Less Than Ideal
- Thread starter wea747
- Start date
MrMexReefer
In Memoriam
Yeah... I just dont think that 18 watts of PC is enough... I have 120 watts on my 20, and I think its barely enough! You should look into that Viper Metal Halide light... it would be awesome on your tank. Check ebay, prolly find it cheap 
i highly highly doubt that the light is causing problems.
this is my 6 gallon, with 30 watts of PC light (2x volume, 2x light wattage) -
its also important to remember that corals that are deprived of adequate levels of light do NOT close up, as wea's zoos have. instead, they undergo morphological changes such as stalk extension and oral disk expansion, as well as increased zooxanthellae production in an effort to bolster more photon energy.
one also must remember that wattage per gallon is not a very accurate measure of total light energy being transmitted onto the coral surface, taking into the account of the inverse square law regarding decreasing light intensity over distance.
thus, the 120 watts of light over a 20 gallon may actually yield less usable light than 18 watts over 3 gallons, because of the increased distance that the light has from the coral! As an aside, imo 120 watts IS rather low light for a standard 20 gallon, given it's height.
i would suspect water conditions being the culprit here - remember, in nano and pico tanks, if one thing dies and causes an ammonia spike, it can easily cause a huge chain reaction of dying organisms, and subsequently released toxins. we all know that many stressed corals, especially zoanthids/palythoa/protopalys, have the ability to create extradinarily dangerous chemicals even to other corals in the tiny confines of our aquaria.
what type of tests are you using to test water conditions? check the expiration dates. especially calc and alk tests - these two parameters being off could easily yield the symptoms you have described.
possible scenario - adding too much iodine or calc/alk supplements last week may have caused a stresed or unhealthy coral individual to succumb releasing a cloud of toxins/organic chemicals that cascaded into a tank crash.
stray voltage in the tank may also cause symptoms described, as would the introduction of heavy metals such as copper. anyone drop a coin into your tank by accident? air freshener around? smoking cigarettes? all these types of aerosols can become bound in salt water and cause damage to your corals.
use a polyfilter in your filter and see what color it changes.
just a few ideas...
this is my 6 gallon, with 30 watts of PC light (2x volume, 2x light wattage) -
its also important to remember that corals that are deprived of adequate levels of light do NOT close up, as wea's zoos have. instead, they undergo morphological changes such as stalk extension and oral disk expansion, as well as increased zooxanthellae production in an effort to bolster more photon energy.
one also must remember that wattage per gallon is not a very accurate measure of total light energy being transmitted onto the coral surface, taking into the account of the inverse square law regarding decreasing light intensity over distance.
thus, the 120 watts of light over a 20 gallon may actually yield less usable light than 18 watts over 3 gallons, because of the increased distance that the light has from the coral! As an aside, imo 120 watts IS rather low light for a standard 20 gallon, given it's height.
i would suspect water conditions being the culprit here - remember, in nano and pico tanks, if one thing dies and causes an ammonia spike, it can easily cause a huge chain reaction of dying organisms, and subsequently released toxins. we all know that many stressed corals, especially zoanthids/palythoa/protopalys, have the ability to create extradinarily dangerous chemicals even to other corals in the tiny confines of our aquaria.
what type of tests are you using to test water conditions? check the expiration dates. especially calc and alk tests - these two parameters being off could easily yield the symptoms you have described.
possible scenario - adding too much iodine or calc/alk supplements last week may have caused a stresed or unhealthy coral individual to succumb releasing a cloud of toxins/organic chemicals that cascaded into a tank crash.
stray voltage in the tank may also cause symptoms described, as would the introduction of heavy metals such as copper. anyone drop a coin into your tank by accident? air freshener around? smoking cigarettes? all these types of aerosols can become bound in salt water and cause damage to your corals.
use a polyfilter in your filter and see what color it changes.
just a few ideas...
Thanks for the advice, yeah I'm realizing how much harder it is to get stability in such a small tank. I'll for sure be looking into/trying some of your suggestions. Appreciate the time you took. I'm new to the whole hobby so that kind of info is much appreciated. I do some more water changes in the next few days and see if that seems to help, as I had a very small golby which I haven't seen in quite some time, I.E may have died
I think they're unnecessary but definitely a good back-up. They do prolong the time between water changes but a quick water change here and there isn't that big of a deal. I don't know much about skimmers - just from what I have experienced and researched on. BTW, any update on your tank?
