights were reduced a little not much like we went down to 10% whites from 30%. Should I change the intensity as well?

I would reduce your percentages across the board. You have 3 powerful fixtures and 4 led light bars so you're likely blasting things. If coral isn't growing for some reason, all that light is going to make the problem worse. I'd venture to say that aside from certain sps, you could keep most of your coral alive and slowly growing with the 2 radions alone. That's why I think you should just go much lower with light and cut out all the variables. You can run a tank with just water changes until stuff starts to take hold and grow. Flow, light, fish poop and replacing calcium and alkalinity will grow coral, so start there and work your way up.

 

[twiatr2001]

I agree

 

[dolpator]

You do realize that the “DI” in RO/DI stands for “deionized”?

I used the salifert Calcium tester. I do not like the Hanna tester for calcium

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

So do you believe that I most likely had a nitrate issue that caused a cycle? Or ammonia to spike?

Without a number and a kit type, I don’t know if anything happened. 0.5 ppm by api kit might just be test error.

Nitrate levels would not cause ammonia to elevate in a typical reef tank.