Hi,
If anyone can recommend an expert to look at my tank. I'm in Ft Lauderdale (south FL area). I'd appreciate it. And not just from a regular fish store down here, I need a true expert. See the rest....
I have a 65 gallon mixed reef. I've had this one going since mid 2011. Current conditions check out good, only pH is slighly low at 8.0-8.1. Temp 81, alk, cal is good, nitrate = 0, phosphate = 0, nitrite = 0. Mag is 1400 or so. Reef OCtopus 2000+ skimmer, which pulls fair amount of stuff out. 10 gallon refug as part of my 40 gallon sump. Lighting is LED, mix of wavelengths cool white, few warm white, royal blue, few actinic, fewer cyan and 'blue blue.' Flow is by two Tunze streams 1500 gph? I think.
The tank has gone through rough phases (where corals decline and/or die) every few months for at least the last two years. I had a period of 9 months where everything did great, even my birds nest quadrupled in size. Then all of a sudden it slowly died, and everythign went down hill, esp the SPS. I changed all the water and things came back. I've been using a phoshpate reactor also thinkking that may be it even though salifert had phoph at undectable. I even bought the new skimmer (listed above) thinking I might not be getting enough skimming with my Aqua-c EV120.
**The LPS in my reef tank during this current bad phase are actually doing well. They usually close up when the SPS are dying. But not this time. The only thing I can think it can be is my LED system (since I cant really "test" those wavelengths, etc). I do have a par meter, and that is 220 at least on the bottom of the tank. So PAR at least is ok. Maybe they are too old too soon???
**But I dont remember the tank NOT having bad phases when I first started it with Halide. I just dont recall. But it's very curious that usually (not always) it bounces back to normal with a huge (80-90% ) water change.
I've been in salt water off and on since I was 12, so that's 30 years. I now have a very successful seahorse tank. They are supposed to be hard to keep, and they are doing great.
**I was thinking to swtich back to halide??? But that would be more $$ goign to a dying cause possibly
Thanks for reading this and ANY input!
If anyone can recommend an expert to look at my tank. I'm in Ft Lauderdale (south FL area). I'd appreciate it. And not just from a regular fish store down here, I need a true expert. See the rest....
I have a 65 gallon mixed reef. I've had this one going since mid 2011. Current conditions check out good, only pH is slighly low at 8.0-8.1. Temp 81, alk, cal is good, nitrate = 0, phosphate = 0, nitrite = 0. Mag is 1400 or so. Reef OCtopus 2000+ skimmer, which pulls fair amount of stuff out. 10 gallon refug as part of my 40 gallon sump. Lighting is LED, mix of wavelengths cool white, few warm white, royal blue, few actinic, fewer cyan and 'blue blue.' Flow is by two Tunze streams 1500 gph? I think.
The tank has gone through rough phases (where corals decline and/or die) every few months for at least the last two years. I had a period of 9 months where everything did great, even my birds nest quadrupled in size. Then all of a sudden it slowly died, and everythign went down hill, esp the SPS. I changed all the water and things came back. I've been using a phoshpate reactor also thinkking that may be it even though salifert had phoph at undectable. I even bought the new skimmer (listed above) thinking I might not be getting enough skimming with my Aqua-c EV120.
**The LPS in my reef tank during this current bad phase are actually doing well. They usually close up when the SPS are dying. But not this time. The only thing I can think it can be is my LED system (since I cant really "test" those wavelengths, etc). I do have a par meter, and that is 220 at least on the bottom of the tank. So PAR at least is ok. Maybe they are too old too soon???
**But I dont remember the tank NOT having bad phases when I first started it with Halide. I just dont recall. But it's very curious that usually (not always) it bounces back to normal with a huge (80-90% ) water change.
I've been in salt water off and on since I was 12, so that's 30 years. I now have a very successful seahorse tank. They are supposed to be hard to keep, and they are doing great.
**I was thinking to swtich back to halide??? But that would be more $$ goign to a dying cause possibly
Thanks for reading this and ANY input!