Unresolved Sharp turn for the worse

Interesting... I do I find them on my glass as well as on some of the rocks... Haven't found any on my corals... But never thought of them harmful. Hmmmmmm

 

did another 5gallon water change. Let it run for an hour and tested.. Nitrates are now at 20.. Still high.. SIgh..

 

I think that all of the advise that you have been getting is great and I was in the same boat. I lost corals left and right and also started loosing fish. I tried everything mentioned above and in the end I found that the Red Sea Coral Pro Salt was the cause. I am not looking to start a fight or large discussion all I know is everything you are describing, I was going through along with an algae outbreaks that I could control.

After talking with the LFS another individual was having the same issue. I along with the other customer switched to Instant Ocean for a trial and 3 months later and a total water change over (slowly) to I/O, I can say everything is great.

This is just my two cents and I hope this doesn't start anything but It may be worth taking a look at the salt for a trial period.

Good Luck.

 

I am not married to any brand or sort of salt. I am fine to switch over if that is a potential solve. I just don't want to change to many things at once. That's the hardest
Part. How long did you take to swap over?

That being said. I have also read that if you over mix the coral pro salt can raise levels. They recommend you mix for no more than 4 hours. So I have left salt mixing for more than that. Just started to walk through all my reef rituals. Maybe that could also be part of the cause.

 

It could be, but I doubt it. I did my mixing for three hours and just monitored it until the levels stabilized.

As for change over, it took almost three months or so to do a total system change over through small 10% changes. I also just learned that there is another customer of my LFS that is going through the same thing. One thing to mention though is that none of these tanks were SPS dominant mainly LPS with a small amount of SPS. I don't know if the nutrients that are in the Red Sea Salt are building up in the system and not being used up are causing the problems or if the salt is just bad. I know many people have great experiences with the salt and each individuals system is different.

 

Hmmm another interesting tidbit. Man making this harder and harder. lol. Yup I am more lps than sps that's for sure.

 

One the about using buffered salt mixes is that they have a tendancy to be off on the big three. I like to use basic IO and add in cal, mag, and alk to the parameters I dose to in my DT. Its really hard to bring 12dkh salt down to 9 but its easy to bring 7 up to 9. I think its still nitrate and phosphate.... though that wouldn't explain the fish losses.

 

Again can't thank everyone for the help. I just am not sure where to start now. I just had to order a new bucket of salt and of course it just shipped. I have to wait to do some more water changes till I can get some salt. Unless I snag some from a buddy but I am the only one in the crew that uses coral pro salt. I will say I have been running this salt for years in this and other tanks and never had a nitrate issue like this.

 

I really hope it works out for you. I was relieved when I was able to pin point my problem and fixed it. Good Luck, if I think of anything else I will post.

 

Ya, I can imagine your head is spinning about now andru. I can't say if know what to do if I was in your position. Probably the best thing would be think it over and make slow steady changes.