getting no growth out of my 20

D

dhayden

New member
Hey guys, I got a 20g up for about 7months. Prizm skimmer, ac "fuge", sieo 620, 150w 14k, 48w atinics. I do water changes every 2 weeks 15%. i have had no purple coraline growth, and no growth on the corals, even zoas. Have plenty of green coraline :0. I have been battleing a ph problem from day 1. I have no prob. keeping it a 7.8 if kh is at 11; but to get it at 8.2 kh goes to 15. I drip Klak in my top off every day, one week kalk, one week reef complete. Not getting what I am missing.
Amon: 0
No2: 0
No3: 5 (tops)
ph 7.8
Kh 11
Mg. 1350
Calc 450

Shown all be working, im missing something. Is weekly water changes necc.? Anyone get good growth out of a nano?
 
Alot of people say that coralline prefers lower light. I guess you have some purple in there already? Have you tested for phosphate? I've read that high levels of phosphate inhibit coralline growth.
 
I have never tested phosphate. Didnt figure I have much since I have no alage. I had heard about the high light inhibits it a little also. But I have seen sps tanks with coraline in them. I do have some rocks with purple in there. I have a few spots in the powerhead, etc..

I know the ph is low. My main issue I think. I cant get it up though. Do most people buff sepaately? Meaning I figure my top off water with buff and complete, or kalk has enough ph in it to adjust. But thats not working. Do you all buff separate? I can get the ph up but then my kh goes way up too. Not sure how to get ph up w/o Alk.
 
Also I had put an airsone at times to see if it made a diff. and it did help a little. But that should not be necesary.
 
If buff every time it needs it by putting it in the new salt water that is going in for the water change.

Steve
 
yes ph is low raise it up with some buffer
to 8.2-2.4
doesnt matter how much buffer you put in (mine anyways)
it will raise the ph to whatever the package says
 
I disagree that you have to add more buffer when your KH is at 11 already which is really high.First thing I would do is allow fresh air into your house maybe using a fan toward the aquarium from the outside.If the CO2 is high in the house your ph will be low no matter how high your alk and calcium. If the house is aired out properly you should see the PH begin to rise within 30 minutes.Your refugium is probably helping just to keep it where the PH is now.This problem happens in all the new houses in Florida as they are air tight and is way to hot to open the windows.Airing out the house while we go to dinner is the only way we ever do it.One last thing you can try if it doesn't work for you is to by a test kit for magnesium.If it's off then alk,calcium,and PH will never be right.
 
dhayden,

I'm no chemist but if the CO2 in your house was high enough to drop your PH, I think you'd be dead 10x over (just a guess and no offence to anyone else's opinion).

Can any of our more experienced reefers list the reasons that PH would be low?

Any chance you can get a pic of your tank? sometimes placement of your corals makes a big difference. So does the type. You might have a lot of slow growers. Also, if the corals you recieved were in marginal condition it takes a while for them to recover enough for good growth to begin.

Do you feed your corals?

As for coraline... I had my tank up for over a year with little growth. Then I added a fuge, skimmer and T5s all at the same time. The coraline took off! I have no idea which change made the difference. Something definately did though.

A good example are my zoanthus spp...

I have some orange ones that have almost taken over in a year...

I have some other green fringed ones that have hardly spread at all. Same tank, same food, same light etc...

Here is what the tank looked like a 14 mos ago:

3f2acec7.jpg


Here is what it looked like last week:

2c0fa852.jpg


What species you have makes huge difference (and what spp.). Even very similar corals behave/grow/eat very differently.

Odds are, your OK. Just stick with it and enjoy.
 
wow that took off, sepcaill the zoas. I need to figure out this ph problem. It is definately my problem. I buffed yesterday for example. I got the ph to 8.0 from 7.8. But now I got 15Kh! I think my plan is to:

1. Gid rid of my pepp. shrimps. I still have 3 or 4 in there. I think they are desimating any detrivore population I might have beofre they get a hold. I used to have 5 :), dont ask why.. I dont know.
2. Take all the rock out, since I will anyway to get the shrimp out. And sift the crushed coral and rubble out of my substrate. I dont like the way it looks, and it seems to really trap detritus.
3. Add about 15# of sand. I figure I will need to be this in stages as I dont want to suffocate any bio I got in the substrate.
4. See if I can get the wife to let me spend another 100$, hehe, to get a detrivore pack or so from Inland Aquatics. Hard to spend 100$ on something you can hardly see. BUt I figure if I get the shrimp our of there I should see a pod/worm explosion anyway.

Do most think this sounds about right? I have always had a pH issue with this tank. And I got those shrimp with my original cleaning crew. So maybe I nevere established a proper bio load in the sand/rock in the first place.
 
The shrimp shouldnt be affecting your ph or contributing to detritus build up...

Unless you are WAY overfeeding I think you are using a bull dozer to drive a thumb tack.

I'd recomend making little changes and see what works instead of starting from scratch.

What brand of salt and buffer are you using?

What is the PH and DKH of the water you are using to mix up your saltwater(before you add your salt mix)?

Maybe that is your issue?
 
My comments about the shrimp is that I think they are picking off any detrivores (pods/worms/etc..) before I can get them established.

I use IO salt, just switched to some Oceanic.

Ph of top of is 8.3 from buffer, I use Sea Chem, Alk is 11 or 12, I was thinking of not buffing alk, and see if that helps me get it down. Right now the tank has a PH of 8.0 and a Kh of 14. I have a nice piece of GPS I just got and really dont want to loose it. Was thinking about doing some water changes for a few days to see if I can get it right.

Love the buldozer comment!! Probably way right.
 
OK got some new test kits today, hagan ones. So this is what I got. I did rip the tank apart yesterday, so I amazed my NO3 is not through the roof, only 20 :). But most of the crushed shells and rubble are gone.

Tank : ph 8.1, Kh 15

R/O: ph 8.8, Kh 0 ( I know the ph should be lower but no idea. got all new fileters on the thing, culligan drinking water system)

R/O with Salt (Oceanic) and a little Prime: PH 8.5, Kh 13

Top off (R/O, little Prime, and Reef Complete): Ph - 8.7 Kh - 0

I will make up some Top Off with Kalc, later in the week.

So... My ph is not that out of whack. But I still had a Sinularia melt away on me few weeks ago, this week a red sea Xenia.
I did not Acclimate them, never have corals, guess im learning my lesson. Only thing I can attribute it to. Every thing els eis Kosher.

Amon - 0
No2 - 0
No3 - 10-20
Mag. - 1350
Calc - 450
Ph04 - 0

at 10w per gal in Light maybe tis why I dont have any purple coraline growing. Thanks all for the ideas and help. I will see what happens over a few week. I will try to get the Kh down with Top Off with no Alk buffer in it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Mr31415
Low alk on new tank
2
Replies
29
Views
2K
Mr31415
Mr31415
NancyT3
Feeding regimen/ feedback
Replies
8
Views
844
NancyT3
NancyT3
NancyT3
Display tank - algae bloom - (19 wk old 140 gal)
Replies
12
Views
1K
CharleyDavis
C
Formulator
8 year old tank with 2.0 PO4 and zero Nitrate
Replies
7
Views
1K
Scotty333!!!
S
AGWL
Devastated and have to start over
2
Replies
22
Views
2K
Reefing102
Reefing102
Back
Top