Good day Reef Central,
First, my setup .. well one of them.
Standard 40 Breeder, 20G tall Sump. Sump has Live Sand in it.
Bubble Magus NAC6 Skimmer
BRS Dual reactor with Carbon in both chambers
TLF reactor with GFO
(Cheapo) return pump (Roughly 900gph) Throttled down with a valve
4 39W T5's sitting 3 inches from water, 3x Ati Blue plus 1x Purple Plus
2x Koralia 3's, 1x koralia
LIvestock: 1 PJ Cardinal, 2x purple firefish, 2x Red firefish, 1x Cherub Angel, 1x bi-color blenny, 3x peppermint shrimp, 3x emerald crabs, 30 Nassarius snails, 20 Hermits.
Test Results
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0
Calcium: 600+ (I don't supplement Calcium either, it's just that high)
Magnesium (1600)
PH: 8
ALK: 8
Using Reef Crystals and 0 TDS Ro/Di
Now onto the questions
I've had good success with all the LPS/Softies I've kept, I've moved most of them from this 40 gallon tank to my 125 to make room for SPS.
I have 3 Large colonies, ORA Miama Orchid, ORA Orange Halo, ORA Purple Nana. I have several other frags including ORA red planet, Tri-color Valeda, a Small colony of one similar to Lime in the Sky, Small frag of purple haze monti, bretts purple rim, orange, brown, green, and idaho grape montis.
The three very large colonies seem to be doing well, The Miami Orchid is whitish/pale at the tips, but that is normal from what I understand, the Orange Halo is very orange, lots of polyp extension, seems healthy, the purple nana has good extension, the tips are purple but somewhat pale (not sure if this is normal) The red planet frags have tons of polyp extension but seem to be whitening near the base. I also have a good sized piece of Orange Digitata, it has good polyp extension, but the tissue underneath the polyps is white-ish in color in some areas. My Frag of green staghorn started to bleach near the base, I moved it lower in the tank and it seems to be recovering. I had a small frag of green monti, it did fine for about 2 weeks and then overnight it was completely bleached out, I think it may have been to close to the lighting.
I've lost a few small frags of acro here and there, nothing major. I have two pieces of Bali Green slimer, one small, and one about 3" long. The small one began as a very nice flourecent green color, it was placed under very intense light, and after I noticed its coloring starting to pale I moved it down. It's not getting better or worse yet, that was bout two weeks ago.
Another frag of unknown SPS has bleached from the base up, only the tips remain colored.
Is 39x4 Lighting Too much for this tank? I run my lights 10 Hours a day.
I Feed the fish 2-3x Daily
I Dose ALK supplement and Magnesium Supplement
I also just started dosing Lugol's solution (iodine)
Is it necessary to have a Daylight bulb On a SPS Tank?
My phone isn't capable of taking pictures of a tank unfortunately, I'll see if I can find a Camera.
Does anyone see anything obviously wrong with this setup?
