Mysterious Water Quality Issues

Davidhuntz1555 · 12/30/2018, 05:09 PM

Hello,

I'm new to this forum and was hoping for some help. I have been keeping coral for 7 years now dealing with mostly softies and lps. I am currently in college and was keeping a 30 gallon IM Lagoon tank which was beautiful, but over the summer I purchased a 210 gallon oceanic aquarium. I set it up in August and in September the nitrogen cycle had completed, so I started slowly adding in livestock.

I eventually moved all the livestock from my 30 gallon into the 210 and everything was growing beautifully. Around the end of September, after purchasing a faulty red sea test kit, I overdosed the tank with calcium, magnesium, and trace elements associated with dosing calcium. The magnesium was the worst affected, raising to about 5000 ppm without realizing it. I went back to college for a week and when I came home almost all my coral was dead. I immediately did a 50% water change and got the all of the levels straight by the beginning of October.

Since then I have not been able to grow any corals, with the few zooanthid and torch corals only slightly open during the day. I have been doing 10% water changes every week since the beginning of October and they dont seem to do anything. I really need some help troubleshooting because im at my witts end

lapin · 12/30/2018, 05:54 PM

Have you done anything to rid your sand and rocks of the extra elements?

Davidhuntz1555 · 12/30/2018, 06:12 PM

I have not. I was talking to my lfs about it and they said that if my calcium, alk, and magnesium were at the right levels then there shouldn't be any problems. How would you suggest I clean the rocks and sand? The extra elements I dose are from the Red Sea Trace Colors kit (Iodine, Potassium, Iron, Bioactive Elements), do you think to much of these would cause a major issue?

12/30/2018, 05:09 PM	#1
Davidhuntz1555 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2014 Posts: 3	Mysterious Water Quality Issues Hello, I'm new to this forum and was hoping for some help. I have been keeping coral for 7 years now dealing with mostly softies and lps. I am currently in college and was keeping a 30 gallon IM Lagoon tank which was beautiful, but over the summer I purchased a 210 gallon oceanic aquarium. I set it up in August and in September the nitrogen cycle had completed, so I started slowly adding in livestock. I eventually moved all the livestock from my 30 gallon into the 210 and everything was growing beautifully. Around the end of September, after purchasing a faulty red sea test kit, I overdosed the tank with calcium, magnesium, and trace elements associated with dosing calcium. The magnesium was the worst affected, raising to about 5000 ppm without realizing it. I went back to college for a week and when I came home almost all my coral was dead. I immediately did a 50% water change and got the all of the levels straight by the beginning of October. Since then I have not been able to grow any corals, with the few zooanthid and torch corals only slightly open during the day. I have been doing 10% water changes every week since the beginning of October and they dont seem to do anything. I really need some help troubleshooting because im at my witts end

12/30/2018, 05:54 PM	#2
lapin Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2017 Location: Austin Posts: 801	Have you done anything to rid your sand and rocks of the extra elements? __________________ Tank sizes, 2-10's a 55 and one that's about 500gal Current Tank Info: Interior decorating happening

12/30/2018, 06:12 PM	#3
Davidhuntz1555 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2014 Posts: 3	I have not. I was talking to my lfs about it and they said that if my calcium, alk, and magnesium were at the right levels then there shouldn't be any problems. How would you suggest I clean the rocks and sand? The extra elements I dose are from the Red Sea Trace Colors kit (Iodine, Potassium, Iron, Bioactive Elements), do you think to much of these would cause a major issue?