Folta
New member
Hello fellow reefers... I'm at a very frustrating point at the moment, and am hoping that I can get some advice from people here. The situation is that I have just upgraded my tank from a 55 gallon to a 180 gallon, and pretty much everything (corals) is dieing. First, let me describe what I had for the 55 setup:
55 gallon display
10 gallon sump with a few bioballs (about a handful)
mag 2 return from the sump to the display
maxijet 900 on one side
maxijet 1200 on the other
Jebo 180 skimmer (but its been off for a while as it kept overflowing onto the floor)
About a 3" deep sandbed
A decent amount of liverock for a 55 (basically it was stacked almost to the top).
2 250w MH Xm bulbs w/ m58 magnetic ballasts and spider reflectors.
The 180 that I transfered to was:
180 gallon display
75 gallon sump
reeflo dart for return
2 seio 2600's in display for added flow
3" deep sandbed
Same exact liverock (I wanted a lower profile rockwork in the tank, so I decided to just move it over first and then down the road would add more if I felt like it needed more)
2 tek fixtures, T5, 39w per bulb, 6 bulbs per fixture for a total of 12 bulbs. This was comprised of 6 aquablue, 4 actinic, and 2 daylight, all geissman brand.
I had about 10 or so frags of sps (millis, torts, hydropora, caps, digitata, stag, etc), various shrooms, zoanthids, yellow polyps, a torch coral, and a few hammers.
Every single sps has died, gone completely white in a matter of days. Most were attached to rocks, so I did the dumb thing and didn't acclimate them individually, but moved them with the liverock they were on. A few pieces I did acclimate over a period of about 3 hours (my typical way of acclimating things to the 55, and I had yet to lose a piece like this in the past year). The LPS looks like its on their last legs, completely shriveled and not many polyps left. All the zoas are closed up, however a few of them seem to be opening up today. The xenia melted away pretty quick (at least one positive thing!).
On top of coral livestock, I have 6 fish: a yellow tang, 2 clowns, a purple firefish, a flame angel, and a leopard wrasse. They all are alive and doing very well (all eating, swimming, being curious... typically fishy business). I have a couple shrimp - coral banded and fire - and both are doing well, picking at the rocks, eating, etc. Hermits and snails are also all doing well.
Parameters of 55:
temp 81-83 deg swing, night to day
salinity 1.025
pH 8.3
nitrites 0
ammonia 0
nitrates ~ 20
Parameters of 180:
temp 80.5 - no fluctuation.
salinity 1.025
pH 8.3
nitrites 0
ammonia 0
nitrates ~ 5
All tests were done with same test kits for both tanks, and the salinity was checked with a refractometer.
I'm at a loss of what to do at this point. I don't know if its too intense light from the T5's, or not enough, or too much flow all of a sudden, or not acclimating things properly (although even the ones I did didn't/aren't making it)... I don't know what direction to go now. My first guess was the light was hitting them too hard, these lights being new and the MH's being about 6 months old. So for a few days I've ran a lower cycle - 4 39w bulbs total for the most part, 1 hour with bulbs on max. It doesn't seem to matter, whenever I check, the corals are all doing worse.
Help me!
55 gallon display
10 gallon sump with a few bioballs (about a handful)
mag 2 return from the sump to the display
maxijet 900 on one side
maxijet 1200 on the other
Jebo 180 skimmer (but its been off for a while as it kept overflowing onto the floor)
About a 3" deep sandbed
A decent amount of liverock for a 55 (basically it was stacked almost to the top).
2 250w MH Xm bulbs w/ m58 magnetic ballasts and spider reflectors.
The 180 that I transfered to was:
180 gallon display
75 gallon sump
reeflo dart for return
2 seio 2600's in display for added flow
3" deep sandbed
Same exact liverock (I wanted a lower profile rockwork in the tank, so I decided to just move it over first and then down the road would add more if I felt like it needed more)
2 tek fixtures, T5, 39w per bulb, 6 bulbs per fixture for a total of 12 bulbs. This was comprised of 6 aquablue, 4 actinic, and 2 daylight, all geissman brand.
I had about 10 or so frags of sps (millis, torts, hydropora, caps, digitata, stag, etc), various shrooms, zoanthids, yellow polyps, a torch coral, and a few hammers.
Every single sps has died, gone completely white in a matter of days. Most were attached to rocks, so I did the dumb thing and didn't acclimate them individually, but moved them with the liverock they were on. A few pieces I did acclimate over a period of about 3 hours (my typical way of acclimating things to the 55, and I had yet to lose a piece like this in the past year). The LPS looks like its on their last legs, completely shriveled and not many polyps left. All the zoas are closed up, however a few of them seem to be opening up today. The xenia melted away pretty quick (at least one positive thing!).
On top of coral livestock, I have 6 fish: a yellow tang, 2 clowns, a purple firefish, a flame angel, and a leopard wrasse. They all are alive and doing very well (all eating, swimming, being curious... typically fishy business). I have a couple shrimp - coral banded and fire - and both are doing well, picking at the rocks, eating, etc. Hermits and snails are also all doing well.
Parameters of 55:
temp 81-83 deg swing, night to day
salinity 1.025
pH 8.3
nitrites 0
ammonia 0
nitrates ~ 20
Parameters of 180:
temp 80.5 - no fluctuation.
salinity 1.025
pH 8.3
nitrites 0
ammonia 0
nitrates ~ 5
All tests were done with same test kits for both tanks, and the salinity was checked with a refractometer.
I'm at a loss of what to do at this point. I don't know if its too intense light from the T5's, or not enough, or too much flow all of a sudden, or not acclimating things properly (although even the ones I did didn't/aren't making it)... I don't know what direction to go now. My first guess was the light was hitting them too hard, these lights being new and the MH's being about 6 months old. So for a few days I've ran a lower cycle - 4 39w bulbs total for the most part, 1 hour with bulbs on max. It doesn't seem to matter, whenever I check, the corals are all doing worse.
Help me!
