125mph
New member
Just saw the cursed tank thread.. well here's another one:
I had a 60G cube many years ago, and fish and corals did well.. However, when I upgraded to my 120G 5 years ago, corals never really did well afterwards. Fish and nems live fine, but all new corals introduced = dead!!
Most everything I transferred from the 60G made it. I have some branching gsp, xenia, tons of different kinds of zoas, and frogspawn that are doing well and growing. I have a BTA and a haddoni which are doing fine too. And fish are fat and healthy. But any new coral frags usually die in 1-2 weeks.
My parameters:
- Nitrates & Nitrites: undetectable (seachem test)
- Phosphates: .12ppm (hanna test)
- Calcium: 490 (hanna test)
- dKH: 8.5 (hanna test)
I've tried introducing over $2000 worth of coral. (Probably closer to $3000) and they all die. I did a lot of trial and error, changing placements, changing all kinds of stuff to see what would work. I went to zero N&P (ran GFO + bio reactor) and that didnt seem to change things, and thought maybe nutrient was too low and so I took off the GFO and ran very little in the bio reactor, which didnt fix it either. I went from LED to T5 and now back to LED. I tuned LED's very low and went high as well. I changed flows (dialed vortechs up and down, random) and changed frag placement to start high, low and in-between. Not really sure what else to do.
I just introduced a duncan and a chalice. Both placed in the bottom of the tank where par is about 80 only. Was told both of these guys like sub-dued lighting. Duncan is pretty much a goner. It was receding very badly and now wont come out anymore, and the chalice has bleached out a little and definitely faded in color. I still have some minor hopes for the chalice. One time I purchased three green birdsnest and place one at the top of my rocks, one at the middle, and one at the sand bed. All 3 bleached out. Didnt matter if it was 100par, 200par or 400 par.
The main difference between my 60G and my 120G is the old setup was using a refugium and the new one has a bio reactor. And I actually just unplugged the bio reactor and installed a refugium with chaeto to try to eliminate one more possibility of the difference why the old tank did well and the upgraded one isnt.
I really want some ducans and other corals to live!!! Also, not sure if this is helpful but I did notice the live rock doesn't have very much coraline algae. These rocks have been there for 5+ years.
Other info:
Old tank: 60G cube, refugium, AI Sol Blue lights, Media reactor, BK skimmer
Current setup: 120G, refugium (just replaced the bio reactor), AI Hydra 52 lights (was running ATI T5, and prior to that, was running the AI Sol Blues), Media reactor, vertex 150 skimmer, calcium reactor. Everything controlled by an Neptune Apex.
Any other suggestions? Only thing I can think of is either N&P (nutrient issue), lights, and flow... And I've dialed these various ways without any success.
Fish include Regal Angel, Potters Angel, Purple Tang, clowns... and about to introduce a melanurus wrasse.. All fish seem fine, fat and healthy.
I had a 60G cube many years ago, and fish and corals did well.. However, when I upgraded to my 120G 5 years ago, corals never really did well afterwards. Fish and nems live fine, but all new corals introduced = dead!!
Most everything I transferred from the 60G made it. I have some branching gsp, xenia, tons of different kinds of zoas, and frogspawn that are doing well and growing. I have a BTA and a haddoni which are doing fine too. And fish are fat and healthy. But any new coral frags usually die in 1-2 weeks.
My parameters:
- Nitrates & Nitrites: undetectable (seachem test)
- Phosphates: .12ppm (hanna test)
- Calcium: 490 (hanna test)
- dKH: 8.5 (hanna test)
I've tried introducing over $2000 worth of coral. (Probably closer to $3000) and they all die. I did a lot of trial and error, changing placements, changing all kinds of stuff to see what would work. I went to zero N&P (ran GFO + bio reactor) and that didnt seem to change things, and thought maybe nutrient was too low and so I took off the GFO and ran very little in the bio reactor, which didnt fix it either. I went from LED to T5 and now back to LED. I tuned LED's very low and went high as well. I changed flows (dialed vortechs up and down, random) and changed frag placement to start high, low and in-between. Not really sure what else to do.
I just introduced a duncan and a chalice. Both placed in the bottom of the tank where par is about 80 only. Was told both of these guys like sub-dued lighting. Duncan is pretty much a goner. It was receding very badly and now wont come out anymore, and the chalice has bleached out a little and definitely faded in color. I still have some minor hopes for the chalice. One time I purchased three green birdsnest and place one at the top of my rocks, one at the middle, and one at the sand bed. All 3 bleached out. Didnt matter if it was 100par, 200par or 400 par.
The main difference between my 60G and my 120G is the old setup was using a refugium and the new one has a bio reactor. And I actually just unplugged the bio reactor and installed a refugium with chaeto to try to eliminate one more possibility of the difference why the old tank did well and the upgraded one isnt.
I really want some ducans and other corals to live!!! Also, not sure if this is helpful but I did notice the live rock doesn't have very much coraline algae. These rocks have been there for 5+ years.
Other info:
Old tank: 60G cube, refugium, AI Sol Blue lights, Media reactor, BK skimmer
Current setup: 120G, refugium (just replaced the bio reactor), AI Hydra 52 lights (was running ATI T5, and prior to that, was running the AI Sol Blues), Media reactor, vertex 150 skimmer, calcium reactor. Everything controlled by an Neptune Apex.
Any other suggestions? Only thing I can think of is either N&P (nutrient issue), lights, and flow... And I've dialed these various ways without any success.
Fish include Regal Angel, Potters Angel, Purple Tang, clowns... and about to introduce a melanurus wrasse.. All fish seem fine, fat and healthy.
