does this duncan look fine

[troylong45]

i have this duncan coral and been maybe a month since i got it and so far the placement of the coral is now where it seems to like it the best as far has how it looks . it doesn't seem to extend the tentacles very much.maybe at most i seen them extend 1/4" this is the best it has looked since i got it from a local frager i have a mushroom coral that has doubled in size since then and just added star polps and they look great is it ok maybe just getting used to the tank still ??

 

[SPotter]

tank looks pretty new given how white your rocks are. It doesnt look too happy.....how much flow is in your tank and how close to the light do you have it? My duncans would sometimes look a little irritated right before popping out new heads but it wouldnt last more than a few days.

 

[troylong45]

Well I been adding dry rock from time to time . That spot of rock is only a week old.
I started with 20 pounds live sand 60 pounds dry sand 7 pounds live rock maybe 30-40 pounds dry rock Maco algae added hermit crabs let set for a month added 1 fish a week with adding seachems stability bio stuff
I now have 2 clowns ,blue hippo tang ,2 damsels, cleaner shrimp and has been 2-3 months steady readings since

 

[SPotter]

what are your levels for ca, alk, mg, sg, no3 and po4?

 

[troylong45]

Low flow and a 1/3 of the way up from the bottom in a 75gal with 30gal refugeim which is holding about 100gal and has 4 48" t5ho bulbs I never seen my water levels move hardly. My dkh is a tiny bit high should be 9-12 I'm told and it's at 14
nitrates are 5-10 ppm which lfs said that's OK
Nitrites are 0
Ammonia 0
Calcium 540
Ph 8-8.2
Phosphate 0
Temp 79-80 f
Specific gravity 1.024

 

[troylong45]

I had him for a month or so but he has only been in that spot for a week and seems to look the best I have seen so far and when I first got him I was new to coral and busted the head on the bottom of the pic which is to part that looks like I piece hanging off it but since then it looks like it has almost fully repaired that spot

 

[SPotter]

I would move it to the bottom and work on lowering your alk and ca a little. Are you dosing? how long do you have your lights on?

 

[troylong45]

Not dosing with any thing I use instant ocean reef crystal salt and ro. I think my dkh was high cus when it was first set up I used treated tap water with seachems prime and then my dkh was like 20 plus and the calcium seems to be the salt I made some aand tested it I think it came to 12 dkh and 560 calcium but that was freshly mixed Im not sure what it would been after letting it mix for a dayish

 

[troylong45]

Lights are

2 10 k's from 1130-1930(8 hrs)

1 atintic(the 2nd shipped broken since I had bought the setup)1030-2030(10 hrs)

and moon light 800-2300(15 hrs)

 

[madweazl]

My duncan seemed to prefer low to medium water movement (nothing direct) and was very sensitive to light (took a long time to acclimate to LEDs after switching from T5s).

 

[troylong45]

He seems to be in low water flow every once and a while I see the flow fluter the fingers on it just slightly and most the time it it pretty still but flow is running by him I tried to spot feed it rotorfers once and most of it would stay in its grasp and slowly flow away

 

[troylong45]

I have coralin algae growing I heard that means a good tank I guess

 

[troylong45]

Salinity 1.024
Temp 78f
Ph 7.8 lights been off for 3-4 hrs
Dkh 15ish 7 days ago was 14
Calcium 500ish 7 days ago was 540
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 20
Nitrite 0
Phosphate 0

 

[SPotter]

your alk is too high and I would cut the 10k lighting back to 6 hrs a day. take a look at the care levels for duncans according to live aquaria..

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=597+2790+2670&pcatid=2670

need to figure out why your alk is going up. Are you using Kalk in your ato? how often are you doing water changes?

 

[troylong45]

Kalk what's that stand for? I need to get the top of ro water tested to see what it is at before salt is mixed or typed off . I tested the water with my test kit and it's 1 or less dkh but I don't have fresh water dkh test to make sure that really is right.

I try to do 15% wc a month. Only because I'm out of a job for a while. Would love to do It more often.

 

[SPotter]

cut back on the lighting, put the duncan on the bottom of the tank in a semi shaded area and give it some time. Dont worry about testing alk prior making salt water.

 

[troylong45]

Ok I'll try to test mixed water when I do a water change I'll try one soon

 

[troylong45]

When I first placed the Duncan there the big head was more open/flat maybe it's closed up like that because it's repairing it's other head or maybe popeing out more heads there is a smaller head on the back side that I can't get pic of but looks more open then the big head

 

[SPotter]

Duncan like low flow and low to moderate light. You're running two 10k bulbs that are high par producers for 8 hrs a day and that's a lot for the Duncan. It looks stressed out so definitely cut back to 6 hrs a day and move it to the bottom where it can recover and begin to grow. Duncans are some of the easiest lps to have.

 

[troylong45]

Ok yea I put him on the bottom and just so happens a 10k bulb burnt out so I'm going to pick up a blue 15k ati and a aqua blue ati then I'll have the 1 10k and 1 atintic and I cut it back to 6 hours and then the 10 hrs atintic and 12 hours moon lights

Does that sound good I'm trying to switch my t5s to match this combo I found on line is it good for what I need ?
Link is http://home.comcast.net/~stevelarsen00/site/?/page/Lamps_and_lamp_combinations/
These should all be about 15K blue unless otherwise noted.

4 lamps

Blue
Fiji Purple or ATI Purple Plus
Aquablue
Blue