stubbsz
Guest
I spent a lot of time on this so any help I can get would be most appreciated. I've tried to organize the post a little but I will end up rambling... please stick with it.
Pasting.....
Once Again I'm trying to trouble shoot my tank. I'll start with all the specs and
parameters and then I'll tell you the symptoms that are no longer annoying but are truly depressing.
I mean, it's definitely at the point where my mood is depressed... I owe 10k on my taxes right now
and it isn't on my mind and it really should be... My dismal reef is on my mind every day.
I think the most annoying thing is that I found a salinity issue a while ago, things looked a little
better when I cured that, but now we're back to everything sucking.
Tank 100g
Flow:
Return in Center (waveysea 140 degree sweep)
Return: 100PX-X :
# Max Flow: 1270gph
# Max Head: 13ft
One end of tank 4 inches from surface
Tunze 6080
2250 gal/h
Other end of tank ( offset from above Tunze to try to get some circulation on the flow)
(circular flow disrupted by the waveysea)
Tunze 6060
1,585 USgal./h)
Temps... 78 (seems fairly constant at this time of year)
Cup of Carbon in a phosban reactor changed monthly.
BM160 SKimmer.
Lights
2*250 PFO Hqi ballasts. 2 * 250 DE Phoenix 14k. 9 Hours photperiod. 9 1/2 inches above water.
Each pendant hangs above the wholes in the acrylic top brace. LAmps are approx month and half old
this time round.
Suppliments and salt
Reef crystals (Low Ca and Mg of late)
Water... RO/DI (Maxcap 90)
Alk and Ca via 2 part Recipe.
Alk part: Arm and Hammer (not baked).
CA part: Leslies Hardness Plus (1 Cup rather than 1.25 due to high content Ca chloride)
Mg: Randy's 2 part as needed.
Parameters today and fairly typical
Salinity (Measured with Refractometer)
1.025-1.026 (somewhere between) (Auto Top of keeps very constant)
Alk/Mg (Sailfert ) (Alk LaMotte)
Alk 3.6 meq/L or 10.8 dkH 180 ppm..... *Concern* Sometimes drops a little low to maybe 3.2
Calcium 420
Mg 1300
As far as I can tell with these horrible kits (Sailfert):
Nitrate 0
Phosphates 0
Small area of sump is full of Chaeto and some nasty looking macros that grow in parts of the cHaeto.
So What is it that is depressing me. Mainly just examples.
SPS coral no longer grows. e.g My Pocillapora (easiest sps, maybe even easiest coral of all to grow.) used to
grow like weed (I think I could see it growing) now doesn't grow.
On a couple of sps pieces, I do see a little creeping out of tissue at the base which is something I guess
But most SPS, Lose most of their color and have awful polyp extension. So if I put a coral with fairly
limited polyp extension in the tank, the polyps may disappear completely and if it's really hairy,
it will become much less hairy. Super hairy millies not very hairy anymore in my tank.
Colors slowly bleach away. My Palmers Blue Millie, is now a really nice light blue (it actually has reasonable
polyp extension and I like the color but color was much deeper). A nice big colony of Milli that was a rich yellow/brown with green tints in the hairs is now pale yellow/brown with a lot of nearly white flesh (not just the tips, this aint growth)
Even my Idaho grape is faded with no polyps.
Soft Corals: Too much Xenia (pompom) frequently give away and throw away. But at least it grows and
keeps the clowns happy.
Colt Coral keeps popping up and I keep the odd sprig but also, sell/give away/bring to swaps./>
Various Zoas. Some have also lost some color and don't seem as happy as they used to... most OK but did lose some to Pox.
LPS... Only a couple. Alien Eye Chalice... now brown and a little green, looks really sick at the
moment and showing some skeleton. gulp.
Duncan. Rarely shows its head. Did grow a little brother head but he doesn't show himself much either.
Montastrea from 07 Swap... did really well for a long time. Recently suffered set back as it suddenly seems
to have some skeleton showing.
Pavona, color a bit muted at the moment, but actually grows. Probably should be lower in tank.
PESTS:
Red Planaria, I manually extract infrequently, not at plague levels.
Red-Poofy algae... REALLY BIG ISSUE. Ruining some ZOa colony. I actually pulled my blues
out, scrubbed if off and put them back.. 3 weeks later the Blues are starting to look OK. This Algae
Really noticable since Losing yellow Tang, Tomini doesn't eat it. Neither does anything else...
Corals doing OK: One capping, monti. One monti digitata... actually has an OK bright green still
and growing. Xmas Favia.. not super colorful but growing and putting out long feeder and definitely grows a bit.
Big Clue... Coraline which is all over back and side walls has stopped growing on front of tank.. used to be huge chore.. now I miss it.
Coral feeding minimal..I put some Reef Nutrition Phyto in now and then and the fish get cyclopees so I
guess they get that. Occasional Roti-feast.
Things I think MAY be problems... Too Much Rock.. I wonder if circulation is a problem because of lack of free space.
Thanks for your help... I'll watch this closely and I'll hopefully be able to post some depressing pictures.
-Adrian
(In San Jose... feel free to come and shake your head and see what's up)
Pasting.....
Once Again I'm trying to trouble shoot my tank. I'll start with all the specs and
parameters and then I'll tell you the symptoms that are no longer annoying but are truly depressing.
I mean, it's definitely at the point where my mood is depressed... I owe 10k on my taxes right now
and it isn't on my mind and it really should be... My dismal reef is on my mind every day.
I think the most annoying thing is that I found a salinity issue a while ago, things looked a little
better when I cured that, but now we're back to everything sucking.
Tank 100g
Flow:
Return in Center (waveysea 140 degree sweep)
Return: 100PX-X :
# Max Flow: 1270gph
# Max Head: 13ft
One end of tank 4 inches from surface
Tunze 6080
2250 gal/h
Other end of tank ( offset from above Tunze to try to get some circulation on the flow)
(circular flow disrupted by the waveysea)
Tunze 6060
1,585 USgal./h)
Temps... 78 (seems fairly constant at this time of year)
Cup of Carbon in a phosban reactor changed monthly.
BM160 SKimmer.
Lights
2*250 PFO Hqi ballasts. 2 * 250 DE Phoenix 14k. 9 Hours photperiod. 9 1/2 inches above water.
Each pendant hangs above the wholes in the acrylic top brace. LAmps are approx month and half old
this time round.
Suppliments and salt
Reef crystals (Low Ca and Mg of late)
Water... RO/DI (Maxcap 90)
Alk and Ca via 2 part Recipe.
Alk part: Arm and Hammer (not baked).
CA part: Leslies Hardness Plus (1 Cup rather than 1.25 due to high content Ca chloride)
Mg: Randy's 2 part as needed.
Parameters today and fairly typical
Salinity (Measured with Refractometer)
1.025-1.026 (somewhere between) (Auto Top of keeps very constant)
Alk/Mg (Sailfert ) (Alk LaMotte)
Alk 3.6 meq/L or 10.8 dkH 180 ppm..... *Concern* Sometimes drops a little low to maybe 3.2
Calcium 420
Mg 1300
As far as I can tell with these horrible kits (Sailfert):
Nitrate 0
Phosphates 0
Small area of sump is full of Chaeto and some nasty looking macros that grow in parts of the cHaeto.
So What is it that is depressing me. Mainly just examples.
SPS coral no longer grows. e.g My Pocillapora (easiest sps, maybe even easiest coral of all to grow.) used to
grow like weed (I think I could see it growing) now doesn't grow.
On a couple of sps pieces, I do see a little creeping out of tissue at the base which is something I guess
But most SPS, Lose most of their color and have awful polyp extension. So if I put a coral with fairly
limited polyp extension in the tank, the polyps may disappear completely and if it's really hairy,
it will become much less hairy. Super hairy millies not very hairy anymore in my tank.
Colors slowly bleach away. My Palmers Blue Millie, is now a really nice light blue (it actually has reasonable
polyp extension and I like the color but color was much deeper). A nice big colony of Milli that was a rich yellow/brown with green tints in the hairs is now pale yellow/brown with a lot of nearly white flesh (not just the tips, this aint growth)
Even my Idaho grape is faded with no polyps.
Soft Corals: Too much Xenia (pompom) frequently give away and throw away. But at least it grows and
keeps the clowns happy.
Colt Coral keeps popping up and I keep the odd sprig but also, sell/give away/bring to swaps./>
Various Zoas. Some have also lost some color and don't seem as happy as they used to... most OK but did lose some to Pox.
LPS... Only a couple. Alien Eye Chalice... now brown and a little green, looks really sick at the
moment and showing some skeleton. gulp.
Duncan. Rarely shows its head. Did grow a little brother head but he doesn't show himself much either.
Montastrea from 07 Swap... did really well for a long time. Recently suffered set back as it suddenly seems
to have some skeleton showing.
Pavona, color a bit muted at the moment, but actually grows. Probably should be lower in tank.
PESTS:
Red Planaria, I manually extract infrequently, not at plague levels.
Red-Poofy algae... REALLY BIG ISSUE. Ruining some ZOa colony. I actually pulled my blues
out, scrubbed if off and put them back.. 3 weeks later the Blues are starting to look OK. This Algae
Really noticable since Losing yellow Tang, Tomini doesn't eat it. Neither does anything else...
Corals doing OK: One capping, monti. One monti digitata... actually has an OK bright green still
and growing. Xmas Favia.. not super colorful but growing and putting out long feeder and definitely grows a bit.
Big Clue... Coraline which is all over back and side walls has stopped growing on front of tank.. used to be huge chore.. now I miss it.
Coral feeding minimal..I put some Reef Nutrition Phyto in now and then and the fish get cyclopees so I
guess they get that. Occasional Roti-feast.
Things I think MAY be problems... Too Much Rock.. I wonder if circulation is a problem because of lack of free space.
Thanks for your help... I'll watch this closely and I'll hopefully be able to post some depressing pictures.
-Adrian
(In San Jose... feel free to come and shake your head and see what's up)
