saline solution
New member
First let me say I am an experienced reefer, and have had numerous victories and failures over the years.
I set up a 50 gal cube 14 mo ago and it has been a PITA. I can't figure out the problem, but it has caused some strange things to happen to some of my corals.
Most interesting is complete skeletal death of montiporas, but sustained huge polyp life. Here are a few pics. This is a green cap frag and a rainbow undata frag that have polyps the size of small zoas...crazy!!! Other symptoms include poor growth of all species in tank, shrooms, zoas, euphilia, and beginner sps.
Salt IO RC 35ppt-calibrated refractometer
Ph 8.0-8.3-calibrated apex
Temp 79.8-80.2
Alk, previous ran at 8-9 for most of the year, recently changed to 9-10
NO3-currently 16, previous 0 for long time (red sea) actually tried dosing Nitrate for a week, made corals darker, and algae
then d/c'd cheato, and let climb up. Added ATS 4 wks ago to help bring back down
PO4- 0,(red sea) but getting some growth on ATS
CA 440 CURRENTLY due to running alk higher.
Previously tried vinegar dosing for a few months, didn't feel like it helped much.
Tank was set up with nearly all BRS reef saver and tonga shelf rock, and a small piece of LR to seed.
Lighting ATI LED PM 3 B+, 3C+, P+, and actinic
Skimmer sca-302
Circulation 2 koralias and a jeabo
Feed one cube frozen, one scoop reef chilli daily.
Any thoughts on why monti look like crazy giant polyp things?
<a href="http://s172.photobucket.com/user/shaun9801/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20151216_195557_zpskskhorou.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w5/shaun9801/Mobile%20Uploads/20151216_195557_zpskskhorou.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20151216_195557_zpskskhorou.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s172.photobucket.com/user/shaun9801/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20151216_195231_zps9kb5db7z.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w5/shaun9801/Mobile%20Uploads/20151216_195231_zps9kb5db7z.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20151216_195231_zps9kb5db7z.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s172.photobucket.com/user/shaun9801/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20150603_191009_zpsjr2bp8kq.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w5/shaun9801/Mobile%20Uploads/20150603_191009_zpsjr2bp8kq.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20150603_191009_zpsjr2bp8kq.jpg"/></a>
I set up a 50 gal cube 14 mo ago and it has been a PITA. I can't figure out the problem, but it has caused some strange things to happen to some of my corals.
Most interesting is complete skeletal death of montiporas, but sustained huge polyp life. Here are a few pics. This is a green cap frag and a rainbow undata frag that have polyps the size of small zoas...crazy!!! Other symptoms include poor growth of all species in tank, shrooms, zoas, euphilia, and beginner sps.
Salt IO RC 35ppt-calibrated refractometer
Ph 8.0-8.3-calibrated apex
Temp 79.8-80.2
Alk, previous ran at 8-9 for most of the year, recently changed to 9-10
NO3-currently 16, previous 0 for long time (red sea) actually tried dosing Nitrate for a week, made corals darker, and algae
then d/c'd cheato, and let climb up. Added ATS 4 wks ago to help bring back downPO4- 0,(red sea) but getting some growth on ATS
CA 440 CURRENTLY due to running alk higher.
Previously tried vinegar dosing for a few months, didn't feel like it helped much.
Tank was set up with nearly all BRS reef saver and tonga shelf rock, and a small piece of LR to seed.
Lighting ATI LED PM 3 B+, 3C+, P+, and actinic
Skimmer sca-302
Circulation 2 koralias and a jeabo
Feed one cube frozen, one scoop reef chilli daily.
Any thoughts on why monti look like crazy giant polyp things?
<a href="http://s172.photobucket.com/user/shaun9801/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20151216_195557_zpskskhorou.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w5/shaun9801/Mobile%20Uploads/20151216_195557_zpskskhorou.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20151216_195557_zpskskhorou.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s172.photobucket.com/user/shaun9801/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20151216_195231_zps9kb5db7z.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w5/shaun9801/Mobile%20Uploads/20151216_195231_zps9kb5db7z.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20151216_195231_zps9kb5db7z.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s172.photobucket.com/user/shaun9801/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20150603_191009_zpsjr2bp8kq.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w5/shaun9801/Mobile%20Uploads/20150603_191009_zpsjr2bp8kq.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20150603_191009_zpsjr2bp8kq.jpg"/></a>
