120 Gallon of I Dont Know!

[reefer_man_mike]

Hows it going guys and gals,

I am having some troubles with corals in my tank, Everything from zoas to SPS. I will start with a tank background.

120 gallon 4'x2'x2'
55 gallon sump - 30 Gallon Refugium with cheato
Radion G3 Pro / G2 - Radiant colour preset with max set at 60%
Vortech Mp-40 x2
Bubble King Mini 180
Vertex Bio-pellets
Vertex Carbon
GHL Doser
Fauna Marin Balling Light System
Fauna Marin Colour Elements - 10 ml of each weekly
AquaVitro Fuel - 23 ml bi-weekly
Red Sea Coral Pro Salt - 20 Gallon water change weekly


Water Parameters- All tests done with red sea pro test kits

Salinity- 1.026
Calcium- 450 ppm
Alkalinity- 8.1 Dkh
Magnesium- 1400 ppm
Phosphate- 0.04 ppm
Nitrate- 12-16 ppm (two months ago was 0 ppm, unknown reason)
Potassium - 418 ppm

This tank has been running for the last 5 years. I currently have no algae problems. I use only RO/DI water for everything. The problems i am having are poor colour and health on roughly 50% of my corals.i have some zoas that are absolutely thriving and others that are on the verge of death it seams. All seam to keep growing more polyps yet colours are pale and polyps and not fully inflated. I have a Plate coral that stays shriveled up all day and also has poor colour, yet expands fully at night. Acans also are not doing well. Yet on the other side of the spectrum i have sps that are growing like crazy and have fantastic colour, and other that have not grown or are very bland. My Blues, Purples, and Reds are very faint.

Feeding consists of

Fauna Marin LPS grow and colour
Fauna Marin Zoa formula
Reef Roids
New era
P.E Mysis


I will try to get some pictures of my set up and corals.





Before

After

Before - Nice green body/ purple tips

After - Growth but faded colour


Current mix of Good/Bad-

 

[reefer_man_mike]

 

[GroktheCube]

Have you ruled out predators and pests?

When I see some corals in a system thriving and others very unhappy, I tend to think predation, flow, or food availability.

 

[GatorAlum05]

had same issue. Eventually went back to basic. Took carbon off. Took biopellet off. Took GFO off. Everything thrives now. Keep it simple stupid. A good size skimmer and a monthly water change was all I needed.

 

[rovster]

Excellent equipment! What does your fish selection consist of?


For me, I would look at 2 things:
1. Low nutrients. Your corals have that I need just a bit more look to them.
2. Light. The radiant setting on the radions is very heavy in the blue, which is great for LPS, Zoas, and displaying SPS, but as I understand it, SPS need a little more white in there to really grow. Maybe others can comment. Seems those that have the most success with the radions, have a good chunk of "daylight" (12K-14K) in there graphs.

 

[reefer_man_mike]

Thanks guys for the replies.

I have no ruled out predators, i just have not seen anything. The only predator i might have is my flame angel and i never see it pick at corals.

I have also been contemplating removing the pellets as well. I am just worried about my nitrates as they are someone elevated currently.


As for the Radions. I currently have 1 G3 Pro and a G2 both are set to max output of 60%. My lighting period is 12 hrs 11-11, the lights are at max intensity for maybe only 2 hrs at around 5.

Fish list consists of:

Sailfin tang
2 clowns
1 damsel
3 PJ cardinals

 

[reefer_man_mike]

im leaning towards nitrates as they are not dropping even with weekly 20 gallon water changes which is probably only 15%. I am considering doing a much larger 50 gallon water change with a through vacuum of the tank bottom and using a power head to blow out the rock work. I also have brought my lights down to 50% max and removed a table spoon of pellets. I will keep posted my results.


Would it be of any value to set up a tank just for fish. I have been considering starting a frag tank in my basement. Would it be safer to place the fish in a separate environment while reducing the nitrates?

 

[reefer_man_mike]

Just wanted to bump this old thread back up due to some Success.


After a couple months of tinkering and getting back to basics i am seeing

- Corals Colour Enhancing/ regaining former colour
- New growth seen daily
- Better polyp extension daily

The what i did list

- Slowly removed pellets
- Changed back to Reef Crystals from Red Sea Coral Pro (Coral Growth Formula)
- Changed RO Membrane
- Purchased Booster pump / New TDS meter as i had doubts about both my old ones
- Started feeding more regularly and more variety
- Addition of Supplement T5 lighting 4X54w

Reasons-

At the beginning i was unsure if the addition of the new pellets shocked the system. I began reducing the amount over a period of a couple months. At the end i noticed no change, only noticed the amount of algae increased slightly.

After some more time with no success i decided to change back to reef crystals after seeing other reefers with beautiful SPS systems using this salt. The second point to the change was the parameter swings i was inducing with the red sea coral growth salt (constant ALk swings).

I was still not sure about the root cause of my algae and nitrates. My TDS meters both read Zero but I was flying through DI resin. I decided to purchase a new meter and membrane. Low and behold my old TDS meter was out by 15- 20 TDS. The addition of the booster pump was nessicary as i was running at 40 PSI.

The addition of T5 was solely to give the corals and extra boost at peak hours. As well as to rid some SPS of bleaching in shadows.

Lastly i have been feeding my fish and corals more frequently

- New Era Pellets
- Omega 1 Flake
- Frozen Brine
- Reef Roids
- Polyp Booster
- Cyclopzees
- Fauna Marin LPS pellets
- Fauna Marin Zoa food
- Doc's eco egg brew

Also still dosing AquaVitro Fuel and Fauna Marin Colour Elements.


So After all of this. KEEP IT SIMPLE! KEEP IT SIMPLE! KEEP IT SIMPLE!

Theres a ton of products out there that some may find necessary or nuisance. But keeping it simple will most likely yield the best results. Good Water! Good Trusted Salt! A good skimmer! and proper husbandry.

Thanks everyone who helped out. I will try to take some pictures to post.

 

[Chris Lakies]

I agree with Rovster...

 

[trueblackpercula]

well without seeing your tank in person I would say look at the below and maybe it will give you some ideas,
Intensity too high
intensity too high and wrong spectrum
Intensity too high wrong spectrum and light cycle on to long
flame angle eating your corals as they nip big time
removal of nutrients too fast.
hope this helps
Michael