STN Cant figure out why?

[w2inc]

It makes no sense to me either. The conversions and error margins just don't work out and I believed the salinity was higher in April than in February. I have to call it operator error. I have not been tracking salinity that closely and there has been plenty of flux since I started with the ICP. June of 18; 30.07 PSU, August; 29.09, October; 31.08, Feb of 19; 30.75, and this month; 30.18.

My gauge is calibrated now and I think moving closer to 1.026 will give me more room for mistakes moving forward.

I don't consider the results of my ICP tests to be scientific fact. The results don't always line up with the way my tank looks either. I submit user comments with my samples so that two weeks later when I get results I remember what was up.

I always retest the parameters that I am able to test before making a correction and look at coral health as a determining factor ahead of ICP results. I also keep a second reef with much of the same coral and am able to compare the two when changes are being made to one.

ATI's ideal parameters are not really what I am shooting for.

I really appreciate your time and feedback. It has been a great help to me in troubleshooting as well as a real motivator for me to do some research and readdress my reef keeping practices.

 

[Neoalchemist]

I feel like your particular situation can be a very tough spot to be in no3 difficiency will make it really hard or impossible to dial in po4 This imbalance along with higher kh can really weaken your corals.
And generally lead to stn and or high suceptabillity to bacterial attack. If this were my tank I would allow KH to drop slowly to 8 while increasing no3 by dosing not feeding. After no3 started to even out (less or no dosing to maintain reasonable no3 numbers)
Then softly attack the po4 issue.

 

[Neoalchemist]

It hits some corals and others look like they love life. Tank is 2 years old. Over the past two months I had made changed to lights, replaced GFO, and removed one of two overflows. I run a skimmer, GFO, Cheato with a bright light, calcium reactor, 450 par on the top shelf and 100 on the floor. Corals had been growing better than I had ever seen until 3 weeks ago. I upped the light and burned two corals. Dialed it back down and things seemed to mellow. I thought it was just the lights. Feedback on the forum leaned toward low nutrients and High Alk. My Salifert test showed >.1, leaning toward .03 phosphate, All 10.5, Cal 450, Mag 1350, Nitrate <.5.

• I turned off the GFO for 3 days while waiting for a Hanna tester. Next test showed .27 ppm po4. Big surprise, but great coral color. Dropped it to >.1 over the past 3 days with lanthanum. Having new tissue loss in some Pocillopora, some Monti, but not all, some frags from dying colony are doing fine. Meanwhile great looking polyp extension from the milli and some Acro and encrusting Monti.

All of the changes other than the overflow have been moved back to what it was when the tank seemed to be bulletproof. The extra overflow is still gone. I dont know where to look? Checked the pumps today for broken impellers or some kind of metal exposure. Sent out an ICP test to ATI two weeks ago to see if there was some way off base target, but I haven heard back. It never takes this long.

PH shift from 8.2 day, 7.9 night. Temp shift +- 2 degrees f day to night.

I have an additional 40g tank that doesn't grow things fast but is always stable. I generally ignore it. I throw SPS frags in it some times. It grows Porites and Monti, Does really well on zoa's and mushrooms. Tested po4 and it was at .40. Also totally unexpected. 1 of the 3 sps moved to that tank did not recover.

Any suggestions as to where to look? What to look for ? Any suggestions for faster turn around with ICP testing?

This is where I believe the damage occured.

 

[w2inc]

I feel like your particular situation can be a very tough spot to be in no3 difficiency will make it really hard or impossible to dial in po4 This imbalance along with higher kh can really weaken your corals.
And generally lead to stn and or high suceptabillity to bacterial attack. If this were my tank I would allow KH to drop slowly to 8 while increasing no3 by dosing not feeding. After no3 started to even out (less or no dosing to maintain reasonable no3 numbers)
Then softly attack the po4 issue.

I appreciate your feedback. I am gathering similar info from several places but have not got a solid picture yet. Tell me if this is this is your meaning;

It sounds like the alk level of 8 DKH would be your goal because you feel like the no3 and po4 levels are not controllable at the higher DKH?

Do you feel like this is the case with all setups, regardless of nutrient export method? An advantage of having higher alkalinity is being able to maintain a higher pH. I have concerns about low pH with the use of my calcium reactor. Lowe pH (in the 7's) can lead to the release of PO4 that may have been bound in my substrate. In your experience, do you feel that this is worth being concerned about?

 

[w2inc]

After re-reading this thread I want to thank all of you again for all the time and thought you have put in to help.

Could I get some feedback about the levels that RedSea recommends?

 

[Neoalchemist]

I appreciate your feedback. I am gathering similar info from several places but have not got a solid picture yet. Tell me if this is this is your meaning;

It sounds like the alk level of 8 DKH would be your goal because you feel like the no3 and po4 levels are not controllable at the higher DKH?

Do you feel like this is the case with all setups, regardless of nutrient export method? An advantage of having higher alkalinity is being able to maintain a higher pH. I have concerns about low pH with the use of my calcium reactor. Lowe pH (in the 7's) can lead to the release of PO4 that may have been bound in my substrate. In your experience, do you feel that this is worth being concerned about?

Not quite. What I'm looking at is if your tank is nitrate deficient then phosphate will tend to swing around wildly. And in my experience higher alk and phosphate swings in either direction or low phosphate and alk swings are usually the rtn/stn causing events. But again po4 will be near impossible to settle if the tank is suffering a nitrate deficiency. Think of it this way. If your nutrient consuming microbes can't settle into a healthy sustainable population(based on thier preferred nutrient, wheather no3 or po4 or more likely a ratio of both) then thier population will fluctuate or even crash. Which will not only cause nutrient swings or build up of one or the other but also leaves a food chain gap that allow unwanted microbes to fill.

 

[Neoalchemist]

I also do share your concerns about low ph. But instead of running higher alk I choose to dose kalkwasser by top off.
In past tanks I've ran both calcium reactor and kalk just for the ph benefits and I run Mrs. Wages pickling lime, cheap easy to find, and food grade.

 

[Neoalchemist]

After re-reading this thread I want to thank all of you again for all the time and thought you have put in to help.

Could I get some feedback about the levels that RedSea recommends?
View attachment 1060598

I wouldn't run those #s. Alk burn city right there. Take a look at Zeovite's recommendations. Alk at 7 is thier foundation I believe and you must supplement everything mostly to keep the corals nourished without nutrients.