Water Parameters and Acans

[Evolracing]

New member to the forum but having been using it as a great reference over the last year and half that i have had my reef tank.

current paramaters are as follow before any dosing today:

salinity 30
spec gravity 1.022
temp 80 (fluctuates a bit during the day when the lights are on)
440 ppm calcium via red sea calculation
1300 ppm magnesium via red sea calculation
nitrite 0 from easy strip test
nitrate 40 (been working to get this down...always a struggle) from easy strip test
alkaline 300 from easy strip test

70 gallon tank
solar extreme 4 x 54 w t5 lighting
running bak pak bio filter skimmer, 2 power heads and emperor 400 dual bi wheel with carbon and chemipure elite in it.

all leathers, mushrooms, zoas and others are doing great, acans are alive and are fine with no problems except they are not opening up much if at all (some are 3 months old, others within last 2 weeks) and just have nevere really opened much...they get a bit meaty at times but not as i know they should). most recently in reading that lack of magnesium can be an issue i have started testing and adding kent MG the last 4 days. before that never paid attention to it. i do feed the tank daily oyster feast and mysis shrimp.

looking for thoughts on overall tank parameters and specifically how to keep the acans happy. they are all at the bottom of the tank and are all seperate from eachother.

 

[sponger0]

First think I would recommend before dosing anything is your salinity is low. It should be between 1.024-1.026 for corals. Raising that may raise your trace elements, so until that is to the correct level, hold off on any dosing.

 

[chrisfont23]

New member to the forum but having been using it as a great reference over the last year and half that i have had my reef tank.

current paramaters are as follow before any dosing today:

salinity 30
spec gravity 1.022
temp 80 (fluctuates a bit during the day when the lights are on)
440 ppm calcium via red sea calculation
1300 ppm magnesium via red sea calculation
nitrite 0 from easy strip test
nitrate 40 (been working to get this down...always a struggle) from easy strip test
alkaline 300 from easy strip test

70 gallon tank
solar extreme 4 x 54 w t5 lighting
running bak pak bio filter skimmer, 2 power heads and emperor 400 dual bi wheel with carbon and chemipure elite in it.

all leathers, mushrooms, zoas and others are doing great, acans are alive and are fine with no problems except they are not opening up much if at all (some are 3 months old, others within last 2 weeks) and just have nevere really opened much...they get a bit meaty at times but not as i know they should). most recently in reading that lack of magnesium can be an issue i have started testing and adding kent MG the last 4 days. before that never paid attention to it. i do feed the tank daily oyster feast and mysis shrimp.

looking for thoughts on overall tank parameters and specifically how to keep the acans happy. they are all at the bottom of the tank and are all seperate from eachother.

1.022 is too low IMO. Also, having all leathers,zoas, mushrooms (softies / LPS) an NO3 of 40 is high, but not terrible. I have that in my tank with roughly the same cast of characters (LPS Dominant). I think part of the problem is the daily oyster feast and mysis shrimp feeding. A healthy fish does not have to be fed every day. In fact, you can go every other day or even every 2 days. And corals being fed daily is a bad idea IMO and a nutrient battle waiting to happen. My corals are fed twice a week.

HTH

 

[AcanQueen]

+1 on salinity. Raise it slowly to 1.024-1.026 which will in turn raise the other elements. Personally I have not found magnesium to have much effect on the condition of LPS so don't worry about that unless it is very low.

You say that the acans are not open much- do you mean inflated or showing feeding tentacles? A picture would help here.

Often the biggest problem with acans not inflating is fish nipping at their flesh so let us know what fish are in your system.

 

[ReeferGil]

Do these guys go in the sand bed or down low? Lower light levels?

 

[TimmyD16]

Salinity up, water changes more often, should have your acans loving it...

 

[Evolracing]

thanks everyone, i did raise the salinity, was 1.024 yesterday, bit lower today but i need to do a slight top off after running out of water during 25% change yesterday...so i should be able to get that back in line. all other paramters in the same but i checked the ph yesterday and today and its at 8.4 and nitrates are up to 80...keep fighting that between 40 and 80.

any thoughts on the Ph...bit concerned there. everything in the tank is happy, acans are a bit fuller but still not great.

 

[Evolracing]

thanks everyone, i did raise the salinity, was 1.024 yesterday, bit lower today but i need to do a slight top off after running out of water during 25% change yesterday...so i should be able to get that back in line. all other paramters in the same but i checked the ph yesterday and today and its at 8.4 and nitrates are up to 80...keep fighting that between 40 and 80.

any thoughts on the Ph...bit concerned there. everything in the tank is happy, acans are a bit fuller but still not great.