water test results in, what to do now. HELP

[highpockets]

Over the last 6 months I have experienced bleaching or fading on my candy cane corals, hammer corals, and green star polyps and my zoas are melting and disappearing . I lost two different types of bubble corals also. Over the past 2 weeks three 7 year old clown fish died within 3 weeks, an extra large monticap died completely, and large colony of pulsating xenia has began deteriorating. Initially when I converted from vho's to t5's 12 months ago everything was brightly colored and crisp, but for the last 6 months everything seems like it is fading or bleaching more and more. For the most part everything else is doing well and growing. I have had my 80 gallon cylinder tank setup for 5 years. I have a standard 30 gallon sump tank with a Tunze DOC Protein Skimmer 9011. I have (6) 24" 24 watt t5 bulbs that are 12 months old ( 2 mid day and 4 actinic + ) . The 2 middays run from 9 till 7 and the 4 actinic+ run from 11 till 6. I also have blue led moon lights that run from 12 at night till 5 in the morning. All lights are about 10 inches from surface, but tanks is 20 inches deep. All corals that are bleaching are 10-20 inches below the water surface. I do 20% water changes per month with rodi water. I use bulk reefs 2 part alk/cal and solutions on dosing pumps and manually add their mag solution as needed.The only things I see are as follows: I switched from instant ocean about 12 months ago to marine enterprises intnl "crystal sea". Should I change back to Instant Ocean? I do not run carbon, gfo, filtersocks/floss etc. on my return water in the sump etc.. Just a protein skimmer. Do I need to add these things to my setup? I change my 3 stage ro/di water filters once a year, so it is hard for me to believe the rodi top off/water change water is the issue, but I am open to suggestions.
Temp 79-80 Salinity 1.23-1.25 My tanks is mostly LPS and soft corals (leathers, zoas, xenias, brains, colt ,hammer, frogspawn, galaxea, monticap, etc.) I have 3 clown fish and a watchman goby and feed them rods original food every 3-5 days. Although I have always had a grounding probe I found stray voltage about a month ago and fixed that, but it has not changed any of these problems. Could my lights be worn out and cause such dramatic fading in 6-12 months? Could I be running the lights too long?
Can you connect the dots between the test results and all the negative things happening in my tank? What should I do to bring the silca, molybdenum, strontium, and iodine down to acceptable levels?



Ammonia (NH3-4) Good=0.000
Nitrite (NO2)Good=0.005
Nitrate (NO3)Good=0.6
Phosphate (PO4)Good=0.01
Silica (SiO2-3) High=0.6
Potassium (K)Good=403
Calcium (Ca)Low=229
Molybdenum (Mo) High=0.2
Strontium (Sr)High=12.3
Magnesium (Mg)Good=1175
Iodine (I ̄)High=0.14
Copper (Cu++) Good=0.02
Alkalinity (meq/L)Good=2.80

 

[Northstar24]

You have detectable nitrite, start there. You're going to need to do more frequent water changes. Also bulbs need to be replaced every 9-12 months

If there is that much silicate in your tank the RO/di filters may also need some attention

 

[highpockets]

thanks.

 

[plankton123]

Your water chemistry is definitely off to be growing SPS. In particular:

Nitrite (NO2)Good=0.005 ; as mentioned above you should not have any measurable Nitrite in an 'established' tank. Look for undigested food in your sand bed, dead fish behind your live rock, etc.

Phosphate (PO4)Good=0.01 ; not bad but undetetable phosphate would be better as it interfers with calcification.

Silica (SiO2-3) High=0.6 ; yup, high and could result in diatom blooms. What are you using as your makeup water? Is it RO/DI?

Calcium (Ca)Low=229; way low for optimized calcification - shoot for ~450ppm if possible

Magnesium (Mg)Good=1175 ; not, way low - shoot for 1400-1600 otherwise again low calcification.

Copper (Cu++) Good=0.02 ; should be undetectable.

Alkalinity (meq/L)Good=2.80 ; 2.80 meq/l matches NSW (2-3 meq/L) but again if you are trying to maximize calcification and stability of pH, the 4-6 meq/L would be better.

Not trying to lead you to chase numbers - you should look at your coral polyp extension and overal coral growth to just how 'happy' your corals are, but above comments are based on past experience with 200+ gallon fully stocked reef tanks.

 

[Ulta]

Something doesn't add up...

I would start by checking the TDS of your RODI water.

even then... I don't see any death causing problems there. Mainly algae issues...

Now I DO see critters dieing leading to more stuff dieing off.. but what is actually causing your problems is still unclear to me given the information provided.

The corals having issues could be caused by your lights /bad bulbs..
How hot does your lights get? If they heat up pretty hot their lifespan's will deplete much quicker.

Is it possible that there are outside contaminants getting into your system?

But again, this is all just speculation. I see no obvious causes for your losses. Just little stuff that needs attention that really should not cause any major issues.. =?

That plus (+1) to what the others suggest ^_^!