Candy cane troubles! help please?

[anth245]

Hi

Recently transferred my old 30g tank into my new 40 day old 100g tank.
my candy canes immediately started to close and wilt, from 15 heads i had i have now about 6 and im determined to keep them.
nitrite =0
ammonia=0
nitrate =5ppm
calc=430
mg=1350
kh=12 (on the way down)
lights: vertex aquaristik 70% intensity.
I was not running carbon until today
I have a very powerful skimmer rated for 900 litres.

Does Anyone know how to save them???

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Pictures please

 

[ZeeSparrow]

What's the SG, and what were the parameters and equipment of the 30?

 

[anth245]

sg, 1.024 and my old 30 had some pretty rubbish water, high nitrates etc....
Will post a picture soon

 

[Dkuhlmann]

You should bump up your sg to 1.025-1.026 I run mine at 1.026 and my corals love it.

 

[anth245]

full pic if your interested also raising my ag will stress my fish..

 

[anth245]

Also today my vertex lights (£1000) broke so am using my back up t5 for lighting

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Raising your sg will not stress your fish. I've got several fish in my reef as do just about everyone else with a reef tank and we all have the sg at 1.025-1.026. But you have to raise it slowly. The best method is to use 1.026 mixed water for your top off instead of RODI. This will take it about a week to get up to the target sg.

 

[anth245]

Good idea, I just dont understand my previous tank was the same sg and they were loving life!

 

[ZeeSparrow]

So what changed between the two tanks? If parameters were the same, then perhaps the light/flow change is what did it.

 

[anth245]

The light intensity was at least doubled (if tripled) but they where placed low down and noting else seemed that bothered?

 

[Dkuhlmann]

As with slowly raising sg you also have to go very slowly raising light intensity if they were use to a different and lower light. But with lights I believe you should go even slower than with raising sg.

 

[ZeeSparrow]

Yeah, I'd start them at an equivalent or lower intensity than what you had them before. Then gradually (every week or two) increase it.

 

[Reef Frog]

Your Candy Canes look a little puckered up, but not in any kind of danger. This is common when they get too much direct light. I'd also get that alkalinity down too.

 

[jml1149]

I find my candy canes are SUPER sensitive to sudden changes in phosphate. I started GFO a little on the heavy side and probably stripped out the phosphate and whatever else GFO strips out too quickly. Two sets of candy canes, one blue and one electric green, shriveled up within a day or two.

I don't know if its the actual phosphate that causes the issue, or a change in the clarity of the water allowing more light to pass? Or perhaps differently filtered light? Either way.

After I cut the GFO out completely, my candy canes started coming back. My electric green one took the initial shock the worst, and is slowly recovering. My blue faired fairly well, and looks better than ever now.

I also added a light green one recently and that's been doing fine.

So I bet the sudden change from "rubbish" water to clean new water affected your candy canes negatively.

The only other thing I have seen affect my candy canes like this is sudden increases in light. So I tend to think the stripping of phosphate and whatever else GFO removes somehow affects the clarity of the water, but I am no expert.

 

[anth245]

Ye well for the time being im back running my old t5s. when i fix my led lights i will lower the intensity by 10% for about a week then go back to normal. i say this because everything else seemed to be loving the light.

Thanks for all the help

 

[anth245]

Also I think the light shift could have also been the reason for the death of one of my frogspawn heads

 

[Reef Frog]

^ This post rings true. When I first got my CCs years ago, before running GFO & using other aggressive nutrient export, they were large and more inflated - from the size of a US nickel or even quarter. Now that I've driven PO4 down they are much less "puffed up"...about the size of a dime or maybe even a little smaller. The electric green seem more suseptable than the maroon striped or teal colored varieties.

They all still extend feeding tentacles, eat well and are long lasting, so I still consider them healthy. Sometimes I think there is a subtle interplay between light levels and nutrients on coral coloration and polyp size and extension that is still not well understood (at least by me!)

I've never seen a blue candy cane. Anybody got a pic?

 

[anth245]

I Do not run Gfo because i prefer to have natural phosphate export (phosphate in correct amounts are extremely important for biological growth) instead i run something called poly filter which removes any ions (chlorine etc...), a media that encourages growth of nitrifying bacteria, carbon, fat protein skimmer, auto dose and top up systems