Why do I keep failing with my RSM250

[thedru13]

I have had my tank running on and off for a few years now. Love hate relationship. I think I am doing things correctly I do things slowly and follow a routine and the tank fails. My last run was just about 2 years. I had limited coral growth and color was not great and my live stock would get sick. I was never able to really track down any root cause. So here is some info on the tank
RSM 250. stock pumps and protein skimmer. MP40, tunze ATO,Bubble Magus dosing pump. Lighting is a custom retro fitted LED's in the stock hood.
1x coralux 5up ldd driver board
1x storm x led controller
2 x cree lumia 5.2 - 70w full spectrum 5 channel cree led
meanwell ldd Drivers
-3 700h led driver
-2 1000h led driver.
1x 250w 48v 5.2A DC Power Supply

I would test weekly and do 10g water changes weekly as well. I used reef crystal salt and had about a 2.5 inch sand bed with around 60lbs of live rock.

I only started to dose the tank when I found out my calc was really low so slowly tried to raise it up. I had an issue with Asterina starfish and bristle worms didn't really see any other harmful things in the tank. My corals were not great eaters so I would tend to over feed a bit but would make sure my parameters did not spike. Just was never able to find a sweet spot or get the tank to run smooth. As far as filtration i would run 2 units of chemi pure and some poly fill to skim the top in my media chamber.

I am in the process of cleaning out the tank now. I want to make another attempt at getting things running since i really do enjoy the hobby...... I just want to do things differently or maybe I just need to change my set up IDK i get a bit overwhelmed with all the reading and research sometimes. I was thinking maybe going bare bottom this time around and ditching the sand bed. or maybe i should not be running any of the chemical filtration and should look into a different solution. thought I would toss it out to the group that runs this set up and see what others might suggest. I would like to use the rock that I currently have going to try my best to clean it up since i have so much of it. Again on the fence about the sand bed. I do like having sand just not sure i want to have to deal with it anymore. Was also thinking maybe doing some sort of sump system. just not sure how i would go about doing it. Guess I am a bit all over the place.... Any help for a fellow RSM'er would be greatly appreciated.......

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

I had limited coral growth and color was not great and my live stock would get sick

what were the corals ? and livestock ?

I don't think I would correlate sick livestock to the tank... (66 gallon) if the livestock was hardy species & appropriate sized for a 66 gallon tank.

See what others think...

 

[thedru13]

what were the corals ? and livestock ?

I don't think I would correlate sick livestock to the tank... (66 gallon) if the livestock was hardy species & appropriate sized for a 66 gallon tank.

See what others think...

Had 2 clowns, six line wrasse, kole eye tang (died) Yellow tag (died) Blue throat trigger (kept temporary)
corals - Acans, Zoas, mushrooms, Clam, Ricordia's were the bulk of the corals I had.

 

[Danreef]

Had 2 clowns, six line wrasse, kole eye tang (died) Yellow tag (died) Blue throat trigger (kept temporary)
corals - Acans, Zoas, mushrooms, Clam, Ricordia's were the bulk of the corals I had.

Can you please post your later parameters.

Thanks

 

[thedru13]

When things started to go south these were my last results.
Salinity. 1.026
Ph 8.0
Ca - 360
Mg 1400
Nitrite 0
Nitrates 40

 

[Danreef]

When things started to go south these were my last results.
Salinity. 1.026
Ph 8.0
Ca - 360
Mg 1400
Nitrite 0
Nitrates 40

I do not know about fish but those Nitrates are too high for corals. Are they ppm ? What about phosphates ?

 

[thedru13]

I do not know about fish but those Nitrates are too high for corals. Are they ppm ? What about phosphates ?

No phosphate spikes. This was just really the beginning of a long battle. I would seem to have stabilized things and something would either keep fading or die off. Even though my numbers would tell me things were okay. So what brought to start again. There isn't anything left. Why I was thinking of doing it different this time around.

 

[mike1970]

When things started to go south these were my last results.
Salinity. 1.026
Ph 8.0
Ca - 360
Mg 1400
Nitrite 0
Nitrates 40

hmm what about your DKH aka alkalinity.

 

[thedru13]

hmm what about your DKH aka alkalinity.

I keep a spreadsheet with all my logs. Have to grab it. When I upgraded phones I lost some of my data so had some gaps in my info.

 

[mike1970]

I keep a spreadsheet with all my logs. Have to grab it. When I upgraded phones I lost some of my data so had some gaps in my info.

i think of all parameters ALK is one of the most important to low things die to high things die, maybe your next go try a better salt mix red sea coral pro, D-D H2ocean

 

[thedru13]

i think of all parameters ALK is one of the most important to low things die to high things die, maybe your next go try a better salt mix red sea coral pro, D-D H2ocean

Funny you say that. I used coral pro. All I used. I could not get my calcium up and had other minor issue as soon as I switched to reef crystals I had less issues with my numbers. Damage might have been done by that point with my corals. But I did not have great luck with coral pro salt.

 

[mike1970]

Had 2 clowns, six line wrasse, kole eye tang (died) Yellow tag (died) Blue throat trigger (kept temporary)
corals - Acans, Zoas, mushrooms, Clam, Ricordia's were the bulk of the corals I had.

with this live stock you should have been able to keep up with this, with a 10 gal water change every week NO dosing pumps needed unless you had a 20" clam and a whole crap load of zoas

 

[thedru13]

with this live stock you should have been able to keep up with this, with a 10 gal water change every week dosing pumps needed unless you had a 20" clam and a whole crap load of zoas

Crappy pic of when things were somewhat healthy.

 

[Oxylebius]

What water are you using?
RODI water, city water or well water?

When you do weekly water changes, are you vacuuming the sand?

 

[thedru13]

What water are you using?
RODI water, city water or well water?

When you do weekly water changes, are you vacuuming the sand?

RODI water. I have a 50 gallon drum of RO water and mix 25gallon batches of saltwater. I have a heater and a power head to keep the salt mixing and the temp the same for water changers. I never did vacuum the sand was worried I would stir things up.

 

[Adrienne]

re your calcium levels - mine always seem too low when I first started. On the advice from this forum I stopped dosing for this, that and everything else and the levels stabilised. I was using a good quality salt too - all I had to do was stop fiddling with everything

Your nitrates were awfully high though.

I've just had another thought - what do you mean by keep the salt mixing? Is the hosing food grade? It has been noted over here that in quite a few cases hosing left in the RO water has bumped the TDS up well over 100.

 

[mike1970]

the main problem with this thread is there are to many variables. lots of things can cause a tank crash, My suggestion to you is start your tank again then make a tank thread to document everything you are doing and i'm pretty sure everyone here will pitch in to help you with your troubles..

 

[thedru13]

re your calcium levels - mine always seem too low when I first started. On the advice from this forum I stopped dosing for this, that and everything else and the levels stabilised. I was using a good quality salt too - all I had to do was stop fiddling with everything

Your nitrates were awfully high though.

I've just had another thought - what do you mean by keep the salt mixing? Is the hosing food grade? It has been noted over here that in quite a few cases hosing left in the RO water has bumped the TDS up well over 100.

I make a 25 gallon batch of salt water and have it mixing in the bucket via a power head. I am using food grade lines and hardware i do test and check my TDS never had any issues there.

the main problem with this thread is there are to many variables. lots of things can cause a tank crash, My suggestion to you is start your tank again then make a tank thread to document everything you are doing and i'm pretty sure everyone here will pitch in to help you with your troubles..

This is the plan. Pretty much why i started this thread was to see what and how to start differently. Didn't want to repeat any sins of the past. Wanted to see what sort of things I could improve if any or change whether it was with hardware or set up.. IE run bare bottom or different filtration or change to a sump or who knows. Maybe I am not articulating things well.

 

[Danreef]

I make a 25 gallon batch of salt water and have it mixing in the bucket via a power head. I am using food grade lines and hardware i do test and check my TDS never had any issues there.



This is the plan. Pretty much why i started this thread was to see what and how to start differently. Didn't want to repeat any sins of the past. Wanted to see what sort of things I could improve if any or change whether it was with hardware or set up.. IE run bare bottom or different filtration or change to a sump or who knows. Maybe I am not articulating things well.

I read again the first post and I see that you have your tank empty now. Ready for a fresh start , correct ?

I will ask myself first : What do I want to have in the tank ?

From there we can start to suggest / help.

Daniel

 

[thedru13]

I read again the first post and I see that you have your tank empty now. Ready for a fresh start , correct ?

I will ask myself first : What do I want to have in the tank ?

From there we can start to suggest / help.

Daniel

The plan is to see if I can salvage my live rock. If yes I am found to fill up the tank with new salt water and just live rock no sand bed. As far as future live stock. I really just want a pair of clowns. Another kole eye tang. Six line wrasse. Acans, torches, bubble, Zoas and some frog spawn coral. Not all at once of course. That is the plan for now.