hitting a rought spot need your info

[jkburton1s]

Hi everyone,
i have been reefing for about 4 years now and have come to some problems that i dont know what to do about really. i recently switched from MH to 8x54 t5s over my 75. i have 4 10k/4 420k bulbs.. they are on for roughly 10 hours. i have decent water quality ( nitrat=0, cal 440, mag 1300, alk 3.7+/- .5, temp 79-81, ) i just havent seen much growth really. my friend says i mess with my tank too much. i try to maintain levels but i seem to be getting ocd about it. i am cutting back my adjustments to one day a week. my tank has gone down to mostly zoo's and leathers. my lps have died and so have my sps. my zoo's have slowly melted away, i origanlly had 75 frags that were all high color and some were more hi dolar than others. now i have 25 frags and they are slowly melting as well. my skimmer isnt producing much skimate either (aqua C 180). i have lost about a 1,000.00 of livestock in the last year due to either carelessnes or over husbandry. so if you have any hints or advice please leave it for me

[ALreefer]

Somebody else more knowledgeable than me will probably chime in soon, but one thing I would change if it were my tank is the number of actinic bulbs you have. 420nm bulbs have very low par. I replaced my pure actinic bulb with a blue plus and I can't really tell much difference except at night when only the actinic bulbs are on the candy cane doesn't glow as much as it did.

[rgfast]

how often do you do water change and what %

[jkburton1s]

how often do you do water change and what %

i usually do a 20 gallon change a monthly on my 150 gallon setup. i try to adjust weekly, alk i adjust bi weekly. i just dont understand what is happening. almost a grand down the drain. from 75 to 25 in 6 months , frags are droppping like flies

Somebody else more knowledgeable than me will probably chime in soon, but one thing I would change if it were my tank is the number of actinic bulbs you have. 420nm bulbs have very low par. I replaced my pure actinic bulb with a blue plus and I can't really tell much difference except at night when only the actinic bulbs are on the candy cane doesn't glow as much as it did.

yeah the blue plus is a 460nm.. maybe i should swap two actinics for 2 6500 or 10s.... i guessing see the tank everyday i dont see the growth, but i use to

[rgfast]

IMO I would start change water more often like aleast 10% weekly, your corals give off toxin to increase thier growing area and the only way to keep the polution out is your water changes it will also keep your trace elements in line and rember the best solution to polution is delution

[Eric]

+1 on the weekly water changes, this will also eliminate the need for doing and adjusting your calcium, mag, and kh in most cases. I am curious why you started with the 75 and when asked you about whater changes you mention the 150, what tank is giving you problems?

I would also be looking at that skimmer to see why it's not producing as much skim mate now a days, remove it and give it a good cleaning make sure the pump is up to par.

Did the sps and lps start dying after you changed the light? I know my 150 was 6'x18"x29" L,W,H with that depth the T5s may not be penetrating enough for the lower corals in the tank or is this in a 75 your talking about two different tanks.

[BigAl07]

+2 on Water Changes! I love the quote rgfat put there and it's one that EVERYONE into SW should know... "The Solution to Pollution is Dilution!"


When a tank is stable and everything is good I like to see a minimum of 10% water change a week or 20% every 2 weeks (comes out the same). When something is "out of whack" I like to see the water change regimen increase greatly (amount AND/OR frequency). I'd probably start preparing for several water changes a day apart of so for the next couple of weeks just to give the tank a nice soft "Flush" of build up contaminants. Take a moment to review How to Make a Safe Water Change for Marine Fish so that you're better equipped for a SAFE and stable water change. Don't go over-board and do like a 80% water change because I don't see this as a dire emergency.

Also you mention "leathers". I'd run some bags of Activated Carbon in your system starting.. oh YESTERDAY! This will help to absorb and trap some of the water born toxins as well as "Polish" your water. I run CARBON in my tanks 1 week out of 4 just for maintenance and ANYTIME something even seems to be out of line the first thing I do is ADD CARBON to the tank. I literally have bags of CARBON in zip-loc bags just waiting for such an issue to arise.

I can tell you one thing about my tanks... the LESS I do with them the BETTER they do. For some reason when I come back from vacation my tank always looks BETTER than before I left. This doesn't mean skimp on husbandry skills but maybe cut back on "tweaking" things and allow your water changes to simplify your tasks.

Good luck and Happy Reefing

[Uslanja]

Good Day! I'm fairly new so experience is something I'm still acquiring, but I noticed your temp is in the 79 - 81 degree range, would lowering it a bit help?

[jkburton1s]

sorry i have a 40 breeder attached to the 75... i thought back and i noticed that when i added the 40 seems things started going down. my skimmer is rated for 250 gal. and im running a hiflo 32, with 2 sieo 1000s in the 75, 2 kor 3 and a seio 520 in the 40. i am gona take the 40 off here in the next month when i get the money to get my 180 up. i just got my stand finished, so when school money comes in ill get the rest to get it up and slowly put it all in there. i am really wanting to do a sps dominant tank. i just dont wanna question my ability anymore.

im just to the point where i wanna give up but i know giving up isnt gonna fix what im doing wrong.

thanks for the advice so far seems people are feeling my pain. thanks