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tank crashing. not sure why.

@marko@

@marko@

Left for 3 days. Now my tank is crashing and im not sure why.
I suspected an automatic topoff (with kalk) overdose. But my ACJR shows no ph spike in the log.
When I first tested, these were my values:
Ca - >500ppm
KH - 8.2dkh
Mg - 1250ppm
NO3 - 0ppm
PO4 - 0.02ppm

Did 2 water changes, 5 gal each (i have a 35 gallon system).
Parameters today are
Ca - 420ppm (normal)
KH - 9.0dkh (1dkh too low, but dont want to raise it quickly).
Mg - 1300ppm (normal)
NO3 - 0.25ppm
PO4 - 0.02ppm
corals look like they are getting worse.
they have STN from the base, and their tissue looks scratched up. my stylophora has burnt tips and necrosis on the bottom, my birdsnest are necrotized on the bottom. and there is no PE on anything.

pics of some corals:




however, for 2 weeks now my mystic sunset has had poor PE, and my purple haze has been STNing from multiple foci.
the only thing i have changed, is i put in new carbon, and a new T5 actinic bulb (same brand, ATI). not sure why everything is dying.
 
hans24hrs

hans24hrs

I had a similar problem after I added a new carbon filter to temp tank. Had a few sps die rather quick (1 day) and rtn on a couple others. That was the only thing I changed. Maybe carbon in is stripping out supplements really fast
 
@marko@

@marko@

well i pulled out the carbon, and replaced the bulb with the old one just in case. so if its either of those, there shouldnt be new damage, just progression of the symptoms of what already happened.

fish seem totally fine.
and my acan lord is doing good. torch is pissed but not too bad.

dkh is normally 9.5-10 (i aim for 10) - but has gotten down to 8 before.

i dont see what would have contaminated it.
not stray voltage. i have a grounding probe going into my sump.
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
From the numbers is looked like your calcium spiked and swung your alk down which causes stn from the base of sps plus tip burn.
 
@marko@

@marko@

That was my initial conclusion. I posted on nano reef asking if it was a kalk overdose.
But no spike in pH was recorded. And I was away so it would have to have been from the kalk, not my manual 2part.

What would be the prognosis do you think?
I'm hoping I don't lose all my pretty sps... some of them have really grown.
 
@marko@

@marko@

wow that is terrible.

but not my issue. i use marineland, and have a giant box that ive been using for the past year.
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

well look on the positive side..i left for 7 days and came back to a pair of dead maxima clams. Anyways an ati blue actinic is not going to be the culprit imho. It's purely for aesthetics. There is very little to any PAR in one of those bulbs. If you had swapped out a blue plus then maybe. I think the issue is not in the bulb.
 
@marko@

@marko@

Well I considered the bulb was unlikely.
Good to know people agree.

No change to any corals today.

Sorry to hear about your clams. Do you know why they died?
 
hans24hrs

hans24hrs

I think if your Kalk OD's that could effect calcium level and then alk, but you should have seen a spike somewhere in your pH.
 
@marko@

@marko@

That's what I think too. But there is no other way for that much Ca to get in while I'm away.
But my log is hourly, so maybe a bump from 8.20 to 8.31 was when kalk was dumped in, right after reading at 8.2 and then the pH dropped down to 8.3 from whatever it was by the next hourly log recording. It wold make it only a small OD, but still enough to mess with my alk.

No, it's not temp. The house is set to 72F. And I have a heater.
Besides this tank got as cold as 64 or so once when the chiller malfunctioned. Now I have a redundant thermostat to keep that from happening.
 
@marko@

@marko@

looks like most of my SPS are gonners. my birdsnests and stylo are undergoing STN and RTN (depending on the branch), and most of my acros have died, along with my cyphastrea, and bunch of others.
my red planet, mystic sunset, nauti spiral, and valida look like they might pull through. the last two have shown 0 PE since the alk swing, but all of them are showing virtually no necrosis (though totally browned out).
its so disappointing - many were just starting to branch after encrusting.
 
@marko@

@marko@

the MH burnt out today.
a nearly dead MH couldnt have bugged the corals other than just maybe providing less than optimal par, could it? it wouldnt somehow peak its UV emissions or something?
it wasnt old - replaced it in the spring. maybe 6 months old, tops.
 
@marko@

@marko@

So new corals are now showing the same symptoms. So its not the alk, and not the light.

I cracked open a new bucket of h2ocean about a month ago... could it be a bad batch of salt? The Ca and alk measures are correct. Maybe some impurity?
 
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