Reef nutrition

Help me figure whats wrong............please

I had been testing with Salifert for Cal , Mag , Nitrates
and Lamott for Alk . They varied a little but not too far off from what I had been testing prior.
 
saltwatersig said:
Sorry bud you lost me on that one.......if I drain more than say 12 gallons from my display .....my level in the sump drops below the reeflo pump return opening causing siphon break. I could remove 10 gals and add 10 then do it over again but wouldn't that defeat putting in 20 gals of new salt water ? the last 10 would be mixed with old water no ?
Click to expand...

I don't recall the math but doing it this way is definitely not a 20% water change... it's definitely less though.
 
This is the link, but the site is down right now: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php

I recall a continuous water change of 33% over the course of a month was equivalent to a 26% one-time monthly water change. The stability benefits from smaller but more frequent changes are significant, especially for more sensitive animals, unless you are trying to remove something toxic from the water.
 
Sergio - You can bring a water sample over any time and we can test with my kits but I use RedSea too. Still wouldn't hurt to see if they at least come out with the same numbers. I should have enough parts/pieces to put together a spare BRS reactor and a some BRS carbon if you want to try that.

If you seal the water sample with little or no air in the container it should be good for a couple of hours. Try to maintain the temp if you can. I wouldn't trust it much longer than a couple of hours though.

~Charlie
 
I don't consider myself a reef troubleshooter but here are a couple questions I haven't seen in this thread.
Has your skimmate increased during the periods of less water change and reduced when the water changes improved your montis?
Also lately I've been learning that there could be things on our city water that isn't removed with our RO/DI systems. Is this a possibility?
How long has the polyfilter pad been in the system, what color did it turn?
Is it possible that too many trace elements are being removed and are replenished with your water changes?
Have you changed feeding habits or food?
New fish or other inhabitants?
 
All this talk about tests....aaahhhhh!
They make me crazy!

Serg
Is there a way to add another tank to your system? My thought is to plumb a 30gal tank or other type of water container, that you can do the waterchange in/ through.
 
There is some evidence that potassium levels may by important for Montis. If you want to give it a try let me know and I can dig up the numbers and additive for you.
 
Thinking more after reading all the posts and what stands out:

1) Water changes really seem to help.
2) You actually do quite a few water changes as it is.
3) SPS are doing well.
4) You have tested all the basics, and they seem ok.

To me, that rules out all the normal pollutants, trace elements, and the simple things.
The basics would show on test kits, and the minor issues should have been taken care
of by all the water changes. And most simple pollutants would hit the SPS as well.

My opinion : It could be chemical warfare between corals, and the Montis are losing.
They are somewhat known to be weak in that area.

Have your corals grown together?

One thing to consider trying is aggressive carbon.
 
@scarbird If memory serves me correct....the pad just had detrious on it , I think it was supposed to turn blue or something if metals were detected . Skimmer seemed unaffected either way if W/C were done in a week or several times a week. I feed both flake (on timed feeder) and frozen in the evening.

@Erin possibly may add additional container (would rather not ) in the future.

@Thales A long time ago I dosed Potassium from Zuchright additives (spelling?) to enhance blue color in SPS but I figured with as many W/C as I'm doing that trace elements and Potassium would be replenished. Maybe I'm wrong (wouldn't be the first time :) )

@Rygh So I chk'd what I had written down last time I tested (tuesday) and Phos was actually .04ppm and nitrates were .25ppm , so I don't think Phos is terribly high (again not seeing other algae growth which is what would be a clear signal of higher Phos to me ) and Nitrates seem pretty low . Carbon ?.......Well to be truthfull I haven't change in a while....Think I will do that tonight :p
 
Just curious, is there a reason why you don't like shutting off your return pump for water changes? I put my on the aquacontroller and use that to turn the pump on and off, because I usually do water changes of 30 gallons every other week.

Maybe I missed it while reading, but I was just curious :)
 
@ Patchin Correct ....seems like most in sump pumps have a higher ratio of not turning back on and YES ....CORAL REEFER its probably due to lack of maintenance :) However my reeflo is plummed as an external ..... so hopefully it wont be an issue. as a matter of fact , I think I'll do 15gal w/c 2 x per week and see how things progress .

Chk some parameters today

cal 390
alk 9.5
mag 1400

keep in mind the previous set was tuesday night prior to my water change , I will do another w/c tomorrow night.

One thing I forgot to mention about my system.....when I took my Cal rx off line late last year and switched to 2 part (issues didn't start until a few months later) , all I did was turn off my CO2 and left the two media canisters hooked up ( I didn't want to disconnect and clean out media cuz I'm lazy ) with water just running through the effluent as a stream. I don't know if this could cause an issue as media is not being broken down and water movement keeps things from going stagnant.
 
Ummmmmmm ok well thanks for the bump....SPAMMER

Btw I do believe my issue was that even though I switched to 2(3) part....I still had my Kalk reactor hooked up (use lime water as top off) and as long as I kept add the powdered kalk it was causing horrible issues with montis. I stopped adding kalk and a few months later ......montis are back on rebound :bigsmile:
 
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