arrgh! lost my oregon tort now 20k lokani having issues

[JAR]

STN on the tips.
temp 78
CA 400
KH 10
MG 1550
PO4 .o5
SG 1.026
Nitrate ? I need a new test kit.
Lighting note: about a week ago (after the OT died)I changed from a 400w radium back to a 250w radium.
Side note: I have a few small patches of cyano. I took out the ecobak pellets about a month ago.
( I have tried to cut back on feeding recently)
this sucks.

 

[Coral reefer]

Isn't 1550 mg really high?

 

[JAR]

Isn't 1550 mg really high?

It is a bit high but from what I have heard it should not be a problem.

 

[Thales]

Its been reported (that that for what its worth) that tipping can come from high alk. For me, 10 is on the high side.

Your bacterial load may also be shifting due to the removal of the Ecoback. Though we don't know much about the bacterial populations, they do seem important for animal health, and when they flux, its seems that bad things like you are experiencing can happen.

One more - this seems to happen annually, around this time. A couple of corals in many peoples tanks just seem to give up. Guesses at what is going on range from coincidence to seasonal changes in make up water (including air born particles from other countries) to almost anything seasonal. The real problem is, you never know if anything you did fixed it or not, you just know it stopped.

FWIW, i don't change anything unless I find that from testing something is different from last test in response to a single coral going down. They just sometimes do that, and trying to save that one seems to inevitably cause problems for others.

 

[Thales]

Isn't 1550 mg really high?

It is a bit high but from what I have heard it should not be a problem.

Is it higher from last time you tested? When was the last time you added Mg?

 

[JAR]

I did add MG on sept 20th and it was a tad low around 1100. I was losing some acans from what I thought was low MG. Back then my oregon tort had some bleaching also.
I slowly brought mag to 1400 by dripping a mag solution in for several days.
this bumped my specific gravity up to 1.027.
I did several 10% water changes a few days in a row with 1.024 salinity.
to get it back down to 1.026.
I'm not planning to change much of anything else for now.

Thanks Rich for your input

 

[JAR]

Oh yeah.
PH 7.95-8.05

 

[rygh]

Hmm, low PH and high ALK.
Not way off, but seems a bit on an unusual combination.
Combine that with Cyano, and it sortof hints to a low flow / CO2 problem.
Hard to say though.

 

[tuberider]

One more - this seems to happen annually, around this time. A couple of corals in many peoples tanks just seem to give up. Guesses at what is going on range from coincidence to seasonal changes in make up water (including air born particles from other countries) to almost anything seasonal. The real problem is, you never know if anything you did fixed it or not, you just know it stopped.

This the first year in a while that I've not experienced this ^^^^^, I've always assumed (the best way to quantify things by the way) that it has something to do with my proximity to the ocean and all of the funky algae blooms that occur between late August and early November.

Although the Eco-Bac removal would be my guess, OTs do not like NO3 IME.

 

[Thales]

Ha! I had it a little this year, oddly with my OT. It may have been linked to a slight rise in alk though.

 

[JAR]

Rich,
What do you like to keep your ALK at?
BTW mine was 11 today.
I just turned down the flow of my CA RX to compensate.

 

[Thales]

I like to keep mine at 8, that way if it drops to 7 or raises to 9 I am generally good. It seems to me that it's more important that it remain stable, than at a particular number in the acceptable range.

 

[northbay-reefer]

I think you have several things that might contribute to the STN, your parameter went rhough some changes specifically mag and alk. We all know corals will get burn tips from spike or dip in alk, but they will also get burn tips from a spike in mag. both of your alk and mag are on the higher side IMO. My alk is usually at 7 - 7.5 and the sweet spot for lps is mag at 1300-1350. Add to these two factors you also got a minor spike in salinity and maybe nitrate due to the fact that you stop using pellets. Since your corals are stressing because they don't like the current parameter, I think it is a good idea to do a big water change to dilute and bring down the alk and mag number, this will also lower nitrate.

 

[JAR]

Thanks guys!

Time to make water...

 

[northbay-reefer]

Make sure to check the parameter of your make up water and adjust it for your purpose before doing the water change. Sometime I use a lower salinity in my make up water like down from 1.026 to 1.025 when I need to lower the parameter a bit.

 

[JAR]

Aqua Vitra Salinity is at 10KH out of the bucket at 1.025
Water changes are doing nothing to the KH.
Things are looking worse.

 

[Thales]

You are not going to bring down Alk with water changes - alter the dosing and let it come down. How many water changes are you doing? My feeling is that you can run new carbon and then just ride it out as I worry, like I mentioned before, that mucking with it to much will make things worse.

 

[euod]

Have you got your biopellets dial back on?
I recently had an issue with my last batch of aqua vitra. The corals brown out w/ stn so I switched salt. Now, I am thinking of mixing two brands.

 

[JAR]

You are not going to bring down Alk with water changes - alter the dosing and let it come down. How many water changes are you doing? My feeling is that you can run new carbon and then just ride it out as I worry, like I mentioned before, that mucking with it to much will make things worse.

20 gals/ week and no dosing with Ca rx dialed back 50%.
Maybe things just need to get a little worse before they get better.
BTW thanks for the advice

 

[Thales]

I would leave it alone.

Though...how are you dialing back the CaRx? I would dial the CO2 back and leave the flow alone.