My Coral are Dying. Please Help!

Smitty said:
Imo, It'll probably be easier to switch your salt, vs trying to dose. You may not have enough demand for dosing. Just use a salt mix like reef crystals, which has higher levels of alk and cal.
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Yep i agree and dont keep your alk as high as matrix aim for 8 u can get some anazing growtg at 10 or 11 but its like playing with fire specially if all the other test like nitrates and phosphates r super low . I used kalk in my top off when i used it worked great but i had a ton of sps
 
Using small water pump directly by bottom of frags now and bring alk up as soon as possible to 8 or 9
Check pets in your tank.
 
Low Alk is not good, but neither is 0 N03 & 0 P04...unless the ALK dropped quickly I'd bet on starving. Don't ask me how I know


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Yup i think its low nutrients too,

Alk of 5 is very bad but corals are affected more by low nutrients than low alk ..

Also check magnesium, unless magnesium is correct levels you cant get proper levels of alk and calc.

Start feeding more, that too do it slowly and then use some method and raise alk like 0.3 dkh or so, anymore and you would see stn from tips

Curious, did you mix your salt bucket when you opened it ? Chances are its been sitting for too long in stores and all magnesium settled to the bottom and can cause problems like this .. If you haven't mixed it, please do so now and test for alk, calc and magnesium in fresh batch of salt water


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get a salifert magnesium test kit it works well. Though with your frequent water changes I would think that is ok.

I use this to increase my mag if needed. I am at 1350
http://www.seachem.com/reef-adv-magnesium.php

I use this to increase alk. I am at 9
http://www.seachem.com/reef-builder.php

I use this to increase calcium I am at 450
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...WDvDFfDCMDjijvzmW8iZHcLJM8gzrtLPmzhoCIBnw_wcB

works for me but I also don't have much SPS. I also increase in small amounts to try to keep things stable. Like everyone else said appears alk is too low

Like other have said check what your salt is at when you mix it. I am using Instant Ocean but will switch to reef crystals since the IO salt is less than where I would like it. Good luck I hope you can save your corals
 
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Please dont go raising your alk as high as what i run mine at. But more important is to keep it stable. Doing water changes with the right salt will help but we as reefkeepers at times do a water change when its NEEDED not when its to maintan lvls. Youre actually not that low in alk as to where some keep it at. But raising it will help maintain the coral.

Theres low nutrient tanks and high nutrient tanks and many in between. When i was losing my sps i was unsure of ehat was going on. It deff was the unstableness in my system.

It can also be temp related. So i got a temperature controller (rke) to stop temp changes. My parameters were all over the place...so i got them to a base of where i want to keep them and now i dose a kalk drip...1gal x 2tsp of kalk every 1.5days. Its been this way for 4months and the growth is finally there.

Before i was losing sps a week in. So i was doing weekly water changes to keep stable...that got frustrating quick.

Oh yea. And kalk also helps with phosphates...i run a algae turf scrubber opposite to light schedule. I keep 19 fish...they eat twice daily. 1 frozen cube about 5pinches of oelets and 4 pinches of flake. They dont leave anything in the colum or sandbed.

So they have to pee it out and the corals eat. I dont feed dry coral powder.

I just started being stable...and my kalk drip is just a water container with an air line with a drip regulator.kalk reactior is sitting in my storage...

Well. I didnt help much with this post.
 
Kalkwasser precipitates phosphate and binding it so it can go onto the water colum as solids where in turn can be caught in filters and skimmed with skimmers.

Randy holmes farley speaks about it in his reefkeeping issues.
 
#theMatrix said:
Kalkwasser precipitates phosphate and binding it so it can go onto the water colum as solids where in turn can be caught in filters and skimmed with skimmers.

Randy holmes farley speaks about it in his reefkeeping issues.
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This is true. I actually have my Kalk drip in the same compartment as my skimmer.
 
#theMatrix said:
Kalkwasser precipitates phosphate and binding it so it can go onto the water colum as solids where in turn can be caught in filters and skimmed with skimmers.

Randy holmes farley speaks about it in his reefkeeping issues.
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Sweet!!!! Just started a kalk drip!! ;)
 
While chemically it is technically possible for a skimmer to export p04 precipitate, don't expect a big impact...I can't find anyone that has documented a measurable export in a reef tank.

The one thing you can expect is the need to scrape out your skimmers venturi every couple weeks...or it will build up there and reduce air volume intake.

If it matters, I've been running kalk via my ATO into the skimmer chamber of my sump for a couple of years....and I'd highly recommend kalk as a cost effective and simple way of maintaining ALK and CAL.
 
ultimatemj said:
While chemically it is technically possible for a skimmer to export p04 precipitate, don't expect a big impact...I can't find anyone that has documented a measurable export in a reef tank.

The one thing you can expect is the need to scrape out your skimmers venturi every couple weeks...or it will build up there and reduce air volume intake.

If it matters, I've been running kalk via my ATO into the skimmer chamber of my sump for a couple of years....and I'd highly recommend kalk as a cost effective and simple way of maintaining ALK and CAL.
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I would assume there to be too many variables at play to get an accurate assessment. Even when tested in a controled environment, you would only know how it affected the control. I have always looked at my nutrient export system as a very free system, each one might not be a cure all on its own, but collectively they have matured to do the job efficiently.
 
#theMatrix said:
Kalkwasser precipitates phosphate and binding it so it can go onto the water colum as solids where in turn can be caught in filters and skimmed with skimmers.

Randy holmes farley speaks about it in his reefkeeping issues.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I hadn't read about this. I use kalk and biopellets......and STILL need to run GFO to keep PO4 in check.
 
Just to rehash a lot of what was said above, Kalk is a great option if your evaporation is high enough. It has just seemed to fallen off the flavor of the month, but that's understandable in high demand tanks. My Kalk pump and ATO pump pull from the same container, but I use a Peristaltic pump hooked up to my Kalk reactor that goes off at set times at night to maintain PH also. The ATO is just set up on micro switches to help along any time the water level drops in the return.

There should be at thead on old tech that still works, Kalk, VHO, etc.
 
since I been dossing Kalk, my filter sock gets clogged much faster than before, so its binding and pulling something out of the water. I noticed the same thing when I was adding NOPOX
 
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