Master Shake

captain of tying knots
Location
Lawrence
Rating - 100%
53   0   0
hey guys for a while i was having growth issues with my acros where they would encrust like crazy and have little to no color, basically pulled my hair out trying to solve that issue and traced it to a contaminent leech from the flex tubing i used in my plumbing, i pvc'd my entire system and things turned around incredibly fast and saw great results. That was short lived, the acros started to grow and thrive with great color and growth then all of a sudden one by one they would RTN over night but the odd thing is that they all dont do it at one time so im not seeing it as a tank crash. It was one one day then a couple days later another and another a few days later another would die etc. lost about 7-8 colonies and some frags then it seemed to slow down because i was trying everything to save what i could(carbon water changes fragging etc) nitrates, phosphates, cal, alk, ph and mag all tested within their proper ranges with red sea and hannah kits.

I even sent in a triton lab analasys and it came back with the following results:
Sn was 6:01 microg when it should be zero(yellow warning)
Br was a little low at 50.89mg instead of 62(yellow warning)
Li was a little high at 256mg instead of 200(yellow warning)
the only 2 things with BIG RED flags were the Zinnwert derrogation which idk what that means and apparently my Iodine was 466 points above where it should be(was at 526 instead of 60)

after i got the lab results back the process seemed to slow down to a point it was a bout a week and a half til the next died, then another week and a half later another. In the past 4 days ive lost 4 more colonies. ive been on top of dosing, water changing etc, nothing has changed from before the start of loss to the current period same light, salt, pumps everything.
The oddest part and i do mean odd is every piece that dies looks its best right before it dies. I dont mean that bleached coral look where its super bright colors but its secretly dying, i mean deep rich colors in every piece and increased growth in each piece right before its death which is odd because im like yay it looks great then uh no dead a few days later. The issue seems to only be affecting my acros, everything else looks great i guess what im getting at is can high levels of iodine cause this? probably going to send another Triton lab test in this week to see whats still the same or if anything has changed if I is still high i guess thats the issue is there a way to lower it? also if it is the iodine, where is it coming from? i dose some of the brightwell iodine (which i havnt done in about 2 weeks )but only according to what the directions say to add. Also mix my own cal and alk from the brs powders and put a little kalk powder into my top off water (brightwell kalk +2 about a heaping teaspoon a week into a 5 gal bucket
 
Last edited:

salpet

Advanced Reefer
Location
westchester
Rating - 100%
31   0   0
i don't think iodine is the problem have you checked if you had a salt spike i had the same problem and i thought that it was doe to me changing my sump i went to a larger one and never thought about checking the salt level and it turned out to be at 135 instead of 132i got it under control and my acros seem to be doing ok now but i tell you i'm getting tired of acros,so damn picky i stopped buying them until i see no more fatalities i'm even thinking of just buying softies and chalices they seem do do great no matter what you throw at them
 

Master Shake

captain of tying knots
Location
Lawrence
Rating - 100%
53   0   0
Posted on fb and got some info from jim welsh who really knows what hees talking about, came down to some ideas, my refrac was reading high so my salinity was at about 1.023 which isnt terrible but a little lower than preferred for acros, another is that the zinnwert derrogation is Tin which i had whats considered high levels in my system, already took out my magfloat, and moved the kessil tank mount to the overflow box where its dry instead the side of the tank where its exposed to water. tomorrow im taking a look at my heater and magnets holding it and doign another water change, gotta look for some heavy metal removers
 

jackson6745

SPS KILLER
Location
NJ
Rating - 99%
201   2   0
There is a bad batch of hanna alk reagents out there, not sure if you saw that?

Also, which salt do you use? Any chance it's red sea coral pro?
 

jackson6745

SPS KILLER
Location
NJ
Rating - 99%
201   2   0
the alk kit is red sea not hannah, and yes the salt is red sea coral pro

Problems with that salt, search around. Get yourself a safe salt like coralife or IO and do a very large water change. You will probably see results for the better immediately. I just went through this in a buddies reef.
 

Master Shake

captain of tying knots
Location
Lawrence
Rating - 100%
53   0   0
wasnt happy with the standard instant ocean when i use to use a while back too much of a alk and cal swing, if anything id switch to tropic marin but thanks for the info, plan was to move out as much metal (glass cleaners, frag racks, heater holders, mount to kessil on frag tank etc) pretty much anything unnessecary do couple 30g changes, change couple polly pads wait a week or 2 then do another triton lab to see where im at as far as tin and iodine concentration go,
 

jackson6745

SPS KILLER
Location
NJ
Rating - 99%
201   2   0
The issue with the salt is not the alk. You can spend all kind of money with triton and come up with inconclusive results, or spend $40 on new salt lol.
 

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