How do you keep your corals extra happy?

[LuizW13]

Sorry, modified my post above. It's probably not light, at least not over such a short period of time. It's almost certainly alk problems. Glib responses notwithstanding, chemistry is actually really important (though I do agree that fiddling with the tank should be minimized). An alk hanna checker is essential equipment IMO.

So I emailed Aquammaxx for some guidance on their light; i'm sure they have done some research and tests during development and i'm going to take a water sample to the LFS tomorrow - hopefully with these two channels I can get a good understanding on this.

I swear I researched a crapton leading up to this project lol.


Another thing that is strange though, going from Sunset to Night seems to upset the Pocillopora. But once the night lights are on, it seems to be in it's happiest state. The GSP i feel retracts and goes to sleep throughout the night, but will be opened up by the time i get up. Maybe i should check up on it at some time during the middle of the night just to see.

 

[mcgyvr]

My water has been stable, at least the temperate (cobalt heater) and salinty (Tunze Osmolator)

If your alk or any other parameter for that matter has been changing then its not stable..

 

[LuizW13]

If your alk or any other parameter for that matter has been changing then its not stable..

Sorry, I meant the temperature and salinity are stable.

 

[LuizW13]

yeah sure, you're just gonna buy some hermits....... i said that in my wifes voice....

I may or may not have bought a Gold Frogspawn frag.. The last few times I went to the store, they had this awesome Gold Frogspawn colony; they finally fragged last weekend and only had 3 left..so i bought one :lol2:

I also got a sweet deal on blue hermit crabs.

I had my alkalinity checked , API read it at 9.

The corals I put in this week are starting to open up; Pocillopora was looking real nice today.

I now have my lights peak intensity at:
W: 45% B: 65% S: 20%

I have some store credit with Marine Depot, so I'm going to be buying a Hannah ALK checker.

 

[JWClark]

The best thing you can do is test your freshly mixed water for the big three and dose anything needed to bring levels to where you want before doing water changes.

Slowly dose the tank to get levels where you want then keep those values the same as the water change values and dose any decrease you get. I actually add extra Mg and Ca to my change water (use IO so Alk is already high) to compensate some tank consumption. Note that I am doing auto water changes every 15 minutes, or 5L per day though to avoid swings that would be caused by doing 10% weekly changes with 10-11dKH water into an 8dKH system.

 

[kmbyrnes]

I leave the adult PPV channel on and give them the remote when I head off to bed.

 

[LuizW13]

The best thing you can do is test your freshly mixed water for the big three and dose anything needed to bring levels to where you want before doing water changes.

Slowly dose the tank to get levels where you want then keep those values the same as the water change values and dose any decrease you get. I actually add extra Mg and Ca to my change water (use IO so Alk is already high) to compensate some tank consumption. Note that I am doing auto water changes every 15 minutes, or 5L per day though to avoid swings that would be caused by doing 10% weekly changes with 10-11dKH water into an 8dKH system.

First thing i'm going to do is order the alk checker, i don't trust myself to do a titration alk test right now. How do you do auto water changes?

That got me thinking, if you dose your system to bring levels to Alk: xx Ca: xx MG: xx , but you're salt mixing fresh water with levels of Alk: x Ca: x MG: x for example, you're getting a noticeable swing after water changes, right?

 

[LuizW13]

So, I got the Hannah Alk checker in today.

I did roughly 12% water change this past weekend.
DT Alk: 6.4
Fresh saltwater Alk: 7.5

Guess i'll have to start dosing Alk sooner than expected?

I should probably do a water change right now to bring that up a bit, right?

 

[LuizW13]

A little over 24 hours later and my DKH is 6.6

A full point in one day, is that possible?

 

[oscargrumete61]

I give them some cash [emoji383] and buy wherever they want [emoji16][emoji16][emoji16][emoji16]


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[ReefsandGeeks]

The things that I've noticed positive changes in my coral are feeding (especially spot feeding if you have the patience for that), water changes, and of course stable parameters.

Other things I do may have helped, but not enough to notice. I guess you could include things like algae control too if algae is smothering your coral.

 

[BigJohnny]

Stable parameters AND fish. You have to have nitrate and phosphate and fish poop to feed corals and help them grow. Don't raise your alk above 8 dkh with zero nitrate and phosphate.

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[LuizW13]

Stable parameters AND fish. You have to have nitrate and phosphate and fish poop to feed corals and help them grow. Don't raise your alk above 8 dkh with zero nitrate and phosphate.

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Why is that?

 

[BigJohnny]

Why is that?

A fishless tank is a starving tank. Your corals will starve to death and grow very slowly until then. You can feed the tank heavily with coral foods and such but IME fish poop/pee works better.

If you raise your alk above 8 (maybe 8.5) you will see even more issues with your coral if you have very low or no nitrate or phosphate. That is why zeovit/other carbon dosing based low nutrient systems run low dkh of 7-8.

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