Help tank crashing (i hope not)

Is this the first time you dosed iodine? I have stopped dosing as I have nothing but problems when I do. I use the brightwell iodion when I tested and found the level to be very low. Not wanting to overdo it I only added about 1/4th of what I should have, mixed it with tank water and then slowly dripped it into the tank. Within 10 minutes my xenia and anthelia were shrivelled up to tight stalks. Soon after, my large colony of green eye polyps also closed up. It took a couple weeks for them to start acting normally again. I tested the iodine level and it was still a little low but have not added anything since. I have had this happen twice with the exact same response in two seperate tanks. I'm not sure why it is happening but things are doing fine without it in my tanks so far.

 

So you are dosing cal and iodine without testing for them? You should never dose anything you are not testing for. Dosing cal affects alk among other things in the tank. You need cal, alk and mag to be in balance for every to thrive in the tank. By dosing cal and not testing for it or the others then you may have this balance off and this could def be causing the problems in the tank. I would stop dosing for the time being and grab some test kits to figure out where everything is. Then we should be able to get you back on the right track.

 

Why would you dose Iodine? are you testing for it? IMO, if you dont have a way to test for something you are dosing, DONT!

as for teh salinity, yes, that was a bit high and could have led to the issues. be careful though moving it that rapidly. also, you CA is a bit high in my opinion as is the PH.

Ca needs to be around 420-40 ish. your PH is a litte high but not bad by any means. Dont stress over it just make sure it does not bounce all over the range.

CA, MG and ALK all are interconnected. if one is out, it creates instability in the tank. Get your ca to 450, your alk to 9 DKH and let hte PH do what it wishes. it should be very rock stable with that alkalinity.


But if you are working to keep something at a certain level, make sure you can test for it. IMO the test kits needed regularly are:

ALK
CA
PH
Phosphate
Salinity
Nitrate
(you dont necessarily need to test ammonia and nitrite constantly) I only test nitrate when things are looking bad. but a mature tank will handle these three on its own. fwiw, I have zero nitrates at this point...
Ill be willing to wager, these results will tell us all a good story about your tank.

 

When I get home from work I will get test kits for all of these things. I will post the results then. I did screw up and shouldn't of been dosing. Sometimes you read into things way to much and it all gets messed up. I hope we can figure this out.

Thanks.

 

It's also all too easy to find bad advice in this hobby. Concerning iodine, before there were affordable, accurate test kits, I once had the LFS "reef expert" tell me, "If you think it's being used, then dose it". No, thank you.

FYI, if you're using a reef-grade salt mix, a couple (or more) 10 - 15% WCs will help to slowly get everything back in balance.

Good luck.

 

+1 to the WC it puts back the trace nutrients and elements, and could help,
I dont generally dose anything, I just keep up with my water changes.
Also in answer to your question from the previous page, the problems I'm
referring to are if you anemone dies in your tank it pollutes the water very
badly, and can kill you tank. I however dont think your in that much hot
water yet. just do a few water changes lower the maxi mini to the floor,
and do your testing, it'll be nice to see if there is any water chemistry
problems we arent seeing here.

 

I'd be concerned about your high calcium levels also. What salt are you using? I would do a 50% water change with a salinity of 1.025 making sure the temp is the same as your tank. Big rule of thumb here is, NEVER dose anything you cannot test for. No test for iodine? Do not dose iodide! What are you alkalinity and mag levels? Is your heater working correctly? Just throwing out some ideas here

 

I have a great heater setup I think. It made by catalina with a 500wat heater. The temp stays at 79deg all the time. I just tested the mag and alk

Mag was 1440 on first test and then 1290 on second. I did right after each other. 1290 third test.

The alk was 8.3 first test and 8.0 second test.

Going to test calcium again now.

 

Calium is about 540 and AM 0. the xenia are startingto get worse and look like there starting to get a coating over them, like the stalk is covering them up.

 

I think I found my proplem!!!!!!!!! My water is at 52deg!!!!!!!!!. I thought it felt cold. That dang heater is broke! I checked it with a meter probe just now. SOB!!!!! Calling that company tommorow for sure!