Help with tank.

J

Joshua.t

New member
Does anyone know of an aquarium service company that they'd recommend in the east bay.
I am struggling with getting all my corals thriving and I'm not sure what the problem is.
If anyone in the Dublin area feels like helping out I'd really appreciate it and I could hook you up with zoas or softies.
Thank you,
Joshua
 
Joshua.t said:
Does anyone know of an aquarium service company that they'd recommend in the east bay.
I am struggling with getting all my corals thriving and I'm not sure what the problem is.
If anyone in the Dublin area feels like helping out I'd really appreciate it and I could hook you up with zoas or softies.
Thank you,
Joshua
Click to expand...

what going on with your corals . . . maybe we can help and save you some time and money??
 
I can keep the easier corals happy like zoas, mushrooms, frogspawn and some hammers but nearly all sps I put in dies and i'm losing some lps pieces now too. I've been testing alk nearly daily for almost 2 months keeping it around 8 dkh. I think my water quality is good and i'm thinking my lights are either cooking my corals or they aren't bright enough. I've tried to use a seneye to check par but I don't know if i'm using it right or if its not working correctly? Erin is suggesting large water changes so I'll try that but I'm still stumped on my lighting. I starting using ATI essentials at the start of the month and am still getting the dosing level evened out but I wasn't able to keep my sps alive before that anyways. Now that I'm getting the levels dialed I've been changing the light first more power then longer more corals die so I've lowered down again.
 
2x Kessil AP700 w/ 2x 54watt T5. I added the 2 t5s this summer and put new ati bulbs. Shortly after I added the t5s things were looking good. I had the the kessils on at a % which put the par at around 400 at the highest piece. Some acros lower in the tank were doing alright and growing slowly but I lost more at the top of the tank a few in the middle that were alive were just kind of hanging on but not really growing. I measured par when I installed the t5s then didn't measure again for more then 6 months and the par was really low in december. I cranked the kessils up then it looked like I burned more pieces so lowered the kessils down and increase the t5 time by 3 hours a day up to 8 hours. The kessils are down to 4 hours at 45% and 2 hours either side of that at 35%. The t5s are on for 8 hours but I think I'll lower them down to 6 and get new bulbs. Then I'll measure par again. I've got 4 new sps pieces 3 of which are doing ok so I'm really trying to keep them happy meanwhile I'm killing off all kinds of other things as I'm adjusting.
 
You said you added 2 ATI t5 in the summer. Do you still keep 2x54W t5 you mentioned at the beginning? How older and what kind of them are they?
 
I started the setup with just 2 ap700s and added 2 t5s this summer, i'm still using the same bulbs as when I installed it. I think I'll replace them this week though.
 
Call Jess at Diablo. He is the lighting and Kessil expert in the Bay Area. Years of expereince running his shop as well as years working for Kessil.
 
have you checked you calcium levels? A lot of people have different opinions on where they should be but I find that between 350 and 450 ppms is good. If you don't have a test kit then you should definitely get one. If it is low you can buy a calcium buffer to add to the water for around twenty dollars I think.
 
Hey Joshua,

Yeah, I'd be interested to hear what your other tests are showing, Calcium, Nitrate, Phosphate, Magnesium. What do you keep your salinity at?

I've found lighting to be tricky and to make changes VERY slowly. If ramping up time or intensity, do a little bit once a week instead of all at once. I would agree with your change to either Coral Plus or Blue Plus. Personally, if I could only run two I'd probably do both Blue Plus and balance out the visual preference with the Kessils.

What kind of filtration do you run, protein skimmer, GFO, Carbon, Dosing, etc.?
 
Testing from Sunday 1/21/18:
Salinity 1.025
Dkh- 8.1
Po4- 0.0
PH- 8.2
No3- 5
Ca - 425
Mg- 1600 (up from last week 1340 so reduced dosing on this)
I have gfo and gac running in a dual brs reactor. My Po4 is zero but I still get the brown haze on the glass and have a Refugium full of cheato so I’m not too worried about that being 0.
I have a slime oval sv223 skimmer. A couple marine pure plates, biohome media and ceramic media in the sump as well as a 10g Refugium with cheato and mangroves. I stopped nopox and no longer carbon dose. It am keeping n03 at 5. I add bacteria occasionally. Also started ati essentials dosing this month.
I definitely made too drastic of changes but that was because I wasn’t successful in the first place with getting good health for sps. Now I’m killing the lps with all the changes.
 
If you havent already, have someone else test your water.

what average temp is your tank at...

for SPS bringing the nitrate down will help. depending on the phosphate kit you are using nitrate at 5 and phosphate at 0 doesn't seem right, esp if chaeto is growing nicely. with no or very low phosphates you will see chaeto begin to struggle. brown haze on glass or sand is indicative of changing biology in the tank.. normally means a change was introduced too fast - chaeto wont compete with this.

keeping the alk levels stable will provide best initial results with any stony coral. a beautiful healthy reef tank is about stability more than exact numbers..

mangroves dont do much in a small setup.. but theyre an interesting addition. so dont bank on it much for nutrient export or system stability.

best wishes!
 
I almost wonder if you're filtering a little too much? Also, what are you using to test Alk and Phosphate? 5 for Nitrate sounds fine. I find in my tank, sps seem to do better with an Alk around 7.5. If I get above 8 I notice issues in my Montis. I run similar to you, super low phosphate and Nitrate around 5ppm (dosing).

It wouldn't hurt to do a Tritan test just to verify. They're not cheap, but they test just about everything possible and can discover things like leaking magnets, rust, etc.
 
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