???? nervous?????

Navycook2

Navycook2

New member
Ok i am really nervous I was adding water two days ago for top off and I know im doing wrong because it is tap water! I do use amquel but i know its bad for my reef. Still waiting to get money for the RO/DI. as of today All my SPS are bleaching an my zoas, palys, and sponges are burning. I tested my water for everything the only one that was off was my PH was at 7.6 on API i know this is low and i have added DKH buffer but would low PH do all that? The reason why I am nervous is that I have a Gonipora and a Showpiece Chalice arriving in two days!! What do I do?
 
You're chasing your problems with more problems. I would not add anything to your tank until you can run it properly and don't chase the problems with chemicals or buffers. IMO you should of used that money on a RO/DI instead of more livestock.

I would try to find someone or a store that can babysit your corals until you can get your tank stable again. How long has your tank been running and how long have you been using tap? What is the size of the tank, equipment, ect.

I would start by getting some RO/DI water or get distiller bottle water and do a 50% water change. Your tank will go with some swings, and you ay lose some livestock due to it. Keep repeating the water changes every few days for week or two. This will remove most of the tap water. Note, that the heavy metals, phosphates, and contaminates in tap water may be leeched into your rocks and sand now.
 
Do a water change, with a good batch of saltwater. You can probably buy RODI or just DI water from your LFS or some Jewel sell RO water. Buy your water until you get your RODI unit, or get water from a reefer close to you that has RODI. Can you post all your parameters to us, especially Calcium/alkalinity/pH/temp/magnesium
 
Tank is 55 gal with 20 gal sump 1yr running has been extremely healthy till this with lots of sps growth
bubble magnus protein skimmer
coralife dual high power compact blue actinic and 10k
two led strips one is 36 mixed and the other is 36 blue actinic
I use esv carbon small granual
reef solution
2 advantage UV sterilizers
rio 2500 return pump
125 lbs of live rock
argonite sandbed
been using tap since i have started my tank
calcium is at 500
alk is at 280ppm
temp is at 74/76
magnesium i do not know
ammonia is 0
nitrates is 0
nitrites is 0
ph is at 7.6 (this is what i was nervous about i have never seen it drop that bad.)
 
I know this is just one but this was last week of my orange blasto.
I have always kinda a problem with small amounts of hair algae but my phosphates are zero i tested for that too
 
Besides your water your other problem is your lighting PC lighting alone is not enough for SPS to thrive. Some lower light species may get by. Your tank is set up well equipmentwise. I'd start by getting that tap water out. Also you may want to upgrade your lighting as PC is really not for reefs, and if anything good for just softies.

Ph of 7.6 is nothing to go too crazy about. It is safe (infact, my reef was dipping that low as well). At a ph that low your corals cannot as easily pull the calcium from the water so your growth on stoney corals will slow. Your low Ph is probably due to high CO2 levels in your house now that your heat is on. You can help this a few ways: get a co2 scubber, dose kalk with your RO/DI ATO water, or run your air intake from your skimmer outside. Also a higher output light fixture will increase your ph during lighting hours.

Also, just curious but how did you go about using tap water? Did you assume it would be okay, or was it bad advise?

Your algae issues is due to the phosphate in the tap water.

Those blastos are very nice.
 
the things that i have that that have been growing like crazy is my birds nest, Montipora, ultra maxima clam. But honestly why would everything beach out that fast! I have never seen this just off top off!!
 
I ran out of top off water from LFS and i didnt realize that it was so low in my sump that my return pump was making a lot of noise! I usually use reef water for water changes from Aquatica in tinley park and get my top off from them too
 
menards has 3.5 gallon water jugs of ro water for 4 bucks thats what i do my top offs sometimes.
 
there reef water is premixed ro/di water with high calcium salt at 1.025 not off system but for people to buy
 
You're keeping a maxima clam under just PC lights??! No bueno. Clams need high output lighting.

I though you said you always used tap? I'm confused now.
 
I would say I have used 90% tap water since my tank has been running. My maximal clam has been in my tank for two months now and looks better than I bought it. I have LED fixtures. Sorry my all is at like 4 meql
 
It may not be possible to know what happened to cause all your corals to decline rapidly at the same time, especially if your water param's appear to be in order. I wouldn't expect it to be caused from a shift in salinity because most coral, can survive for brief periods in salinities well outside their normal ranges. But, if maintained for a longer period outside of that range they will be stressed and eventually will die. Higher salinity is more tolerable than is lower salinity.
However, this is assuming that the change in sg occurs slowly as in the case of the water evaporating in your tank. If you experience a situation such as yours, you should slowly add new top-off water to avoid a rapid change in sg. Sudden changes in sg can upset your coral. This is part of the reason why we acclimate new inhabitants, so they can slowly adjust to new sg levels. Without getting into too much detail, all saltwater inhabitants must deal with something called osmotic pressure.

If, as you say, your 20G sump was almost empty and your return pump was making noise, then you may have shocked the coral by topping off 15-18 (or however many) gallons all at the same time.

The only other thing I can think of in this situation is that the tap water had contaminants, in which case I would agree to do large wc's every few days with good rodi and a high quality reef salt. Also, I'd replace your carbon and add more than you normally do to help remove contaminants, if there are any...
 
I was using tap water for a while with small algae issues but I made my salt water and used sechlorinator And let it brew. Never had any issues like this but everyone's tap isn't the same. Also had a friend with sps and pc light they did well but lost color after a while and looked not so good. +1 on lighting for clam. As said from above. Have now changed to rodi because u never know what your tap is spitting out all the time. Brs has a rodi with pressure and tds meter for like 200. Would be good idea to grab that. And if u make account add item to cart leave it there they usually send email for a lil bit off for 24 hours. Just my experiences
 
Please rehome the clam or upgrade your lighting. The clam will not survive under PC lighting. The LEDs you have do not provide any usable PAR.
 
poidog said:
You're keeping a maxima clam under just PC lights??! No bueno. Clams need high output lighting.

I though you said you always used tap? I'm confused now.
Click to expand...

I'm confused here, why suggest that he must run better lighting if obviously the current lighting is working just fine. Yah PC's are older technology and may cost alot more to run do to bulb cost then lets say T5's. But what works is what works. Just because some people can not wrap their heads around the idea that something that they have heard will not work does not mean that it can work. This hobby is very diverse in ways to maintain a healthy reef. I would say for cost reasons to look into a diffrent lighting system down the road but at the time is not your main concern at all. I have found that some coral grows much better under lower light conditions than most expect. I think most hobbiest are putting too much light into their aquarium. Lets also remember that pH is a exponential growth curve, so going from 8.4 to 7.4 is a huge decrease. That there are now 10 times that amount of hydrogen ions in solution at a pH of 7.4 then there were at a pH of 8.4 and 10 times less hydroxide ions. This is a huge increase and decrease if you think about it. Which has an effect on all kind of chemistry and will greatly effect the corals in your tank. Hint: calcium up take - slower growth.
Water quality is most important in the reef tank along with nutrient export, seems to me that this is your current problems and they need to addressed so you can maintain a healthy reef.
 
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