please bring some water by the shop....both your tank water and some fresh boxed water....I would love to run a full test on both...just to see
are you running any type of Phosphate removal methods??? Usually our tanks start to accumulate PO4 at the year mark...some faster some later....but that seems to be an average time frame. If we are not doing some type of removal we are only allowing it to accumulate or get trapped in our sand and rock (temporarily)
B
I will see you at your shop next weekend. I am not going today because I have to travel for my company this afternoon. I will take a sample of both (Tank and Petco water).
Some values in my tank:
11/23 (2 weeks ago):
- PO4 0.24
- NO3 : 0 ppm
- NH3/NH4 (ammonia): 0 ppm
- Alk 8.8 dKh (~9 dKh)
- Ca 430 ppm
Salinity: 1026
Temperature: 79-80 F
11/26
PO4: 0.19 ppm
Alk: 7.6 dKh
Ca: 400 ppm
11/30
PO4 = 0.13 ppm
On Nov. 25 I added to my Red Sea Max 250, in the media rack,
2 bags of Chemipure Elite , 1 bag of Purigen and 1 Bag of Carbon. PLUS, in the upper rack level I have a ball of chaeto.
Before my rack media was a FULL refugium, as you can see on my thread at Reef Sancturay
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...3-successful-rsm-250-refugium-media-rack.html
I have to tell you that after the pruning I did that day (the day I posted the refugium thread), I was not able to have that Chaeto growth again. Moreover, the Chaeto started to die.
In the last ~ 4 months I started to see the corals were not happy, the speed of growing was reduced and most of the acros were not growing at all. At that point I got the PO4 kit (years without measuring it in my tanks). I found that PO4 was high and started some actions to reduce it: Replaced all my Chaeto for new one and reduced the fish food. After some weeks I did not observe any improvements. And the corals were LESS happier now. Something was wrong in the tank. I measured ALK and Ca, to find that my Alk was at 12.5 dKh and Ca ~460 ppm.
Why I had that Alk, if I was always at ~8-9 dkh ?
I believe that my Alk levels rocket to the sky because the corals were not using it, and the pumps every day continued dosing the same amount. Tested pumps and same dosing rate as one year ago. So I stopped them for a week until my alk levels returned to 7-8 dkh. Corals started to be happier now !!!. Adjusted the dosing to the new consumption and since then it have been around 8 dkh
Reading a lot about PO4, I found that it interferes with coral calcification, so My Hypothesis, as of today and in lieu of what I am seeing, is this one:
The Phosphates are high. I don't know since when, but there was a point, that I started to see a reduction in growth to an almost stop in many acros. If Phosphates interfere with coral calcification, it make sense that
" High PO4 >> Low Coral growth >> increase in ALK >> coral issues" .
The tank looks great, as you can see in the pictures, but the PO4 issue + my increase in Alk have been giving me trouble.
Let see if I can measure today PO4 before going to the airport. Not Alk and Ca because the pumps last dosing shot is at 9 AM and I normally measure it at around 7 PM
Cheers
Daniel
PS : By the way guys, the PETCO water offer is gone today.
