Melissa Skasik

Thank you.  How often should I add salt?  I have a spectrometer to check the salt density.

Will send a picture this weekend when I am home to take a picture.  I understand about not adding salt directly to the tank.  That wasn't my plan.  If I add 4 cups of RODI water, how much salt would you put into it and would it be best to add it to the pump in the back left of the tank instead of directly into the water column?  I'm glad you said to raise the alkalinity.  I was assuming it was too low.  How do you raise the alkalinity? 

Thanks!

Thank you, Cdklos.  We do make our own RODI water and the filters are fairly new.  I can add carbon to a bag and put it down in the filter area.  I will add salt slowly to bring it up.  The tank salinity for several years was 1.022 and the corals grew well.  Should I get a few hardy Damsel fish for the tank to help raise the Nitrites and should I add a pH buffer to lower the alkalinity?  Should I take the rocks and do a two minute fresh water dip to loosen some of the gunk?  I've found copepods recently but am not sure the rocks are still alive.  Thoughts?  Suggestions?

Melissa

We have a Red Sea Max 250, Steve’s LED’s, Red Sea salt.  Tank had soft corals, Xenias, mushrooms, leather, Kenya trees with T-5 bulbs and a chiller.  Corals were doing fantastic, great color and growth.  We also had red planaria. 

Two years ago the chiller died.  When we got home, the water temp was 94 degrees and we lost all the corals and all but two of the fish.

After the crash and after waiting six months, we added bacteria to the water to restart the tank.  Water changes have been done every six weeks for the last two years. Tank has been a FOWLER since the meltdown.  Switched the tank to LED’s about a month ago.   In the last six months, I’ve noticed a deep maroon, almost black growth on the live rock but not on the glass or the back of the tank.   The LFS called it a black sponge but it’s not slimy.  When I touch it, it is very smooth, not raised.  I did a fresh water dip on a small frag and the stuff floated off.  Looked like black pepper.  It only grows on the top side of the rock where the light hits, not on the bottom.    

Water Parameters are:  pH 8.4; Ammonia 0; Nitrite 0; Nitrate 0; Phosphate 0.22 (according to the LFS) but 0.00 using Red Sea test kit; Alkalinity 1.72; Calcium 1.03; salt 1.022.  Use only Red Sea salt.

After checking water parameters and thinking everything was fine, we bought soft corals two weeks ago, zoanthids and xenias and a Kenya tree.  I bagged the corals, dripped them for 25 minutes, set them mid-level in the tank and not in the direct water flow.  LED’s were at 30%, less than the LED’s in the frag tank at the LFS.  Two days later they were dying.  LFS says it is due to Phosphates.  Phosphates, as far as we could tell with the Red Sea Phosphate testing kit, was OK.  Could the stuff on the rocks be killing the new corals after only two days?    Is this growth putting a poison into the water?  Even after the water changes for almost two years, could there be poison from the red planaria dying?  If so, why didn’t’ it kill the Pacific Sailfin Tang and the Orange Clownfish? 

LFS in San Antonio said not to drain the tank. Told us we needed Coralline Algae for the corals to do well and tank cleaners.   Bought a small rock with Coralline Algae, five Turbo Snails, two Tuxedo Urchins and hermit crabs.  That was on Monday.  By Tuesday, all the cleaners were dead and the small piece of coral he gave us was also dead.  Nemo is till alive!

Has anyone else gone through this nuclear meltdown and experienced this growth?  Will we have to drain the tank, throw out the sand and the rocks and start over?  Any suggestions, insight or anything else would be very much appreciated!