What is stability in tanks?

Seems like I can keep a routine. Water stays somewhat stable. Learned some better ways. Also, done a lot of improving to keep more stabe. But....

Seems like things just sort of decline for no reason then come back. And different stuff at different times.

I bought some GSP that did very well. Now they don't really open that much, but they still spread.

My brain has been shriveled for the last few days, but it has done that before.

My Coraline really took off, then started dying.

Yet everything else is great.

I'm not really talking about specific diagnosis. I'm just asking is that the nature of reef tanks? Am I just a rookie. Can tanks achieve long term stability, or do the inhabitiants have natural cycles of health and decline?

 

Those are all signs that the parameters are not staying stable. To me, stability means basically everything stays EXACTLY the same, no matter how long the water change interval is.

 

Parms?

 

sustainable stability is the hardest. thats when your tank stays stable with your water change and nutrient export schedule.

its pretty easy to obtain stability with out water changes, but at the end of that calm is a big tank crash.

it is pretty normal to have huge growth then a massive die of corals in mature tanks. its not good but it happens to alot of people with little effect except to that specific coral (especially with mushrooms and corraline). all of this usually has to do with a change in you tank. i lost all my coraline(it actually was a good thing i hated cleaning the glass every 2 days) due to me slowly cleaning of my sandbed over some time.

 

My amonia/no3/no4 is always very low. NO4 is usually 5-10 or lower. Now with the fuge I can barely register a color change. I have never been able to detect PO4 with my kit. Water changes were frequent.

My only problem has been keeping Ca/Alk/Mg stable. Thought I was OK, but was low. Swithched to BRS 2 pt. and will be adding dosing pumps here very soon.

Salinity and temp are very stable. My ATO will help that, and my AC Jr I'm getting soon will be a good addition. I'm also adding a caron reactor and I should be set for the long haul.

So I'm getting there. I have had one tank wide decline. My only guess was it was contaminated somehow when I was on vacation. It just confuses me to see some things good and some things bad.

 

It sounds pretty good to me. I have trouble keeping my pH at 8.2 -- it keeps slipping down to about 7.8 -- and my NO4 will steadily rise if I don't keep up with weekly or bi-weekly water changes.

 

If you guys are referring to nitrates, that is NO3, not NO4. Just wanted to send a friendly clarification.

 

I'm always thinking stability when looking to care for my reef.

I always look for as little change in the aquarium as possible. I usually advised people to try small and more frequent water changes as opposed to larger ones. If you do a 20% water change that means that you are reducing your bad nutrients 20% in on shot. To many that could be a rapid change. Also many don't take into account the change that could be made due to a difference in water temperature and ph.

Although I feel that dosing may be the ideal way to keep up with the demands of our Calcium, Alk and Mag, I have chosen to return to a calcium reactor as the other trace elements are not found in the standard 2 part + Mag dosing.

 

What time of the day are you testing your PH? It will fall during the night and raise again throughout the day. Totally normal. It's only when it drops or raises and STAYS below or above what is acceptable that we need to worry. But slight swings are ok. 7.8-8.2 is fine.
Also if you seeing a swing in your nitrates I'd look into what/how your feeding and how your filtering. How are you exporting the waste?

 

Over the very long time, I find that no matter how stable the system, it's an ecosystem and there are rise and falls of different organisms. I remember reading about the guy who has had the same tank going for like 20 years now. He mentioned how some years, the leathers seemed to thrive and take over. Other times it was mushrooms and poylps. But that the tank seemed to take on a life cycle of it own over time.