coral help

[larrynews]

for some reason my corals do well then just die....bubble, candy cane, even mushrooms...everything test at 0 except nitates 5 salt is at 1.024ish and ph is at 80....my calcium is testing hight around 500 or a tad higher....my lights are 4x65 w/2 antics and 2x96 with 1 antic....i know that with my lights hards are more of a challenge but the mushrooms even died just schrivled up....i really frustrated any help would be great....the fish are fine its a 90 gallon with aqua-pro wet dry and a aqua pro skimmer....i have 4 power heads so i have plenty of water turn over.....help me please!!!!!

 

[kimkissyfish]

Sorry to hear that... Thats VERY frustrating..
What kind of FISH do you have? Any that are NOT reef safe or Coral safe, maybe one of them is eating or picking at them??
Mushrooms should trive in your tak with that lighting and water peram's? Hmmmm???
Just a thought, Kim

 

[larrynews]

all fish are reef safe....just can't figure it out...thanks

 

[msd2]

Your ph is low, but also whats your alk at? my guess is that it could be low also.

 

[larrynews]

i haven't tested for alk..i use c-balance which i thought was to keep calcium and alk in check...but i'll have it checked tomorrow..what should my ph be and would that make enough difference to kill them

 

[msd2]

8.2-8.4 Well it could be contributing to the problem. My experience on some of the animals you listed as they are hearty. Especially the shrooms, but they really dont like bright light. Check the water n see what comes up. Also are all the livestock from the same lfs? BTW bring your ph up very slowly, like over the process of at least 4 days. Its slow but you dont want to cause shock to the fish/corals more than they are already in.

 

[pyro]

Look around for a thread about water chemistry. I beleive it's a sticky under this forum. The thread deals with what happens when calcium is high, and how it throws other stuff off.
When dosing, make sure to check everything that your dosing.
Corals don't use just calcium, they use calcium carbonate (don't quote me on this, this is only what I've heard from the forums, not my science class). They actually use 2 carbonates for every calcium. Calcium doens't do any good without the carbonates to go with it. (alk. is a measure of carbonates I beleive)

 

[discusking]

ok...how long has your tank been set up? I was impainent with my tank and lost a very nice frogspawn from my established tank... The key is to take it slow. Wait at least two weeks and then add something...I would try some button polyps or a brain coral...they are basically foolproff... I find that even mushrooms are a little finiky. BUt my brain has survived through every kind of disaster...It is the best coral u could possibly invest in. I personally dont really think that skimmers are that helpful in lps and soft coral tanks. I know that personally I have a huge elegance in my five gallon cube and it has doubled in size since i got it about five monthes ago... I have read that people have been having a hard time keeping this coral, but this is because tanks today are too sterile. With the amount of organic material these modern uber skimmers produce they remove too much of the nutrients out of the water...NOTICE i said only for softie and lps tanks...not sps u really need a skimmer for those organisms... The point is it could be overskimming

 

[iwantacans]

Originally posted by DiscusKing
. The point is it could be overskimming

now thats opening up a can of worms....