Need Advice: Nothing is Growing!

[bakbay]

I have this ill sell:
https://a.co/d/0h858Un4

I put it in my shed but ended up going a different route. Only used for a few months for rodi. 1" uniseal installed towards the bottom. Might be a good option for transporting nsw.

Cool thanks. Looks like I’ll just keep my 175gal and use it to mix salt? It’s clean and sits across the room from the other tanks. I’ve tried to give it away multiple times but looks like something are just meant to stay with you forever…like our young adults?

I’ve just mixed slightly concentrated ATO at 36ppt. My salinity will get back to 35ppt in a week while I mix new water.

 

[ndrwater]

Ugh - let me do the Poly pads, correct a few things, and send in ICP. Likely will need to do several big WCs then — as much as I don’t like doing them!

I was just thinking about a video I watched with Andrew (Hedgedrew) and his massive tank Polo Reef. He had a metals problem that he traced back to his rock.. apparently, the rock sat outaide in storage at some point and some metal rusted and dripped onto the rock... Hence the rock was leaching metals into the tank...
While the metals you have are probably from a piece of equipment, its also not a guarantee...
Id post a link, but im at work and already not doing my job, so you may want to look that up for yourselves... It was very recent. Week or two at the most.

 

[Discotu]

Cool thanks. Looks like I’ll just keep my 175gal and use it to mix salt? It’s clean and sits across the room from the other tanks.

Do yourself a favor and slide the 175g over next to the sump so it makes wc easier

 

[bakbay]

Do yourself a favor and slide the 175g over next to the sump so it makes wc easier

Super heavy - it’s an Oceanic 175gal glass! I have a long 1” flexible tubing. Plan is to RODI (once source water is fixed) into the 175gal with a wavemaker to mix, matching temp, salinity & alk. Then just siphon ~125gal to outside drain and then pump newly fixed water into the 450gal. Rinse & repeat! Well, minus the rinse part

 

[bakbay]

I was just thinking about a video I watched with Andrew (Hedgedrew) and his massive tank Polo Reef. He had a metals problem that he traced back to his rock.. apparently, the rock sat outaide in storage at some point and some metal rusted and dripped onto the rock... Hence the rock was leaching metals into the tank...
While the metals you have are probably from a piece of equipment, its also not a guarantee...
Id post a link, but im at work and already not doing my job, so you may want to look that up for yourselves... It was very recent. Week or two at the most.

Ugh — that’s ugly, either made for TV (ratings) or it’s like finding a needle in a haystack! Hope it’s something simple in my case. It does explain why I had so many issues with this tank originally…

Work is high overrated. Reefing is life! Ha

 

[bakbay]

Looking back at my Sept ICP — there were no heavy metals found, esp Tungsten/Tin/Copper. Something degraded over time, but at least I can start backtracking what was recently added. Perhaps I might get lucky…

 

[bakbay]

Update - nutrients stabilized over the last 2 days. I’ll increase vodka dosing to get closer to 10ppm. PO4 has been holding steady around 0.10 as well.

Alk/Ca/Mg (and other traces) will fluctuate as we increase salinity.

 

[bakbay]

Heavy metal: tracing back, I’ve added 2 things since/during the Sept ICP test:
Aug 28: Avast K2
Dec 17: Deltec 8000 fleece roller

The K2 has a stainless steel (?) rod that’s constantly submerged in Mrs Wages picking lime and I don’t see any metals touching water on the Deltec.

Anyway, the K2 has been bypassed so will see.

 

[bakbay]

Getting back to basics: TM A/K have been turned off, no more traces for me. CaRx has also been off. I have a big AA 3-part container. If this works well, I’ll just go back to 3-parts and will coast for a year. I can always crank up the CaRx later when the tank is full of SPS.

Calcium: currently at 680ppm - eek! It’s gonna take months to drop naturally so will just keep an eye on it.
Alk: we just care about keeping Alk steady above 8dKH. I have set up a doser, just in case.

Still waiting for RODI to be good before mixing salt for several big WCs to speed up the process.

 

[bakbay]

Btw: the AquaMaxx cylinder on the right is my vodka dosing. It’s slowing knocking down NO3 like a champ, totally automated. Absolutely love it! I was playing with refugium, algae scrubber, and sulfur reactor (super dangerous) before — this is waaaay easier, cleaner, and cheaper! I just buy a bunch of cheap vodka at Costco - each bottle lasts me several months.

 

[bakbay]

Genuinely appreciate everyone’s help on this thread. I’m confident we’ll reboot this tank and start growing SPS colonies again. I actually can’t grow anything else except some LPS and SPS due to my fish selection so I’m locked in! lol

 

[thresher]

Seriously, this is forensics 101. Find the culprit! Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[bakbay]

Seriously, this is forensics 101. Find the culprit! Inquiring minds want to know.

You and met both brutha — I’m hoping that if the polyfil stopped changing colors, no active metal. If still quickly turn color — I gotta keep on looking. That’s gonna suck! But hey, I’m up for a challenge

 

[bakbay]

Just an update - salinity is slowly coming back up with salt water in ATO.

Good news: I can monitor salinity over time. I’ve upgraded my Apex to an A3 Pro and got rid of PM1 modules and didn’t have to buy the PM2 for salinity.
Bad news: my Fusion’s dashboard seems corrupted since some tiles went missing. Going to do a factory reset tonight to try again.

 

[thresher]

Out of curiosity, im aware the poly filter will turn a bluefish hue when copper is present. Are you observing a differing color due to the tungsten?

 

[bakbay]

Out of curiosity, im aware the poly filter will turn a bluefish hue when copper is present. Are you observing a differing color due to the tungsten?

I don’t know yet since I’ll put the pad in tonight. I was distracted with the Apex last night.

Per ChatGPT — it should turn gray/black for heavy metals like Tungsten.

 

[bakbay]

Poly-fil submerged - will update in a few days

Apex Pro up & running and just calibrated salinity.

 

[bakbay]

I need to fix my Trident ACM this weekend - it’s still way off. Will buy the 6mos kit and try again.

 

[Jimbo327]

Will be interesting if it can pull Tungsten and Tin out of the water. Good luck.

 

[bakbay]

Will be interesting if it can pull Tungsten and Tin out of the water. Good luck.

I got 2 more ATI tests. Once my 2-stage DI comes in next week, I’ll send in the test and let you guys know.