Temp: 79F +/-0.5F
Alk: 9.0 dkh
Ca: 490 ppm
MG: 1350 ppm
Sal: 1.26
No3: undetectable
P04: 0.02 on Hach PO-19 test kit
NO2: undetectable
NH4: undetectable
PH: 8.1
Hello reef community. I've been reef keeping for about 7 years. I've moved frequently during that time and I've setup a new tank in every place I've lived. I've never had any real issues with rtn or stn of SPS until now. The only time I've had any real problems was a few years back when I had a friend maintain my tank while I was gone for 3 months. "œYour tank is looking really awesome. Your corals look so bright!" They were all bleached because the calcium reactor output was clogged and the alk was at 3.0dkh. This isn't a panicked outcry. If I've learned anything, the only thing that happens quickly in a reef tank is death. I'm not sure if anyone can assist me but I'd like to put my dilemma out there and see if there are any common experiences.
My tank has been setup for about 2 years. I added a few fish to the tank after it had cycled but didn't add any corals until about the 1 year mark. The only corals I put in the tank at that time were some rics and a few zoa colonies. Six months ago I started slowly adding some sps and lps. I quarantine and dip my corals. That doesn't guarantee anything but it helps. I also always cut the coral from whatever base they are attached to and glue to my own base. I like to try to avoid adding anything to my tank unintentionally. So after about the 1 month mark you can usually start to see your corals come around but I didn't really see the response I was expecting. They weren't really coloring up and the growth was very minimal. So I let them go another month and still nothing. I've never had a case where after 2 months most of my corals haven't shown much growth and really still look brown. That was when I sent my water to aquariumwatertesting and everything was in line. I was and still am running about a cup of carbon in a 10 micron filter sock. Besides having a calcium reactor I stopped putting anything else in the tank other than food. I don't have much algae growth but every 3 days or so the glass accumulates some. At this point some of the acros started to stn from the base. I went through all my equipment to make sure everything was in line from watching my calcium reactor output daily to make sure there were no fluctuations in alk, tds from ro/di, stray voltage testing, calibration of my refractometer, bought all new test kits just in case, put a 10 micron sock on my overflow output to catch any floating detritus, vacuumed detritus from the tank, and so on. Anything that was a change to the way my tank functioned I did singly and waited a few weeks to note any reaction before going to the next step. All of my lps and some of my sps seem stable but not really growing as I would expect them to after 7 months. The latest thing I've looked at, I believe it to be my last viable parameter to correct, is lighting. I've had a couple 400w magnetic metal halide ballasts for about 7 years. I used my PAR meter to measure my bulbs output and they seemed pretty low. The bulbs were 20k XMs and they were about 14 months old. Pretty old I know. I changed them out and when I measured there PAR it was only marginally better. My ballasts were dying out so I bought a couple new ones and the output is seeing a 100 percent increase, which requires acclimation so I don't kill them faster. I read a few papers and one of them indicated that if a metal halide bulb is under driven that the spectrum can shift significantly higher. I realize this is pretty long winded to get to lighting. I've never had just a bulb cause an rtn issue. Usually the corals just slow in growth and get a bit darker and my PAR wasn't that bad in the tank were the corals reside. I'm just wondering if a spectrum shift could cause such a profound effect. I won't really know if it was the right course correction for another month or so and if this isn't it then what is?
Alk: 9.0 dkh
Ca: 490 ppm
MG: 1350 ppm
Sal: 1.26
No3: undetectable
P04: 0.02 on Hach PO-19 test kit
NO2: undetectable
NH4: undetectable
PH: 8.1
Hello reef community. I've been reef keeping for about 7 years. I've moved frequently during that time and I've setup a new tank in every place I've lived. I've never had any real issues with rtn or stn of SPS until now. The only time I've had any real problems was a few years back when I had a friend maintain my tank while I was gone for 3 months. "œYour tank is looking really awesome. Your corals look so bright!" They were all bleached because the calcium reactor output was clogged and the alk was at 3.0dkh. This isn't a panicked outcry. If I've learned anything, the only thing that happens quickly in a reef tank is death. I'm not sure if anyone can assist me but I'd like to put my dilemma out there and see if there are any common experiences.
My tank has been setup for about 2 years. I added a few fish to the tank after it had cycled but didn't add any corals until about the 1 year mark. The only corals I put in the tank at that time were some rics and a few zoa colonies. Six months ago I started slowly adding some sps and lps. I quarantine and dip my corals. That doesn't guarantee anything but it helps. I also always cut the coral from whatever base they are attached to and glue to my own base. I like to try to avoid adding anything to my tank unintentionally. So after about the 1 month mark you can usually start to see your corals come around but I didn't really see the response I was expecting. They weren't really coloring up and the growth was very minimal. So I let them go another month and still nothing. I've never had a case where after 2 months most of my corals haven't shown much growth and really still look brown. That was when I sent my water to aquariumwatertesting and everything was in line. I was and still am running about a cup of carbon in a 10 micron filter sock. Besides having a calcium reactor I stopped putting anything else in the tank other than food. I don't have much algae growth but every 3 days or so the glass accumulates some. At this point some of the acros started to stn from the base. I went through all my equipment to make sure everything was in line from watching my calcium reactor output daily to make sure there were no fluctuations in alk, tds from ro/di, stray voltage testing, calibration of my refractometer, bought all new test kits just in case, put a 10 micron sock on my overflow output to catch any floating detritus, vacuumed detritus from the tank, and so on. Anything that was a change to the way my tank functioned I did singly and waited a few weeks to note any reaction before going to the next step. All of my lps and some of my sps seem stable but not really growing as I would expect them to after 7 months. The latest thing I've looked at, I believe it to be my last viable parameter to correct, is lighting. I've had a couple 400w magnetic metal halide ballasts for about 7 years. I used my PAR meter to measure my bulbs output and they seemed pretty low. The bulbs were 20k XMs and they were about 14 months old. Pretty old I know. I changed them out and when I measured there PAR it was only marginally better. My ballasts were dying out so I bought a couple new ones and the output is seeing a 100 percent increase, which requires acclimation so I don't kill them faster. I read a few papers and one of them indicated that if a metal halide bulb is under driven that the spectrum can shift significantly higher. I realize this is pretty long winded to get to lighting. I've never had just a bulb cause an rtn issue. Usually the corals just slow in growth and get a bit darker and my PAR wasn't that bad in the tank were the corals reside. I'm just wondering if a spectrum shift could cause such a profound effect. I won't really know if it was the right course correction for another month or so and if this isn't it then what is?
