LouH
LouH
About two months ago I experienced excellent growth from the Acropora and Montipora in my tank. It was so good in fact, that I actually started to believe that I had this reef tank thing down. To my dismay I watched one Montipora plate start to lose color and then tissue began to die. Then the same thing happened to another Montipora, but a third Montipora kept growing. After a couple of weeks the same issue befell the third montipora plate. Over time all of their color has faded to a light lime green. I'll watch as tissue grows back over the exposed skeleton, it holds for a week or so, but then falls to another recession event. This grow/die cycle is currently ongoing in my tank with these Monti, and it has started to affect one of my Acropora as well. The tissue edge on the Montipora is a light purple color, while on the Acropora, it is a bleaching of an area followed by tissue necrosis. What is going on here?
My system specs are as follows (sorry, but it is long).
My current system has been up and running for one year now. Actually, that isn't entirely true. The system begain its life in 2006, but it had to be broken down and moved two times before making it to its current location. All of the live rock and sand, and many of the invertebrates are from the initial set-up over three years ago.
Fish in the system consist of the following:
- Yellow Tang
- Six Lined Wrasse
- Watchman Goby
- 2 Damselfish
- 3 Bar Gobies
Non-Cnidarian life consists of the following:
- 1 Crocea Clam
- 2 Tiger Tail Cucumbers (one split)
- 1 Pink and Black Cucumber
- 2 Black Cucumbers
- 1 Blue Linckia Sea Star
- 2 Sand Sifting Sea Stars
- 3 Emerald Crabs
- 2 Blue Legged Hermit Crabs
- 2 Scarlet Hermit Crabs
- 2 Halloween Hermit Crabs
- numerous Trochus,Nassarius, and Ceriths Snails
- several bundles of Chaetomorpha (refugium and sump)
- naturally occuring serpent stars, amphipods, feather dusters,worms, etc.
Cnidarians include the following:
Stony Corals:
- several Acropora species
- several Montipora species
- 1 Seriatopora
- 3 Pocillopora
- 1 Stylophora
- 1 Anchor Coral
- 1 Torch Coral colony
- 1 Favites(I think)
- 2 Trachyphyllia
Soft Corals:
- 1 Xenia colony
- 3 Sinularia
- 2 Toadstool Leathers (silver dollar diameter)
- 1 Leather or Finger Leather??? (a fairly big coral)
- 3 Kenyan Tree corals
- Green Star Polyp colonies here and there
- 6-8 Zooanthids scattered here and there
- 6-8 Parazooanthids
System Hardware
Tank and Sumps:
117 gallon tank measuring 7'x18"x18"
2 sumps
1 15 gallon refugium
1 remote 20 gallon Brute garbage can deep sandbed (12" aragonite depth)
Taking away the volume occupied by rocks and hardware, I estimate the system's water capacity to be about 100 gallons.
Water Moving/Treatment Hardware:
2 Eheim 1260s serving as return pumps w/48" of head pressure (635 gph @ 0 head. I'm guessing no less than 500 gph/pump based on performance curve)
1 Mag Drive 7 circulating water from the deep sand bed to the refugium.
2 Tunze 6100 Powerheads run off of a Tunze controller. Pumps run from 1/2 - 3/4 power. Flow is cycled back and forth every 5-10 seconds by the controller.
1 ASM G2 Skimmer
RODI system to treat tap water. TDS readings always kept below 6 ppm.
1 Korallin C-1502 Calcium Reactor. Manual adjustments are made as needed.
Pinpoint pH Monitor to measure reactor effluent.
Paristolic dosing pump for evaporative water make-up (float in sump activation)
Lighting Hardware:
2 250 MH HQI Lamps Driven by a Sunlight Supply Dual Ballast (my most durable lighting hardware to date).
1 150 MH HQI Lamp Driven by a PFO Ballast
All MH lamps are 10,000 K, and all are replaced every 12 months.
The pendants are placed in the following order over the tank: 250W - 150W - 250W
2 72" UV Lighting Co. Super Actinic VHO lamps driven by an IceCap 660 ballast (installed last month)
The Actinics run for 12 hours a day, and the MH lamps are on for 10 hours per day.
The refugium and the main sump have the requisite Lights of America 65W 6700K compact fluorescent fixture. The one over the refugium is on when the tank's lights are on, and the sump's light is on a reverse photoperiod. Both lights grow Chaeto.
Water Chemistry/Quality Measured Today and Nearly Always:
Salinity: 1.026 SG
Morning pH - 8.17
Evening pH - 8.32
Ca - 400 ppm
dKH - 9
Mg - 1350
PO4 - 0
NO3 - 0
Temperature - 78.5 F + - 0.5 degrees (Medusa Controller, fan cooling, filimant heaters)
Iodide - 0.0025 ppm (This was a new measurement for my system, so I have no history for trending or troubleshooting purposes).
Husbandry and Maintenance Techniques:
15-20 gallon water change weekly with a synthetic salt mix (Instant Ocean w/RODI mixed for 2 days min before water change. Salinity and temp. are dead on).
1" sand bed in tank is siphoned at least every other water change to mix up/suspend organic matter which is dumped with the wastewater.
Deep sand bed surface is siphoned every 6 months to remove settled detritus.
Sumps and refugium bottoms are siphoned as needed to remove detritus.
Fish are fed Formula II every evening. All pellets are eaten.
Corals are fed (I started to do this in the last 2 months) 2-3 times week with ZoPlan or Coral Frenzy.
The protein skimmer cup is removed every two or three days and cleaned out.
All pumps have spares which allows me to take them apart and soak them in vinegar over the course of a week or two. This gets them very clean.
I do not run mechanical filters of any kind.
If you actually read to this point, thank you for taking a genuine interest. Now, can someone tell me what is going on here? I'm out of ideas.
Lou :mad2:
My system specs are as follows (sorry, but it is long).
My current system has been up and running for one year now. Actually, that isn't entirely true. The system begain its life in 2006, but it had to be broken down and moved two times before making it to its current location. All of the live rock and sand, and many of the invertebrates are from the initial set-up over three years ago.
Fish in the system consist of the following:
- Yellow Tang
- Six Lined Wrasse
- Watchman Goby
- 2 Damselfish
- 3 Bar Gobies
Non-Cnidarian life consists of the following:
- 1 Crocea Clam
- 2 Tiger Tail Cucumbers (one split)
- 1 Pink and Black Cucumber
- 2 Black Cucumbers
- 1 Blue Linckia Sea Star
- 2 Sand Sifting Sea Stars
- 3 Emerald Crabs
- 2 Blue Legged Hermit Crabs
- 2 Scarlet Hermit Crabs
- 2 Halloween Hermit Crabs
- numerous Trochus,Nassarius, and Ceriths Snails
- several bundles of Chaetomorpha (refugium and sump)
- naturally occuring serpent stars, amphipods, feather dusters,worms, etc.
Cnidarians include the following:
Stony Corals:
- several Acropora species
- several Montipora species
- 1 Seriatopora
- 3 Pocillopora
- 1 Stylophora
- 1 Anchor Coral
- 1 Torch Coral colony
- 1 Favites(I think)
- 2 Trachyphyllia
Soft Corals:
- 1 Xenia colony
- 3 Sinularia
- 2 Toadstool Leathers (silver dollar diameter)
- 1 Leather or Finger Leather??? (a fairly big coral)
- 3 Kenyan Tree corals
- Green Star Polyp colonies here and there
- 6-8 Zooanthids scattered here and there
- 6-8 Parazooanthids
System Hardware
Tank and Sumps:
117 gallon tank measuring 7'x18"x18"
2 sumps
1 15 gallon refugium
1 remote 20 gallon Brute garbage can deep sandbed (12" aragonite depth)
Taking away the volume occupied by rocks and hardware, I estimate the system's water capacity to be about 100 gallons.
Water Moving/Treatment Hardware:
2 Eheim 1260s serving as return pumps w/48" of head pressure (635 gph @ 0 head. I'm guessing no less than 500 gph/pump based on performance curve)
1 Mag Drive 7 circulating water from the deep sand bed to the refugium.
2 Tunze 6100 Powerheads run off of a Tunze controller. Pumps run from 1/2 - 3/4 power. Flow is cycled back and forth every 5-10 seconds by the controller.
1 ASM G2 Skimmer
RODI system to treat tap water. TDS readings always kept below 6 ppm.
1 Korallin C-1502 Calcium Reactor. Manual adjustments are made as needed.
Pinpoint pH Monitor to measure reactor effluent.
Paristolic dosing pump for evaporative water make-up (float in sump activation)
Lighting Hardware:
2 250 MH HQI Lamps Driven by a Sunlight Supply Dual Ballast (my most durable lighting hardware to date).
1 150 MH HQI Lamp Driven by a PFO Ballast
All MH lamps are 10,000 K, and all are replaced every 12 months.
The pendants are placed in the following order over the tank: 250W - 150W - 250W
2 72" UV Lighting Co. Super Actinic VHO lamps driven by an IceCap 660 ballast (installed last month)
The Actinics run for 12 hours a day, and the MH lamps are on for 10 hours per day.
The refugium and the main sump have the requisite Lights of America 65W 6700K compact fluorescent fixture. The one over the refugium is on when the tank's lights are on, and the sump's light is on a reverse photoperiod. Both lights grow Chaeto.
Water Chemistry/Quality Measured Today and Nearly Always:
Salinity: 1.026 SG
Morning pH - 8.17
Evening pH - 8.32
Ca - 400 ppm
dKH - 9
Mg - 1350
PO4 - 0
NO3 - 0
Temperature - 78.5 F + - 0.5 degrees (Medusa Controller, fan cooling, filimant heaters)
Iodide - 0.0025 ppm (This was a new measurement for my system, so I have no history for trending or troubleshooting purposes).
Husbandry and Maintenance Techniques:
15-20 gallon water change weekly with a synthetic salt mix (Instant Ocean w/RODI mixed for 2 days min before water change. Salinity and temp. are dead on).
1" sand bed in tank is siphoned at least every other water change to mix up/suspend organic matter which is dumped with the wastewater.
Deep sand bed surface is siphoned every 6 months to remove settled detritus.
Sumps and refugium bottoms are siphoned as needed to remove detritus.
Fish are fed Formula II every evening. All pellets are eaten.
Corals are fed (I started to do this in the last 2 months) 2-3 times week with ZoPlan or Coral Frenzy.
The protein skimmer cup is removed every two or three days and cleaned out.
All pumps have spares which allows me to take them apart and soak them in vinegar over the course of a week or two. This gets them very clean.
I do not run mechanical filters of any kind.
If you actually read to this point, thank you for taking a genuine interest. Now, can someone tell me what is going on here? I'm out of ideas.
Lou :mad2:
