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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SknPR4GdwcA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>I've been running a 4ft tank with sump for over 18 months now and got to a stage where my corals just don't grow as expected, softies in the tank are generally o.k, low end zoas seem to stay as is with very very slow polyp expansion, high end zoas usually die, LPS corals usually die within 2-3 weeks or do a polyp bailout, Nems don't seem to fair well, one flame nem slowly died over 3 months
I have a red sea reef test kit for ALK MAG and CAL - i dose my ATO reservoir with kalkwasser and each week check these parameters, they are always near perfect to my targets with 9.0DKH and 420ppm CAL and 1350ppm MAG - I am extremely confident these major elements of tank chemistry is very stable in my aquarium
I use Hanna pocket checkers ULR for phos always around 0.03-.05ppm and nitrates less than 0.02ppm. I have a digital Hanna refractometer and keep the tank at a stable 34ppt / 1.025 "“ Temp at 26 degrees
In my sump use an algae scrubber, Chaeto in fuge, skimmer, bio pellets in a reactor, 3 blocks of marine pure, high quality carbon in a reactor, 100 micron socks cleaned twice a week, flow rate through the sump is 6000LPH and flow rate in the display tank is a GYRE XF150 set at 40% continuous. The 120 watt CFL 6500k bulb for the scrubber and chaeto fuge comes on 4 hours before display light switches off and runs for 16 hours "“ since recently adding pellets my chaeto struggles to grow
I do have a cheap pocket pen PH tester, which shows around 8.2-8.3ph but i took this to a LFS and we did a test and calibrate with their £200 tester and even after calibration my pen was inconsistently reading 0.2 out from theirs
Tank isn't fully stocked with fish, but is close to being so however I do sparsely feed and 90% of time its frozen food, all fish are reef safe apart from coral beauty which I've had from the beginning and never witnessed it having any interest whatsoever in corals
Lights are 4 x T5 39w tubes, three are Arcadia which I'm about to upgrade to red sea reef spec (will be 2 actinic and 2 blue/white)
Water changes and top up water are done with my own RO system, 0 TDS, Seachem Salinity salt "“ 20% changed every 2-3 weeks
So my question is what's going wrong with corals growth? My tank is like an LPS frag graveyard!
What else should I be testing for as I really would like to start keeping LPS
