Sps browning out suddenly

[lubeck]

Unfortunately there is something wrong with the parameters in the tank. Most of of my sps have started browning out and most zoa and mushrooms are closed for the last few days.

The only thing I did differently is add 6 drops of zeofood plus each day this week. Opposed to twice per week.

Another theory a two weeks ago I lost the cap of my Mo10 inside the rock cave and tried to blow it out stirring up sand that hasn’t been moved in over a year. Some of the corals immediately started expelling algae.

My alk is about a 1dkh higher than normal. See the slimmer below. It’s tips were white growth tips now turned brown.

 

[ReefStable]

White Tips, or "Burnt Tips" is usually telling of an alk swing. Do you have a monitor like a trident or manual testing?

I would also check salinity.

The foods from KZ are VERY strong. I've had the Coral Vitalizer cause problems when overdosed. I dont know what's in them, so I can't speak to why.

If nothing obvious, I would send in an ICP to see if something is wrong.

Here is a comparison of ICP to help pick one if you go that route.

https://reefstable.com/blog/best-icp-test-for-reef-tank

 

[lubeck]

White Tips, or "Burnt Tips" is usually telling of an alk swing. Do you have a monitor like a trident or manual testing?

I would also check salinity.

The foods from KZ are VERY strong. I've had the Coral Vitalizer cause problems when overdosed. I dont know what's in them, so I can't speak to why.

If nothing obvious, I would send in an ICP to see if something is wrong.

Here is a comparison of ICP to help pick one if you go that route.

https://reefstable.com/blog/best-icp-test-for-reef-tank

I have a trident. Everything seemed to be within range.

I checked salinity with a hydrometer. 1.025

I’m thinking it has to be the food. I’m going to stop dosing food plus but keep using Bacto balance.

Unfortunately today the corals are getting worse. PE has pretty much disappeared on most sps and my slimmer is completely browned out.

The alk went up because the corals stopped consuming. I turned off alk dosing on Friday. So kalk was the only dosing.

 

[Pod_01]

So zeofood plus as you may know is amino acid:

I would use amino if my tank had NO3 below 1 ppm. Your tank is in the 10-15 ppm range so you are unlikely N limited yet you are adding more N source that corals can easily use and that can explain corals turning brown, as the zooxanthellae population explodes inside the coral.
Corals can be unhappy if too much food is available and close up to reduce input.

I would stop using it, observe for few weeks. Maybe also cut back on other coral food for week or two.

Good luck,

 

[ReefStable]

Agreed with post above. Also, the medium to high to low swing on May 5th is more than enough to cause this. Many reef tanks can only handle a swing of about 0.5 to 1.0dkh per day. Even though they survive, it can be very stressful on coral. It looks like the drop was close to 1.2dKh. I would try to provide stability to the tank and just keep things simple while everything recovers.

 

[lubeck]

Should I continue to carbon and dose ?

 

[Pod_01]

Should I continue to carbon and dose ?

I like carbon dosing, it is great way to feed bacteria and in turn the bacteria feeds corals.
But I don’t carbon dose to control nutrients, so for example these days I am using TM NP Bacto Ballance but I am down to 0.2ml a day per 60gal.

Also I prefer the sodium bicarbonate for 2 part dosing. I did not have as much luck with high pH like kalk or sodium hydroxide. I ended up with precipitate and precipitate build up on pumps. This is just my observation.

 

[Troylee]

Should I continue to carbon and dose ?

If you’re n03 is where you like it I would! If not it’s gonna start creeping up..

 

[lubeck]

My NO3 is where I want it but I’m going to stop all dosing of Bacto balance zeobak and zeofood plus and do multiple water changes.


That’s been the only change since I started carbon dosing about 4 weeks ago. However, I would have thought if it was the carbon dosing regime, it would have shown up earlier. All corals looked better after starting carbon dosing even through week 3. The colors were noticeably better. Then they weren’t.

 

[Pod_01]

Just a comment but from my expedience corals don’t like fluctuating PO4 and especially sinking PO4.
Any time I had sinking PO4 in the sub 0.1 range things didn’t go well. Going from 0.05 to 0.02 never ended well.
Carbon dosing can reduce PO4 and adding amino can accelerate the trend. Amino helps with PO4 reduction.

but I’m going to stop all dosing of Bacto balance zeobak and zeofood plus

This is good plan and wait for 2-3 weeks and you can perhaps restart TM BB at reduced dose, just to feed bacteria so corals have another food source.

Water change is good idea but keep eye on NO3, you don’t want to stress corals further by creating more instability. Water change will reduce your NO3…
I do like water changes but sometimes they can create issues.

 

[lubeck]

I’m traveling today and my wife says the tank is cloudy and stinks!!! Yikes. So sad the tank was rolling for a solid year and now this. I’m having to do an emergency water change now.

 

[noobreefer2]

Do you think this is a bacterial bloom? Did the Carbon dosing cause the bloom?

 

[Pod_01]

Do you think this is a bacterial bloom? Did the Carbon dosing cause the bloom?

When I had bacteria bloom there was no stink!!!

I don’t know if op has skimmer running but in case of bacteria bloom oxygen levels can drop, skimmer can help.

 

[lubeck]

Skimmer is running. I’m not sure what it is but the more I think about it. Since the decline which was about a week ago I noticed a ver slight cloudiness.

 

[lubeck]

 

[lubeck]

Did a 60% WC today and removed some dead corals. The gold hammer had over 30 heads

 

[ReefHunter006]

Just a comment but from my expedience corals don’t like fluctuating PO4 and especially sinking PO4.
Any time I had sinking PO4 in the sub 0.1 range things didn’t go well. Going from 0.05 to 0.02 never ended well.
Carbon dosing can reduce PO4 and adding amino can accelerate the trend. Amino helps with PO4 reduction.

This is good plan and wait for 2-3 weeks and you can perhaps restart TM BB at reduced dose, just to feed bacteria so corals have another food source.

Water change is good idea but keep eye on NO3, you don’t want to stress corals further by creating more instability. Water change will reduce your NO3…
I do like water changes but sometimes they can create issues.

Po4 swings pretty drastically through out the day in my experience over years with multiple tanks. Like .03 to .2 kind of swings. Do you test multiple times a day for PO4? Always looking to compare po4 notes cause I chased this last year to no avail.

 

[JustAnotherNanoTank]

Very sorry to see the trouble! Hope things mellow out soon. Go back to the basics for now and keep it simple.

 

[Pod_01]

Po4 swings pretty drastically through out the day in my experience over years with multiple tanks. Like .03 to .2 kind of swings. Do you test multiple times a day for PO4? Always looking to compare po4 notes cause I chased this last year to no avail.

No I did not and there is a reason. When you feed you will mess up the reading, food addition will drive it up. There is what I would call the absolute and relative PO4 measurement. Relative is the one you get right after feeling etc… The absolute and the one I used to measure is one I got early in the morning (before feeding) and or late at night (long after any food input) and these I found to be most stable over time.

I used to measure once a day, later once a week and now it is maybe once a month. As I got comfortable I can tell when things are good.

As an example when my absolute/ early morning PO4 was 0.02-0.04 SPS corals looked like this: (this was when I was driving it down from 0.05 to 0.02)

With PO4 in the 0.08-0.15 range I get this:

Thick skin, colour etc…
The most recent test taken in the morning:

As for trend that PO4 value has been going down over the last 6 months from 0.2.

Hope that helps,

 

[ReefHunter006]

No I did not and there is a reason. When you feed you will mess up the reading, food addition will drive it up. There is what I would call the absolute and relative PO4 measurement. Relative is the one you get right after feeling etc… The absolute and the one I used to measure is one I got early in the morning (before feeding) and or late at night (long after any food input) and these I found to be most stable over time.

I used to measure once a day, later once a week and now it is maybe once a month. As I got comfortable I can tell when things are good.

As an example when my absolute/ early morning PO4 was 0.02-0.04 SPS corals looked like this: (this was when I was driving it down from 0.05 to 0.02)

With PO4 in the 0.08-0.15 range I get this:

Thick skin, colour etc…
The most recent test taken in the morning:

As for trend that PO4 value has been going down over the last 6 months from 0.2.

Hope that helps,

I agree with your points. I was just pointing out that the swings happen based on ways we test for it.