corals not looking good

K

kpatrick

Guest
I have noticed my toad stool, frog spawn, and one of my soft corals not looking so good lately. They dont expand like they did a few months ago when i got them (all my polyps are doing fine). I have checked the water and the amonia, nitrites, nitrates, calcium where all in check. The salinity was at 1.021 so I raised it to 1.024 I have added a couple power heads to give them more flow and even adjusted their placement in the tank and still not had any luck making them perk up. by the way, the tank is a 125 with pc lighting. Should I be checking Iodine and Magnesium or other things?? Along with the power heads I have to Emperor 400s running off the back of the tank for water flow. I top of with r/o water. I just trying to throw everything out here. any ideas?? (they dont look horible but bad enough that i can see the difference from when i first got them)
Thanks:help:
 
jedininja

jedininja

Member

Originally posted by kpatrick
doing fine). I have checked the water and the amonia, nitrites, nitrates, calcium where all in check. The salinity was at 1.021 so I raised it to 1.024

What EXACTLY are your parameters? How long did it take you to raise the SG? How did you raise your SG? What else do you have in your tank? Is it all the corals that look bad?
You do not need to test for the other things unless you are dosing the other things.
It doesnt seem as though you have adequate filtration for a reef tank. just a mechanical filter, no protein skimmer, no sump/fuge. SO your nitrates might be high unless you are doing very frequent water changes.
 
K

kpatrick

Guest
Okay lets try to answer all your questions. The tank has been running for 3 years now.
- I have 110W PC and 50/50 lighting. I have recently ordered another 110w PC plus actinic 03 lighting to replace the 50/50 bulbs.
- Along with the (2) Emperor 400s I do have a Seaclone protein skimmer. The lfs told me to use this as water movement and not to worry about filtration since the tank has about 250 lbs of live rock. Do I really need a sump?? Most people have always told me I dont need one but then others say its a must so I am now officially confused! :thinking:
- I added salt to a bucket of tank water and slowly added it to the fish tank over a matter of a day.
- my pH is 8.2 to 8.4, I did notice my KH is high (its over 12), it has constantly been high,
- the lfs and another fish website said I didnt need to worry about Iodine and Magnes. as long as I did periodic water changes and added new salt to the tank, is this true?? what else should I be checking for??
- along with the corals, the tank has polyps (which are growing like crazy) emerald crabs, (2)cleaner shrimp, hippo tang, fire fish, (3)percula clowns, (2)clown gobies
If I need a sump pump, what would you recommend?? can I get one on ----? how much $$$ are we talking?
Thank you all for you help!
 
K

kpatrick

Guest
thanks for the reply Kip. So when I get my new lighting in, I will have (4) 55w PC, plus the (2) 36" actinic 03 bulbs. How many more PCs do you recommend??
This is one of those situations where the LFS (2 of them) have told me that once I get the (4) 55w PCs that I should be great for corals except for the hard corals.
I hate it when you think you are doing it right , but then you find out the lfs is lying to you or not knowledgeable!
Is the sump really needed or not?
 
jedininja

jedininja

Member
I agree with everything Kip said. Drastically underlighted. Have you already ordered the extra lights? If not, it might actauly be cheaper to get Mh lights instead of adding a ton of VHO and PC.
The other thing that might helped in stressing you corals is that you raised the SG fairly quickly.
No you dont NEED a sump. I was just qasking before to get a better understanding of your filtration. Sumps are very helpful in adding more water volume, water turnover, and hides all your filters and things to make your tank look better.
 
K

kpatrick

Guest
Okay I just went to the LFS and bought more PC lights (he got my order in). I got (4) 55 w bulbs so now I have a total of 330w (getting better!). He also recommended that I add some Iodine so I got that as well. I apreciate the offer on the MH lighting but the owner of the LFS gives me good pricing plus im not sure a MH light would fit under my hood.
He recommended not using the actinic 03 bulbs. I have the 2 generic 3ft light fixtures that came with the tank setup which are now holding the 50/50 lights. Should I add the actinic 03 (whats the benfit?, not sure why he sais not to) or is there something better that I should add that will fit in those fixtures that will be good with the PCs???
 
K

kpatrick

Guest
Can you explain why not add iodine??
What about other Kent reef products like Reef-Vit?? is this stuff good to add occasionally or stay away from it as well???
any thoughts an my lighting issue? What will be the most beneficial bulbs that I can put in the fixtures (the two, 3", fixtures that came with the tank) that will be a good addition along with the PCs? Keep in mind these fixtures or the two- prong lights(currently holding 50/50 lights). Not sure why he said stay away from actinic 03, he said something about "snow" lights. Any help is needed with this lighting issue since I want to get it resolved be fore the corals die.
 
jedininja

jedininja

Member
I think your LFS is full of it. I have no idea why he would recommend not using actinic, anmd the other stuff he recomends is not needed. idione is ok if you have a heavily stocked tank of corals, but otherwise the water changes take care of it.
Do you mind me asking how much you spent on this lighting upgrade?
 
K

kpatrick

Guest
Jedininja,
His price for 36" PCs (110w) are $150.00.
However I have doing business with him for over 10 years and sent him many customers so I usually get a break. He wasnt there today so I will have to go back later and get my cost down but the lighting is needed very bad so i had to go ahead and pay $150 each. It was one of his employees that said not to get the actinic 03.
Im confused now... does the actinic 03 just add another color spectrum or does it help increase your watts?? (dont we want as many watts as possible?) what should I use along with the PCs to help my tank?????
 
jedininja

jedininja

Member
It adds the spectrum of color. But if you are adding a new tube in addition to the rest, then it adds more light as well.
So the employee is also the one who told you to buy all the supplements? I would ake it back for a refund when the owner is there.
As for your lights, you only have 220 watts over 125 gallon tank. That is enough for mushrooms, and maybe some softies, but that is still extremely low. You really need double that amount of light if you want to keep your frogspawn healthy. That is why I was saying it would actually be cheaper to add metal halide to that setup instead of getting more PC lights. If you spent $150 on those light, you would need to spend another $300 just to get up to where you need for LPS. Thats a total of $450 plus whatever you already spent. You can get pretty good MH lighting on ---- for that amount.
I use PC's myself, and now I am upgrading to MH with PC actinics. If I did it right in the begining, I would of saved myself a bit of money. And PCs are good enough for LPS corals, its just you need a lot of it so the cost actually goes higher than MH.
 
K

kpatrick

Guest
I dont think MH would fit under my hood would they? Also, I already have 110w plus the 220w i just bought so im have a total of 330w ( I know I still need more but just wanted to let you know its at 330w)
How much does the MH lighting cost?
How many watts?
what exactly do I need to know about MH (any special requirements or anything?)
 
skirrby

skirrby

Active Member
i agree the lights are low. i got 260 watts over my 55..and i even think that will be low on the light,, but i dont plan on anything but softies and some LPS.. im not even going to waist money and try SPS under my lights
 
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