I think my tank is slowly crashing.

[jdwells]

So I just moved here about a month ago with my 90 gallon mixed reef. Pretty much standard livestock. I lost a couple fish during and right after the move which is sad but I expected it. It was really cold the day I moved about 6 hours from tear down to set up. Then I went out of town for work which I do a lot. When I got back 3 chromis, a clown, 2 turbo snails, and some hermits were MIA. Also I think my goby/pistol shrimp havnt been seen in a while which isn't that uncommon but it's been a long while. I removed as much as I could find but a lot was unrecovered.
Also my salinity got really low. 1.020 when I caught it. I've been bringing it up slowly over the last couple days and it's at 1.024 now. I'm aiming for 1.027 which is normal in my tank.
I also got a BRS dual reactor kit and salifert test kits in the mail today.
The carbon and gfo are on and running now.
The tank parameters right now are:
Salinity: 1.024
Nitrate: 5 ppm (because of the die off I think)
Phosphate: 0ppm (it's all hiding in the CRAZY amounts of algae. Sigh...)
Dkh: 6.2
Ca: 490
Mg: no reading after the full 1ml (which means high?)
So now questions and solutions:
1-Why such a big salinity drop? I'm running an ATO from Avast. It seems to work well keeping the level consistent so I'm not sure. I'll keep an eye on it and make sure it stays more consistent.
2-Al the algae is gettin pulled daily and I'm going to do a blackout starting tomorrow since the gfo reactor is running to pull the phosphates out as the algae dies off and releases it into the water.
3- what's up with the dkh/ca/mg readings? I know what the numbers should be but why are ca and mg high while dkh is low? Sorry but I've never done these before. And yes I'm sure I did them right. I did them a couple times and watched some YouTube videos so I'm obviously an expert now. lol
Thanks for any input! And don't be afraid to beat me up or ask for more info. This post is long winded but I wanted to be thorough.
2-


Sent from my iPhone using

 

[brandonmason]

Do you know how low the water temp dropped in the move.... and might have missed this but how established was the tank when you moved? When was the last time your refractometer was calibrated.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2

 

[jdwells]

Oh I forgot a couple things.
Yes I use ro/di. It's a 4stage from BRS and I just replaced all the filters except the ro membrane.
The fish I have left (yellow tang, clown, 2 chromis) are all happy, healthy, and eating like pigs.
The corals all seem ok considering. Not opening as much but dealing. Except my hammer. He fell all to pieces. Literally. There's 1 head left which is recovering but we'll see. I think he's my fault. There was a lot of flow on him and my clown took to living in there so I think he mostly just got bea up. My torch is still happy. Again thanks for any help you guys can provide during this tense time. I'm not sure how much time until I go out of time again but I'm doing what I can to set the tank up for success.


Sent from my iPhone using

 

[jdwells]

The temp was 68f when I pulled it out of the truck. That's bad I know but there was no other choice.
The tank was up about 8 months when we moved so not very established. I'm working on it.
I'm still using a hydrometer. The refractometer is on the Christmas list. Any recommendations on a good one? Thanks for the quick response!


Sent from my iPhone using

 

[brandonmason]

Have you had your hydrometer tested against a refractometer? The reason I ask is if you cranked your salinity up based on a faulty hydrometer you could do some serious damage.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2

 

[jdavid]

I use the JBJ c-scope. Very easy to use.

 

[jdwells]

Oh I didn't think about that at all. Now I'm worried. You wanna bring yours over an test my water real quick? lol I'll take some water over to the LFS to get checked tomorrow. I wonder if my hydrometer is broken.


Sent from my iPhone using

 

[redstang]

On your alk check your salt. I found out that my salt has had very low alk for a while. Test your water after mixing to make sure you aren't lowering levels with water changes.

 

[jennm]

Why 1.027 as a goal? That's very high. Natural seawater averages 1.025, Red Sea 1.026. I personally did well with 1.023-1.024.

Definitely have your device checked, that can make a huge difference.

If the temperature went that low, that would account for a lot of woes.

What salt are you using? And are you using anything to boost parameters?

You're probably best to let it settle out before you start tinkering to move parameters.

Jenn

 

[snowmansnow]

i agree with Jen. Let it settle and become stable over the next few days while you get your testing done and redone. STABILITY is the BIGGEST overlooked factor in keeping a reef tank. The temp swing probably had a lot to do with it, and some corals may not recover at all.

Save what you can, and get things solid again IMO.

B

 

[jdwells]

Yeah jenn said what I was thinking too. I use reef crystals salt. The reason for 1.027 is that's what I've always kept it at. I read somewhere that higher salinity can help keep algae out. I don't remember where I read that but since then I've kept it high. And since stability is important I wanted to get it back there. Should I just keep it at 1.025 then?
As for the rest of the parameters I've never dosed them. Yesterday was the first time I ever even checked them. The plan is to start using kalkwasser once I get everything to settle down.


Sent from my iPhone using

 

[redstang]

JDWells;916965 wrote: Yeah jenn said what I was thinking too. I use reef crystals salt. The reason for 1.027 is that's what I've always kept it at. I read somewhere that higher salinity can help keep algae out. I don't remember where I read that but since then I've kept it high. And since stability is important I wanted to get it back there. Should I just keep it at 1.025 then?
As for the rest of the parameters I've never dosed them. Yesterday was the first time I ever even checked them. The plan is to start using kalkwasser once I get everything to settle down.


Sent from my iPhone using http://tapatalk.com/m?id=1">Tapatalk</a>[/QUOTE]

Does your RC mix completely? I use RC and for the last 6 months have had issues apparently tied to low alkalinity. I've been slowly bringing Alk up for the last week or so.

 

[darren24]

It may have been said already but I shoot for 9 DKH...

 

[jdwells]

RedStang;916999 wrote: Does your RC mix completely? I use RC and for the last 6 months have had issues apparently tied to low alkalinity. I've been slowly bringing Alk up for the last week or so.

I've never noticed it not mixing completely but I'll pay a little more attention.


Sent from my iPhone using

 

[jdwells]

So I went up to blue planet toget my water checked. My salinity was at 1.030! So apparently my hydrometer was reading really low and I corrected based on that. Wow.


Sent from my iPhone using

 

[jdw]

Wow that's a big number. I recently bought a refractometer from an Arc member, but before then i was using dual hydrometers just as a checks and balances type system. As long both hydrometers read the same i felt secure in the reading.

Funny thing is, I ran my dual hydrometers and got a reading and then i used refractometer just to see. My refractometer was .003 higher than my hydrometers. I think the refractometer needs calibration. Once I get it calibrated I will try that again.

 

[jdwells]

Yeah the refractometer just went to the top of my priority list. I can't believe it. Thanks a bunch BrandonMason, you called it man.
JennM, the new salinity goal is 1.024. From what I'm reading a high salinity is great for corals which would explain my my discosoma just propagated and most of my other corals look really happy, but fish hate it. So it could also explain my fish are getting weaker and even dying off.
Darren, yeah I'm with ya. I just started testing that kind of stuff and I'm going to start dosing in the near future, but for right now I need to get everything stable and get rid of the algae. Then I'll start adding livestock and dosing. Thanks for all you guys help.
I'm gonna read up on salts too. I've heard some bad things about this brand lately so I'm going to see if there's something better I can get local that won't cost an arm and a leg.

 

[redstang]

JDWells;917292 wrote: Yeah the refractometer just went to the top of my priority list. I can't believe it. Thanks a bunch BrandonMason, you called it man.
JennM, the new salinity goal is 1.024. From what I'm reading a high salinity is great for corals which would explain my my discosoma just propagated and most of my other corals look really happy, but fish hate it. So it could also explain my fish are getting weaker and even dying off.
Darren, yeah I'm with ya. I just started testing that kind of stuff and I'm going to start dosing in the near future, but for right now I need to get everything stable and get rid of the algae. Then I'll start adding livestock and dosing. Thanks for all you guys help.
I'm gonna read up on salts too. I've heard some bad things about this brand lately so I'm going to see if there's something better I can get local that won't cost an arm and a leg.

Don't take my experience as RC necessarily being bad. I'm only 2.5 years into this hobby myself. I should have questioned my salt more and tested it once it went hard to verify that everything was still good. RC has a good reputation. My feeling is that this one is on me, not RC.

 

[jdwells]

It might be but this isn't the first time I've heard about inconsistent results from IO. I heard about a batch that was FULL of ammonia straight out of the bucket not too long ago.


Sent from my iPhone using

 

[jdwells]

So an update on the tank. I have a refractometer on its way. It's the same one BRS sells but I got it from amazon. (Sorry BRS) I've been pulling a gallon or 2 of water out of the tank each day and letting the ATO fill it with fresh RO so it's coming back down slowly.
Thanks again brandonmason for giving me that idea. You probably saved my tank. Let me know if you need anything cause I owe you.
Also I did 3 days of lights off while this was going on. I didn't cover the tank, just lights off so we'll see what that does for algae. This morning the lights com back on. I'm excited!


Sent from my iPhone using