Maroun 150g Build Thread
- Thread starter maroun.c
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maroun.c
New member
Thanks Fred.
Yep expensive... still I'm more bothered to have lost the colonies though. as to the small braches I have no news yet as I'm in Egypt till Monday evening. Would be great if they would make it but I don't believe they will.
Its been really log I didn't take any pics of my tank however it won't be soon as I will have a lot of cleaning to do when I get back as I've been away for around 3 weeks and tank barely gets a cleaning magnet when I'm away...
Also I haven't done any water chahges for more than 6-7 weeks and with the rising nitrates I had I'm afraid that I will have to do lots of water changes to bring levels down unless my DSB has kicked in and they started going down. Last time I cehcked they were around 20 did a couple of water changes in the following days but didn't check nor do water changes since then...
Yep expensive... still I'm more bothered to have lost the colonies though. as to the small braches I have no news yet as I'm in Egypt till Monday evening. Would be great if they would make it but I don't believe they will.
Its been really log I didn't take any pics of my tank however it won't be soon as I will have a lot of cleaning to do when I get back as I've been away for around 3 weeks and tank barely gets a cleaning magnet when I'm away...
Also I haven't done any water chahges for more than 6-7 weeks and with the rising nitrates I had I'm afraid that I will have to do lots of water changes to bring levels down unless my DSB has kicked in and they started going down. Last time I cehcked they were around 20 did a couple of water changes in the following days but didn't check nor do water changes since then...
maroun.c
New member
Back after 3 weeks of traveling for a 3 weeks vacation.
Unfortunately it seems I'll have a lot to do on the tank during the coming weeks.
just finished a complete range of testing and results were as follows:
Temp 84 (just as Halides turned off) its dropping to 81-82 at lowest
Sal 1.026 (will dropp it back to 1.025 over the next week)
PH 8.15 dropping to 8.0 before lights go on.
Alk 9.3
Ca 370 Will up it to 430-450 (still Ca has not exceeded 400 in the last weeks even with large amounts of Ca added in addition to 60 ml part A and B every day.
MG 1260
Phosphates between 0 and .03
Nitrates 30-35 and thats after a 30 G water change.
Will proceed witha coupld of larger water changes in the coming days and guess its time to deal with nirates somehow. most of my corals don't show any signs with frequent growth tips and visible rowth on all of them.
only one ORA green birdnest and another birdnest showed bleaching of their green colour. still lots of PE but it's now a very light green. my Superman montipora has lost also lots of colours and was rather whitish. moved it lower and its regaining some purple. I also lowered the 2 birdnest as advised on another thread but still no good changes. are they known to be more sensitive to nitrates? one additional problem with the ORA green birdnest is that multiple tips are showing white skeleton which is turning brownish.
Now msot of my concern in all parameters is the nitrates, I'm considering the following:
- Large frequent water changes.
- Prodibio biodigest which is available here. can't get MB7.
I would rather avoid vodka or other carbon source addition due to my frequet traveling as I can't risk haivng my father or wife miss any burnt tips or alga breakouts.... Do you think prodibio biodigest alone can help reduce nitrates? should I couple it with amino acids...
-If I have to add vodka, would it be Ok to just dose half the initial dose for few weeks just to help reduce nitrates?
on the other hand I see that my DSB has turned black on the lower parts and see some airbubbles making their way up but still I'm getting a nitrates reading?
my fuge has been running since the start of my tanka nd I never had to prune it as the caulerpa was surviving at best and recently it is slowly dying off and I', left with a couple of small branches. so anything specific I should check for? ligthing of my fuge is with a 6500 K light bulb and a 14 K arcadia T8 Fluorescent. it also gets light from my frag tank whih is lit by a 10 K 150 W halide and 2 14 K t8 and 1 actinic TB.
anysuggestions on how to proceed are greatly appreciated.
Unfortunately it seems I'll have a lot to do on the tank during the coming weeks.
just finished a complete range of testing and results were as follows:
Temp 84 (just as Halides turned off) its dropping to 81-82 at lowest
Sal 1.026 (will dropp it back to 1.025 over the next week)
PH 8.15 dropping to 8.0 before lights go on.
Alk 9.3
Ca 370 Will up it to 430-450 (still Ca has not exceeded 400 in the last weeks even with large amounts of Ca added in addition to 60 ml part A and B every day.
MG 1260
Phosphates between 0 and .03
Nitrates 30-35 and thats after a 30 G water change.
Will proceed witha coupld of larger water changes in the coming days and guess its time to deal with nirates somehow. most of my corals don't show any signs with frequent growth tips and visible rowth on all of them.
only one ORA green birdnest and another birdnest showed bleaching of their green colour. still lots of PE but it's now a very light green. my Superman montipora has lost also lots of colours and was rather whitish. moved it lower and its regaining some purple. I also lowered the 2 birdnest as advised on another thread but still no good changes. are they known to be more sensitive to nitrates? one additional problem with the ORA green birdnest is that multiple tips are showing white skeleton which is turning brownish.
Now msot of my concern in all parameters is the nitrates, I'm considering the following:
- Large frequent water changes.
- Prodibio biodigest which is available here. can't get MB7.
I would rather avoid vodka or other carbon source addition due to my frequet traveling as I can't risk haivng my father or wife miss any burnt tips or alga breakouts.... Do you think prodibio biodigest alone can help reduce nitrates? should I couple it with amino acids...
-If I have to add vodka, would it be Ok to just dose half the initial dose for few weeks just to help reduce nitrates?
on the other hand I see that my DSB has turned black on the lower parts and see some airbubbles making their way up but still I'm getting a nitrates reading?
my fuge has been running since the start of my tanka nd I never had to prune it as the caulerpa was surviving at best and recently it is slowly dying off and I', left with a couple of small branches. so anything specific I should check for? ligthing of my fuge is with a 6500 K light bulb and a 14 K arcadia T8 Fluorescent. it also gets light from my frag tank whih is lit by a 10 K 150 W halide and 2 14 K t8 and 1 actinic TB.
anysuggestions on how to proceed are greatly appreciated.
Last edited:
maroun.c
New member
On additional thing I'm struggling with is to assess if this bleaching and brown tips is from excess/low nutrients increased or lower than needed flow or light... so far al three corals (2 birdnests and superman montipora) are in medium low light and medium flow . thanks for any tips on how to assess those.
dylandrewsdad
New member
Just read almost the entire thread (at work, sshhh don't tell) it took most of the day between doing some work in beween!
Anyway I think it great that this is a truly international site that can help so many people.
Great tank build by the way. It is nice to see the ups and downs of a tank build!
Anyway I think it great that this is a truly international site that can help so many people.
Great tank build by the way. It is nice to see the ups and downs of a tank build!
Sorry to hear about your nitrates problems. far from being an expert on the subject I'll just throw some random suggestions and I'm sure others will help with better info:
- Are you sure about your readings as nitrate tests are usually harder to read.
-I find it weird to have a high nitrate reading adn not to have stunt growth of the corals and you mention that your corals are all growing.
-what's your water changing regimen.
-I also find it strange that caulerpa will not grow in your fuge while its described as a pest usually.
-Not sure about this one but aren't phosphates and nitrates produced and processed by the same factors? unless you have alga to hide the phosphate reading why wouldn't yo uhave a phosphate reading too?
I hope it gets solved before causing any coral damage.
Also any updates on the corals you added last as those should show some change if directly taken from a tank with low nitrates to one with high nitrates?
- Are you sure about your readings as nitrate tests are usually harder to read.
-I find it weird to have a high nitrate reading adn not to have stunt growth of the corals and you mention that your corals are all growing.
-what's your water changing regimen.
-I also find it strange that caulerpa will not grow in your fuge while its described as a pest usually.
-Not sure about this one but aren't phosphates and nitrates produced and processed by the same factors? unless you have alga to hide the phosphate reading why wouldn't yo uhave a phosphate reading too?
I hope it gets solved before causing any coral damage.
Also any updates on the corals you added last as those should show some change if directly taken from a tank with low nitrates to one with high nitrates?
maroun.c
New member
Fred,
I believe the test results are accurate, i teseted with Salifert and with anotehr testkit I had by Marine Enterprise and both gave similar results. I can't say for sure if it's 30 or 35 or maybe a bit less or more as yes it is hard to read those color comparison charts but I'm for sure above 25 and less than 50 . I teseted my freshwater out of RO and it's close to 0 nitrates. Also tested freshmixed saltwater and its similar.
I do see growth on my corals and my red millepora has just exploded in growth tips. still my 2-3 of my corals are not looking at their best.
I aim to do 20-30 percent water changes every month but over the last few months I haven't exceeded 10 % per month on average as I had a lot of travel time.
I always struggled to grow caulerpa during all the time I had a refugium (more than 6-7 years) I don't remember pruning caulerpa more than 3-4 times as I rarely got any growth. I ahve tried different lighting on the fuge and different flow with no success.
Interesting question about nitrates and phosphates and I rearlly dont know the answer to it, maybe someone will explain it somehow. it is true that I have no alga in the tank to hide any phosphate reading. even alga film on the glass has decreased a lot lately.
as for hte last added corals. i still have a complete colony that made it and couple of small pieces. the one that RTNd had still some branches left till last week but it seems to have STN and it did lose a couple of those branches slowly. I now still have tiny pieces left taht I still need to frag. Can't really blame it on the ntrates in my tank for that shipment as those corals arrived with no tissue on tem in the bag on the last shipment.
maroun.c
New member
Time for some updates.
Since finding out about the high nitrates levels in the tank I preformed a thorough cleanup of the sump and fuge of the detritus that had collected there. there was a big amount of settled detritus especially in the fuge. I ened up siphoning 4 buckets with this being the cleaner one out of the fuge and return partition.
Then I continued with water changes and changes around 60- percent of tank volume in successive 20-30 percent changes. this did dropped the nitrates but not as much as I hoped as I nitrates still reads 15-20.
to make it worse my parameters dropped a bit withthe changes as I wasn't checking them till after the last water change. Parameters post last water change:
Sal 1.025
Alk 8.0 ( previously between 9-10)
Ca 350 ( previously 370)
Mg 1140 (down from 1290)
Nitrates around 15-20
Phosphates 0-0.03
Been dosing more part B to raise the alk gradually, and finishing dosing around 1/2 gallon of Ca and abit less MG to raise levels. I'm targeting:
Alk 9 to allow for fluctuations if my wife misses a dose when I'm on travel
Ca 420 as I never could raise it more than 400 over the last months.
MG 1280
Tank was consuming 60 ml of A&B daily before parameters started to drop a bit even before the waterchanges so I'm guessing I'll try upping that to 70 once I reach the targeted values.
as for nitrates issue its still unclear why I have nitrates and no phophates esepecially without a single patch of HA or cyano in the tank and only a strain of caulerpa alive.
I decided to start dosing bacteria ( combination of Prodibio biodigest and REef eveolution biodegrader for more bacteria variety) decreased fish feedings and stopped all coral spotfeeding as well as coral food supplementation since around 10 days now. tank looks a lot cleaner and I can't see any alga on the glass for 4-5 days after a magnet cleaning.
will stop big volume water changes as their messing up my parameters at this big volume and will give the bacteria and decreased feedings a try for 2-3 more weeks.
won't be dosing any vodka as im not here most of the time to assess any side effects and also to modify dosing according to how my corals look. might try feeding bacteria with Prodibio Bioptime which is the only available thing here.
I'm also considering a denitrator in case I don't see changes soon. Please do share your experience with denitrators as it seems they have their cons. At least will they allow me to feed a bit more without seeing nitrates climibing?
at last my corals have very mixed reaction to the nitrates and all other parameters changes, most of them are growing very fast (montipora, millepora, ORA red planet, even my ORA oregon blue tort that didn't grow since introduction 4 months ago is now encrusting the roch next to the plug and also shows growth on branches. on the other side I lost my ORA green birdnest and my superman montipora still looks bad. another green birdnest I have is looking still very white (maybe a bit better) but still with great polyp extension.
some pics:
montipora before bleaching started:
with the bleaching: notice the growth.
I have moved it to medium and then lower light as I was told it could be a lighting issue but still no change. do yo uthink it's still could recover?
Ora green birdnest:
with colorloss:
and lost it after it showed some burned tips
and total loss you can see it behind my RBTA mini clone that seems to be doing better
Since finding out about the high nitrates levels in the tank I preformed a thorough cleanup of the sump and fuge of the detritus that had collected there. there was a big amount of settled detritus especially in the fuge. I ened up siphoning 4 buckets with this being the cleaner one out of the fuge and return partition.
Then I continued with water changes and changes around 60- percent of tank volume in successive 20-30 percent changes. this did dropped the nitrates but not as much as I hoped as I nitrates still reads 15-20.
to make it worse my parameters dropped a bit withthe changes as I wasn't checking them till after the last water change. Parameters post last water change:
Sal 1.025
Alk 8.0 ( previously between 9-10)
Ca 350 ( previously 370)
Mg 1140 (down from 1290)
Nitrates around 15-20
Phosphates 0-0.03
Been dosing more part B to raise the alk gradually, and finishing dosing around 1/2 gallon of Ca and abit less MG to raise levels. I'm targeting:
Alk 9 to allow for fluctuations if my wife misses a dose when I'm on travel
Ca 420 as I never could raise it more than 400 over the last months.
MG 1280
Tank was consuming 60 ml of A&B daily before parameters started to drop a bit even before the waterchanges so I'm guessing I'll try upping that to 70 once I reach the targeted values.
as for nitrates issue its still unclear why I have nitrates and no phophates esepecially without a single patch of HA or cyano in the tank and only a strain of caulerpa alive.
I decided to start dosing bacteria ( combination of Prodibio biodigest and REef eveolution biodegrader for more bacteria variety) decreased fish feedings and stopped all coral spotfeeding as well as coral food supplementation since around 10 days now. tank looks a lot cleaner and I can't see any alga on the glass for 4-5 days after a magnet cleaning.
will stop big volume water changes as their messing up my parameters at this big volume and will give the bacteria and decreased feedings a try for 2-3 more weeks.
won't be dosing any vodka as im not here most of the time to assess any side effects and also to modify dosing according to how my corals look. might try feeding bacteria with Prodibio Bioptime which is the only available thing here.
I'm also considering a denitrator in case I don't see changes soon. Please do share your experience with denitrators as it seems they have their cons. At least will they allow me to feed a bit more without seeing nitrates climibing?
at last my corals have very mixed reaction to the nitrates and all other parameters changes, most of them are growing very fast (montipora, millepora, ORA red planet, even my ORA oregon blue tort that didn't grow since introduction 4 months ago is now encrusting the roch next to the plug and also shows growth on branches. on the other side I lost my ORA green birdnest and my superman montipora still looks bad. another green birdnest I have is looking still very white (maybe a bit better) but still with great polyp extension.
some pics:
montipora before bleaching started:
with the bleaching: notice the growth.
I have moved it to medium and then lower light as I was told it could be a lighting issue but still no change. do yo uthink it's still could recover?
Ora green birdnest:
with colorloss:
and lost it after it showed some burned tips
and total loss you can see it behind my RBTA mini clone that seems to be doing better
maroun.c
New member
Last deteriorating coral is also a green birdnest. started bleaching couple of months back but always with great PE.
Lowered it to mid and then lower tank and still no change (maybe polyps are a bit greener)
and now
The worst par tis that a frag of it in the Frag tank (sharing same water as my tank also had lighter polyps and then burnt tips and lost it so now I know it's not a lighting issue:
could this be due to the higher nitrates but then why are other corals still growing and have great coloration and PE
my red millepora can't ctachup with tissue on the growth tips, same as for my ORA red planet which grew a branch 1.5 times the size of the whole frag in 4 months.
MArch 09
Sep 09
shot from back of tank to see the growth on that branch
and this last growth shot in 4 months:
Thanks for any help or suggestions.
Lowered it to mid and then lower tank and still no change (maybe polyps are a bit greener)
and now
The worst par tis that a frag of it in the Frag tank (sharing same water as my tank also had lighter polyps and then burnt tips and lost it so now I know it's not a lighting issue:
could this be due to the higher nitrates but then why are other corals still growing and have great coloration and PE
my red millepora can't ctachup with tissue on the growth tips, same as for my ORA red planet which grew a branch 1.5 times the size of the whole frag in 4 months.
MArch 09
Sep 09
shot from back of tank to see the growth on that branch
and this last growth shot in 4 months:
Thanks for any help or suggestions.
Rocketboy52
New member
Thats funny I just got back from a week in Tonga and while snorkeling on Tongatapu in the reef preserve I saw multiple LARGE colonies of this coral. It was redish-purple with a blue sheen in the the noon day light and would darken up as the sun got lower in the sky. It didn't have any visable polyps, and when felt, it had no noticeable hair, just felt like really fine grain rock. It didn't branch but grew into a large round colony. It was always located in 3-5' deep pools and would grow right up to the low tide line, and there was always some die off in the middle of this this big round colony. The fully developed colonies were totaly round and at first I thought it was a large wide tractor tire 5' in diameter and 3-4 feet tall. It was easily taking over nighbor montipora colonies and it would build this same big round colonies on top of the reef base that it was taking over. I haven't been able to identify it yet, so it would be interesting to Identify if it is in fact the same one.
maroun.c
New member
intersting. got 3 small frags of the coral at different positions and I can see they have different coloration as they get different light intensities. Was wondering which is the best for them to move the others to the same position. they have polyps 90% of the time however at the lfs the large colony didn't have any polyps at least the 2 times I checked it.
did you take any pics of them
did you take any pics of them
Sucks to lose corals. Especially when its so hard to get them in your case.
The ORA green birdnest looked great. its very weird indeed to lose it and have corals looking bad when you're having such great growth on other corals.
I would think there is something wrong with your water quality.
Maybe birdnests are more fragile or sensitive than others to what you have. I don't think it's a lighting or flow issue as you lost 2 birdnests one in the tank and one in the frag tank and a third one isn't doing so good. only thing that is the same for all three is water quality. Lighting and flow is different for each and some were moved to different spots so you couldn't have missed a ligthing and flow intensity they can live with... so water quality is your issue:
- keep on doing water changes, maybe at a lower rate and volume and maybe adjust water parameters in the mixed water before doing the water change.
- what are the parameters of your mixed water, do you think you're causing an alk spike or PH difference while doing water changes.
-What salt are you using.
-How old is your RODI membrane
-check your TDS
-Is your DSB getting disturbed by any fish or while you're doing tank maintenance.
-Try to get some new variety of Caulerpa or cheato in your fuge and maybe try a diffrent water flow in there to avoid all that detritus.
-the dirty water you removed was for sure contributing to the problem now that you got that fixed things should start improving unless your bioload or feeding is over the edge.
-Guess bacteria dosing should start to show some results with time.
-wouldn't mess with a denitrator at this stage but as you say maybe it's worth getting if things don't start improving.
-I would really look into vodka dosing as many are having great sucess with it and we're not reading any stories of crashes related to vodka. Keep in mind that if any tank using vodka had crashed for whitchever reason vodka would be the first to blame and that would have caused lots of discussion on this forum but we don't hear it yet. Some have been using vodka for 1-2 years so we do have an idea of long term risks and results and some alga bloom shouldn't set you off. still I understand that in your case you don't want to risk burnt coral tips or color fading corals.
One last thing as I find it hard to belive that you're having so much nitrates and no HA and no PO4 can you cross check your nitrates and phosphates testing to other kits?
The ORA green birdnest looked great. its very weird indeed to lose it and have corals looking bad when you're having such great growth on other corals.
I would think there is something wrong with your water quality.
Maybe birdnests are more fragile or sensitive than others to what you have. I don't think it's a lighting or flow issue as you lost 2 birdnests one in the tank and one in the frag tank and a third one isn't doing so good. only thing that is the same for all three is water quality. Lighting and flow is different for each and some were moved to different spots so you couldn't have missed a ligthing and flow intensity they can live with... so water quality is your issue:
- keep on doing water changes, maybe at a lower rate and volume and maybe adjust water parameters in the mixed water before doing the water change.
- what are the parameters of your mixed water, do you think you're causing an alk spike or PH difference while doing water changes.
-What salt are you using.
-How old is your RODI membrane
-check your TDS
-Is your DSB getting disturbed by any fish or while you're doing tank maintenance.
-Try to get some new variety of Caulerpa or cheato in your fuge and maybe try a diffrent water flow in there to avoid all that detritus.
-the dirty water you removed was for sure contributing to the problem now that you got that fixed things should start improving unless your bioload or feeding is over the edge.
-Guess bacteria dosing should start to show some results with time.
-wouldn't mess with a denitrator at this stage but as you say maybe it's worth getting if things don't start improving.
-I would really look into vodka dosing as many are having great sucess with it and we're not reading any stories of crashes related to vodka. Keep in mind that if any tank using vodka had crashed for whitchever reason vodka would be the first to blame and that would have caused lots of discussion on this forum but we don't hear it yet. Some have been using vodka for 1-2 years so we do have an idea of long term risks and results and some alga bloom shouldn't set you off. still I understand that in your case you don't want to risk burnt coral tips or color fading corals.
One last thing as I find it hard to belive that you're having so much nitrates and no HA and no PO4 can you cross check your nitrates and phosphates testing to other kits?
maroun.c
New member
Hi Fred,
-I'm trying to back off a bit from excessive water changes to see if nitrates will start dropping due to the cleanup and increasing circulation in the sump as well as dosing the bacteria.
I'm using a mix of reefcrystal and cystal marine mix as reefcrystal is giving my an alk around 14 usually.
-Crystal sea MArine mix gives the following:
Alk 10.5
ca 380
Mg 980
so it did cause an important drop in Ca MG although I usually add 400 ml of part A a and 600 ml of MG which should bring Ca and MG up to the levels I want in 100 litres of water that I usually mix.
-PH of aerated mixed water is around 8.1 so very close to my tank.
I still didn't connect my DI unit but water out of my RO is around 30 TDS. unfortunately have no space to install the DI unit before the move.Changed my sediment and 2 carbon filters 2 weeks ago and the RO membrane is less than 3 months old.
-No fish disturbing DSB as far as I can see. I try not to disturb it while cleaning the glass.
-Don't have anything against vodka except the fear of not being around to watch any alga bloom or coral lightening... so will keep this as a last resort.
-Caulaerpa has been surviving at best in my tank never had growth worth pruning. here's my fuge at it's best a few months ago
And what's left from it:
theres no Cheato around here and it's very rare to get caulerpa that would make it after shipping.... so this single branch of caulerpa is getting attention as much as a precious frag. Raised it ona frag stand and increade lighting from 8 hours a day to 12 and now to 18 hours and finally I am seeing some growth on it. it quickly emittling branches like roots and it is growing hope it continues. a friend of mine also got some alga that looks like cheato so I will get some from him hopefully it'll grow in my tank.
-I'm trying to back off a bit from excessive water changes to see if nitrates will start dropping due to the cleanup and increasing circulation in the sump as well as dosing the bacteria.
I'm using a mix of reefcrystal and cystal marine mix as reefcrystal is giving my an alk around 14 usually.
-Crystal sea MArine mix gives the following:
Alk 10.5
ca 380
Mg 980
so it did cause an important drop in Ca MG although I usually add 400 ml of part A a and 600 ml of MG which should bring Ca and MG up to the levels I want in 100 litres of water that I usually mix.
-PH of aerated mixed water is around 8.1 so very close to my tank.
I still didn't connect my DI unit but water out of my RO is around 30 TDS. unfortunately have no space to install the DI unit before the move.Changed my sediment and 2 carbon filters 2 weeks ago and the RO membrane is less than 3 months old.
-No fish disturbing DSB as far as I can see. I try not to disturb it while cleaning the glass.
-Don't have anything against vodka except the fear of not being around to watch any alga bloom or coral lightening... so will keep this as a last resort.
-Caulaerpa has been surviving at best in my tank never had growth worth pruning. here's my fuge at it's best a few months ago
And what's left from it:
theres no Cheato around here and it's very rare to get caulerpa that would make it after shipping.... so this single branch of caulerpa is getting attention as much as a precious frag. Raised it ona frag stand and increade lighting from 8 hours a day to 12 and now to 18 hours and finally I am seeing some growth on it. it quickly emittling branches like roots and it is growing hope it continues. a friend of mine also got some alga that looks like cheato so I will get some from him hopefully it'll grow in my tank.
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maroun.c
New member
Woke up to a dead clam today. it's been closed for the last two days.
1 GSP colony is not opening while another one just next to t is opening to the fullest.
tested my parameters yesterday:
Alk 9.3 (up from 8 10 day ago did I bring it up too fast?)
Ca 420 finally (up from 380)
Mg 1260 up from 1160
my xenia is still the same Stalks out but no open polyps and no pumping. all other corals are the same excpet for my RBTA which had bleached and which I believe is starting to improve in colors.
Do you think the change in parameters killed the clam while 2 other ones look fine.
I have stopped adding any coral food and any additives except for Prodibio biodigest I also decreased feeding a bit and am not target feeding my corals do you think this is affecting corals that like dirtier water?
1 GSP colony is not opening while another one just next to t is opening to the fullest.
tested my parameters yesterday:
Alk 9.3 (up from 8 10 day ago did I bring it up too fast?)
Ca 420 finally (up from 380)
Mg 1260 up from 1160
my xenia is still the same Stalks out but no open polyps and no pumping. all other corals are the same excpet for my RBTA which had bleached and which I believe is starting to improve in colors.
Do you think the change in parameters killed the clam while 2 other ones look fine.
I have stopped adding any coral food and any additives except for Prodibio biodigest I also decreased feeding a bit and am not target feeding my corals do you think this is affecting corals that like dirtier water?
Sorry for your loss.
Not sure if the parameters change would cause the deaths.
it is weird when one coral dies and a similar one next to it is doing OK.
With all what's happening in your tank I hope you're not headed to a crash. I would watch things very closely and be ready for the worst.
I would do a water change and maybe change the carbon. Inspect all pumps to make sure everything is working...
Not sure if the parameters change would cause the deaths.
it is weird when one coral dies and a similar one next to it is doing OK.
With all what's happening in your tank I hope you're not headed to a crash. I would watch things very closely and be ready for the worst.
I would do a water change and maybe change the carbon. Inspect all pumps to make sure everything is working...
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maroun.c
New member
Hi, hope you're wrong about that crash thing.
Indeed I do feel something is wrong or at least weird in the tank but can't pinpoint what it is. I have done multiple water changes in the last 2 weeks and those unfortunately messed up my parameters. I'm afraid further water changes will also mess my parameters so I'm not really sure that all these fluctuations will not affect the tank even if end result is towards the best. I'm considering starting smaller water changes (around 20 G per week) to help dilute whatever is wrong in there to give the bacteria dosing some time to become active will also match alk and Ca in mixed water to the tanks parameters. I am noticing that my rocks look a bit cleaner, a top rock has lost some coraline and looks a bit whiter don't know if this is due to Ca deposit or just some coraline receeding for some reason. Corals look the same. I'm wondering if I should spot feed the ones not opening: Xenia and GSP.
I'm running both my skimmers on full wet for the Turbofloater and wet for the Hurricone and noticed an increase in skimmate production initially as I cleaned up my sump and fuge, over the last few days I can clearly tell that I'm getting less skimmate (colour and smell)
maroun.c
New member
and another clam lost yesterday while the third one I have is showing growth plates.
Changed carbon yesterday and installed my TLF phosphate reactor with half dose of phosban. hopefully this will help change things.
Current status is:
2 lost clams.
bleached Superman montipora
bleached green birdnest
closed GSP while another rock just next to it is fully open.
xenia still open but heads are much smaller and not pulsing or very faint pulsing.
was told on another thread to move the green birdnest and monti to a bit more light and to feed them. As this will contribute to my nitrates I will take them out every 3-4 days to a small container and add some corl food there and put them back in the tank after 30 min this way they'll be in a higher concentration of coral food and I won't be adding much to my tank.
Other than that all corals look great and I'm getting Growth tips or growth.
my frogspawn which looked reather light compared to its mother colony in a friends tank is coloring up a bit. and very weirdly my RBTA that bleached and lost most of it's volume is definitly coloring up I'm hoping it'll go back to the dark red and dark greenish inside it had.
Changed carbon yesterday and installed my TLF phosphate reactor with half dose of phosban. hopefully this will help change things.
Current status is:
2 lost clams.
bleached Superman montipora
bleached green birdnest
closed GSP while another rock just next to it is fully open.
xenia still open but heads are much smaller and not pulsing or very faint pulsing.
was told on another thread to move the green birdnest and monti to a bit more light and to feed them. As this will contribute to my nitrates I will take them out every 3-4 days to a small container and add some corl food there and put them back in the tank after 30 min this way they'll be in a higher concentration of coral food and I won't be adding much to my tank.
Other than that all corals look great and I'm getting Growth tips or growth.
my frogspawn which looked reather light compared to its mother colony in a friends tank is coloring up a bit. and very weirdly my RBTA that bleached and lost most of it's volume is definitly coloring up I'm hoping it'll go back to the dark red and dark greenish inside it had.
This is getting strange.
Good move on the phosban and carbon. I would continue to frequently change carbon and also perform smaller waterchanges matched to your tank parameters. Maybe it's worth posting directly on the forum where your questions will get more traffic and maybe more help.also link to your thread when you post there so that pthers can get the full history.
Hope others will chime in and give more suggestions.
Good move on the phosban and carbon. I would continue to frequently change carbon and also perform smaller waterchanges matched to your tank parameters. Maybe it's worth posting directly on the forum where your questions will get more traffic and maybe more help.also link to your thread when you post there so that pthers can get the full history.
Hope others will chime in and give more suggestions.
