Less Than Ideal

[wea747]

I've had my nano up for over a month now and my clove polyps were doing ok, but are now basically dead, many of my zoo's have been closed for most of this week, and my plate coral is not doing too well. All my levels are where the should be, anyone have any idea why stuff is not doing to great. I made a mini skimmer that has been working great, but is it true it may be removing too many nutrients? How do you tell if stuff is starved, or if I'm over feeding? Thanks

 

[drummereef]

What are your params?
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
Temp
Alk
Calcium
Salinity
pH
etc....

 

[wea747]

Amm 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Temp 78-79
Alk 8
Calcium 460
ph 8.2

 

[dbraun15]

All those levels look in line, but make sure you check your salinity--preferrably with a refractometer for accuracy--you didn't list that--if your salinity is over 1.027 or below 1.018 you could have a problem--

 

[wea747]

1.025 via refractometer

 

[drummereef]

Hmmm. Something strange is going on here then. The params are right on. I doubt the skimmer is doing any harm. Have you doesed anything lately like iodine or something? What kind of lighting are you using?

 

[Matrexz]

How old are the bulbs as well for your system??

 

[wea747]

I literally put 1 drop, one, of iodine in early last week. The bulbs are brand new. Literally the light is like 1 month old. 9" coralite fixture 9w 10000k and a 9w forget what the other bulb is but it's 9 w one's blueish 1 is white. I added calcium and alkalinity supplements early last week too but thats cause they were both a little low, but are better now because of the addition as you can see from above

 

[rickh]

What Iodine did you use?? Is that the recomended concentration for the volumn of your tank?? I have to take 1 drop and dillute it in a small amount of wate rthen put some % of that in my tank for the corect conintration. Iodine can be nasty stuff. R

 

[wea747]

Yeah, I'm beginning to wonder if that might have been the problem, guess I should have done a bit more research, it's a Kent product.

 

[TimberTDI]

could it be the 18w of light?

 

[wea747]

Your suggesting I need more?

 

[wea747]

opps ^ you're

 

[wea747]

I want a metal halide, but I can't find a nice little one thats not gonna cost me an arm and leg

 

[MrMexReefer]

im thinking that too... thats a very low amount of light. Get a cheap flourescent fixture, at least those bulbs are 15 watt.. i had some on my softy tank before i upgraded to PCs and they did great...

 

[wea747]

mine are PC

 

[MrMexReefer]

is that small PC fixture from coral life? With the mini PC bulbs?

 

[Hobster]

You are skimming a 3.5 gal tank?
Why did you add iodine?

I would do a partial water change and remove the skimmer. JMO

 

[wea747]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8697709#post8697709 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MrMexReefer
is that small PC fixture from coral life? With the mini PC bulbs?

Yeah it's the only one I could find that would really fit my tank. Why?

 

[wea747]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8698844#post8698844 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Hobster
You are skimming a 3.5 gal tank?
Why did you add iodine?

I would do a partial water change and remove the skimmer. JMO

The total volume including the sump is more like 8 gal. I heard it was godd to add small amounts of Iodine, prob just didn't add a small enough portion