I set up the calcium reactor last night, so far pretty smooth. I made a second chamber with smaller media to hopefully buffer off the excess C02.

It's a pretty simple design, the effluent comes in through the top and is forced down to the bottom and released. The effluent then has to come through the dense media and exits through another hose that leads to the tank.

 

 

 

Only terrible news to report on this update. I came home from a long weekend camping up north to a lot of RTN’d corals, from new frags to colonies I’ve been growing for years. I tested everything and everything checked out normal. No swings in temp or ph logged on my apex and tests were the same values as when I left. I’m at a loss. Some corals were still alive but colors were pale.

It’s been two weeks now and nothing I’ve done has slowed the death of SPS corals. Nothing else has been affected.

I am ordering a Tritan test today. I have tested everything I can. No pests. Nothing I can pin down on the cause.

Honestly get depressed every time I walk passed the tank.




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Dan, sorry to hear this terrible news. I had a similar thing happen just over a year ago. No apparent reason. The only thing that I could even pinpoint was a crowding issue that led to some type of deficiency in a micronutrient. Perhaps the Triton analysis will uncover something. I did notice, however, that with the lower coral density, the remaining corals recovered to a better condition than before the die-off. At a minimum, perhaps you'll experience a similar bounce back. I hope that is true for you as well!

Only terrible news to report on this update. I came home from a long weekend camping up north to a lot of RTN'd corals, from new frags to colonies I've been growing for years. I tested everything and everything checked out normal. No swings in temp or ph logged on my apex and tests were the same values as when I left. I'm at a loss. Some corals were still alive but colors were pale.

It's been two weeks now and nothing I've done has slowed the death of SPS corals. Nothing else has been affected.

I am ordering a Tritan test today. I have tested everything I can. No pests. Nothing I can pin down on the cause.

Honestly get depressed every time I walk passed the tank.

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Dan,

Bummer to hear. Hope that you can figure out what happend.

Hopefully you will be able to save some of those beautiful corals you have.

Ed

 

Thanks guys, unfortunately nothing is helping. I’ve stopped with the water changes and am waiting for the triton results before taking any further action. It’s so painful to watch all the coral die such a slow death while being completely helpless.
It’s just so bizarre because this tank was goin perfect all the coral was healthy, growing, and colorful. I’m assuming some kind of contaminate got into the tank. I went through all the equipment and found no rust or anything like that.


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Thanks guys, unfortunately nothing is helping. I've stopped with the water changes and am waiting for the triton results before taking any further action. It's so painful to watch all the coral die such a slow death while being completely helpless.
It's just so bizarre because this tank was goin perfect all the coral was healthy, growing, and colorful. I'm assuming some kind of contaminate got into the tank. I went through all the equipment and found no rust or anything like that.

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Yours sounds just like mine dude.. It really broke my heart.. Everything was doing so good, and then bam.. I really haven't recovered mentally from the loss.. I'm still hanging in there, but I just can't find it in my heart to put more in there..

I feel your pain though dude.. And imho, the ceasing water changes seemed to be for my system also.. I still lost things, but it was like every time I did a change, the next day something new was dead..

So I feel you.. And I think I've only done one of two changes since that time honestly..

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I do agree with the above. When I had a similar issue, I just let it ride and the losses happened quickly, but did not continue after that. You could simply try carbon if you're not already doing that. Otherwise, I'd say to just make sure that everything remains stable. Is your flow nice and high? I believe so...

 

I've been running carbon but haven't noticed much of a difference. My tds meter was reading 0 on the outline but I went ahead and replaced all the filters yesterday. Flow is high, 2 pp8 and 1 pp15. I am going to do a couple large water changes over the weekend with the new water and focus on getting everything stabilized.

 

Very cool. Lots of great info. That's for the heads up on the pump. Looking to up grade mine.

 

This brings the total sps loss to about 98% need the triton results badly...

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Sorry for your loss dude.. It *****..

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Makes no sense. Stray voltage? Bad salt? All overdose?

So sorry....



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Argh, sorry man.

I don't have many "special" corals anymore, but I'll definitely give you some frags and/or small colonies to help with the rebuild when you're ready.

 

Dan,

That really *****... After getting back into the hobby your aquarium was one of the first tanks I seen which gave me inspiration to get my thumbs wet again

Nothing fancy but I have some items that I can share when you figure out what is going on and are comfortable putting coral back in your tank.


-Ed

 

Dan,

That really *****... After getting back into the hobby your aquarium was one of the first tanks I seen which gave me inspiration to get my thumbs wet again

Nothing fancy but I have some items that I can share when you figure out what is going on and are comfortable putting coral back in your tank.

-Ed

Argh, sorry man.

I don't have many "special" corals anymore, but I'll definitely give you some frags and/or small colonies to help with the rebuild when you're ready.

Thanks guys, I will definitely take you up on that hopefully sometime soon. I received an email from Triton yesterday morning letting me know they received my sample at their lab in Germany and I should be getting results back today or tomorrow.

I have noticed a large improvement in coral health and the three SPS left have stopped dying. Only change I made was to the Ro/DI filtration. Once I changed the the filters I did four large water changes.

I am hopeful Triton test results will shed some light on this whole ordeal. I made sure to test for everything I am capable of at the same time I sent out the sample. That way I will be able to compare results and see how accurate my kits are.

Thanks again for the offers and the suggestions. I am looking forward to getting my reef healthy again!

 

***THE RESULTS ARE IN!***

**FROM TRITON***
You are here:
Single View for Evaluation ICP-OES

Share your analysis
Filter
Detection Action

We detected elements in your water that can be harmful for your tank.
More information about each element is listed below.

We recommend to carry out 6 x 15% water changes with TRITON PURE 2.0 or other recommended salt, spread over 6 weeks.

High levels of Tin have been found in your system.

As Tin can be very dangerous to you aquarium you should first try to find the contamination source. To help you in finding the source of error, we have listed the most common sources of tin (sorted in descending order of frequency):

1. Contaminated trace elements
2. Metals near or in the aquarium (as rusty clamps or screws)
3. Contaminated salts

Low levels of Copper have been found in your system.

Although not as dangerous at very low levels it is important that you check your system for any possible contaminations.

To help you in your search for the source of error, we have listed them the most common sources of copper (sorted in descending order of frequency):

1. Contaminated trace element solutions
2. Bio-pellets
3. Contaminated salts
4. Contaminated food
5. Corroding metals or magnets near the water

If you have problems in your tank, we recommend to carry out 4 x 15% water changes with TRITON PURE 2.0 salt, spread over 4 weeks.

Monitor with future ICP-OES tests.

Your Magnesium levels are slightly low.

Please check your magnesium test kit for accuracy.

Please dose as recommended in the DOSE tab.

Your Boron levels are slightly low.

Please dose as recommended in the DOSE tab.

Your Lithium levels are too high.

Check for possible contamination source. To help you in your search for the source of error, we have listed them the most common lithium sources (sorted in descending order of frequency):

1. Trace element overdose / contamination
2. Contaminated salts / contaminated magnesium salts
3. Artificial Rock/ Reef ceramics
4. Food


Let me know what you guys think about these results. Everything else checked out to be good and my home tests were surprisingly accurate.

I am going to dispose of the salt i have and buy a new batch. Until that arrives i am going to go through every piece of equipment again with a fine tooth comb and see if i can find any metals that could be the culprit.

 

At least you have something to work with! Hopefully things will bounce back for you!

 

Elevated Tin!?!?!?!? Holy crap, would have never guess that. Now I'm gonna check my tank to see if I've got any exposed metals or anything of that nature going on! Sorry to see you going through this crap man. I know it's not even close to being an equal comparison, but I've been battling a frigging cyno/ich issue for the past two months and I've been pretty down about my tank. I finally eradicated the issues recently and my tank is looking healthy and the inhabitants are doing great. I guess what I'm trying to say is no matter how down and out you are in this hobby and you just wanna throw the tank out the front door, a few things start going right for you and you'll be far past this event. Don't let it drag you down too much.

 

I am pretty sure I found the culprit.

This light hangs directly over my sump, I raise and lower It often but never noticed the rust. Every time I would raise/lower the light rust would be scraped off the braided wire and land directly in the tank. You can see the dust on top the light.

I removed all the hardware and polished The light off. The eco tech hardware is stainless so there was no rust. The only rust was all on the braided wire that I used. I replaced the wire with stainless.

I then went through all the magnets in the tank tank and cleaned off the rust. This rust was actually from the shavings above that once entered the water attached to the magnets. At first glance I thought the magnets them self were rusting.

There was rust on other hardware in the cabinet but I doubt It made its way into the sump. Regardless, I removed all of that hardware and disposed of I***65039;t.

When the new salt arrives My next plan of action is to start with 20% weekly water changes for six weeks. At the end of the six weeks I will send another sample in to Triton to see if the heavy metals are still present.

I am not concerned about the other trace elements listed because I believe they will be corrected during the water changes. I am hopeful that I have finally found the cause and I will be able to move forward from here.

Here is one last picture to put an end to the depressing turn this thread took lol
happy reefing michiganreefers!

 

Hopefully that solved it..

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Still on the road to recovery. All the remaining coral is doing very well. Corals that I was sure were dead are coming back to life!


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Still on the road to recovery. All the remaining coral is doing very well. Corals that I was sure were dead are coming back to life!

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That's excellent news dude! Glad to hear it!

Sent from my note 8...

 

Dan if you are interested, I have a few easier frags if you want to put in your tank. They grow fast so it gives you something to look at while you slowly bring your tank back.

Idaho grape, Spongodes, Purple Stylo, etc... You can have them, just need to meet somewhere near Livonia.
I wish I could offer up a few acros to you guys, however my tank is still young and they have not taken off yet.



-Ed

 

Hey Dan sorry to read this. Really sad to see that Pink Lemonade like that one of my favorites and the canary as far as something being wrong evident by mine RTNing when something goes off. In any event I will also donate some frags to the rebuild effort

Tom

 

Thanks a lot for the offers guys, I'll be at the lansing swap and as long as this progress continues I will be looking to add new sps.
Tom, losing the pink lemonade colony was heartbreaking. Hopefully someone out there still has one of the frags I've sold off it.

As far as an update, things are continuing to improve and I'm happy with the progress. I am battling a little bit of a cyano w/ algae issue but after dealing with losing a crap ton of coral, I'm not too concerned about a little algae.

Happy reefing!

 

Dan- Long time man. Sorry to hear what happened.

I have a garf purple bonsai that is impossible to kill, and in sub par conditions for sps growth currently. If you want to swing by and pick it up- you are welcome to it. Maybe hook me up with a frag of it down the road, if and when I have better conditions for it.

I live in whitmore lake, just north of A2, on the south side of town, just off us-23. let me know man. Sooner the better.

 

Thanks for the offer! I am waiting until the January swap before adding any new coral just to make sure the issue is fully resolved. I am also dealing with dinoflagellates at the moment but think I am on the right track now to get them under control.

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Is this tank back on track?

-Ed

 

Slowly, yes. Dinoflagellates have vanished. Took about two months of building back a good bacteria level and raising nutrients. Sadly most coral did not fair well, Dino's are one nasty algae and by far the worst I've encountered.
This tank is now stabilized and I will be adding coral back this weekend starting at the swap!

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Sounds good, as mentioned I do have a few frags I can pass along if you are interested.

Stylo
Pocillapora
Spongodes
Digi.

For now...

Slap water....my oregon tort frags are doing well. All three have encrusted together. So I have a 2x2 patch of encrusted nubs .

 

Sounds good, as mentioned I do have a few frags I can pass along if you are interested.

Stylo
Pocillapora
Spongodes
Digi.

For now...

Slap water....my oregon tort frags are doing well. All three have encrusted together. So I have a 2x2 patch of encrusted nubs .

Awesome, thanks Ed! Will you be at the swap?

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Yes would you like me to bring a few frags?

 

Definitely! I'll send you a pm. Thanks again Ed

 

Dan,

Still have an aquarium? You need to update us...

 

Hey Ed, yep this aquarium is still running on auto pilot. Nothing to report really. Taking a break from sps until we move next year. At that time I will be upgrading once again to a much larger sps system!

I’ve been focusing on other hobbies at the moment and got a little burnt out on reef tanks after all the rough patches over the last year.


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