Mag at 1200?

[dphins]

I have been using tropic marin pro salt for a couple months now and I am battling recession on some of my sps. My magnesium is at 1200. My alk is 10 and my phosphates are very low. (under .05) I have been doing water changes and I am running a lot of carbon in a phosban reactor. For some reason I can't stop the slow recession on my corals. I am thinking about either pulling my sand bed and going BB or totally replacing it. Anybody have any ideas?

[clkwrk]

Drop the alk a bit . BTW I have had my mg lower than that and it didn't cause any problems.

However I did have a few problems when I was keeping my alk high 9-10 more so the closer I was to 10.

JME

[dphins]

Actually, my alk is usually lower then that. It test at 9.7 so I rounded up.

[MCsaxmaster]

What else is going on with the tank? What corals are receding? What else is in the tank? Are any of the other corals actively growing? What are the other water parameters like? How old is the tank? What about water flow?

How can we answer questions without information? ;)

Chris

[MCsaxmaster]

:thumbsup: for the avatar

[dphins]

I am running a mag 12 for my sump return. I have a tunze 6100 and 2 maxi 1200 in a 75, so I have flow. The tank is 3 years old with sps, over 10 years with mixed reef. Everything is growing and everything has great polyp extention. Here is one of the corals receeding.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y18/dphinsx2/Picture027.jpg

[dphins]

About 4 or5 inches of this stag has receeded.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y18/dphinsx2/pic1.jpg

[RichConley]

My mag used to be around 1150. Its now in then 1400 range, and my corals have better color, and i've stopped losing things. Maybe higher mag?

[MCsaxmaster]

Are these two Acropora the only ones receding? Are the still growing at the tips? Do you feed any kind of small food intended for the corals? How many fish are you feeding? The reason I ask about food is the rocks look a little barren (though it's hard to see) which is more typical of tanks that don't have much in the way of food available IME. Any soft corals in the tank? Any new additions?

Chris

[MiddletonMark]

These guys hit the main points I can think of.

What do you suppliment the tank with? What do you feed?

I'd also go with dropping alk a little - if just temporarily to verify it's not a problem.

When you last cleaned your mag, did you have any corrosion from the screws on it? Others, a few months back, claimed to have mystery issues that went away once they switched pumps [or changed to nylon screws]. A very off-chance - but figured I'd mention it.

[dphins]

I feed my fish mysis on a regular basis. I don't really feed my corals. I have two mag pumps, one on my calcium reactor and one on the return pump. The one on the calcium reactor looks kinda nasty. I haven't noticed the ones on the return pump.

[dphins]

I have some zoos, rics, and star polyps. I did add 2 corals a month or two ago. The place I bought the corals from had acro flat worms at one point. I did a fresh water dip of the corals before adding them. I think I have been having problems since changing from coralife salt to tropic marin. It's hard to know for sure though.

[dphins]

I just took this pic. This is about 3 days of progression.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y18/dphinsx2/Picture039.jpg

[merlock116]

maybe your RO filters need replacement?

maybe your salinity is off? check your refractometer

[dphins]

My tds is 1 from doing these water changes. I checked my refractormeter with the one at the lfs.

[nbd13]

any idea on where to get these nylon screws for the mag pumps?

thanks

Nick

[dphins]

Yeah, I would like to know also.

[MCsaxmaster]

When you say that the photo shows three days worth of recession, have you had the coral three days or have you had it longer and the recession began spontaneously?

If it began spontaneously I agree that it might be something odd going on (probably something nasty dissolved in the water, although I have no idea what). About a month ago a friend found a penny that was very corroded in her 300 gal. tank. She found it because her S. haddoni was looking quite poorly and sure enough, the penny was a few inches from the anemone. Anyway, I'm sorry I can't help more, but odd things like this do happen on occasion.

Chris

[dphins]

It is a frag off of the mother colony I have had for about 1.5 years. There is always a chance there is a razor blade in the there, but who knows?