Constantly resisting the chemical tinker

[Prestondeeply]

There are a ton of solutions to tank problems. Among them is a whole class of solutions that involve dumping some new chemical into the tank. I still consider myself very new to this at just about 2 years now. I haven't experimented with different additives to control bubble/hair algeas, briopsis, dino's or anything else. I don't add anti-biotics, etc. I do dip coral when bringing then into my local ecosystems....and I still have tank issues that come and go almost every time I bring in a batch of new coral.

At this point, I dose kalk at night (avoid daytime kalk!) and alk during the day. Water changes are generally 10% once every 1-2 weeks. oh, I don't have fish, but do have a suite of snails, crabs, and a couple of shrimp.

Generally I've learned that NOTHING good comes from going fast in this hobby once a tank is established.

OK, so now the problem:
I've had this set of Acans, 5 colonies, that have grown great for me. Until about a month ago. I have one colony that is loosing about 1 head/week and another that just started the same. I've pulled the crabs (just in case)....to no effect. So, I'm resisting major actions...but it is getting difficult! This is in my oldest tank (2 years), which doesn't get any coral additions unless they've been in a quarantine tank for at least a couple months....usually longer.

No parameter swings in alk, ph, salinity, calcium or Mag (these are the only things I can measure).

@Darkxerox visited the other day and made a couple of suggestions which I'm following up on.

It is very difficult to avoid the loop of 'go buy something and apply it, wait for a couple days, if no change go buy something else, etc' solution. This is an STN type situation, so I've had time to check everything I could and I've had time to sneak in a couple of extra water changes for that tank. I'm at a loss but I'm assuming I've missed something.

So what I'm looking for from the community is your process of elimination when diagnosing an STN issue. My list is:
o Review the written log of all changes made to the tank setup (you do log every change right? )
o Check pumps, flow, and Temperature (with an external Temp sensor) Temp was running at 74, a little low, so I've increased it slowly each day until I got it to 76.
o Check Salinity, Alk, Mag, Calcium
o Check for predation (how is this done?)
o ?

Thanks for your input.

 

[Darkxerox]

To give more context to others, @Prestondeeply has a triptych of tanks, all separate, and under 20g each. Nothing appears to be stinging or attacking the lords either.

I'd lean toward doing a few larger water changes with temp adjusted water.

My lords and corals in general improved after doing a lot of larger water changes made with water from new filters in my RO system (my tank was in poor shape for years). I also put them under lower light (125 PAR max during the day on a 11 hour ramp up/down) which seems to make them puff up more and hold color. I haven't been target feeding but they do live in the area where fish food can settle.

You could confirm your salinity testing method is calibrated too.

 

[grizfyrfyter]

There are only a few things in the hobby that will get worse with water changes. It's always my first step when playing Sherlock on a stressed coral.

I concur that you should double check your salinity measuring method. This is been a source of frustration more times than I want to admit.

Most of my a an issues have been fish related.

A valuable tool with LPS corals is a lugols iodine dip. This can help if it's a tissue infection and is not very stressful for the coral.

 

[CaseyP]

Get an ICP test to confirm nothing is out of whack. Long ago I had a tank decline so bad, and turns out there were corroding metal clips leaching heavy metals into the tank. I've seen similar stories where sealed powerhead magnets or impellers developed a crack and leached out metals too causing issues.

 

[richiev]

Good advice. My list:

• ICP test, such as the Triton one which you can get results back from relatively quickly. $50 but that's cheaper then replacing coral
• Change carbon
• Make sure any reactors aren't dumping fragments into the tank (I think I was having issues in my tank from that for awhile)
• Make sure your kalk is mixing well before getting into the tank
• Water change, and when changing the water double check the fresh saltwater's parameters. Making sure a "I'm going to fix this with water changes!" doesn't turn into "I cause major alk / pH swings because my salt mix is way off my tanks"
• Make sure skimmer is running so it hopefully helps get rid of any weird stuff

 

[Prestondeeply]

OK. So ICP can be done ASAP and has no negative effects.

I have reviewed each dosing tube output by hand (just a quick run-burst into a cup) and I don't see any fragments...but I'm not sure how to test that over 24 hours. Maybe skip a days dosing and run them into cups over 24 hours?

- Lugols I have but have been slow to apply...
- Water changes I can do...larger ones at 25-30%. Testing that water before adding it in.
- Skimmer (airstone based for Nano tanks) is actually running pretty wet right now to be a little more aggressive.

- For salinity I only have 1 probe. However, when I mix water, I have a 5G bucket with a line for RODI....and a quart cup with a line for salt that together get me to 1.025 consistently for the past year. That was a process I picked up last year...I think from @JVU in a different thread. Those have been consistently applied and then when I test the new salt water it tests at 1.025. So two methods to achieve consistency. Feels like that salinity is prob not the issue....however, I did get a new box of salt about 6 months ago...I'll test my next batch for the things I can measure just to make sure the salt is consistent.

- I'll re-PAR the lighting to see where that is at. I haven't made any changes there, but still worth reviewing.

Appreciate the feedback. That's a good list and I especially like the effort to diagnose/inspect and not going straight for the 'here add this chemical' solution.

 

[JVU]

Some great advice already above.

I’d add that kalk can really swing the pH and alkalinity level. When you make one steady the other swings. Kalk at night is the right approach and lots of people have success with it, but I’d still recommend double checking it. Checking just once a day or spot checking occasionally doesn’t give the info you need. For troubleshooting, I’d recommend you check your pH and alkalinity at least 4 times a day, like at the beginning and end of your kalk dosing periods, and also half way between these. If you have an Apex and Trident, this is straightforward. Remember 8.0 is twice as acidic as 8.3 (H+ concentration).

I also agree with large water changes, like 3 up to 50% each or equivalent. This will resolve a lot of things that are difficult to diagnose. Especially important to make sure your new water has your target parameters when doing this. The ability to do this is the major advantage of small tanks.

If you suspect something eating/harassing them, you could point a camera with night vision at area of concern in the tank and review footage later.