what am i doing wrong???!

[veilside1987]

well i have a 55 gal. with two 175 watt HQI bulbs and 2 65 watt actinic bulbs. even with this setup, all of my sps corals are dyinga and i have no clue why. any suggestions?

thanks for any help,
Matt

 

[Malolo]

You will have to give us a little more to go on. Could be a couple gazillion different reasons. Might start with tank parameters and what symptoms you are seeing.

 

[blue20051]

How old is your setup? Are your corals browning out or turning all white?

 

[veilside1987]

Sorry about not giving enough info earler I was in a hurry.

My PH is 8.2
Ammonia .25 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 0ppm

I have some acro that is starting to bleach out on the top and is still nice and brown on the under side and some moti that is bleaching out all around its edges


Matt

 

[kozmo02]

any ammonia at all is bad, what test kits are you using? are they old or brand new? have you compared results with any other test kits?

that ammonia should be reading 0.

also, light isn't everything despite most people thinking it is, what do you use for water flow? what equipment are you running on the tank? whats your maintenance schedule like?

 

[veilside1987]

the test kits i used were both new and I tested with two differnt kits and got the same results both times.

For water flow I have a I have the outlet from my skimmer on one side and the outlet from the filter in the middle and a powerhead on the other side. For maintenance I do a waterchange about ever week and a half to 2 weeks

Matt

 

[Serioussnaps]

well uhhh....ammonia is about as bad as it gets besides copper or all out bleach poured in the tank....you must at all times have an Ammonia reading of 0

 

[spineshank385]

doesnt sound like you have nearly enough water flow either

and i wouldnt consider brown a nice color for acro....with proper care it shouldn't be brown, although it may still be, as there are plenty of ugly brown acro frags being sold

 

[veilside1987]

I just put in some amquil + for it

 

[spineshank385]

how long has this tank been set up?

you're treating the problem, but not the cause.

you need to find out why you have ammonia in your tank, and correct that. If you're only correcting the ammonia itself, it will keep coming back.

 

[veilside1987]

spineshank How much water flow would be adequate?

 

[spineshank385]

i have close to 600 gph flowing through my 29g tank.

More is always better. I'm not talking about velocity, im talking about quantity. That 600 gph in my tank doesnt even stir the substrate around, and the acro love it.

 

[veilside1987]

I just added about 50lbs of lr to the tank and i believe that is why there is ammonia

 

[spineshank385]

you didnt cure it first?

 

[veilside1987]

I baught it from a guy who was talking down has tanks. so it was allready cured

 

[getwood65]

what is the tanks alkalinity reading?also phosphate reading.these two items can really make a difference.also you need alot more water movement for sps-two seio 820 would be fine in a 55.also a good skimmer wouldn't hurt and actively running your water through carbon would be good.last suggestion-don't buy any acropora!try some easier sps like monti's untill you can keep them healthy!

 

[kozmo02]

if you just added rock, you should not have corals in that tank already. you are rushing it. you need to slow it down and get your tank in better shape, even if you take rock from another tank and add it to yours there was probably still some die off and you are still going to get a bit of a cycle, just not as big of a cycle as you would ordinarily get.

are you using RO water or tap? over the next few weeks you should be doing 20-25% water changes once a week until you bring that ammonia down, get some more flow in the tank, make sure you keep that filter clean because those hang on filters usually become detritus traps and nitrate factories if you don't keep them well maintained.

i think you are rushing it a bit, you need to slow it down and get your tank into better shape before you worry about having any corals.

 

[Serioussnaps]

2700 gph running through my 55g....i still dont have the flow to keep all deitrus in suspension