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kotlec
06-11-2012, 02:18 AM
I know It was talked about many times already, still I cant solve the problem.
Have purchased Hanna for phosphates lately and reading is 0.02. So my concern about having elevated P are not valid anymore. Scrubber is doing its job !
Nitrates are also undetectable. The only problem that I feel I can have is that maintaining stable Ca and kH is very hard due to small water quantity and high coral load. Ca jumps sometimes in 380-500 range and kH 7 - 8.8. This is better lately too as I got dosing equipment and it is finally tuned. All mentioned above does not harm SPS growth rates , only color. I was about to start blaming instability, but remembered that all corals browned in few days after introducing in to my tank . So they had no time to feel any instability at all in such short period.

Other bad effects that I have in tank are week coraline growth (almost nonexistent) , some zooanthids and mushrooms dyeing whatever I do , snail death (introduced 7 - survived 2).

The most thriving animal in my tank is pink birdsnest . Least brown and most growing.

http://algaescrubber.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=2603&d=1339407856

On the right side are few acros. One should be green and others blue. All brown ...

Please share your ideas. I cant decide which direction should I try to change things.
I have very small amount of carbon, purigen and P remover in back chamber but not exchange it very often. Whatever I have tried - nothing made any difference yet. That leads to idea - I never did the right move yet.


p.s. forgot to mention brown film on all glass has to be cleaned every second-third day .

SantaMonica
06-11-2012, 09:45 AM
Hi P. Even though it measures "low".

No coralline
Dirty glass
Brown acro

If P were low, you just could not have dirty glass or no coralline. P is probably from dying things. I have the same problem with snails because of changing salinity because I still topoff manually and sometimes change it by 2% which way too high.

I think P is flowing quickly from the dead things to your scrubber, and hitting your sps on the way. Everything that dies puts lots of P into the water, and it has to flow somewhere.

kotlec
06-11-2012, 10:18 AM
Thanks for answer

Should I use more Rowaphos then ?
I have automatic topoff, my salinity is not changing that much ( I hope).
All story is 1,5 years long. What can be dyeing in my system ? I should not have anything alive to date :)
I remove dead snail imediatelly when I see it is not moving during 2 days and not let it root.

Wopadobop
06-13-2012, 05:25 PM
A few things.

What kind of growth are you getting on your scrubber? green , brown, oily?
WHAT are you feeding the system?
what kind of lights are you running? Corals will brown out do to lack of par as well as high p . the beneficial bacteria that coral uses to photosynthesis is actually brown and will multiply to meet the needs of the coral in a low light situation. Just throwing that out there.

If your kh swings were the issue they would just melt(at least mine do)

How much flow do you have in the display? DEad spots allow food to sit and rot behind rocks near the coral thus the p and n and ammonia are hitting the coral before your scrubber can do its thing. SPS require quite a bit of water movement to expell waste. It could be an issue as well.

As far as snail and soft corals dieing, My first guess would be copper. But then all your coral would be TOAST. So im stumped on that one. /shrug. Maybe tank is too clean?

kotlec
06-14-2012, 01:00 AM
Hi Wopadobop

I am getting most yellow growth with green strings on the screen edges. Not a sign of slime or oily brown.
Feeding 0.5 gram once per day of assorted frozen food.
I have DIY LED's over display. They seem very bright to my eyes. Have no access to any par meter unfortunately. 36 total watt over 16 galon of XPG and XPE from Cree.
Water is moved by AquaBee 1000 for return , that works with no head loss as sits in back chamber and Tunze nanostream 6015

I would not thing this is copper poisoning snails. I would not expect that good PE that I am watching all the time, be it copper case.

Please watch this old short move, may be some ideas will come. Not much has changed- only corals are doubled in size since.

http://youtu.be/xcKW3qyr3yo


P.S. Exchanged Rowaphos 2 days ago after measured phophates at 0.02. Measured today again with Hanna checker - 0.00

Wopadobop
06-14-2012, 02:37 AM
well I am stumped. as far as the browning. you have plenty of light, I would think bleaching before browning. Looks like plenty of flow as well.

kotlec
06-14-2012, 06:43 AM
:(

Forgot to mention. I have to blow sediment from rocks regularly, as it is accumulating in big amounts. I can not understand where from it goes as I feed really rational. I use filter floss in back chamber after that to catch all debris from water and get pile of that in couple of hours.

SantaMonica
06-14-2012, 07:08 AM
Sounds like the scrubber is not filtering because it is burning. Try less hours.

The Rowaphos can't stop the P that is flowing from the dead things; the P hits the sps before it ever touches the Rowa.

Sediment on the rocks is normal for a natural tank because of the periphyton and foramnifera that grow on the rocks; it collects stuff that drifts by, and all of this is eaten by cuc. Just like in the ocean.

kotlec
06-14-2012, 07:59 AM
Reducing hours then.

Garf
06-14-2012, 08:21 AM
Kotlec - looking back at some threads you had a waterfall with a really strange alien growth. Did you ever get round to adding iron to cure this, and if you did, was there any improvement.

I see you are also having a calcium swing that seems way out of the normal. Just a thought but pH could cause both of these problems, along with livestock death, coral tissue recession, underpopulated micro fauna ( excessive unprocessed detritus ) etc. are you sure that the basics in aquarium control are maintained ?

kotlec
06-14-2012, 11:45 AM
Garf , thanks for response . My attempt to eliminate alien growth via adding iron wasnt succesful at all. Growth did not changed , but instead I got algae in display, that I never had before. I was trying to use difuser to spread LED light somehow. That made no effect as well. May be reducing hours will help. I reprogramed my controller already . Will see next week if growth becomes more usual .
Regarding micro fauna that is very good guess . I completely agree with you.
I do all my best to maintain stable Ca and Alk. But having that many animals in small tank is very hard. They consume Ca and Alk at such amounts , that it is difficult to adjust doses to their needs. I bought dosing pump for that reson. I hope I will have final settings for it and will get more stable params.
What would you recommend to reestablish micro fauna population ?

SantaMonica
06-14-2012, 12:00 PM
My cal goes between 250 and 550. My alk goes between 7 and 14. My pH goes between 7.9 and 9.0

kotlec
06-15-2012, 12:48 AM
Two more point that I remembered :
1. When tank was just setup, coraline was growing nicely. There were no SPS at that time so nothing to tell about browning.
2. When tank was just setup, there were tons of small podds swimming around as I used some water from friends refugium. Now I can see none except few micro shrimp that are trapped in filter floss sometimes.

Wopadobop
06-15-2012, 12:52 AM
My cal goes between 250 and 550. My alk goes between 7 and 14. My pH goes between 7.9 and 9.0

By all "assumed" standards. Your tank should be a barren wasteland. What's the time line on those swings?

kotlec
06-15-2012, 01:12 AM
Thought may be fresh picture will bring up some fresh thoughts

http://algaescrubber.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=2644&d=1339748079

Garf
06-15-2012, 03:35 AM
Kotlec - Tank looks great. You may be being a little too critical on this masterpiece.

kotlec
06-15-2012, 03:36 AM
Thanks Garf.
Colored SPSes would make it even nicer :)

kerry
06-15-2012, 05:22 AM
My cal goes between 250 and 550. My alk goes between 7 and 14. My pH goes between 7.9 and 9.0

I dont have this much of a swing but I do have swing. Ca is pretty stable but, the Alk can bounce between 8-10 in a slow climb or slow fall in a week or two time line so its not sudden but its not what I would call stable. Most of this is due to the algae sucking up the alk toward the end of the two week run before cleaning, then after the cleaning it slowly rises until the screen gets thick.

kotlec
06-15-2012, 08:12 AM
Most of this is due to the algae sucking up the alk toward the end of the two week run before cleaning, then after the cleaning it slowly rises until the screen gets thick.

That very well explains why I can't find ideal setting for my dosing pump !!! Most instability was in alk zone. Now I will look more in to screen cleaning cycle.
Thanks Kerry for brilliant idea !

kerry
06-15-2012, 08:25 AM
If I clean every 5-7 days my Alk stays more stable. Also I dont clean the screen so well that its white again. I scrape it with a card then hit it with a brush to get the heavily rooted algae.

kotlec
06-15-2012, 09:26 AM
I was cleanning eveery 10-12 days. May be I should start cleaning half screen at once...

kerry
06-15-2012, 11:30 AM
That might be a better option

Wopadobop
06-15-2012, 07:34 PM
Just a thought but looking at the new photo. The brown sps i see is in the shade. Is this right?
maybe prune back some of the pink birdsnest or relocate if that is the case. just throwing that out there.

Wopadobop
06-15-2012, 07:37 PM
I dont have this much of a swing but I do have swing. Ca is pretty stable but, the Alk can bounce between 8-10 in a slow climb or slow fall in a week or two time line so its not sudden but its not what I would call stable. Most of this is due to the algae sucking up the alk toward the end of the two week run before cleaning, then after the cleaning it slowly rises until the screen gets thick.

Thats really not bad at all. i think the accepted normal is a swing of no more than .2 ph in a 24 hour period and alk of 1.4 per 24 with no effect at all. While not solid as a rock That is pretty damn good brother.

kotlec
06-16-2012, 12:38 AM
hey Wopadobop,

No SPS are not in the shade at all. They are ones that gotthe most of the light. They sit in front of all birdsnest.

Interestingly ph is not swinging in unison with alk in my case . Whatever alk , ph is 8.1-8.2 Got no idea why.

kerry
06-16-2012, 08:33 AM
I stopped check my pH as it was always good. Maybe I should check it as my Birds nest just bleached the other day and I fragged 4 pieces and they are doing fine in the same tank at about the same level toward the top. I am having the opposite of you kotlec!!

Wopadobop
06-17-2012, 01:00 PM
the universe seems to be throwing us all for a loop lately. Just came home to a melted bubble tip but the other is all pretty and happy. Everything checks out fine. /shrug.