Not using ALK

[hkgar]

At least very little. Tank is 180 with 50 sump. One year old. I have about 15 SPS they aren't very big, and 3 med. sized Candy Cane and several small Acans.

I use a CA reactor and ALK has been running in the low 180's (PPM). It tested at 211 yesterday ( I hadn't test in 1 week), so I shut down the reactor to get it back down to about 180. Today it tested at 207, only a drop of 4 ppm.

Mag 1350
CA 450
PO4 .12
NO3 1.0
PH 8.02
Salinity 34 SG 1.025
Temp 78

Lighting is 3 AI Vega's and two 6ft 80 watt T-5's (Blue)

This seems like very low usage. Why would the usage be so little? Thanks for your help.

 

[hkgar]

Some Pics

Some Pics

 

[kevin_e]

Low to no growth would be my guess, a long with the size of the aquarium relative to the size of the frags. These frags look new. SPS can take weeks, to months, to a year to begin growing.

 

[sirreal63]

Some looked bleached too Gary, maybe cut back the lighting a little and let them recover? I would also feed more, it has been my experience that starving corals bleach easier and increased feelings are needed to offset higher light.

 

[thetaggeffect]

+1 to the bleaching, I would dial down the lights.

 

[hkgar]

Lighting and feeding

Lighting and feeding

My lighting schedule
xxxxxxxxxx W Red Green RB DB B Ramp
8:00 AM xx40 22 22xxxx 63 50 50 60
11:00 AMx 55 30 30xxx 85 68 55 30
2:00 PMxx 65 35 35xxxx 100 80 80 30
4:00 PMxx 50 28 28xxxx 80 64 64 30
7:00 PMxx 30 16 16xxxx 45 36 36 30
8:00 PMxx 15 7 7xxxx 20 16 16 15

I have set the controller to coral acclimation with a 50% of the above chart. This will gradually increase over the next 8 weeks to the amount in the above chart.

I feed 4 grams of home made frozen food at 6 PM. About once a week I double the amount of frozen.



Plus automatic feeders set up for a small amount of flake food (prime reef flakes and Spirulina) at 10 AM and 2 PM.

Twice a week I feed 2 tsps of Reef Roids and 1 time per week 1/2 tsp Reef Chili.

If anything I think I feed fairly heavy and there should be lots of fish poop.

Tank inhabitants are Midas Blenny, Yellow Tang, Kole Tang, Powder Blue Tang, Spot Breasted Angel, Flame Angel, Purple Dottyback, Bi Color Dotty Back, Lyretail Anthias (male) plus several hermits and snails.

 

[sirreal63]

The alk consumption has dropped off because the corals are not taking in much for growth, they are in survival mode and it looiks like some are losing the battle. I would either turn the Vegas down more or move the frags to the sand. My gut says to feed more of the home made food, but I am not sure you have enough consumers to eat it. I feed about 4-6 times that amount of home made food with 5 small fish and 120-130 gallons TWV, but it has taken me a long time to get to where the tank can process that much food.

The corals that are doing ok I would not move but the ones that are bleached or stressed I would put in a much lower light area.

 

[hkgar]

Jack

Thanks for your advice. The coral bleaching isn't as bad as it appears. My cell phone does a very poor job of white balancing. So the high blue shows some of the bluer corals almost white.

I did dial the Vega intensity back quite a bit today, from about 90% of the posted schedule to 50%. I will move a couple of the more bleached corals to the sand also.

 

[sirreal63]

Taking some of the light away cannot hurt, it gives them a chance to try and recover without light being too much of a stressor.

 

[toothman]

Looks like a nice tank and cabinet. Led lights are difficult to use, I personally gave up and went back to halide t5. There are some amazing tanks with led lights. I would say with 100% confidence that led lights are more difficult for the average reefer to get to work properly on a reef tank. Have you ever considered just changing your light to a t5 only or t5 halide. I would absolutely lower the % of your leds if changing lights is out of the question.

 

[hkgar]

I should have stayed with my 90 gallon. This is it under AI Sol Blues (2). I thought I was doing so good I could move up to a 180, which I did in Jan. 2013 and have had nothing but frustration.



None of my corals survived the transfer and I have lost several corals I have purchased for the new tank. At first I tried to get SPS going before the new tank had sufficiently aged and they all died. I lost 9 fish a one point due to ICK. I don't want to give up, but I feel very frustrated.

 

[kevin_e]

I should have stayed with my 90 gallon. This is it under AI Sol Blues (2). I thought I was doing so good I could move up to a 180, which I did in Jan. 2013 and have had nothing but frustration.



None of my corals survived the transfer and I have lost several corals I have purchased for the new tank. At first I tried to get SPS going before the new tank had sufficiently aged and they all died. I lost 9 fish a one point due to ICK. I don't want to give up, but I feel very frustrated.

Tank looks great. Just need a little time. I setup a tank and waiting a year before I noticed any growth. Get yourself busy with something else and let the tank be and things should work out for you. When I ignored (i.e. stopped tinkering with things) my tank, things began to take off.