Wolffman64's RSM500

[Choff]

First happy birthday to you and your tank!

Sorry to hear about your issues. My first guess is always alk. Any rapid changes in alk can have impact on sps. It's not your nitrate or phosphates. Check you calc to alk ratio. I don't know if that being out if whack would cause that, but if your only change is your dosing method that seems likely.

One other thought, take a real close look at them. If you can pull any of the plugs to look for bugs.

Gl!

...stupid auto correct

 

[Wolffman64]

Thanks Mike, I suspect that you are right with the Alk, it's the only thing that makes sense. It still seems a bit strange that some of the SPS are looking better than ever, and most others are dying....

I was just about to start the DSR method (Glenn), and I have ordered all the test kits and also all the special DSR additives from Holland, but I'm not sure if I should do that now. At least I can start by doing all the extensive start-up testing. Will get back tomorrow with a complete test result.

 

[Danreef]

If you are having STN in some acros and all your water parameters are OK, the way to stop the STN to continue spreading is to act fast. You have more than one option:

- Take the coral out and dip it. If it is bacterial origin it will stop. I never did that, but literature is full of successful examples.

- Take the coral, cut all the damages branches. Glue again the good frags. I have done that with almost 100%of success.

- Take the coral and cover all the damage tissue with superglue. I do that if the affected area can not be cut. I have done this with almost 100% success.

The point is to stop the afected coral tissue to continue damaging the healthy one.

Daniel

Read these postings of my thread:

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...els-tank-upgrade-rsm-250-a-7.html#post1270639

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...els-tank-upgrade-rsm-250-a-8.html#post1272522

 

[Choff]

Great tip on the superglue Daniel, I've never heard or tried that one. Good to know.

One comment on fragging, make sure you give yourself a good buffer from the STN/RTN . The one time it didn't work for me I didn't have much to work with and had to cut close to the RTN and the frag ended up getting RTN as well. It's incredible how fast The tissue can RTN. I lost 3 sps from macna in a matter of a few hours. Looked good when I left for work, came home and they were 90 pct gone.

 

[Danreef]

Great tip on the superglue Daniel, I've never heard or tried that one. Good to know.

One comment on fragging, make sure you give yourself a good buffer from the STN/RTN . The one time it didn't work for me I didn't have much to work with and had to cut close to the RTN and the frag ended up getting RTN as well. It's incredible how fast The tissue can RTN. I lost 3 sps from macna in a matter of a few hours. Looked good when I left for work, came home and they were 90 pct gone.

In those situations, when you do not have too much to cut (like in the pasted picture ) cover all the affected section and a little more of the healthy tissue with supperglue.

The pictured frag started with STN at the same time the one I posted the link (post 543). It is an expensive acro, not easy to find and there wasn't much space to cut. I was afraid also of damaging the branches (brake them when cutting). So I glued all the base (afected with STN) and a little more. Since then (more than 3 weeks) the STN has not advanced and I am hopping he will start to growth soon. But at least is not lost.

 

[Oxylebius]

You are probably already know this & are doing this, but just to check, make sure there is plenty of time between the dosing of Alk and Ca. You don't want to add both of these to the tank at the same time.

 

[Danreef]

You are probably already know this & are doing this, but just to check, make sure there is plenty of time between the dosing of Alk and Ca. You don't want to add both of these to the tank at the same time.

Correct....

There is a window of 6 minutes in my controller. First Ca (wait 6 minutes) then Alk. Dosing tubes drain in the return chamber where the max flow is.

Daniel

 

[ajkdark]

Hi Jan,

So sorry to hear about your issues with the acropora.

Happy birthday though, my 50th today. My Red Sea Max was my 50th present.

How long have had your LEDs running? Could these issues be light related?

Cheers

 

[Wolffman64]

that's interesting. Red Sea tells you to dose Alk before Ca. Does it matter which order you do them?

 

[Wolffman64]

Hi Jan,

So sorry to hear about your issues with the acropora.

Happy birthday though, my 50th today. My Red Sea Max was my 50th present.

How long have had your LEDs running? Could these issues be light related?

Cheers

Cheers mate, happy birthday to you too!!

I've had the LED for quite a while, and all the corals were thriving after I changed to LED, and I actually had increased growth, but I don't know at the moment. Feels like I'm clutching for straws....

I started with all the testing to swap to DSR method, and all water values seems good, apart from that Nitrate was 0.75 and the Phosphate was 0. According to DSR, Phosphate shouldn't be 0, so maybe all of this is because my water is "too clean"?? I have stopped my bio pellets reactor, and actually started to dose Phosphate to get it into the correct values.

 

[ajkdark]

Cheers mate, happy birthday to you too!!

I've had the LED for quite a while, and all the corals were thriving after I changed to LED, and I actually had increased growth, but I don't know at the moment. Feels like I'm clutching for straws....

I started with all the testing to swap to DSR method, and all water values seems good, apart from that Nitrate was 0.75 and the Phosphate was 0. According to DSR, Phosphate shouldn't be 0, so maybe all of this is because my water is "too clean"?? I have stopped my bio pellets reactor, and actually started to dose Phosphate to get it into the correct values.

Hi Jan,

Thanks for the birthday wishes

Yes, I think too clean water is not healthy for the corals.

This chemistry set we keep, is quite a balancing act.

Hope things pick up for you.

Hang in there. If this was meant to be easy. Everyone would be doing it.

Cheers

Atti

 

[GregT]

that's interesting. Red Sea tells you to dose Alk before Ca. Does it matter which order you do them?

I dose in this order Mg, Ca then Alk. I wait ten mins in between.
On my RSM tank Ca daily is 1.5 tsp and Alk .75 tsp. Mg is fairly consistent.

 

[DaddyTLi]

You would have thought that the 1 year anniversary of my Tank (and my 50th birthday), would have been a good time for the tank, but unfortunately not so....

Two weeks ago, when I was going to take some nice pics of my growing corals (especially SPS), to update the tank journal with, I saw small white tips on one of my Acro's, that didn't look like growth tips any more. Since then, 6 of my SPS frags that had been growing like crazy, all of a sudden started to bleach and lose all tissue and die!! This has also started to happen to 3 of my big SPS (can't remember names) that I have had for close to 9 months and that also have been growing a lot.

To make this completely baffling for me, is that it hasn't affected all my tank (at least not yet), since other Acro's, Pocilloporas (can't spell it..), all my LPS, my clam, the fish etc all are doing great?!?!?

All water parameters (Mg, Alk, Ca) are were they should be and usually are. The only thing I have changed is that I have started to use my dosing pumps instead of manually dosing Ca and Alk, and have made sure that the Alk is staying around 7.5 even between water changes (it used to drop down to 6 between WC). Could that be the culprit??

I have also done several extra WC's (did a 45% last week, over 3 days), in desperation to try and fix whatever it is. The Nitrate was creeping up towards 1 before the WC's (which is a bit higher than I normally have), and the Phosphate is below 0.32, where it usually is.

Please help, I have no idea what to do now, apart from looking on as all my loved SPS are dying.

HELP!!

Oh my.... i can identify with u.

Tom

 

[Choff]

Oh my.... i can identify with u.

Tom

I certainly can too. It really takes time in the hobby to get your feet planted right. Some longer than others. For me it took me well over 2 years to finally get my head on right.

Oh and after dosing for just av few short months... Calcium reactor is the way to go. Loving mine.

...stupid auto correct

 

[DaddyTLi]

I certainly can too. It really takes time in the hobby to get your feet planted right. Some longer than others. For me it took me well over 2 years to finally get my head on right.

Oh and after dosing for just av few short months... Calcium reactor is the way to go. Loving mine.

...stupid auto correct

You need a co2 tank right? I feel like a maf profressor already. More chem mixtures....

 

[Mike Johnson]

You are correct in your comment. You need a degree in lighting, chemistry, marine biology, and the hardest one reef keeping. Keeping a reef tank certainly is a challenging and learning experience.

 

[Choff]

I'll admit it. I bought my Ca Rx in January and didn't set it to until a few months ago because I was intimidated. In fairness I wasn't dosing either. I finally took the plunge and started to dose. After 3 weeks of that I set up the reactor. It's really not as daunting as I feared. It's certainly not set it and forget it, but I def prefer it to mixing dosing containers.

...stupid auto correct

 

[Oxylebius]

I'm with you there... didn't start dosing until the tank was 2.5 years old, I put it off as long as I possibly could, intimidated. And I bought a Kamoer dosing pump in Aug that I still haven't set up, I'm still manually dosing... why? I 'm not good at DIY projects, I'm still procrastinating setting the thing up.

 

[LakeLivin]

I've been running 3 dosing pumps controlled by APEX that dose Calc, Mag and Alk since pretty much day one. I buy the solutions from BRS that come in one gallon jugs that you just add more water and shake to permanently mix the solution. I also manually dose/feed with Red Sea energy supplements A and B. I don't dose daily with them but 3 or 4 nights a week I add the prescribed dose to the tank at night when the lights are off.

Admittedly I rarely test all the different chemistry levels of the tank. Most of the test kits are complicated and I've never been able to truly trust the results. Consequently, I closely monitor temp, ph and salinity and as for the rest I have a routine that I follow fairly consistently for dosing/feeding and it seems to work for me.

All the being said, I'm considering buying APEX's new dosing setup once it's been out awhile and I'm able to pick the brains of owners and see how everyone likes it.

 

[Choff]

Tim, I would be quite nervous dosing calc and alk without testing. Alk especially can crush a tank in no time flat.

I will say now that I'm dosing, I'm finally seeing growth.

...stupid auto correct