NanoMonkey
New member
My wife and I recently upgraded our 55 gallon reef tank to a 70 gallon reef tank. The upgrade went very smoothly, with no coral loss... The move happened three weeks ago, with approximately 40 gallons of water moving from the 55 to the 70 and freshly mixed saltwater making up the rest. Approximately 2 gallons of live sand moved as well, with crushed coral and sand making up the rest for a 2-3" deep bed. (The 55 now has only live rock, live sand and snails in it.)
Yesterday, we noticed that one of our montipora digitatas seemed to be dying (bleaching?)... It began at the tip and spread through the entire colony. The neighboring colonies did not seem affected.
Now our original colony is starting to die as well.
We have three more frags of this monti as well as three frags of another color monti digi and a relatively large plate monti that we don't want to lose.
We have isolated the rock with the dead monti digi on it in a 10 gallon quarantine tank.
This is the 70 gallon tank setup:
4x110 watt VHO lights - 2 actinic white, 2 actinic
Whisper 5 power filter
fish: 2 ocellaris clownfish, a fridmani pseudochromis, a kaudern's cardinal, a clown goby, a yellow watchman goby (and pistol shrimp)
coral: xenia, kenya tree coral, button polyps, candy cane, frogspawn, various mushrooms, green star polyps, donut coral
other: a derasa and a maxima clam, two peppermint shrimp, banded trochus snails, turbo snails, bumblebee snails, cowrie snails, a queen conch snail, one large brittle star (10"), twenty or thirty small brittle stars (2")
Using the 5-in-1 Quick Dip test strips from Jungle Laboratories, the nitrate and nitrite are 0, KH is 180-ish, and pH is 7.8.
The inverts are fed at a minimum once daily, alternating between Phytomax and Chromamax. The water used is city tap water treated with Kent Ammonia Detox. TechCB is added several times per week to maintain calcium levels, Coral-Vite is added once per week, as is Kent Strontium and Molybdenum.
The "healthy" montis can be moved to the 55, but it is only being lit by 110 watts of PC and 40 watts of NO at the moment, I'm not sure if that's enough to make them happy.
Any recommendations?
Thanks in advance!
~NanoMonkey
Yesterday, we noticed that one of our montipora digitatas seemed to be dying (bleaching?)... It began at the tip and spread through the entire colony. The neighboring colonies did not seem affected.
Now our original colony is starting to die as well.
We have three more frags of this monti as well as three frags of another color monti digi and a relatively large plate monti that we don't want to lose.
We have isolated the rock with the dead monti digi on it in a 10 gallon quarantine tank.
This is the 70 gallon tank setup:
4x110 watt VHO lights - 2 actinic white, 2 actinic
Whisper 5 power filter
fish: 2 ocellaris clownfish, a fridmani pseudochromis, a kaudern's cardinal, a clown goby, a yellow watchman goby (and pistol shrimp)
coral: xenia, kenya tree coral, button polyps, candy cane, frogspawn, various mushrooms, green star polyps, donut coral
other: a derasa and a maxima clam, two peppermint shrimp, banded trochus snails, turbo snails, bumblebee snails, cowrie snails, a queen conch snail, one large brittle star (10"), twenty or thirty small brittle stars (2")
Using the 5-in-1 Quick Dip test strips from Jungle Laboratories, the nitrate and nitrite are 0, KH is 180-ish, and pH is 7.8.
The inverts are fed at a minimum once daily, alternating between Phytomax and Chromamax. The water used is city tap water treated with Kent Ammonia Detox. TechCB is added several times per week to maintain calcium levels, Coral-Vite is added once per week, as is Kent Strontium and Molybdenum.
The "healthy" montis can be moved to the 55, but it is only being lit by 110 watts of PC and 40 watts of NO at the moment, I'm not sure if that's enough to make them happy.
Any recommendations?
Thanks in advance!
~NanoMonkey
