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coolwheels 
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Joined: September 11 2004
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 Topic: need some chemistry help PLEASE more info
Posted: December 12 2004 at 9:49pm |
these are the reading in my tank I am having a bleaching prob. with some corals pos alk to high
cal. 400
alk14.2DKH 5.08meq/l
nitrate 30-40ppm
nitirte 0
PH 8.2
ammonia 0
phosphate 1.0 ppm
temp 79.0
any suggestions THANKS
Edited by coolwheels
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Tony Evans
Laverkin,Utah
120 gal w/55 gal refu.
480 gal in the works /w100 gal sump and 100 gal refu.
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Adam Blundell
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Posted: December 12 2004 at 10:53pm |
Nitrate a little high, but I'm betting it isn't a "chemistry" problem. More like a lighting or acclimation problem.
Adam
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: December 12 2004 at 11:00pm |
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Actually, I would ask for more info to adequately diagnos the problem.
tank age
size
filtration methods
lighting
circulation
feeding
types of corals and speed of bleaching
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Suzy
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Posted: December 13 2004 at 7:05am |
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Macroalgae!
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jfinch
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Posted: December 13 2004 at 7:47am |
How long has your phosphates been that high? That is very high, especially for stonies. Nitrates are a bit high too, but not high enough that it would cause bleaching (at least I don't think so...). As suzy posted, growing macro algaes would be a nice, cheap way to export more nitrate and phosphate.
All those other questions that Mark asked about would help diagnose the problem too. Did you change (or upgrade) you lighting recently?
Edited by jfinch
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coolwheels
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Posted: December 13 2004 at 5:40pm |
here is some more info the corals have been in the tank for about 2.5 weeks the y were doing great then my ballest went out for about a week that is to me when it seemed to take a dive.
I dont know what the alk was before yesterday I had never tested didn't have a kit
the tank is a 120 aga with a 55 ref i have my skimmer in the return side of the ref then the water goes to my macroalge about a 1.5x1.5 cube and then to the pump to return to to tank
it has a iwalky 40 pump for the return pupm with double overflows as for feeding i have been feeding once a day in the evening i cube of marine cuisine and a eraser size of cyclopeeze I had 11 fish in the tank at this time all doing well also have 5 inverts and about 100 cleaning crew
types of coral is a few sps from pc pondbuilder tank and a few zoos
Edited by coolwheels
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Tony Evans
Laverkin,Utah
120 gal w/55 gal refu.
480 gal in the works /w100 gal sump and 100 gal refu.
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: December 14 2004 at 8:28am |
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Sounds like you are on the right track and there are several things that could be contributing to the problem.
I see 2 fish there that are extremely agressive at eating algae yet the tank is quite bare of algae. This has other ramifications for the future health of the aquarium beyond the current issue. We can discuss that further if you like.
As for the "bleaching" problem, SPS can be attacked in several ways.
1- RTN or rapid tissue necrosis is a condition that I believe is still undetermined to be a bacterial or viral infection. It causes the tissue to die. Within hours the stark white skeleton is visible and the entire coral dies within 24 hours leaving the white skeleton and maybe some cyanobacteria growing in place of the coral animal tissue.
2- Predation by hungry fish and crabs. The surface looks scoured leaving darker spots in the tiny holes of the SPS skeleton where partial polyp flesh is still living.
3- Gradual loss of tissue due to insufficient light energy or poor water parameters.
You already pointed to #3. Which of the others would you say might be occurring in your tank? Remember the last question in my previous post "Speed of bleaching"?
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P.C Pond buildr
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Posted: December 14 2004 at 12:19pm |
Mark, I was there the other day and had a look at the tank, it seemed to be a phos. issue to me (although I may be wrong) but the corals are on a slow decline and is not RTN related or speed I should say. All corals are entry level corals (plating monti digi a peice of frogspawn and a few zo's) he feeds nori to the tangs you can acually see the bag of it in the bottom right side of the stand so no worries on that subject. I took him a fair amount of macro so I assume that the phos. will be going down soon. If you don't reconize the tank it is jeff hite's old tank so we all know it is a proven system (it is using the same setup as jeff had going IE same sump/fuge etc.) and is proven to grow very nice sps corals. I am not sure where the phos. and hi alk came from but I am far from a chemistry expert (jon  ) So I can't help other than to try to give some back ground about the tank. I will be going back down shortly and will take some more macro with me then.
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Cody Pearce
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Posted: December 14 2004 at 12:22pm |
Looks like your Nitrate/Phosphate is high. I would do some water changes using RO/DI water.
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90 gallon mixed reef
My fish swim naked.
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