800 gallon reef with some questions.

[Reefaquariumnut]

I am not sure who or where to direct these questions so i thought i would start here and if the thread needs to move so be it.

Here are the tank equipment list and parameters.

600 gallon display- 8 x 4 x 30"

3 sump system totaling 250 gallons. One sump is a refugium with cheato and 3" sand, second holds 100 lbs of LR, and third has skimmers.

One of the overflows has a 2" pipe that has an 80W Aqua UV in-line before it connects to the other 2" overflow (opposite side of tank) and dumps into skimmer sump.

The rest of the excess water dumps into the other two sumps.

An Ehiem pump powers an ozone reactor from Marine Technical Concepts with a 100Mg Ozotech unit.

Return pump is Barracuda

OM-4 way powered by a Barracuda

4-Tunze 6201's and 2-6101's

6-IceCap 400w E-Ballast w/Reefux 12k Bulbs

Bubble King Super Marine 300 and 250 skimmers

Geo 1218 Calcium Reactor and Geo 818 Kalk reactor

ACIII Pro to run the show


Parameters: Ranges I have had in the past 45 days

pH - 8.12 to 8.45

ORP - 380 to 400

Temp - 78.5 to 81.5

Calcium - 440 to 480

Alk - 8.7 to 9.2

Mag - 1440 to 1500

Nitrates - 10 to 15

Phosphates - 0.02 to 0.06


That is about it...Questions to follow.

Thanks!

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

I did forget i have a carbon reactor and phosphate reactor fed off a manifold from the barracuda return pump. These are changed every 6 weeks.

I also do a 100 water change every 6 weeks.

Tank has been set up 7 months and has had the majority of corals for 3+ months.

I have around 100 frags and colonies of SPS and a 5-6 colonies of LPS and softies.

I have around 60 fish in the tank ranging from 1" yashia gobies to 3" anthias to 10" tangs.

I feed frozen...4 cubes mysis, 3 cubes brine, 2 cubes bloodworms, 2 cubes baby brine, and 1 sheet red nori.


Most of the colonies are growing pretty good, but the coloration seems to my biggest problem. Most of the corals have browned out or turned to dull colors. Some of the corals are bright red or green or blue or purple...but most of them have lost the colors when they went into the tank. Nothing has died in the last 45 days and i only have lost 3-4 corals in the 8 months.

Questions:

1) Are the corals just acclimating to the enviroment and will come back at some point?

2) Is my feeding type amount okay?

3) Do any of my parameters look like a problem?

4) Should I be dosing any other supplements?

5) Should I be doing a larger water change or more frequently?

6) Should change my lighting bulbs?


I am looking for that fine line between growth, healthy looking corals, and coloration...Any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[GACDIVER]

I would tend to look first at the bulbs needing replacement. Then at the diet for the corals second.

Usually browning of corals that have good health other wise indicates that there is a shift of the internal zoaxanthella population in response to greater wave lengths of red and yellow spectra of light that older bulbs will tend to produce.

On the food end you may not be providing them with the right amount of aminos, protines, and other pigments that would be found in phyto and zoaplankton.

Also I must ask why you are running both a UV and Ozone.

1. The system is fairly small to warent running ozone.
2. The UV is greatly undersized for this size of tank.
3. You should run your UV post filtration for greatest effectivness, not on the downside of an overflow, I bet your sleeve is pretty dirty. You should inspect them twice a year when you change the bulb, basically when you change your halides you should change your UV.

 

[waynem]

IMO your phosphate is the problem.

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

My phosphates or the phosphate reactor?

 

[waynem]

Phosphates,

your reading seems high at 0.06. 0.02 to 0.06 is a big range.

Do you wash your frozen food? may claim success with this although I tend not to do it.

The rest of your setup is really good.

 

[username in use]

i wonder about the phosphates, i have been batleing high phos. in my system for a while, and none of my corals have lost any color. I tend to lean more to the release of their zoaxanthalae. The only issue is figuring why they did it.

 

[username in use]

also, some photos of the corals might help us see whats happening. And I forgot to ask, but how is the growth of the corals, ar ethey still growing, has it slowed, has it stopped?

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

I will post some pictures this weekend.

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

I can't run my UV post skimmer due to the skimmer sump being level with the return sumps. There would be no room and no pressure to push it through the UV unit.

I chose to go with both UV and Ozone because i wanted to accomplish two different issues. UV to kill parasites and Ozone to polish the water. I chose small units of each because i did not want to over kill the tank and thought my refugium could help out some as well.

Remember now the ranges I got for all the parameters are within 45-60 days...So one week it might be 0.02 and another it might be 0.06. I only test on the weekends and sometimes it has been fed a few hours earlier and sometimes not. I would say the average has been more around .04.

I think the main problem could be with the lighting being 7 months old. I am either going to switch to Ushio or Geisemann next. My par meter says the bottom of my tank is around 320ish now. i did not have it when the bulbs were new.

I think the other problem could have been my old calcium and kalk reactors...They were Volcano reactors and they just could not keep up with my system...so i pulled them off a week ago and ordered Geo Reactors. In the interm I was dosing Bulk Reef 2-Part and it seemed to be worse as some of the corals started to freak out...then I started dosing ESV A&B Ionic (3 days) and the polyp extension and coloring have really started to change (probably better than the reactors ever did).

You guys could skim through my tank thread in the large tank forums under "North Dakota Mini Ocean". It has tons of pictures and information.

I think I will start with lighting and getting the Geo reactors dialed in and start there.

 

[waynem]

I have read your build thread. I like your setup.

Worth asking what test kits are you using?

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

Salifert and Hanna meter for phosphates

 

[Kenmx10]

Have you tried feeding live Phytoplankton? How far off the surface is your lights?

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

17" off crest of water. Yes, I have fed live phyto. it worked a little bit, but my phosphates seemed to rise some.

 

[kaptken]

It could be a variety of problems working together. the lights are pretty high above the water of a 30 inch deep tank. No mention of reflector type or efficiency. I seem to remember something about the light intensity varries by the inverse square of the distance. so it could be your par at the corals is not as high as you might think.

second, is the high nitrates from the heavy fish load.. Is the water crystal clear or a little murky green? any discoloration of the water will further reduce the light penetration to the corals.

I know phosphates will reduce coral growth and calcification. Not sure what nitrates inhibit. Do yo have more Live rock than just the 100 pounds in the sump? The 10-15 ppm nitrates says your denitrating is not keeping up with the load. Acro's still like zero.

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

I have IceCap 400w Ballasts with Lumenbright reflectors (recomended to be 17-19" from crest of water)...The par on sand bed is like 400. My water is crystal clear. I have around 550lbs of Liverock total in the tank.

 

[MrPike]

Browned out corals are normally a sign of too many nutrients or not enough light. You mentioned that you have 320 par at the bottom of your tank which seems more then adequate to me for a 30" tank.

If you were concerned about poor growth rate, I think it might implicate PO4. Since your more concerned about the dark corals it might be a sign of high Nitrates, it causes the Zoox to multiply and brown out your corals. Your nitrate reading of 10-15 might be a reason for the dark corals.

I think I would avoid additional nitrogen sources like amino acids, they seem to be more of a solution to light corals with no color rather then already dark corals.

Im not sure I agree with lighting being an issue here - I change my halides on a 2 year basis, with no negative effect.

 

[estamm]

!!!!!! Phosphates !!!!! -- its a common problem in our neck of the woods (and A fairly easy fix).... My LFS even has a "browned out" coral holding pen, usually aquired from trade ins. Great healthy colonies are sold at discount because they are browned out from high PO4 levels. A few of my colonies are from the "brown tank" and they have all returned to normal color after a month or so in my tank, other local reefers I have talked to shop at the "brown tank" also with similar results... Iv heard that some test kits register inorganic phosphates and some organic which can cause confusion with the actual levels... ES...