Had a pH issue now corals are dying :( turning white from base up

[nightOwl]

All,
Ok here is the deal a few weeks back I had some pH problems. Long story short my pH probe was reading high so I was adding pH decreaser to bring it down. Well it ended up that the pH probe had lost calibration so I basically I was really making the pH very low. So now we are two weeks past that and the probe has been calibrated and is reading correctly. Since then I have lost the following

http://inlinethumb28.webshots.com/25755/2790622470048177406S600x600Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb31.webshots.com/12574/2707935550048177406S600x600Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb31.webshots.com/10654/2137411510048177406S600x600Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb32.webshots.com/10335/2415572040048177406S600x600Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb41.webshots.com/25768/2673723000048177406S600x600Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb24.webshots.com/27799/2787712950048177406S600x600Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb35.webshots.com/24418/2877854630048177406S600x600Q85.jpg

I have about 5 more corals turning white at the base. Is there any hope or should I just look at this as collateral damage from my not calibrating the probe. I am trying to stay positive about this whole ordeal but now I am starting to panic as I thought the worst was over.

Thanks,

Henry

[kau_cinta_ku]

how low was your pH actually getting?

[nightOwl]

kau_cinta_ku,
Not exactly sure, but it I was adding a very large amounts of pH decreaser. I just looked at my logs and it was dipping below 7 :(.

Henry

[kau_cinta_ku]

what are the rest of your parameters?

[bmwaaron]

How long ago was your PH low?

[nightOwl]

Nitrate 5 ppm
pH 8.3
nitrite 0 ppm
ammonia 0 ppm
1.026 sg

pH was low about two weeks ago.

[Percula9]

I'm sorry for your losses, it's a good idea to test your meter against the chemical test.

[funman1]

I know I'm going to sound totally crazy but I heard it MANY times, and finally tried it...

IT WORKS..

Get your CA, ALK, MG levels where they should be (420, 9.0, 1300 respectively)
and your PH will fall RIGHT where it needs to be. I have not used my PH probe in over 8 months and just finally traded it for a new clam.

I don't even know where my PH is anymore but I know it's VERY close to 8.2 because it always was when I kept those three prams where they needed to be.

Test for those 3 and dose for those 3 and forget about ph!!
You will not need ph adjusters ever again, all they do is screw with your water chemistry in ways they shouldn't. Now there is a time and place for ph adjusters but in the normal course of a tank with those 3 prams balanced you should never need them..

[Sk8r]

I also recommend the basic procedure of settling the 3 cardinal readings in the zone, and using ro/di: I also rarely test ph, but when I do, it's always bang-on. The chemicals that stabilize those are also reliably 'safe', ie, they serve as a check on each other...if the alk or cal won't stay up despite dosing, the mg needs to be tested. I don't say infallible, just that I haven't had anything go 'off' since I got those readings stable. A kalk reactor helped my stability immensely: supplies all dosing needs for a 54 except mg....but that's beside the point. I think if you can get those 3 readings steady, everything will settle down.

For the corals, if your recession looks to be progressing, I'd frag off some branches that are definitely healthy and have them as a fallback. If it looks to have stopped, you can cross your fingers and hope healthy water will let them overgrow the dead bits and re-coat themselves. Don't throw any bits with live coral on them away: you'd be surprised what can regrow. I had the base of a broken montipora encrust, turn into a chandelier, and finally become quite a nice specimen.

[nightOwl]

After my pH incident I set up an alarm that goes off monthly remind me to recalibrate my pH prob :). I think I got caught up in what happens to a lot of people when they get new toys like the AC Jr, automation makes it so easy and manual testing gets so relaxed. This is the first major incident my tank has experienced where I have sustained coral looses since setting up my tank in 2004. Besides an ick outbreak in which I lost 3 fish root cause not quarantining a fish....never again.
I will get my Cal , Alk, and Mg test done tonight. I had my Cal tested last week at the lfs and it was at 420 ppm. I have always used RO/DI from the beginning so I have never had any of the algae issues a lot of new hobbyist complain about :). My nitrates are usually below 5 ppm as I slightly overfeed my tank as I have noticed my zoas look more colorful and before this incident my SPS were petty colorful as well. I try to make sure it is never over 5. A kalk reactor is on my list of items to buy. Once i have that I can get rid of the two-part doing system I have.
I guess I will have to do some fragging this weekend. My superman digi is just about gone and does not look promising :(. Two of my 3 color acros are looking ok but I noticed the recession starting and my ATL bonsai is not looking good either. For my monti caps should I just remove them from the tank? The edges look like when you pore acetone on styrofoam and are very brittle. I am hoping it will come back tonight I may take some depressing pictures of the white skeletons of my green and pink pocillopora and the pink birdnest that is white as well.
Please cross you fingers for me as I pray things pull through.

Thanks,

Henry

[Sk8r]

If anything will pull through it will be the lps and the montipora: it may regrow its bad parts, and will encrust and branch [if that is its habit.]
Re your ph problem, like funman, I never have a ph variance worth writing home about, and I can't understand why yours is swinging wildly---unless it is that meter. In my own experience, water where the basic triad [cal, alk, mg] is locked in and stable in relationship just doesn't have ph swings. Is there something about the 2-part that causes this? Is it something in your water, maybe the ro/di output needs checking? Have you got some weird acidic rock in the tank? I just don't understand why your tank is having this difficulty. I never adjust my ph, and never have in prior tanks.
I'd suggest you take this question to Bertoni or one of the other guys in the Reef Chemistry forum and try to figure out why your tank is doing this wild fluctuation that requires you to recalibrate your meter and stay so closely on top of it: I just can't believe it ought to require the amount of sweat and effort you're clearly putting into this tank---something's got to be causing it.

[kau_cinta_ku]

also how old is your probe?

[nightOwl]

Sk8r,
They recommend you recalibrate the pH probes every month. Before the incident I had not calibrated in a month and 2.5 weeks. At that time the pH was reading low. I had this great idea that I would bring the ph up so I was adding buffer at one point and lots of it :(. After not getting the results I expected for a week I called over a guy from my local club and the first thing he asked was “when was the last time you calibrated the probe”.
Since I had the lab grade I had figured it would last longer than the one month (one of the reasons people say get the lab grade maybe could have saved a few bucks). I installed the unit (AC Jr, DC8, lab grade probe, temp probe) back towards the end of July by the way. I recalibrated the probe after the week of low readings, but never did sanity check by putting it in the ph 7 or 10 after it was calibrated. Then my pH started reading high so that’s when I started using the pH decreaser, soda water, you name it I tried it. I know all bad things to do. The pH would come down then shoot back up. Finally on 10/23/2007, after talks with Curt from Neptune Systems I recalibrated the pH probe and since then I have been watching certain corals die off slowly :(. The probe was off and way off. Bertoni has been a great help in the water chemistry forum. I had a thread in there regarding my high pH in that forum and in the Neptune Systems forum. Bertoni was also one of the people that suggested testing the probe again.

kau_cinta_ku,
I brought all the equipment the end of June but was traveling so I did not install till the end of July.
I did not get a chance to even look at the tank this weekend so I will get the other test done tonight and report back the results.

Thanks,
Henry