just can't win for losing...

[Kerriann]

ok, change of directions - still trying to find our best way at this as i don't believe things are thriving in our tank like they should.

what about salt? can the type of salt we use make a difference? currently we're using instant ocean - what does everyone else use?

 

[Stray32]

Instant Ocean is more than sufficient for your setup. Post your water parameters, and maybe that will reveal something.

 

[superstein61]

While there are differences in salt, I don't think that would be the item causing you problems. IO is lower is calcium / mag than some other mixes, but from what I understand you are keeping, it should not be a big issue (check out this thread for more info

I agree with Stray, post your parameters and lets go from there

 

[Kerriann]

Calc 430
Alk 9.2 <-- this is the one i think needs to come down some
Nitrates 0-5
Nitrites 0
PH 8.2
Phosphates 0
Temp 78-80
Ammonia 0

very little variance in any of these and we're pretty heavy about testing (2-3x a week)

 

[cloakerpoked]

The alk certainly isn't causing your problem. I run my alk as high as 11.5 (although I don't target it any higher than 11, and really would like to see the number come down to closer to 10). All those parameters look like they're pretty much perfect. How long have you had everything in the tank it's currently in, sometimes it takes stuff a few weeks before it adjusts to a new system, etc.

 

[Kerriann]

the tank was set up about 15-18 months ago. it was moved back in September but we didn't start doing anything coral until late January of this year to ensure everything was stabilized and maintaining as close to a constant as possible...

we've changed to temp acclimating with small additions of our water for about 20-30 mins - we don't do much else in corals other than mushrooms, zoas, frogspawn, etc...you're more "basic" corals if you will.

also, we use only RO/DI water on the tank. we're just plain baffled

 

[superstein61]

Yea, I agree with Nate - no real issues with the ALK there - mine is always higher. All of your levels look good.

What is your salinity?

And when you say things aren't thriving, what exactly do you mean?

How much flow do you have in the tank and what are you using to generate the flow?

 

[Kerriann]

who knows, maybe i'm just overreacting after our upsets we've had over the past few months...

salinity is around 1.025 generally

and we have a koralia 3 on one side of the tank, i'm looking into getting another one (EOM - just not enough cash flow for this hobby!) to put on the other side, plus a splitter thing on the back side and the regular flow thing on the right

(i don't do the set up - that's the boyfriend's part so i apologize for lack of "technical terms")

 

[Kerriann]

it just doesn't seem like things are fully open - which could very well be part of the overreacting. corals that are supposed to be "easy" and "grow quickly" just doesn't take in our tank.

we've tried xenia to no avail, greenstar twice, etc.

granted we'd been so misinformed on acclimation techniques in the past that the reason those didn't make it could be because of the way we were acclimating but i'm just terrified to spend money on these things again to have them fail...

 

[superstein61]

Kerriann - well pictures might help. I don't know, all your parameters seem fine. And with the corals you list, they shouldn't be that demanding.

Without knowing how much flow is coming from your "splitter thing on the back side" its hard to say if flow is an issue or not. I have found for my corals, they really enjoy a lot of flow. You have seen my tank - I have a closed loop with two outlets powered by a 900 gph Eheim pump with educators on each outlet - and I have a Vortech pushing up to 2000 gph, along with whatever my Mag 5 pushes on the sump return. I would think you should see a difference when you add a 2nd Koralia 3 - especially for your frogspawn.

But the mushrooms have me perplexed. I had them growing like crazy in my older smaller tank, which wasn't the best setup in terms of lighting, flow, etc. As to Rics, well i am not the person to be asking about them - never had success with them myself - not sure why

Maybe someone else has some other ideas - only other questions I can think to ask is with what / how often you feed your corals and how long is your lighting period?

 

[Stray32]

Have you tried your shrooms and rics at different heights in your tank? I just sold Acer some blue rics that I just had sitting on a small rock on my sand bed. They were healthy and colorful. He mentioned that he placed them a bit higher in his tank, and their color faded a bit and they didn't seem as happy. Different corals like different level of light and flow, so perhaps they just don't like their current home.

 

[Kerriann]

yes, i had purchased 10 orange rics (an amazing steal from Wet Pets!!) and i placed them all at various levels of the tank to see if i could determine the best point etc. UNFORTUNATELY, our anem died for no apparent reason and i believe his death caused every last orange ric to dissolve...

 

[cloakerpoked]

Anenome death can be a very tragic thing for any tank to endure, and they should be removed before it happens if at all possible. The only other thing I've seen work is a HUGE, and I mean enormous skimmer that pulls out so much crap from the water that it would basically remove the entire anenome from the column in an 8 hour period....