Neptune Aquatics

Emergency- alk rising and ph dropping to dangerous level - complete tank crash

Maybe I found the root cause after all. I have not been testing phosphate lately as it’s been “always” near zero. I supposed I get complacent. Prior to the crash I am dosing very small amount 1ml/day to ensure the numbers don’t hit zero.

I thought my tank is finally stabilizing. Alk is stable , nitrate is ard 10. However the surviving sps start to bleach again. It could be due to the stress all this while or ??. Well, I just measure phosphate with Hanna 3 times and it’s consistently 0.45. It’s way higher than I expected. Bear in mind this is after many massive water change. Can’t imagine what’s the phosphate when it crashed.

Using GFO to bring the numbers down. Will monitor daily to make sure it doesn’t hit zero.
 
newfly said:
Maybe I found the root cause after all. I have not been testing phosphate lately as it’s been “always” near zero. I supposed I get complacent. Prior to the crash I am dosing very small amount 1ml/day to ensure the numbers don’t hit zero.

I thought my tank is finally stabilizing. Alk is stable , nitrate is ard 10. However the surviving sps start to bleach again. It could be due to the stress all this while or ??. Well, I just measure phosphate with Hanna 3 times and it’s consistently 0.45. It’s way higher than I expected. Bear in mind this is after many massive water change. Can’t imagine what’s the phosphate when it crashed.

Using GFO to bring the numbers down. Will monitor daily to make sure it doesn’t hit zero.
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I can follow the logic, one thing i'm thinking of is that you possibly had massive die offs, and by this point could also be effecting phosphates by some of that residual stuff rotting in your tank. No argument from me by any means. That's only something I would also be considering.

However admit if it's the actual cause that would be a major relief placing you in a better position to prevent any reoccurance.

My phosphates were wellover 1.0 - 1.5 for almost 2 years, i'm only now starting to get them under 0.5. Yet I've never had any type of mass die off such as you experienced. If I added up all the corals I've lost since I started my tank 3.5 years ago it would more than likely be less that 20 in total.
 
No way to know the root cause. I have been running the tank with phosphate slightly above zero as long as I can remember. Maybe the phosphate swing is bad?

Come to think about it , all the dead and dying corals is all sps. Zoas and LPS ( except for torch/frogspawn) are mostly happy.

Unrelated question. I assume the white coral skeleton is dead and I can remove them? No chance for for coral to make bounce back right? It’s all white now and film algae start taking hold.

I still have not move the corals and fish in the 10g to the main tank. Going to hold off for a bit.
 
One observation is the coral seems happy, polyps are out , but some section will start peeling or sigh of STN. find this odd. If corals are stress/unhappy, I would assume the polyps will be close .

Does this mean anything to anyone?

This is happening now.
 
newfly said:
One observation is the coral seems happy, polyps are out , but some section will start peeling or sigh of STN. find this odd. If corals are stress/unhappy, I would assume the polyps will be close .

Does this mean anything to anyone?

This is happening now.
Click to expand...
It may not be pretty but pictures may help some of the smarter experience guys here know precisely what your dealing with. To get better feed back from them.

I also would agree on giving things more time before tossing them back into the tank. I wouldn't want to fully relax until a little bit more time has passed and you haven't lossed anything else.

If you still have dead skeltons in the tank that would also be adding to phosphates. I was advised on one of my threads that alage growing on skelton means it's dead as it won't grow on living tissue.
I would definitely toss the white sps or let them dry out for future media. Some of the lps I guess would depend on how bad they are. I have seen videos of people saving some of those, or them somehow budding a new head - though probably closer on the side of making a wish or just hoping to be surprised.
 
Here’s some pic
 

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newfly said:
Figured out the culprit. I installed a new doser ( hydros minnow) a month or so ago. In the process, I accidentally swap the intake dosing tube for magnesium and nitrate+phosphate. It appear that I have been dosing 25mil (instead of 1mil) of nitrate and phosphate mixture for awhile.
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I'm really glad you found the root cause!
 
newfly said:
Figured out the culprit. I installed a new doser ( hydros minnow) a month or so ago. In the process, I accidentally swap the intake dosing tube for magnesium and nitrate+phosphate. It appear that I have been dosing 25mil (instead of 1mil) of nitrate and phosphate mixture for awhile.
Click to expand...
I’m glad you figured it out. And that you let us know. Something we can all learn from I think.
 
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