DMBillies
Active member
I've recently made a lot of changes to my 90 gallon tank, which has now become all SPS. Over the past few weeks I've noticed some changes in the corals (some of which are good, some are worrisome).
First, I got a good test kit for alkalinity and found out that it was running low for quite some time since the other test kit was reading low (down to about 5 :eek1: , now trying to keep it around 7-9 with the better kit). I suspected for a while that my alkalinity was kind of low because of my pH, but you live and learn... buy decent test kits right off the bat and you'll end up saving yourself a lot of hassle and money in the long run.
This low alkalinity may explain why I've been having problems with hair algae for quite some time also. However, just to be on the "safe side" I installed a phosban reactor to try to make sure that phosphates (unreadable on the test kit) were not to blame. I slowly increased the dose because I've heard that adding a phosban reactor can have bad effects on SPS if you just dump a bunch in. I upped the dose slowly (1/4, 1/2, 3/4, full over about 6 weeks).
I was also worried I didn't have quite enough flow, so I popped off a few of my loc-line T's (which actually seemed to be reducing the flow quite a bit, although putting it out in a more controlled manner) and added a mj1200. Hopefully I can remove that once I get some penductors to put on the closed loop and return.
So, those are the major changes I've made and I feel pretty confident now that my water is ship-shape. The hair algae is certainly not growing as much as it used to and I think with the addition of a few more bluelegs and snails (haven't added any in quite some time) that the problem will deal with itself.
My only concern is that lately, a lot of the corals that have been doing good higher up in my tank are starting to look a little bleached out. A lot of the stuff is starting to get color it's never had before, but I've had to cycle quite a few of my SPS to lower parts of the tank because they are bleaching and having little polyp extension. This seems to fix them. I'm just curious if anyone has ever experienced an increased sensitivity to light associated with the changes I've made (which may be too numerous to seperate). Most of the corals that are bleaching I would consider lower light SPS (mostly different monti's), but I never had issues with them where they were before. Enlighten me wise ones...
First, I got a good test kit for alkalinity and found out that it was running low for quite some time since the other test kit was reading low (down to about 5 :eek1: , now trying to keep it around 7-9 with the better kit). I suspected for a while that my alkalinity was kind of low because of my pH, but you live and learn... buy decent test kits right off the bat and you'll end up saving yourself a lot of hassle and money in the long run.
This low alkalinity may explain why I've been having problems with hair algae for quite some time also. However, just to be on the "safe side" I installed a phosban reactor to try to make sure that phosphates (unreadable on the test kit) were not to blame. I slowly increased the dose because I've heard that adding a phosban reactor can have bad effects on SPS if you just dump a bunch in. I upped the dose slowly (1/4, 1/2, 3/4, full over about 6 weeks).
I was also worried I didn't have quite enough flow, so I popped off a few of my loc-line T's (which actually seemed to be reducing the flow quite a bit, although putting it out in a more controlled manner) and added a mj1200. Hopefully I can remove that once I get some penductors to put on the closed loop and return.
So, those are the major changes I've made and I feel pretty confident now that my water is ship-shape. The hair algae is certainly not growing as much as it used to and I think with the addition of a few more bluelegs and snails (haven't added any in quite some time) that the problem will deal with itself.
My only concern is that lately, a lot of the corals that have been doing good higher up in my tank are starting to look a little bleached out. A lot of the stuff is starting to get color it's never had before, but I've had to cycle quite a few of my SPS to lower parts of the tank because they are bleaching and having little polyp extension. This seems to fix them. I'm just curious if anyone has ever experienced an increased sensitivity to light associated with the changes I've made (which may be too numerous to seperate). Most of the corals that are bleaching I would consider lower light SPS (mostly different monti's), but I never had issues with them where they were before. Enlighten me wise ones...
