Phosphates and Nitrates Killing corals?

[Ralph823]

Hello all,

I have a tank that has ben doing great for over a year now and in just the last month or so Nitrates and Phosphate's have skyrocketed and I have a large coral die off, I have always run nutrient high tanks with PO4 sitting at around 1 and Nitrate around 40-60 over the last month my phosphate's have jumped to 1.8 and my nitrates up to 100+. I have been told by many old school hobbyist's that PO4 and Nitrate will not Kill off Corals especially LPS and softies but nothing else in the tank has changed. all my euphyllia seem to be struggling and I have lost three torch heads with three more shriveled and all 8 of my hammers and 10 of my frogspawn are looking rough. Interestingly enough my one Acro is growing and has vibrant color, even my leathers, Kenya trees, zoas and mushrooms arent looking great with some zoas having melted away, Gonipora and alveoproa are looking upset after going quite a while with great polyp extension. chalices are gone, monti caps are done, EVEN THE XENIA AND GSP WONT OPEN OR EXTEND. nems on the otherhand are doing fine. Please see the Paramaters and Stocking list below

- Calc - 480
- Alk - 9.1
- Mag - 1550
- PH - 8.00
- Nitrate - 120
- PO4 - 1.8
- Ammonia - 0
- Nitrite - 0
- Water temp between 80-82

I only dose Kalkwasser and Mag for main elements and dose Trace Elements daily

Stocking list
- Copperband butterfly
- Blue Hippo
- Purple tang
- Scopas tang
- Orange shoulder tang
- Tomini tang
- Fox face
- Morrish Idol
- 2 maroon clowns
- 2 cleaner wrasses
- Cleaner goby
- 3 Ignitus anthias
- 3 Mollies
- Mandarin dragonet
- snowflake eel

feeding schedule
Am - 1 cube of frozen mysis, 1 fresh clam, 2 10x10 Nori sheets
PM - 1 Cube frozen gut loaded brine, 1 clam
PM#2 - Either live black or white worms.

tank is a 180dt with a 75 sump No fish have picked on the corals that I have seen and I watch them like a hawk through my livestream camera. I am running Carbon just in case it is some sort of chemical contamination or coral warfare

 

[jackson6745]

Im all for having good amount of nutrients in that water but I do believe that you've hit cesspool levels with those numbers lol. Start by doing the obvious, a water change and suck up detritus from your sump.

 

[Malum Argenteum]

Photos would (always) help.

What water do you use? What's the WC schedule?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Yeah, I would start doing significant water changes to try and lower those phosphates, those are high

 

[Ralph823]

Yeah, I would start doing significant water changes to try and lower those phosphates, those are high

I've been doing weekly 20% for a while upped it to 50% 2 weeks ago and nada

 

[Cheezle]

.

 

[Ralph823]

Photos would (always) help.

What water do you use? What's the WC schedule?

I use natural sea water since I am in Miami FL it is readily available, water changes were 20% weekly for the first few months and then I changed to 20% monthly as my nutrients were way too low, nutrients started to slowly rise so I went back to weekly 20% and then they skyrocketed so no I'm doing 50% weekly

 

[Malum Argenteum]

NSW quality shouldn't be assumed to be consistent (is there an oil spill nearby or not nearby? Did they spray for mosquitoes? Did a whale die offshore? DId the last big rain wash all the crud off Miami's streets into the ocean?).

RODI water quality is consistent (it is always just water). I would start by using RODI and not looking back. Without using water the quality of known quality and constituents, there is no way to engage in conclusive troubleshooting since you can't rule out some contributing compound in the water.

 

[Ralph823]

NSW quality shouldn't be assumed to be consistent (is there an oil spill nearby or not nearby? Did they spray for mosquitoes? Did a whale die offshore? DId the last big rain wash all the crud off Miami's streets into the ocean?).

RODI water quality is consistent (it is always just water). I would start by using RODI and not looking back. Without using water the quality of known quality and constituents, there is no way to engage in conclusive troubleshooting since you can't rule out some contributing compound in the water.

I will give it a try, I just ordered instant ocean reef crystals and will be doing a 50% water change today/tomorrow depending on how long my RODI takes to fill 100 gallons lol. I just hate mixing salt because salinity usually runs low and it just means more mixing and checking salinity, I ordered enough for 400 gallons in water changes and will be doing them all within the next few weeks. also I just caught one of my clowns using the torches a host which isn't helping and she laid her eggs under torch garden so she's gonna be there a while. she spawns every few weeks but this is the first time I have seen her leave her normal spot behind her nem.

 

[Malum Argenteum]

I personally would not do a 50% WC, especially with such a radical change as NWS to artificial.

There's obviously something more going on than anything that could be immediately related to the NSW. Making a radical change on something that just needs a possible improvement (that is, the source water) is as likely to make things worse as improve it. My suggestion was only intended to help eliminate variables, not to serve as a fix. Just to clarify.

Any chance you can share photos (of individual corals, and of the whole system)? The more eyes on a situation, the more chance someone will see something relevant.

Are you doing anything else for nutrient export other than WCs (skimmer, organic carbon dosing, algae scrubber)?

 

[Ralph823]

I personally would not do a 50% WC, especially with such a radical change as NWS to artificial.

There's obviously something more going on than anything that could be immediately related to the NSW. Making a radical change on something that just needs a possible improvement (that is, the source water) is as likely to make things worse as improve it. My suggestion was only intended to help eliminate variables, not to serve as a fix. Just to clarify.

Any chance you can share photos (of individual corals, and of the whole system)? The more eyes on a situation, the more chance someone will see something relevant.

Are you doing anything else for nutrient export other than WCs (skimmer, organic carbon dosing, algae scrubber)?

I'll try to get Pics as soon as I get home

as of right now I have chaeto and calupera in the refugium chamber of the sump and am also doing 30ml of vinegar daily split between 10 doses. I have a skimmer and am getting about a gallon of skimmate every 5 days from it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

just an fyi, water changes likely won’t bring phosphate down nearly as much as one might expect.

 

[Ralph823]

just an fyi, water changes likely won’t bring phosphate down nearly as much as one might expect.

Yea I forgot to mention phosphate RX 3x a week to keep PO4 down about 1/4 the recommended dose

Here are some pics

 

[VinnyBoy]

Nutrient levels are way too high. I understand people have ran high nutrient system but there’s a limit to everything. You’re in for a rough battle as well because the phosphate binds to your liverock. It’ll take lots of time to bring the phosphate level to an appropriate range. But that makes it even harder because the water changes will drop the nitrates. So you’ll struggle for out of balance nutrients for awhile as well.