AquaJapan85
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Been having issues over the last few weeks where saw telltale signs of stress on corals. I first noticed some receding / burned tips on my merulina colony that have weathered through every tank mishap. But since it's a trooper, I decided to do nothing and keep watch. Eventually over last two weeks, I saw more signs of trouble -- some pieces had tip erosion, some bleached, some brown, a few stn / rtn and many very happy with PE.
My params are pretty decent:
Alk 8.8 -9.0
Calc 480-500
Mg 1370
Nitrates 10 -15
Phos 0.08 (confirmed with Hanna LR and ULR)
Potassium tested low but could be user error : 280 (my ICP was 380 from awhile back).
So looking back 2 weeks ago, here's what I did out of my normal routine:
- Over dosed Kent Marine Coral-vite by 2X my normal amount... pour extra accidentally
- Dosed KNO3 in hopes of killing 2 birds with 1 stone to get both potassium and nitrates up
- Dose a few drops of Lugol's
- Swapped out my vectra to a Varios 8
- Threw in a 1000W ceramic heater from a Chinese no-name brand ( i know, i know...questionable but most heaters are made in China anyway, right? . )
- Restarted full circulation to a 5G plumbed frag... this one gave me trouble before when I had running so turned it off and only allow trickle from return to slowly refresh water
Nothing on this list screams problematic except maybe the heater... but I cycled the heater in my SW mix station for weeks and none of the other tanks I used the SW on had issues.
So, tested for voltage leak. Nil.
Retested everything manually to confirm Trident. seems fine except a bit off in calibration.
Thinking maybe I OD on patssium, grabbed a Salifert potassium kit... to confirm I am probably way low. so likely not this.
My new theory is that my dottyback is kicking up old sand and getting hydrogen sulfide into the tank. Was seeing the erosion and necrosis on the merulina started around at the sand interface where the dottyback has been excavating for last few weeks... Also noticed bubbles popping up now and then...
In any case, I fought the urge to change the tank until after I got an ICP sample. So at least, I know where I started from. Was up until 4AM changing water -- 20% - 25% or so, put in a felt sock (normally run without mechanical filtration), threw cuprisorb into the sock as well (in a mesh of course), installed chemical absorbing polyfill and adjusted my skimmer to skim slightly wetter...(normally dry skim).
So far tank is looking better -- maybe just psychosomatic.
I also pulled all my chalices, the merulina, and a caddy colony I have been hosting on behalf of another reefer into QT with antibiotics to try to resurrect and stem any further tissue loss.
I'll probably comb the equipmet to look for busted seals to magnets etc just in case...though really inclined to wait for ICP to confirm if metal is leaching. until then, just gonna keep running cuprisorb.
on the brighter side, I did clean the glass of the 5G add-on... mostly euphyllia filled. So that's a silver lining....