corals

[jolly rogers]

any ideas whats going on? zoas, sps, lps seems growth has slowed, lost some lps to rtl. Branching frog spawn seems to be jumping ship. Salinity 1.025, ph 8.1, alk 10, cal 500, mag 1200, iodine .03, temp 79. was at 2 250 mh 20k lighting. Now running 2 radions and have made 25 gal water change one a month for four months. Now using ocean pro salt.
using dosing method for cal, etc.:frustrat:

 

[BL1]

What % are you running the radions at? Did you acclimate the corals to them at all?

 

[jolly rogers]

artificial mode, starts at 7:30 am at 5% grads to 100% by 1pm at 14k, then ramps down at 20k to 9pm. didnt acclimate, support said I didnt need to, having ran 2 250 and 2 96 watt compact fl. But did have problems showing 4 months before radions.

 

[Smitty]

Hello, and welcome to the site...I was gonna say light acclimation also, but since you've had the issues before the new lights, we can rule it out. Have you added any livestock or started dosing anything right before the problems started..also, what are your nitrates and phosphates levels?

 

[little_fish]

Hello and Welcome!

Not light acclimating the corals would just aggravate any problem you might have.

Can you give us more info about your system including fish and equipment? I would also start doing more regular water changes.

 

[jolly rogers]

thanks.yes i have added live stock off and on and shame on me for not keeping a record of when and what.I have removed a mass of star polup coral that was covering back wall,looked cool but was taking over.And i continue to pluck and scrape to maintain it,is that releasing toxins and pissing off criters? Ido now add carbon when i do that.zip on nitrates and phos. Running ro di , kalk for top off ,octo 300 protien skimmer,reeflow dart pump,large fuge loaded with cato and its lit 24 hrs.neptune jr controler.ph swings from 7.96 to 8.11. checked co2 in house,not high,but am getting outside air for skimmer anyway.tank is a reef ready oceanic 144 half cir. and is just over 5 years.did nuke bryopsis a year ago with 1700 tech m, witched worked.two little fishies two part for dose. thanks for reading. :beerchug:

 

[little_fish]

What are you using to test your parameters? The test kits can go bad and give false readings.

And how much flow do you have in the tank and what about fish?

 

[jolly rogers]

profi test for ca and alk,api for ca,pipoint probe for salinity,refrac for salinity,redsea for mag.neptune jr for temp and ph (just recalibrated ) seachem iodine,phos,api nitrate.all bout one year.had some test done at lfs. reeflow with one 1" twin seaswirls is caotic. light fish load, large blue tang,yellow tang,mistry wrasse,royal gramma,5 green cromis,blue devil,clown.some over 5 years along.30 to 40 hermies,4 emarald crabs,sand star,10 or so snails. oh and a large star eyed blenny

 

[Smitty]

Wow, your system sounds damn near perfect, so I have no idea what the issue could be with your corals. Two other ideas is maybe your fish (clownfish possibly) is irritating the corals, while trying to host it, because it doesn't sounds like you have fish that nip corals...and the other idea is brown jelly disease affecting your corals, especially the lps's.

 

[jolly rogers]

thanks for the response.good idea on clown,but is a tank raised and have had for 5 years and when tried to give a proper home he just stays in a spot where theres nothin .the brown jelly thing seems not likely cause ,well there is no funky looking goo.i thought more water changes at 25 gals a month would be good,but i swear when i did only one to two a year things were better.started using kent salt 5mos ago for changes and noticed it was at 7.8 and lowered my ph (maybe) so returned it , now using ocean pro. $$$ Not to say everything is pissed off,in fact i have some green sps spawning and showing up here and there and is encrusting looking happy. I just dont get it. ahhhh I ll dose with my home brew..::beerchug: lol

 

[Smitty]

I'm stumped bro...sorry. :)