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There are a number of things that could be the cause, and it's going to take some back and forth to determine the exact cause.

RE: buckets. Do you clean the buckets from time to time with vinegar and water, or bleach-water? At least once every six months would be wise. I've never had problems from salt buckets. We usually seek out HDPE containers, as those are safe -- they are called food-grade safe.

I just posted an article on the front page of RA a few days ago where a person had a bad batch of carbon damage their corals, a brand that had a batch recall last year.

Alkalinity and salinity measurements should be double checked and verified with a second method, to make sure you're on target.

Lighting - age of bulbs, exposure of potential UV in the tank, duration of light in the tank per day; these are all things to consider to see if any or all are causing a decline.

Were are the pics???? Lets see pics.

the duncan is very full and happy, the other reason I moved it was to get it away from the cleaner shrimp. It is very fat right now without the shrimp pulling food away from it but the big thing was I wanted to get it in the tank so I have an idea of flow rates and their affect on this coral so I know how much too much is. I have been reading and researching information on dipping sps before placing them into the tank (a lot from your website.) I have a clean slate to start with and I don't want to mess with that. I am absolutely looking to add staghorn, acros, millepora, birdsnest, and perhaps a picollapora but unfortunately I have no LFS that carry sps coral so odds are I will either have to head to either atlanta or knoxville of order them online if anyone has any reputable websites/stores in those areas they have experience with?

The Clown Goby can be destructive, so I'd also consider sending him to a different tank. How's the Duncan doing so far?

Ok, I have alkalinity right at 8 now and salinity at 1.024 (still working with it.) I have moved my duncan coral back over to the main tank again. I am still debating on whether to include any other LPS though. I have 3 good frags from my old branching hammer and I know I am going to get rid of 2 for sure, but I am not sure if I want to add one or try to do mostly sps. The acans I was trying to save have puffed back up but are carrying some nasty hitchhikers (Bubble algae, and some other type of macro algae) so I am not sure about them either. I also am thinking of finding a new home for my yellow clown goby since I know how much they "love" sps. any thoughts on any of this?

Agree with Midnight, just bump up your Alkalinity (dkH) to around 8 and you're good to go. Dosing anything else isn't necessary at this time, as you don't have anything pulling it out livestock-wise.

Hope you have good luck on the sps set up, I am intrested in hearing how it turns out. I am wanting to do an sps and Lps as well. What are the proper parameters for an sps tank?

Dosing a two part right know would raise both alk and cal. Looks like you currently just need to raise alk. And then your SG should be 1.025-1.026, topping off with saltwater is probably the best way to do this.

also to increase flow randomness I have a Vortech MP10 on the way to run alongside my MP40 which will help with prefered SPS flow

Nicely done, and thanks for sharing your blog with us. It looks really clean, an excellent restart.

The thing that has impressed me the most is that these things run so cool. After hours of running them they are still cool to the touch with no fan where as this ebay one that I have over my frag tank puts off a little heat. I guess that is the difference of quality vs affordability.

the lights look good, looks like you used the same heat sinks i did, i really like the sinks it gives the build a nice look over the ones that arent anodized also the built in mounting rails and channel for the splash guard are handy

well I literally just finished with getting the leds placed and I am hoping to get them wired up tomorrow during the annual turkey day cooking wait. I will hopefully hit they tank Saturday morning early and get it done by that afternoon and start filling it up Sunday. I need to get the back glass painted, the inside cleaned, all inhabitants safely moved to a temporary tank, re-aquascaped, and filled and if I can get all that done by sunday I will be a happy camper. I think i will try the spray bottle of vinegar and water/soak and see what happens, I am mostly just wanting to clean the back glass the front is not a big issue to clean but the back glass I can't get anything to put a dent in the coralline on it.

Start with a razor blade on the glass. Let the seems soak in vinegar for a few hours and you should be able to wipe them clean with no problem.

Get a couple of gallons of muriatic acid, fill with water dump in acid and drop in pump for circulation. when ready to scrub after a few hours use rubber gloves. before dumping water, neutralize water with baking soda.

Originally Posted by Midnight

Although the rock most recently came from the ground, it was once alive. Any old dead coral skeletons can posses nutrients in them. Joeogio, you may have had good results without cooking the rock for a time, others have had bad results and it took months for them to rid the rock of nuisance algae when they started there tank with it, even when there was little to no bioload in the tank. Look at Marc's frag tank, I bet the valonia was feeding off the leaching phosphates from the rock as there was no issues in the main display.

This is straight from their website.

"Can I add rock right into my established tank?

We do not recommend our rock or any other rock right into an established tank without testing first.
However you will find our Key Largo rock 100% free of organics or "pre cured" this makes it safe to tank in an established system without fear of an ammonia spike."

melev- I actually am thinking that my rock is leeching something into the water I have no sound reasoning for my theory but regardless my rock is not very porous, and came as "live" rock from the gulf. I figure it would not be a bad idea to upgrade my current rock to something a lot better quality overall.

The only reason I am afraid of a DSB is because I have heard stories of lots of tanks crashing that have DSB's. Lots of horror stories involving CO2 leaking into the systems, I just figure that could be one less risk I take potentially.

I do also believe that it sounds a lot like symptoms of what people describe as OTS and I will admit that I have not been able to maintain the tank like I had been in the past. Unfortunately though these issues had started when I was doing very steady consistent maintenance which is another reason I am leaning towards perhaps a leeching from the rock and sandbed.

right now in a 75 gallon with a 35 gallon sump I have a medium yellow tang, 2 clowns 1 medium one small, a firefish, 3 chromis medium size, a yellow clown goby and a yellowtail damsel small/medium. With the biopellet reactor running and skimmer going I think I can make due as I am also potentially looking at getting a biocube up and running to put the goby, firefish, and saved frags in for recovery.

here is what my research has turned up on the key largo marco rock. It is old buried live rock that no longer contains life put still could potentially hold organic material. The people at marcorock state that they take the old rock, put it through a 4 stage cleaning process, precycle it seperate from any other "live" rock, then dry it back out leaving it completely reef safe. Now grant it I have no clue about how much of that is true but I have yet to read of enough bad instances with marcorock to be too afraid of giving it a go.

midnight- unfortunately I am not too close to charlotte (im in Chattanooga) but i do have a friend that has a 45 breeder that he is currently not using as well as a hang on bio wheel filter that I would not be scared of using if I had to for a 2 week maximum (hopefully not even close to that long but you never know.) keeping it strictly as a holding tank and bare bottom.

Although the rock most recently came from the ground, it was once alive. Any old dead coral skeletons can posses nutrients in them. Joeogio, you may have had good results without cooking the rock for a time, others have had bad results and it took months for them to rid the rock of nuisance algae when they started there tank with it, even when there was little to no bioload in the tank. Look at Marc's frag tank, I bet the valonia was feeding off the leaching phosphates from the rock as there was no issues in the main display.

Originally Posted by MrReefAddict

If you're starting a new tank, I think that you could rinse the Marco Rock, soak it in Ro for a week and maybe even soak in some vinegar. I have 50lbs of Marco I rinsed it, soaked it in RO for 2 weeks and cooked it for 11 months in a tote. I kinda went overboard since I didn't have the room in my DT. I put it in my existing tank about 2 months ago with no problems.

not sure i would want to soak any rock in vinegar it wouldn't do anything beneficial to the rock and if you mixed it strong enough it would just dissolve the rock.

I

Originally Posted by Floggin

He shouldn't have to "cook" his Macro rock. The website says "Reef safe, Pre Cycled". I know someone who might be able to add some more input on that, and I will have them get on and add his 2 cents.

i recently purchased 100lbs of marcorocks.com key largo rock and introduced it to my system all i did is hose it off and place it in the tank. this rock comes out of the ground and is completely reef safe and since it was never "alive" it doesnt have organic compounds stored up in it like brs dry fiji live rock for example so there is no need to cook or cure it. however it will take some time before it does your system any good as a biological filter.
over all i am very pleased with the rock i have purchased and my system is running at undetectable "with api test kit" levels of phosphates or nitrates.