mpyers
New member
I have had my tank running for a little over a year now. Everything has gone pretty smoothly. Right now I'm having some trouble with a few corals with very little PE and very little color, and I can't figure out what is going on. So here is the background.
Got the corals in September. Had full PE and full color and plenty of growth until new years.
At the beginning of December I got a media reactor. Previously I had been running a fuge. I got the reactor because my fuge wasn't quite keeping up. Some hair algae would pop up in isolated spots from time to time.
So when I started the reactor I did part GFO and part Carbon.
What I think happened from there is that my reactor killed my fuge, but couldn't keep up with the demands of the tank by itself. So I had a hair algae outbreak.
I then decided to go back to the fuge supplemented with only carbon and not GFO. I thought that maybe this would allow my fuge to grow back because I had previously run carbon in a bag regularly.
In attempts to switch back to the fuge I turned off the reactor and the lights to the DT and left the lights for the fuge on, for 4 days. I covered the DT with cardboard for this period. When I took the carboard off the DT, the algae was dead in the DT, but nothing had grown in the fuge. The corals at this point still showed great color and PE.
So I turned the carbon back on and let it run like normal. 2 days later, and my green monti is bleaching. Not all the way but almost. Like completely white but still had Polyps. Also my green slimer is very pale. I thought that maybe because the fuge didn't grow back well that I had a spike of phos and nitrate. So I did a HUGE water change and kept an eye on everything. The phos and nitrate levels dropped to 0 after the water change and stayed there. Some algae started to grow back in the DT but I left it to keep the phos and nitrate at bay.
Then after another day I realized that my heater was broken. my temp was 70F. So I decided that maybe that was the culprit all along. Got a new heater and a controller with an alarm and now the temp has been solid 80F since.
The monti has since improved slightly, but the slimer seems to be getting worse. Less and less PE and paler every day. But I can't see why.
Also noteworthy changes during this time. right before the black out I started to dose Red Sea NO3PO4X. I have been dosing 10ml/day.
No changes in flow, no changes in any other parameters.
Alk- 4.0 meq/L
Calc - 460ppm
pH - 8.3
SG - 1.026
Currently stable for two weeks:
Phos - 0
Nitrate - 0
Temp - 80F
Still have a bit of algae growing in the DT, but very little in the fuge (IDK why I can't get it to grow back. I have put 2 new puffs of chaeto in there and it keeps dying. and the hair algae wont grow down there either.
I have a 65g DT with a 30g sump. About 75lbs of live rock. Some marine pure balls in the sump. Some rocks in the fuge for algae to grow on and pods to grow. I have a DIY LED set up with the following:
10x 3W 455nm Blue
10x 3W 465nm Blue
10x 3W 418nm Purple
10x 3W Cyan
14x 3W 8000k White
28w T5
Lights run 2pm to 11pm
Fuge light stays on 24/7 - it is a LED "Grow Light" with some red and blue LEDs
I have the media reactor running carbon.
Plenty of flow (hasn't changed since I started the tank so it can't be that)
I have a coralife 125 skimmer(I know its a piece of ****, but it also hasn't changed and consistently pulls dark brown coffee looking stuff. I'll get a new one when i have the money)
I dose B-ionic 2 part daily.
I dose NO3PO4X daily 10ml/day
I top off every day.
I do 20g water change every two weeks. I don't have DI just RO, but it hasn't given me any trouble since day one, and the TDS has held steady at 5 through the whole process.
I have a six line, a hippo tang, and two clown fish. about 30 different corals, mostly softies and LPS.
The hydnophora I have is doing great full PE most of the time (except just now when I wanted a picture)
My birds nest is doing great.
My blue ridge didn't have PE during the temperature drop but does now.
All of the softies and LPS have full PE including
green star
devils hand
angel hair
duncan
pipe organ
yellow star
some kind of mushroom
zoos
palys
hammer
plate coral
xenias
green sinularia
Everything in the tank is happy and perfect except the chaeto and those two SPS's.
Please give me a suggestion. I can't figure out why they won't just be happy.
Got the corals in September. Had full PE and full color and plenty of growth until new years.
At the beginning of December I got a media reactor. Previously I had been running a fuge. I got the reactor because my fuge wasn't quite keeping up. Some hair algae would pop up in isolated spots from time to time.
So when I started the reactor I did part GFO and part Carbon.
What I think happened from there is that my reactor killed my fuge, but couldn't keep up with the demands of the tank by itself. So I had a hair algae outbreak.
I then decided to go back to the fuge supplemented with only carbon and not GFO. I thought that maybe this would allow my fuge to grow back because I had previously run carbon in a bag regularly.
In attempts to switch back to the fuge I turned off the reactor and the lights to the DT and left the lights for the fuge on, for 4 days. I covered the DT with cardboard for this period. When I took the carboard off the DT, the algae was dead in the DT, but nothing had grown in the fuge. The corals at this point still showed great color and PE.
So I turned the carbon back on and let it run like normal. 2 days later, and my green monti is bleaching. Not all the way but almost. Like completely white but still had Polyps. Also my green slimer is very pale. I thought that maybe because the fuge didn't grow back well that I had a spike of phos and nitrate. So I did a HUGE water change and kept an eye on everything. The phos and nitrate levels dropped to 0 after the water change and stayed there. Some algae started to grow back in the DT but I left it to keep the phos and nitrate at bay.
Then after another day I realized that my heater was broken. my temp was 70F. So I decided that maybe that was the culprit all along. Got a new heater and a controller with an alarm and now the temp has been solid 80F since.
The monti has since improved slightly, but the slimer seems to be getting worse. Less and less PE and paler every day. But I can't see why.
Also noteworthy changes during this time. right before the black out I started to dose Red Sea NO3PO4X. I have been dosing 10ml/day.
No changes in flow, no changes in any other parameters.
Alk- 4.0 meq/L
Calc - 460ppm
pH - 8.3
SG - 1.026
Currently stable for two weeks:
Phos - 0
Nitrate - 0
Temp - 80F
Still have a bit of algae growing in the DT, but very little in the fuge (IDK why I can't get it to grow back. I have put 2 new puffs of chaeto in there and it keeps dying. and the hair algae wont grow down there either.
I have a 65g DT with a 30g sump. About 75lbs of live rock. Some marine pure balls in the sump. Some rocks in the fuge for algae to grow on and pods to grow. I have a DIY LED set up with the following:
10x 3W 455nm Blue
10x 3W 465nm Blue
10x 3W 418nm Purple
10x 3W Cyan
14x 3W 8000k White
28w T5
Lights run 2pm to 11pm
Fuge light stays on 24/7 - it is a LED "Grow Light" with some red and blue LEDs
I have the media reactor running carbon.
Plenty of flow (hasn't changed since I started the tank so it can't be that)
I have a coralife 125 skimmer(I know its a piece of ****, but it also hasn't changed and consistently pulls dark brown coffee looking stuff. I'll get a new one when i have the money)
I dose B-ionic 2 part daily.
I dose NO3PO4X daily 10ml/day
I top off every day.
I do 20g water change every two weeks. I don't have DI just RO, but it hasn't given me any trouble since day one, and the TDS has held steady at 5 through the whole process.
I have a six line, a hippo tang, and two clown fish. about 30 different corals, mostly softies and LPS.
The hydnophora I have is doing great full PE most of the time (except just now when I wanted a picture)
My birds nest is doing great.
My blue ridge didn't have PE during the temperature drop but does now.
All of the softies and LPS have full PE including
green star
devils hand
angel hair
duncan
pipe organ
yellow star
some kind of mushroom
zoos
palys
hammer
plate coral
xenias
green sinularia
Everything in the tank is happy and perfect except the chaeto and those two SPS's.
Please give me a suggestion. I can't figure out why they won't just be happy.
