Please Help! All Acropora are melting away

[Dennis Cartier]

I think a second ICP is a great idea, just to make sure you are not acting on false results.

Do you have any Maxspect Gyre's in the tank? I had one of those crack once and only noticed it when I started investigating the 'odd shaped coralline' growing on its motor block. It turned out to be ridges of oxidation (rust) and not coralline.

 

[kagisexton]

I think a second ICP is a great idea, just to make sure you are not acting on false results.

Do you have any Maxspect Gyre's in the tank? I had one of those crack once and only noticed it when I started investigating the 'odd shaped coralline' growing on its motor block. It turned out to be ridges of oxidation (rust) and not coralline.

I have an Ice Cap Gyre. Funny you say that, I actually pulled it out of the tank a few hours ago because I have a weird suspicion that it is the culprit. I looked super closely and took it completely apart and do not see anything at all but I’m going to leave it out for now.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If it really is the elevated Manganese, what can I do to lower this?
EDIT: The ICP company says the safe range is .0001-.0002. I am at .046! (2,000-4,000x!!)

As a general rule, no one can say what the "safe" level of a trace metal is. Even if there was a lot of detailed scientific info on some metal (there's typically is not) for every organism we keep (there definitely is not), the chemical form of the metal impacts toxicity and bioavailability and many trace elements come in many different chemical states.

Is your reported level of manganese a concern? is it the issue? I do not know. Using a metal binder is an OK plan, however.

I'd also be wary of this ICP company. it might be perfectly accurate, but I've not seen ANY folks reporting data here from it. Maybe it is a rebrand of an existing company, or a new one. I just do not recognize it, and ICP is not a plug and play analysis of seawater.

 

[kagisexton]

As a general rule, no one can say what the "safe" level of a trace metal is. Even if there was a lot of detailed scientific info on some organism (there's typically is not) for every organism we keep (there definitely is not), the chemical form of the metal impacts toxicity and bioavailability and many trace elements come in many different chemical states.

Is your reported level of manganese a concern? is it the issue? I do not know. Using a metal binder is an OK plan, however.

I'd also be wary of this ICP company. it might be perfectly accurate, but I've not seen ANY folks reporting data here from it. Maybe it is a rebrand of an existing company, or a new one. I just do not recognize it, and ICP is not a plug and play analysis of seawater.

Good to know, definitely going to get another ICP test done. Thanks.

Not that it changes anything, but the ICP company (Reef Labs) is based out of Bradenton and has a store front called Reef Masters. They are actually the same ICP company that ACI Aquaculture uses and speaks about here in the Tampa area.

 

[minus9]

I would use ATI ICP, which also tests for RO and a few other elements. I’ve found that long term use of certain chemical filtration media can do more damage than good. Why are you using chemipure? Just curious.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Red sea blue bucket. I searched for issues and searched the ICP of the batch and saw nothing out of the ordinary.

thank you and all others for the help. I am going to order some cuprisorb right now and run it along with metasorb as soon as I get back home. I unfortunately did not receive anything before leaving town and just left the chemipure blue, which obviously didn’t do much.

edit: The only other thing I can think of is maybe I’m using the salt to soon after mixing and getting some of the crap that would normally stick to the container into the tank? I usually wait about 2-3hours

Have you checked the Allk on a newly mixed batch of salt?

I have a new bucket here that is mixing at 9.4 dKh @ 35ppt which is above what the batch number ICP says it should be.

 

[kagisexton]

Have you checked the Allk on a newly mixed batch of salt?

I have a new bucket here that is mixing at 9.4 dKh @ 35ppt which is above what the batch number ICP says it should be.

That’s good to know, maybe I should send an ICP of freshly mixed salt as well, this is going to get expensive.

 

[kagisexton]

I would use ATI ICP, which also tests for RO and a few other elements. I’ve found that long term use of certain chemical filtration media can do more damage than good. Why are you using chemipure? Just curious.

I’ve never used it before, just added it a few weeks ago when I started noticing the brown out, I had suspected heavy metals.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

While it never hurts to have more info, I do not recall seeing anything remarkable on anyone's ICP of 0 ppm TDS RO/DI water or new salt water that I thought was accurate.