herring_fish
Crazy Designer
Thank you
That is what I needed.
That is what I needed.
the secret to colorful,healthy corals....obvious to some,elusive to many
- Thread starter kevensquint
- Start date
sensei
New member
I have read this thread several times, great information!
I am having problems with my sps and would appreciate suggestions:
In January 2015 I started my new 150 gal Bare Bottom tank ( redsea max 650 aquarium with T5 Bulbs).
my parameters in January were: Alk: 10.5, PO4:0 (hanna), NO3: 0
After 3 days my first frag bleached, and after 1 week several others bleached. 2 weeks later most lost the beautiful colors!. I had only 2 fish in the aquarium.
After reading this thread ( April 2015), I realized that I had a lethal combination of high light, high ALK and almost no nutrients, so I lowered my ALK striving for Natural Sea Water levels and introduced 7 fish to higher the quantity of nutrients in the system.
Right now I have the following parameters:
Alk: 7.3, PO4:0 (Hanna), NO3: 0
Colors got better, but never really good, and I can not get my millis to have great polip extention. I had to travel out of town and the aquarium was given too much food and I guess there was a spike in ammonia levels resulting in a mini-cycle and the most of my fish died. I am back to 2 fish again. When I came back I tested ammonia and it was undetectable but one fish developed ich so I will not be able to get more fish inside until I treat the actual ones.
Questions:
1.- Since I cannot get more fish in the tank for some time how do I keep the nutrients high for developing colorful healthy colors?
2.- How much and what should I feed my tank? As mentioned before I have only 2 fish so they do not consume much food
3.- Is it just a matter of nutrients in the system? Assuming ALK, MAG and CAL are with in range?
4.- Will the ammonia spike that I had affect my sps corals?
I would appreciate your advice on how to get this tank in the right track
Thanks again
I am having problems with my sps and would appreciate suggestions:
In January 2015 I started my new 150 gal Bare Bottom tank ( redsea max 650 aquarium with T5 Bulbs).
my parameters in January were: Alk: 10.5, PO4:0 (hanna), NO3: 0
After 3 days my first frag bleached, and after 1 week several others bleached. 2 weeks later most lost the beautiful colors!. I had only 2 fish in the aquarium.
After reading this thread ( April 2015), I realized that I had a lethal combination of high light, high ALK and almost no nutrients, so I lowered my ALK striving for Natural Sea Water levels and introduced 7 fish to higher the quantity of nutrients in the system.
Right now I have the following parameters:
Alk: 7.3, PO4:0 (Hanna), NO3: 0
Colors got better, but never really good, and I can not get my millis to have great polip extention. I had to travel out of town and the aquarium was given too much food and I guess there was a spike in ammonia levels resulting in a mini-cycle and the most of my fish died. I am back to 2 fish again. When I came back I tested ammonia and it was undetectable but one fish developed ich so I will not be able to get more fish inside until I treat the actual ones.
Questions:
1.- Since I cannot get more fish in the tank for some time how do I keep the nutrients high for developing colorful healthy colors?
2.- How much and what should I feed my tank? As mentioned before I have only 2 fish so they do not consume much food
3.- Is it just a matter of nutrients in the system? Assuming ALK, MAG and CAL are with in range?
4.- Will the ammonia spike that I had affect my sps corals?
I would appreciate your advice on how to get this tank in the right track
Thanks again
laga77
New member
+1 I think this is where a lot of people go wrong. I might add target feeding corals with fresh and even live foods. I feed my lps and nps live worms and bbs. Sps gets live phyto and Reef Bugs for example. AWC`s keep nutrients low.
hkgar
Active member
Very curious about that mini cycle. How much live rock do you have? How long ago did the "original" cycle end?
sensei
New member
I have just been feeding the fish but since I only have 2 fish, them do not require much food.
I have Aminoacids at hand (Reef Energy A and B) ; I can start dosing them
1.-should I dose every day or between days?
2.-they recomend dosing 4ml per 26gal for sps enhanced color ( low nutrient), my aquarium is 150gal, so the dose would be 23ml.
should I start with the full dose of half?
3.-should I dose every day or every other day?
4.-how much time should I turn off the skimmer when I dose?
5.-should I dose at night or early morning?
is just dosing Reef Energy A and B going to be suficient?
would this be considered high nutrient import?
Regarding the high nutrient export, I guess you can achive it with the skimmer and the water changes
I am actually doing 30 gal every 3 weeks plus what my skimmer takes out.
how does it sound?
I know I am asking a lot of questions, but you all have a lot of experience and I am strugling
thanks
sensei
New member
so besides dosing Reef Energy A and B, should I also dose live phyto and skip the Reef Energy A and B in dose days? will my sps benefit for feeding live brine shimp also, should I skip Reef Energy A and B when I dose the brine shrimp?
Should I just start with Reef Energy A and B and see how it goes and them start feeding something else after some time?
How much algae in the glass should I expect?
I just want to be carefull not to overload the system
thanks
sensei
New member
I have about 120 pounds of live rock and no sand ( BB), but I added 7 fish at the same time (some small and some medium) and started feeding 2 LITTLE cubes of frozen myses every day, when I had to travel the person in charged got confused and he dosed 2 BIG cubes of myses every day, because these other cubes are so big, it is equivalent to around 3 times what I was feeding, and it was imposible for the fish to eat all that food so I guess after 7 days the bacteria could not handle the large load of food and there was a spike in ammonnia that killed the fish. They notified me that 5 fish were found dead on sunday, same day!
when I came back from my trip 10 days later, the rocks were covered with green algae. it was a disaster. it seemed to me that a mini cycle happened.
I finished my original cycle NOV last year.
the secret to colorful,healthy corals....obvious to some,elusive to many
How much algae? I have to clean the glass every 3 to 5 days. You will see GREEN algae on the glass also I have a small army of Astrea snails. I have a refugium that needs to be harvested every few weeks. Nitrate is 2ppm. I run a very small amount of GFO to keep phosphate level in check. Also I feed 4 cubes of frozen plus some flakes daily in my 170g total volumn system. DT is 105 gallon.
How much algae? I have to clean the glass every 3 to 5 days. You will see GREEN algae on the glass also I have a small army of Astrea snails. I have a refugium that needs to be harvested every few weeks. Nitrate is 2ppm. I run a very small amount of GFO to keep phosphate level in check. Also I feed 4 cubes of frozen plus some flakes daily in my 170g total volumn system. DT is 105 gallon.
laga77
New member
If their mouths are large enough to ingest they will. Not all types will. Plus, I don`t like putting anything that comes in a bottle in my tank.
sensei
New member
my sps are small frags.
in your other post you said :" I might add target feeding corals with fresh and even live foods."
what kind of fresh foods were you thinking??
I have read that some people do a shrimp mush, what would you recomend bisedes live phyto? and how often and how much would you feed the sps?
thanks
sensei
New member
I stopped doing the nitrate test because it was difficult for me to guess the result from the shades of blue in the red sea nitrate test. which test do you use?
for testing phosphates I bought a digital hanna meter, which seems to work fine.
the secret to colorful,healthy corals....obvious to some,elusive to many
The salifert kit works better. You can definitely tell the difference between 2ppm and 5 ppm. Algae on glass is a good indicator for phosphate. If you have to clean the glass every day then you have too much phosphate. Overtime you will be able the "feel" the levels even without testing.
The salifert kit works better. You can definitely tell the difference between 2ppm and 5 ppm. Algae on glass is a good indicator for phosphate. If you have to clean the glass every day then you have too much phosphate. Overtime you will be able the "feel" the levels even without testing.
sensei
New member
Thanks, I will try Salifert kit for nitrate
Algae in glass is an indicator of only phosphate? or can also indicate nitrate??
hanna phosphate kit show 0 for me
I do not get much algae in the glass, I guess it is telling I am not having nutrients available and that is why my corals are pale.
The best way to feed is to have properly stocked fish, which provides a constant supply of nutrients for the corals. When the tank is balanced every inhabitant does its parts. I never had a very healthy tank until I started feed the fish a lot. But some people do, with UNLS system. If you use filter sock you can remove it. So there are floating particles available to the corals. Feed fine food like frozen cyclops.
On a separate note I would remove the fish and let the tank fallow for 72 days since you already have an ich outbreak. I do not QT for more than a few days personally but you may want to read the disease forum on how to deal with your situation.
On a separate note I would remove the fish and let the tank fallow for 72 days since you already have an ich outbreak. I do not QT for more than a few days personally but you may want to read the disease forum on how to deal with your situation.
sensei
New member
Thanks for your advice.
When I introduced the new fish I was trying to do what you said. Unfortunatelly I had the incident and most ended up dying and now I will have to take the fish out of the tank because of ich, so I will end with a fishless tank for almost 3 months.
I dont have an idea of what and how much to feed the tank with the sps in all this time that I will be fishless.
I have at hand Reefenergy A and B ( aminoacids)
live phyto
and cyclops
any sugestions of how to address this issue?
hkgar
Active member
Well, don't do water changes till it comes down. Check the ALK of the salt you are using. Use a salt with the levels that fit your need.
Check to amounts here;
http://www.thatpetplace.com/salt-mix-guide
Check to amounts here;
http://www.thatpetplace.com/salt-mix-guide
naterealbig
Premium Member
I will be running a LNS, along with a barebottom, all of which are notorious for being negatively affected by alkalinity levels above ~ 8 dkH. I will have the same problem as you, and my tank is brand-spanking new. To combat this, the first invertebrate I add to the tank (before any corals) will be several clams. These seem to not be affected too much by the higher alkalinity, and are the grand-champions when it comes to absorbing calcium and alkalinity. By "pre-loading" with the clams, I will be able to dial my alkalinity levels exactly where I want them to be, before ever adding corals!
I've used reef crystals which explains a lot. I like the levels of tropic Marin pro the best. But it's just so expensive [emoji21]
