johno4
New member
Ok, I will try to keep this as short as possible so youre not reading forever. I am seeing little to no growth from corals in my tank. The question is why?
Tank details: 30 gallon drilled, 30g sump (half full), 20 gallon fuge. I am very good at doing my weekly 5g water changes.
Corals: largish pink leather, green nepthia, blasto, hammer, zoas, candy, and recently a RBTA. Almost everything has been in the tank for over 1 year and is exactly the same size as when I added them. Zoas have spread very little, blasto never opens fully, Nephia stays shriveled half the day, hammer is the same, no new heads. The RBTA was added 2 weeks ago and has shrunk down in size and is slowly moving from its rock to a spot under the overflow. The only coral that opens regularly is the leather, although little to no grow for that as well. I do not have a ton of coralline either. I will add pics when I can.
Parameters seem really good:
dkh 9
cal. 430ppm
nitrate 0ppm
phosphate 0ppm
pH 8.3
These were verified at CF.
I thought it was do to a lack of light. I was running an Odyssea 4 bulb HOt5 fixture with geisseman bulbs. This fixture has a single crappy reflector, I contemplated getting a new/better fixture. What I ended up doing was taking the fixture apart and making a retro fit light using the same ballasts, new bulbs and new single reflectors that I picked up at CF. The light output seems much better however no way to know without checking PAR which I don't have a meter to do that. I have talked with almost every employee at both CF and Reef shoppe, all seem to think I have more than enough light for the corals I have. Tom at the Reef shoppe thinks it could be chemical inhibitors being put off by one of the corals. He recommended that I try doing one really large water change and it would do the trick. The last two weeks I have done 10g water changes and have seen no difference. I do run carbon. It is in a bag in a small fluval 1 internal filter in my sump. I am really stumped, this is an inwall tank and I would really like to make it look good. So would my wife, who is beginning to lose confidence in my tank keeping abilities. :worried:
All and any of your thoughts and/or input is greatly appreciated.
John
Tank details: 30 gallon drilled, 30g sump (half full), 20 gallon fuge. I am very good at doing my weekly 5g water changes.
Corals: largish pink leather, green nepthia, blasto, hammer, zoas, candy, and recently a RBTA. Almost everything has been in the tank for over 1 year and is exactly the same size as when I added them. Zoas have spread very little, blasto never opens fully, Nephia stays shriveled half the day, hammer is the same, no new heads. The RBTA was added 2 weeks ago and has shrunk down in size and is slowly moving from its rock to a spot under the overflow. The only coral that opens regularly is the leather, although little to no grow for that as well. I do not have a ton of coralline either. I will add pics when I can.
Parameters seem really good:
dkh 9
cal. 430ppm
nitrate 0ppm
phosphate 0ppm
pH 8.3
These were verified at CF.
I thought it was do to a lack of light. I was running an Odyssea 4 bulb HOt5 fixture with geisseman bulbs. This fixture has a single crappy reflector, I contemplated getting a new/better fixture. What I ended up doing was taking the fixture apart and making a retro fit light using the same ballasts, new bulbs and new single reflectors that I picked up at CF. The light output seems much better however no way to know without checking PAR which I don't have a meter to do that. I have talked with almost every employee at both CF and Reef shoppe, all seem to think I have more than enough light for the corals I have. Tom at the Reef shoppe thinks it could be chemical inhibitors being put off by one of the corals. He recommended that I try doing one really large water change and it would do the trick. The last two weeks I have done 10g water changes and have seen no difference. I do run carbon. It is in a bag in a small fluval 1 internal filter in my sump. I am really stumped, this is an inwall tank and I would really like to make it look good. So would my wife, who is beginning to lose confidence in my tank keeping abilities. :worried:
All and any of your thoughts and/or input is greatly appreciated.
John
