Home from trip and need help!

E

ERIKATHORNBURG

Membership Expired
I've been in Ohio this past week and just got home. I have SPS that are loosing color, losing polyp extension, turning white, and my clam looks terrible! I had someone staying at the house watching the dog, feeding the fish, emptying the skimmer bucket, and topping off the freshwater. I just tested and can't figure out what's wrong!

Salinity - 1.025
Temp - 81 but house is warmer
Alk - 8.2
Calcium - 460
Nitrate Red Sea - 1-2 ppm
Nitrate API - 10
Phosphate Hanna - .03

These are all very close to the tests I did before we left on 3/3/2014. Can't figure out what is going on.

I changed my reactor media before we left & did a 15% water change on 3/6/2014.

I've started another water change.

Anyone have any suggestions?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
What media do you run in the reactor? I started bio pellets and had a crazy ammonia spike but it topped off and dropped back to 0 lost a few nice corals during that spike :(


Sent from pay phone in the airport.
 
Well now I'm not sure at all. Maybe your sal changed. Are you sure the person watching house was not over/under feeding. Actually doing the top offs? Maybe he forgot to top off a few days water was not making it to the sump and then topped it off.


Sent from pay phone in the airport.
 
Poisons? Air freshener sprays? Carpet fresh? Contaminated hands in the tank water?

New media - maybe with new carbon, and new gfo at the same time your water got really clear, allowing light to bleach coral?

Water change - ammonia spike in water supply? How did you change water on 3/6 when you left on 3/3?

I have never used a poly filter, but many here recommend them.
 
We didn't leave till the morning of 3/9. I had noticed my borealis colony bleaching on 3/6 but we had recently moved it higher in the tank. That's why I did all of the testing to make sure there wasn't anything wrong before we left. Changed water 3/6 because tank was due for water change while we were gone.


I even tested ammonia & nitrite on 3/3 and it was 0

The Gfo and carbon were from same batch I've been using for a while from brs. It wasn't new.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
@kthomas wrote:
Your nitrate is high said:
That's what I thought too but 3 tests (2 brands) doesn't show nitrates high.

Nothing is showing to be "wrong" test wise that I can tell. Thought about taking some water to Frank to see if he can test too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
 
Nitrate test for API go bad kind of fast. If they are over 8 months old they maybe showing false readings


Sent from pay phone in the airport.
 
The API test kit is only 2 months old.

I took water to Frank and he got the same test results as I did except my salinity is 1.029. Think my refractometer is out if whack. Calibration I am using reads 1.029. So wondering if my salinity is high and that's the problem. The only other thing he found that was off was my magnesium was a little low.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
We are working on dropping the salinity now that we have the refractometer calibrated. Have a feeling we will be doing this drop over a few days because it's taking quite a bit to drop the salinity. The magnesium wasn't too low. It was 1250.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top