This has been my biggest frustration, when i used the water from the tap after just filtering it stuff grew really well, bizarre.
YOUR CURIOUSLY INNOCENT NEGLIGENCE
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OP
OP
Ok awesome man. Thanks for info thats a good help. My very first instinct would be to have you pull the GFO and carbon. But I'd really like to get an idea of what you corals are actually looking like before wee make any actual changes. Would you be comfortable posting pics of some of the questionable coral in this thread? if not if you can send them to me. id really like to get a look at what you have in front of you. One other question and sorry if i missed, how long has the tank been set up?
I will take current pics tonight and I have "before" pics of the same corals. Tank age about 2 years.
mine only is about 100 tds but there's something definitely not good for corals when i let my rodi filters lay too long. I've done many triton tests and all my problems usually happen when i start setting high zinc or tin. i know my trap water is high in iron so i suspect those two as well. if i let my softener system run out of salt i could fill a bucket of water and it will be orange the next day.
Ok, Lets try and upload a couple photo's. I'll do the minimum for now, let me know if you need more and thanks for any help offered.
This is before, body color gold with green highlights and bright blue growth tips
this is now, about 3 mos. later. Body color green,brown with muted blue at tips, PE very reduced.
FTS currently, hammers failing to fully open,some sps dead, colors are muddy and dark,coraline has lightened in hue. P.S. the phone does pump up the purple some otherwise fairly close to what I see. Thanks again Adam, hope this helps others.
This is before, body color gold with green highlights and bright blue growth tips
this is now, about 3 mos. later. Body color green,brown with muted blue at tips, PE very reduced.
FTS currently, hammers failing to fully open,some sps dead, colors are muddy and dark,coraline has lightened in hue. P.S. the phone does pump up the purple some otherwise fairly close to what I see. Thanks again Adam, hope this helps others.What's wrong with ARM media?!!
My poor tank ...
Sorry @Battlecorals I'm using reborn. I don't know why I always mix that up. Any insight on that while we're at it.
Sm51498
Active Member
Mine is about the same TDS ~130. Looking at the city's water report, its mostly due to carbonate hardness and decently high silicates. The only thing stopping me from using straight tap water is the highish ammonia reading. Though, I bet an algae scrubber could take care of that.....
Maybe I should attempt an experiment.
OP
OP
Sure thing. I have, along with a number of other people, discovered almost collectively that there is/ was some unknown pollutant in coarse ARM media that was extremely detrimental.
It was actually durrig a two year head scratcher that was the result of the media that I uprooted the system like I mentioned in the original post.
In that instance it actually was not the water at all. The issues I was experiencing were directly related to the media.
It just took me two years and a ridiculous amount of troubleshooting to determine that. Still don't know exactly what it was but there wirhout a doubt something in or on the media being dissolved and fed back into the tank that killed and stunned 70% of my collection
Once the arm was removed the problem went away almost overnight.
Interesting. It would likely be informative to run effluent into a collection device for triton analysis with different medias, and as a control the aquarium water feeding the reactor for comparison.
Thanks for the input Adam.
I guess your not mentioning reborn is afirming that it's a great media I have had good luck with it so far. I think.
OP
OP
Definitely would be. My issues were long before we had triton testing available unfortunately but I would have been very curious to see what the results would be.
I am using Reborn now and has been many years for what its worth no trouble there but l still rinse it really well and inspect and remove anything that doesn't look like a clean piece of coral skeleton.
OP
OP
Ok, Lets try and upload a couple photo's. I'll do the minimum for now, let me know if you need more and thanks for any help offered.
Thanks a lot Not nearly as bad as I was expecting
. the acro colonies don't look too bad but it does look like they still fairly new to the system Is the first pic of the acro, when you first got it then, and has it only been in there for 3 months, and how long has the tank been set up? I'd definitely pull the gfo and carbon for sure for starters.
No, been in tank about 6 mos. First pic is about month 3 1/2. The biggest problem is that since set up 2 years ago I go thru swings of health and coral death. I've lost about 6 sps to some veeerryy slow degradation in health over the last year and a half in this tank. Same scenario in previous tank, months of reasonable health followed by a slide. Never a clear culprit. It's always a very slow turn in either direction. Growth has been slow to nil. I'm just trying to keep them healthy these days. As I said years ago, filtered tap water and not much else they grew like crazy in my old tank. My hammers were a weed back then, same with monti-caps. Now they just languish. Another example
Before, 7-8 months ago, beautiful colors, nice violet tips w/white polyps. next photo now, muddy brown, little or no purple in real life, no growth.
Before, 7-8 months ago, beautiful colors, nice violet tips w/white polyps. next photo now, muddy brown, little or no purple in real life, no growth.
OP
OP
I am just not a big fan of either. And maybe I rely on my skimmer too much or take it for granted how well it works but in my experience GFO causes more issues weather subtle or not that it solves, and when trying to zero in on an unknown issue, the more variable we can eliminate the better. Carbon/gfo are always the first thing to go. Often that's all it takes to see a turn around but not every time. Its just further simplifies the system. For me" less stuff" is my creedo and I'm am not convinced in ant way that elevated phos is as detrimental as we have been lewd to think it is. I rant about that here.
As for algae. I don't see a few random tufts as anything too be concerned about. I may be in the minority here, but I actually like a little waving green in my display, but I also rely heavily on my rabbits and hermits to keep the rocks pretty clean. If algae becomes a big problem and a rabbit's not an option then we'll have to address it then.
Brew12
Electrical Gru
Exactly this. :mad: I wiped out my first Battlebox worth of coral by adding too much GFO too quickly. Shocked then starved the coral.
Lesson learned.
swk
Well-Known Member
My system is very nutrient rich and I have very little algae. Only a few snails and zero hermits. My main CUC?
Urchin
Foxface
Bristletooth and scopas tang
Algae blenny
I actually have to add nori to feed them all. Nitrates 15 po4 .13-.2
Urchin
Foxface
Bristletooth and scopas tang
Algae blenny
I actually have to add nori to feed them all. Nitrates 15 po4 .13-.2
Carbon and GFO removed.
One more post for information's sake.
Skimmer cup was cleaned on Sunday, pic on Tuesday.
Skimmer cup was cleaned on Sunday, pic on Tuesday.Similar threads
