MORON UPDATE! Sometimes you miss the obvious...

[gjuarez]

Probably from the base up since phosphates were a little high. But hold on, alkalinity was kinda high so it could have been from the tips down. I am just confusing people, I will shut up now

[Bill S]

Tips down. Every one.

OK, I just did the following tests:
Alk on my NEW Salifert is 4.0 (also have a Seachem that SEEMS to have some accuracy problems - they sent me new reagents, but still I don't trust it - it reads 6.0meq/l).

The Phosphate kit is an Amer. Pharm - the last one I have - and it's PO3 & PO4. It was around the FIRST color indicator above zero. Now it's got JUST A LITTLE more color than the zero. Definately not the 0.5

Calcium is up to 400 - the highest it's ever been in this tank
Nitrates are less than 2 - only tint at all is on the low scale on a Salifert kit.

And guys, I'm SURE it's the Salinity. I've been edging it up from 1.018 or less - it was 1.018 with my new 12" hydrometer earlier today. It's up to 1.020 right now. On the way to 1.024, I hope. But don't want to overstress the fish.

On top of this, I bought TWO brand new hydrometers today - and broke one right out of the box. I haven't broken one in over 2 years, and I've broken 2 in 24 HOURS!!!

[TexasTodd]

Tip down recession is almost always Alk issues. If your CA is up now it could have brought your Alk down.

I'm not sure, maybe Gary can discuss, but there could be issues with HIGH alk and low salinity, doing some funky chemistry....?

Todd

[Bill S]

Well, basically I'm thinking that once salinity gets back where it belongs, THEN we can tackle the chemistry problems.

[Marlin]

Bill:
A while ago, I had what sounds like the exact problem you're having now. It turned out that my Alk. was too high and Ca. & Mg. too low. After correcting the balance, my corals stopped dying off and began to flourish. I shut my Calc reactor down for a while and added Turbo Calcium and Mg daily until I got everything in balance.
Bringing the salinity up slowly is good, but IMO you need to get the Alk/Ca/Mg in balance also.

[GaryP]

You can bring the salininity up in 24 hrs. or less. Its the same thing as acclimating critters in a bag.

I would recommend doing small water changes with saturated salt water, or just doing it slwoly by using salt water for makeup water.

I would suggest testing the salifert and seachem alkalinity kits side by side and perhaps run the calibration standard as well. I wouldn't be surprised if your alkalinity wasn't making some pretty good swings due to the other changes in your tank. Mine can change a couple by a couple of dKH over a few days. That's why I dose buffer every 3 days.

[Bill S]

Here's an update:

Everything LOOKS to be getting back to normal. I was concerned about making too much of a salinity change because much of what did fine during the "trip" to low salinity, was stressing when I brought the salinity up: softies, hammer, bubble coral, anemones. So that's why I slowed it down. Here's where things are now:

SALINITY!: 1.022
Ca: 460 (wow!)
PO3/4: Undetectable (bought a brand new kit from Richard yesterday - old one was Amer. Pharm)
NO3: 2.0
Mg: 1350
pH: 8.1-8.2
Alk: 3.9/10.8 Salifert, 5.5 on the Seachem.

Both Alk testkits are pretty new. The Seachem, I had tested the calibration standard a month ago, and found it to be in error. I emailed Seachem, they admitted they had had a problem, and sent me some new reagent about 2 weeks ago. I tested the calibration standard (4.0) and came up with 5.5. Uh oh. So, I'm PRETTY SURE my Alk is around 4.

Some of the SPS that I thought was toast, is recovering! I'd always thought that once they start bleaching, they are done. But I have several with some bleach spots on them, recovering. And of course, the "ultra rare" super mocha from Richard that I put in the tank on day 8 survived!