Failing reefer, need help...

[deleau]

I had problems with 12k light on my tank. I found that 20k light works best for my corals during the peak times, and during the ramp/off-peak, I run modified 20k light setting with reds & greens turned down a lot. I had algae bloom problem that became manageable once I dropped the reds and greens. Later I added a GFO reactor to wipe it out more, but I don't go crazy with GFO because I'm shooting for about 0.05 phosphates.

I had very similar problems to you with SPS; the only things that I can tell are different between me back then and you now are tinkering with the light spectrum a bit and letting tank mature. SPS that survived back then are thriving now, and (knock on wood), I haven't lost an SPS frag in months...some I am still trying to find the "happy spot" in the tank but nothing had all out died.

 

[oldbones]

More good tips, thank you! I am keeping an eye on everything in the tank looking for the first signs of stress from too much light. Not seeing anything YET, but that doesn't mean I won't tomorrow. Trying to go very slow.

I'm also bumping the blues more than the other colors, trending towards maybe 14-15k for my peak times and cooler elsewhere. I do have one chalice that survived a bad bleaching episode when I first started the tank, it has now come back from bone white and has pretty much all it's color back. I honestly thought that was a goner. At least now I'll know what to look for!

Over the last two weeks, our temps have dropped a bunch, and now the furnace is running a fair bit. This of course is drying out the air inside the house (even though it's raining buckets outside) and my evap rate is going up considerably. Since I'm running Kalk in the ATO, this is also driving ALK up. So, I've had to lower my Part B dose, and lowering the Kalk concentration from 2 tsp/gal to 1.

On the plus side, the tank seems to be consuming a bit more calcium, so my Calc and Alk doses are finally starting to level out. Before, I was having to dose 36ml/day ALK and only 12ml/day Calc. Actually, now I'm at 18 and 18, hurrah for small victories!

So many things to keep a handle on!