hi guys, stressing out here a little..(sorry for the long post)
tank: 220 (240g total estimated water volume)
fish:
2x yellow tang,
1x purple tang,
1x sohal tang,
1x cleaner wrasse,
6x chromis
1x coral beauty
1x flame angel
2x black ice clowns
2x domino clowns
1x flame shrimp
1x cleaner shrimp
2x peppermint shrimp
1x tuxedo urchin
2x sand shifting starfish
and roughly about 150 snails (started out with 30 and they bred...)
ive been adding 12 drops of KZ coral Vitalizer, under recommendation i started using pohls extra special dosing 10ml daily in conjunction with the coral vitalizer.
i feed 3 times a day morning around 10am, 4pm and 9pm. i feed with a mix of mysis, shrimp, scallops, adding brightwell garlic power and brightwell multivitamin and recently started the coral system from KZ adding 20ml per week from all 4 bottles. (on third week now)
i change socks every other day or daily if the socks seem clogged. change fgo 2-3 weeks for 250ml or rowaphos and change the carbon too at the same time.
i started out using red sea pro salt then switched to aquaforest for two buckets and the last water change of 40g was done with reg red sea (which is what im gonna be using from here on)
until about 2 months ago everything was fine. did my weekly test ph was 8.2-8.3, cal was 450-460 and dkH was around 8, nitrate are arounf 1-3. corals were fine and growing had good polyp extensions. then i noticed the dkH was dropping to about 7. so decided it was time for a doser. up to that point i was adding kalk to the ato and that kept my params in check.
i started testing alk daily using the hanna checker and manually adding ESV, these reading were random eventually settling around 35-40ml per day, which i was adding in one session to the powerhead a few drops at a time, making sure the white smoke dissipated before adding more. i stopped adding kalk to the ato as i had no control over the amount of kalk going into the tank. roughly about 2 weeks into adding ESV manually i started noticing change in the tank.
first was a white residue in the rocks, i havent tried rubbing it to see if it came off. started on the top of the rocks, soon they went leaving a light white mark on them. it only happened on one of the 3 structures i have and that piece i moved 90 degrees. I read it could be the coraline dying and would regrow so i left it as that. the white residue to make it to more places in the rock, certain parts would be bright white. then i started to get diatoms on the sand, something i haven't seen for months. then the corals started to get affected, my digitata stalk died, leaving only the bone, the tips are still alive. the trophic thunder (was on a 1" frag disc) turned white and died. a few of the SPS started to have tipes burned. those that didnt had a server lack of PE (would still come out a night, but not as much as before)
duncan and hammer both lost a head, i asked a friend and he said it might the alk, the amount added was right, just adding in one session might of been to big of a concentration. so i set up the DOS and had it dose 35ml daily and continued with the daily test. upped it two days ago to 45ml daily (over a 24 period = 75 does, 19 min apart @ 0.6ml)
daily test having given me a 8.1-8.3 dkh, cal i test weekly and that doesn't move, has not dropped below 430 since i set the tank up back in aug 2016 and has not raised above 460. mag has been above 1300 every week. is this normal?
so now im not sure what ive been doing wrong, it was roughly all around the same time i changed salt, added KZ stuff and manually doing alk. things do seem to be doing better seeing more PE, diatoms o the sand seem to going slowly but its really upsetting not knowing whats wrong when you see problems.
on a side note, i saw all clowns had ich. caught them all and placed them in QT with cuppramind. the white spots on the dominos are all but gone but one of the black ice's i noticed the white on the top half graying. is this something to be concerned about? the filter wasnt quite ready for the qt, had been in the sump just over a month, so been doing 5g water changes ever 2-3 days in 10g (8g filled) tank
going through so much salt.
please, any feedback of advice would be helpful. thank you.
tank: 220 (240g total estimated water volume)
fish:
2x yellow tang,
1x purple tang,
1x sohal tang,
1x cleaner wrasse,
6x chromis
1x coral beauty
1x flame angel
2x black ice clowns
2x domino clowns
1x flame shrimp
1x cleaner shrimp
2x peppermint shrimp
1x tuxedo urchin
2x sand shifting starfish
and roughly about 150 snails (started out with 30 and they bred...)
ive been adding 12 drops of KZ coral Vitalizer, under recommendation i started using pohls extra special dosing 10ml daily in conjunction with the coral vitalizer.
i feed 3 times a day morning around 10am, 4pm and 9pm. i feed with a mix of mysis, shrimp, scallops, adding brightwell garlic power and brightwell multivitamin and recently started the coral system from KZ adding 20ml per week from all 4 bottles. (on third week now)
i change socks every other day or daily if the socks seem clogged. change fgo 2-3 weeks for 250ml or rowaphos and change the carbon too at the same time.
i started out using red sea pro salt then switched to aquaforest for two buckets and the last water change of 40g was done with reg red sea (which is what im gonna be using from here on)
until about 2 months ago everything was fine. did my weekly test ph was 8.2-8.3, cal was 450-460 and dkH was around 8, nitrate are arounf 1-3. corals were fine and growing had good polyp extensions. then i noticed the dkH was dropping to about 7. so decided it was time for a doser. up to that point i was adding kalk to the ato and that kept my params in check.
i started testing alk daily using the hanna checker and manually adding ESV, these reading were random eventually settling around 35-40ml per day, which i was adding in one session to the powerhead a few drops at a time, making sure the white smoke dissipated before adding more. i stopped adding kalk to the ato as i had no control over the amount of kalk going into the tank. roughly about 2 weeks into adding ESV manually i started noticing change in the tank.
first was a white residue in the rocks, i havent tried rubbing it to see if it came off. started on the top of the rocks, soon they went leaving a light white mark on them. it only happened on one of the 3 structures i have and that piece i moved 90 degrees. I read it could be the coraline dying and would regrow so i left it as that. the white residue to make it to more places in the rock, certain parts would be bright white. then i started to get diatoms on the sand, something i haven't seen for months. then the corals started to get affected, my digitata stalk died, leaving only the bone, the tips are still alive. the trophic thunder (was on a 1" frag disc) turned white and died. a few of the SPS started to have tipes burned. those that didnt had a server lack of PE (would still come out a night, but not as much as before)
duncan and hammer both lost a head, i asked a friend and he said it might the alk, the amount added was right, just adding in one session might of been to big of a concentration. so i set up the DOS and had it dose 35ml daily and continued with the daily test. upped it two days ago to 45ml daily (over a 24 period = 75 does, 19 min apart @ 0.6ml)
daily test having given me a 8.1-8.3 dkh, cal i test weekly and that doesn't move, has not dropped below 430 since i set the tank up back in aug 2016 and has not raised above 460. mag has been above 1300 every week. is this normal?
so now im not sure what ive been doing wrong, it was roughly all around the same time i changed salt, added KZ stuff and manually doing alk. things do seem to be doing better seeing more PE, diatoms o the sand seem to going slowly but its really upsetting not knowing whats wrong when you see problems.
on a side note, i saw all clowns had ich. caught them all and placed them in QT with cuppramind. the white spots on the dominos are all but gone but one of the black ice's i noticed the white on the top half graying. is this something to be concerned about? the filter wasnt quite ready for the qt, had been in the sump just over a month, so been doing 5g water changes ever 2-3 days in 10g (8g filled) tank
going through so much salt.
please, any feedback of advice would be helpful. thank you.
