Out of whack parameters how to regain stability

[Cable]

Hello,

My tank is currently crashing due to my parameters jumping all over the place.

About 12 days ago I noticed my corals were closed.

Their condition progressively got worse.

My tank is a little over 2months old at this point and I think what happened was
1. My Refugium started to take off causing nitrates and phosphates to 0,
2. This caused my coral to stop consuming as much alk which caused my alk to spike with daily doses which caused my calcium to tank
3. I worked on getting control of my calcium which I now have at 420. I turned off my auto doser while I closely monitor and manually dose as needed
4. I raised my nitrates to 1.9 and my phosphates to .10 (I think… my phosphate hanna reagents are expired so I have been trying my best to compare it to manual color tests such as Salifert while my new shipments arrive) I did this through heavy feeding. I also removed my chato and put it in my empty QT
5. After testing today my alk spiked from 10.1 to 12.6….. the doser is turned off and the hose is removed. I haven’t done any water changes.

This situation is quickly escalating and my coral look terrible. I’m considering pulling my coral and putting them in a QT until I can get my display stable again.

I’m not sure how my alk spiked with no dosing. I realize increasing nitrate through consumption can increase alkalinity but at this rate I’m not sure how to maintain nitrates while keeping my alk down if the creation of nitrates did indeed raise my alk.

Any advise on how to dig my self out of this hole would be greatly appreciated

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

Hello,

My tank is currently crashing due to my parameters jumping all over the place.

About 12 days ago I noticed my corals were closed.

Their condition progressively got worse.

My tank is a little over 2months old at this point and I think what happened was
1. My Refugium started to take off causing nitrates and phosphates to 0,
2. This caused my coral to stop consuming as much alk which caused my alk to spike with daily doses which caused my calcium to tank
3. I worked on getting control of my calcium which I now have at 420. I turned off my auto doser while I closely monitor and manually dose as needed
4. I raised my nitrates to 1.9 and my phosphates to .10 (I think… my phosphate hanna reagents are expired so I have been trying my best to compare it to manual color tests such as Salifert while my new shipments arrive) I did this through heavy feeding. I also removed my chato and put it in my empty QT
5. After testing today my alk spiked from 10.1 to 12.6….. the doser is turned off and the hose is removed. I haven’t done any water changes.

This situation is quickly escalating and my coral look terrible. I’m considering pulling my coral and putting them in a QT until I can get my display stable again.

I’m not sure how my alk spiked with no dosing. I realize increasing nitrate through consumption can increase alkalinity but at this rate I’m not sure how to maintain nitrates while keeping my alk down if the creation of nitrates did indeed raise my alk.

Any advise on how to dig my self out of this hole would be greatly appreciated

I'm not sure how some of this is connected but there others here that will have more insight. How long have you had the tank up and running?

If it were me I would stop dosing stuff. Do a water change or two and lower the light period on your refugium. Then go from there when your parameters are more consistent.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Hello,

My tank is currently crashing due to my parameters jumping all over the place.

About 12 days ago I noticed my corals were closed.

Their condition progressively got worse.

My tank is a little over 2months old at this point and I think what happened was
1. My Refugium started to take off causing nitrates and phosphates to 0,
2. This caused my coral to stop consuming as much alk which caused my alk to spike with daily doses which caused my calcium to tank
3. I worked on getting control of my calcium which I now have at 420. I turned off my auto doser while I closely monitor and manually dose as needed
4. I raised my nitrates to 1.9 and my phosphates to .10 (I think… my phosphate hanna reagents are expired so I have been trying my best to compare it to manual color tests such as Salifert while my new shipments arrive) I did this through heavy feeding. I also removed my chato and put it in my empty QT
5. After testing today my alk spiked from 10.1 to 12.6….. the doser is turned off and the hose is removed. I haven’t done any water changes.

This situation is quickly escalating and my coral look terrible. I’m considering pulling my coral and putting them in a QT until I can get my display stable again.

I’m not sure how my alk spiked with no dosing. I realize increasing nitrate through consumption can increase alkalinity but at this rate I’m not sure how to maintain nitrates while keeping my alk down if the creation of nitrates did indeed raise my alk.

Any advise on how to dig my self out of this hole would be greatly appreciated

Rundown on system.
We know it is two months old
Need size , light, sand and rock used. Did you use rodi water, what are the coral, are they frags, how long ago did you put the coral in . Why did you start dosing. What are you dosing

 

[Cable]

Rundown on system.
We know it is two months old
Need size , light, sand and rock used. Did you use rodi water, what are the coral, are they frags, how long ago did you put the coral in . Why did you start dosing. What are you dosing

Size: 80 gallons,
Lights: 2 xr15 gen 5 and 2 - ai primes
Rock: Marco dry rock
Sand: Carib sea live sand
I use rodi water currently at 0tds
Coral have been in for 2 months and were thriving until this issue stared. The newest thing added was chato
Previous dosing: alk, calcium, magnesium. Initially tested daily until things stabilized then moved to every 3 days. I set up the auto doser because my coral were using 1dkh of alk daily when healthy.

Mainly have euphyllia though all coral are affected.

I have had some of these euphyllia for 2 years in my original tank.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

What is the calcium in your tank? I would adjust everything slowly in your tank. Going too quick is going to make your coral more upset.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'd be wary of assuming the problems relate to parameters "jumping all over the place" as opposed to something else, but keeping N and P off of zero is certainly desirable and the choices there are to feed more or dose N and P.

I'd stop dosign any alk and calcium for now.

Please post a picture of the aquarium.

 

[Cable]

Yesterday’s test had calcium at 420. My alk was 12.8 so I got salt with out trace elements and did a 5% wc and it’s still at 12.8 today

 

[Cable]

I'd be wary of assuming the problems relate to parameters "jumping all over the place" as opposed to something else, but keeping N and P off of zero is certainly desirable and the choices there are to feed more or dose N and P.

I'd stop dosign any alk and calcium for now.

Please post a picture of the aquarium.

Sounds good and yes I have stopped dosing alk.

I'd be wary of assuming the problems relate to parameters "jumping all over the place" as opposed to something else, but keeping N and P off of zero is certainly desirable and the choices there are to feed more or dose N and P.

I'd stop dosign any alk and calcium for now.

Please post a picture of the aquarium.

Kk I have not been dosing up alk but I have been dosing calcium to keep it up. I will stop for the time being. I will post pictures now.
Let me know if there’s anything more specific I can photograph that would help.

 

[Gribbles]

Double-check all supplements and additives for any hidden sources of alkalinity. Even some calcium supplements can contain alkalinity buffers.

Day 1: Perform a 10% water change with salt mix without added alkalinity. Test alkalinity before and after the water change.
Day 2: Perform another 10% water change if alkalinity has not dropped significantly. Monitor calcium and magnesium levels.
Day 3: Test all parameters. If alkalinity is still high, perform a 5-10% water change daily until alkalinity starts to decrease.

 

[Dburr1014]

When cheato takes off and nutrients head south, the good thing to do is take out half the cheato. You just slowed down the refuge instantly. Then you can assess lighting that refuge.

Being all out of whack in alk, cal.... Best thing like RFH said, is stop dosing and as another said, do a water change.

Retest.
If the water change helped, good. You may or may not need another one.

Another thing that may be helpful because your coral shut down and have no consumption is turn down the lights by 10 or 20% for a few days until things look better.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yesterday’s test had calcium at 420. My alk was 12.8 so I got salt with out trace elements and did a 5% wc and it’s still at 12.8 today

What salt mix has no trace elements?

 

[Cable]

What salt mix has no trace elements?

Instant ocean. I was wrong it actually does have trace elements though I don’t see a table with what the actual measurements are. I was previously using reef crystals so hopefully it’s has less.

I just did a 5% water change my alk did decrease by .4

If you have any other salt recommendations let me know.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

It sounds like you trying to micro manage the parameters.

Personally I would turn the refugium offline for a while until the tank matures. I would stop dosing and bring the tank back to baseline and then start testing daily to understand what the tank is consuming. Then take proper action.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Instant ocean. I was wrong it actually does have trace elements though I don’t see a table with what the actual measurements are. I was previously using reef crystals so hopefully it’s has less.

I just did a 5% water change my alk did decrease by .4

If you have any other salt recommendations let me know.

Both IO and RC have high alk. 5% Water changes will not help lower it.

Just don’t dose alk and let it fall in its own if you want it lower.