the 1700g stingray reef

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yes its being force fed from the sweetwater pump. you just cant see it in the pic. its up above the skimmer cup on a small shelf. :D
 
I need your opinions. Since starting up the big skimmer Iv'e had a few colonies RTN. A couple of things are going on. The water is getting cleaner than it has ever been since inception. The Big Ugly produces anywhere from 12-16 cups of tea colored skimmate a day. This is quite a bit more than my other skimmer. I'm wondering if the rapid removal of the excess nutrients could be causing a few colonies to RTN? Iv'e read of similar things happening using ZeoVit in established tanks. I'm going to let it run it's course for the next week or so to see if it stabilizes.
 
o man you didnt say anything about that when we talked on the phone. how bad is the RTNing on those corals? is it little spots or large sections? and are they the ones that are higher up in the tank? they could be bleaching too. i have never heard of that happening to corals from a skimmer being hooked up to the system.

im also supprised that the big ugly is not putting out more skimmate than that. you had posted earler that it was around 8 cups every 2 hrs. now its only 12-16 cups a day. thats way too low for that size skimmer. it should put out alot more skimmate than that. and be alot darker skimmate than green tea. i will have to think on that.
 
Stan, it can definately be a possibility.... Think of going from 250 wtt MH bulbs over say a 30 gallon tank then the next day switching over to brand new 400w mh bulbs. The light intensity change could definately be a factor. Granted it is almost impossible to have "toooooooo clean" of water however the rapid change can create a shock to the corals, thus creating the RTN issue you are seeming to have... that is not say that is for sure the problem however it may be suspect.
 
Stan, I have a nice hot pink carnation that has been alive and well in my tnak for a few months... I got from Jerry while it was still bagged up and it seems to be doing great. I know they don't ship for SH*T so that could be part of the problem... if you want i could try to cut you a small piece and we can see what happens. I add some micro-vert crap once a week to once every two weeks and that helps sustain it I think, since it is non-photosynthetic, however just do to the size of your tank I doubt you would need to add anything to feed them.
 
Energy- Look up Tanu on here, when he got his Bubble King, he had the same problem you have. He actually was adding NO3 back to his tank, even tried to dump some skimmate back into his tank....

there is a thread over on the "z" board also about it, if you cant find it on here I can send you a PM with a link t the other forum.

HTH

Nick
 
probably shock from sudden exposure to more light. maybe raise the lamps a bit until they recover?

16 cups of tea per day? That sounds good to me! Can you dry it up a bit?
 
Energy, that is a very likely possibility and I've heard of the same scenario several times where someone has gone from no skimmer or an undersized skimmer to one that is significantly more efficient. IMO, I don't think the water is getting that much more clear per se. Albeit, the reduction in organics is clearing up the water to an extent, but I don't think it is enough to cause bleaching, and bleaching is not what you are describing anyways. I feel there is a sudden drastic change in NO3 and PO4 levels. The zooxanthellae in the corals rely very much on these levels remaining somewhat stable as the coral regulates the zooxanthellae density in its tissue based on the nutrient levels. A sudden reduction in these levels means the corals have to make sudden changes in how much zooxanthellae they are housing because there is no longer enough "food" to feed all of the zooxanthellae. Some corals can make the change quickly, but it may be too stressful on others and they they can succumb to infection or necrosis. This is what happens when people start ZEOvit. The method is extremely efficient at reducing NO3 and PO4. It needs to be done very gradually so the corals can adapt their zooxanthellae densities to the new environment. This is all my "theory" as to what is going on anyways. It could be something totally different.

I would consider running the new skimmer on a timer so it is on for maybe half of the day and off for half of the day, slowly increasing the "on" time over a couple weeks until it is on 24/7. I am also suprised that the skimmer is only pulling about a gallon of wet skimmate per day.

RGibson, RC mods don't allow the posting of links to other boards. The address to that board is the "Z" word followd by .com.
 
Travis, actually it pulls out about 6 gallons a day. It pulls roughly 8 cups every two hours, which means 16 cups every four hours. That means 1 gallon every four hours. And there are 6 4 hour time block in a 24 day... so that makes 6 gallons + or -
 
althoug after reading through the page again I noticed that Stan said 12-16 cups.... Then I saw Spazz's comments after and those were my sediments exactly.
 
Thanks everyone. I definately think the water is "cleaning" up considerably. The skimmate color is actually quite a bit darker now than when I was getting 8 cups in 2 hours. The sludge is building more spazz so don't panic on the production. The skimmer is still rocking and rolling! I agree with you guys on the change in water parameters. I'm sure the corals slowly got used to the build up of organics and once the water starting to be stripped of these-WHAMMO. Another point- I just changed the bulbs on my 240 watt U.V light. The old crystal quartz tubes where caked with sediment and probably did absolutely zero. Now with a monster skimmer and 240 watts of mega clear U.V sterilization it just equals to much of a change to soon. It also means I'll have room for a few new corals- so it's not all bad. Trodder whenever that carnation frags itself I would love to trade, Thanks. Iv'e been looking for some tank raised non-photo corals and they are few and far between.
 
Energy- I might have found your wrasse you were looking for....I will let you know when I get the pics.

tank is looking nice! how is that little echino doing?
 
I guess I'll be voice of disagreement here. I doubt it has anything to do with the skimmer itself taking out more stuff. I don't buy into the theory of too much and too soon good water killed the coral". That is a personal opinion anyway. This is likely coincidental. I seriously doubt the UV had anything to do with it either.

I am glad to see the skimmer is performing so well. How is your old one producing skimmate now? Still at the same rate? Is it slowing down?
 
im wondering if it would pay to pull one skimmer or the other off line for a few days to see if it helps the corals recover some. i agree it might have been way too much with all the changes to the system. the uv being a big change and the skimmer on top of that. i guess i need to reasearch that no3 no4 threoy some more.
thanks travis for that info.
 
Energy, which corals have you lost? Hopefully not any of your large colonies or rare pieces. I will try to bring a couple frags with me the next time I head up that way.
 
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