Cali Kid Corals

Alk consumption gradually decreasing ..

Yes. Fresh sw have high ca and mag. I’m using aqua forest salt
I do not think so - look at their website. I do not know any good salt that runs these high numbers. Too high CA precipitates out which is not desirable. This is from the AF website but seems like it it could be your salinity.

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I still lower the salinity a tad. I read up on high ca (500) and mag (1500) level , and most ppl think it’s not an issue.

I’ll leave it and let it come down naturally. I’m going to leave town in a week and hate making more drastic change.
 
updates

Monti sentosa colony continue to have small sign of stress. Turning white at a corner. Nothing major yet.

Parameters is ok.

Alk 8.3
Phosphate 0.02 ( not running gfo, just carbon)
Nitrate 6.5

Alk consumption stabilize so far. Now dosing 65ml soda ash daytime and 1.4l kalk at night.

Some early cyano/dinos . Running a small 7w UV.
Listening to charles delbeek at HTA yesterday was really eye opening, I think low phosphate is your issue. Using the molar ratio formula, 6.5N divided by .02P, times 1.53, puts you at 497.25. Charles showed us slides showing that reefs are anywhere from .8 or so to mid 30s, and our tanks should be around 50-100, so you are pretty high.

.1 phosphate would put your ratio at 99.45
 
Listening to charles delbeek at HTA yesterday was really eye opening, I think low phosphate is your issue. Using the molar ratio formula, 6.5N divided by .02P, times 1.53, puts you at 497.25. Charles showed us slides showing that reefs are anywhere from .8 or so to mid 30s, and our tanks should be around 50-100, so you are pretty high.

.1 phosphate would put your ratio at 99.45

I just measure the tank and it’s at 0.06 . I expect it will increase with heavy feeding and no gfo. I’ll let it ride.

I’ll get the ICP in a couple of days. Hopefully it will shed some light into the issues.
 
Salinity is fine, GBR is 35 which is 1.0264

As long as it’s stable it’s no biggie

Red Sea is 40ppt / 1.030ish iirc and there’s great coral reefs there
 
I just measure the tank and it’s at 0.06 . I expect it will increase with heavy feeding and no gfo. I’ll let it ride.

I’ll get the ICP in a couple of days. Hopefully it will shed some light into the issues.
I would just be aware if nitrate rises as well. Just make sure to use the formula nitrate divided by phosphate multiplied by 1.53. You want to be below 100, 50 is great
 
The point of my salinity suggestion was that if the device you are using to measure is measuring low, then when you bring your tank or new water up to target you are actually going higher than target. This will cause your Ca and Mg to be higher than you expect in both your tank and your new water (like you were reporting) since they come along for the ride along with all salts.

So with the examples from your pic, If you are targeting 35 ppt, you are actually bringing it up to like 37 ppt due to the mis-calibration. This difference could account for your high Ca and Mg without looking for a more exotic reason or taking any aggressive action.

I wasn’t talking about those being dangerous levels, either the salinity, Ca, or Mg. Since they aren’t.
 
Sentosa seem to recover but stylo now showing sign of stress. Arg…

ICP results attached.

We know about high salinity (fix) and low phosphate . Low in some trace ( iron, Fluoride, iodine …) , high in Zinc.

I bump up my trace elements dosing.

Anything else stand out I should address?
 

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Kind of a reach but the high zinc could be due to a dropped screw or other piece of metal maybe? I don’t know enough about zinc to say if that level is a problem or not.

Randy Holmes Farley dove deep into this and related trace metals here if you want a nice read:

I’m not saying I know it’s a problem. Just that it’s the only thing that jumped out at me in your ICP results.
 
Not sure if I can find if there is any screw in the back AIO chamber. That said , I do have media bags that have metal zipper(?) . I’ll replace all media bags just in case.

Edit ; zipper is plastic .
 
While figuring out what is the source of zinc, i ordered a small package 100g of Cuprisorb ( i read that i will remove copper + zinc) . Should be here tomorrow . I am trying to avoid drastic change as i'm heading out for a week.
 
I don’t think your issue is water quality, but if it is the most likely culprit is the low (or zero) po4, like @Alexander1312 already mentioned. This is known to be problematic, and the only real red flag on your ICP. Iodine low and zinc high raises an eyebrow but I doubt it’s causing harm. I’ve had a lot uglier ICPs than this with happy growing corals.

Some funky bacterial stuff or pest or pathogen is probably the most likely, but I know that isn’t helpful at all!
 
I don’t think your issue is water quality, but if it is the most likely culprit is the low (or zero) po4, like @Alexander1312 already mentioned. This is known to be problematic, and the only real red flag on your ICP. Iodine low and zinc high raises an eyebrow but I doubt it’s causing harm. I’ve had a lot uglier ICPs than this with happy growing corals.

Some funky bacterial stuff or pest or pathogen is probably the most likely, but I know that isn’t helpful at all!
I don’t disagree . But I had same issues when my phosphate is ard 0.2. I only addef gfo temporary to bring it down. Is there a target range i should shoot for? 0.02 is too low, 0.2 too high?
 
This is from BRS:

For most reef tanks that are no more than 2-3 years old, phosphate levels should be kept very low in order to avoid problems. You’ll find recommendations ranging from 0.02 to 0.05 ppm are the most common answer.

Phosphate (and nitrate) is something I find very hard to hit any number range. It’s hard to know the tank consumption and how much you’re adding from food.
 
This is from BRS:

For most reef tanks that are no more than 2-3 years old, phosphate levels should be kept very low in order to avoid problems. You’ll find recommendations ranging from 0.02 to 0.05 ppm are the most common answer.
I don't think they need to be that low, trying to keep them that low can create issues. Kenny from high tide has several vidoes on utube where he mentions his thoughts on lower nutrients. Not any expert advicd here. Yet I wouldn't be considering gfo at all if i was at 0.2.

In my main tank i doubt I've ever been low as 0.2 when it comes to videos or topics like this if you take polls from ten people 4 will say one thing another 4 will say the oppsite and 2 of them will pretty much be answering a totally different poll.

So comes down to do whats best for your tank. I have issues as well not meaning to imply I have anything figured out far from it in fact.

Yet I observe things for a while before any action is considered. And I want to fully understand potential of said actions.

Best advice I was given from a member
here without saying a name. Was to look at peoples tanks and judge their results. Let that alone determine who's advice you should heed and apply.
 
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This is from BRS:

For most reef tanks that are no more than 2-3 years old, phosphate levels should be kept very low in order to avoid problems. You’ll find recommendations ranging from 0.02 to 0.05 ppm are the most common answer.

Phosphate (and nitrate) is something I find very hard to hit any number range. It’s hard to know the tank consumption and how much you’re adding from food.
I’m still learning and gaining experience, but from what I have heard:

BRS: some nutrients are fine, and you want some nutrients, but find a range and stay within it/find balance. Constant swings are bad.

Charles delbeek from recent HTA meetup: (watch this video when kenny releases it soon, I’m probably going to butcher it) He noticed a trend where tanks would go downhill when nitrates went up and phosphates went down. High nitrates spurred zooxanthelle growth and demand for phosphate, this generally leads to worse outcomes, higher phosphates didnt lead to this same stress for zooxanthelle and coral, but noticed more disease at higher phosphate levels. He also goes for a sort of redfield ratio, but for coral needs rather than algae needs, which leads to a 50:1 molar ratio of nitrogen to phosphorous. When accounting for our forms of N and P, the equation is Nitrate divided by phosphate times 1.53, and you want 50-100.

I’m going to do my best to follow this guideline, it makes a lot of sense to me.

Based on your ICP test, your molar ratio is 369.24, and the molar ratio of the nutrients suggested on the ICP test is 61.2.

When my tank is a bit more mature and stable, and I start to dial everything in more, I want to shoot for 25 N and .35-5 P on the high end, down to 10 N and .14-.2 P. Maybe down to 5 N and .07-.1 P, we’ll see
 
High vs low N and P and their ratios are debated endlessly. Many successful people seem to be 100% sure that their way of looking at it is correct, even though it’s different from other people who are successful and 100% confident in their way. This includes popular influencers, and members here. I think the only thing that most everyone agrees on is that true zero N or P in your tank is bad. But even that has nuances since thriving reefs in the ocean measure basically zero if tested with a hobby kit. Because N and P are sucked up very quickly so they generally don’t accumulate on a healthy reef, not because it is truly zero. There’s a lot to talk about here but the bottom line is that we don’t really know what the “best” range or ratio is.

My guess is that your problems are not due to N or P, though you probably want to make sure your P isn’t intermittently bottoming out, as you’ve mentioned already.
 
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