I don't FREAKIN get it!

saltgeek

saltgeek

New Member
I have been running a salt water tank now for roughly 5 years. 100 Gal with overflow sump and skimmer. Also have a magnum 350 canister. Recently I decided to venture into the real of the reaf. I have approx 150-175 Lbs of Live rock and a 5" Sand bed with a plennum. So here is my problem. Every coral I have purchase or obtained looks so pretty until they hit MY TANK... All of my water levels are perfect. I run 2 400W MH light 7 1/2 hours a day. It seems that my corals and my mushrooms do ok but they don't do great. I add iodine, strotium, and for calcium I use the Kalkweiser mix. I have a galixia that was lookin so good when I first got it now the pigment on it is turning from pink to white??? I have a crop of live plants in the tank and they are growing like weeds nice green tips on them. I just did a 25% water change with GOOD water... and to no avail NO CHANGE notta Zipo. ANY HELP would be sooooooo greatly appreciated! Thanks so much.
SaltGeek~ <img src="graemlins//confused.gif" border="0" alt="[confused]" />
 
rhomer

rhomer

Member
There is a good article on coral bleaching the marine aquarium annual magazine. I've only skimmed the article, you might try reading that.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
You say your water levels are perfect but what are they? Specifically:
Iodine
Strontium
Nitrate
Salinity
Temperature
Ca
ALK
How much current is going through the tank?
 
anthony812

anthony812

Member
hi i got some helpful hints. Water changes , slowley acclimate them to the light. 2 400 watt is a lot of light imo. Also you could try adding atinic because i had the same problem was wabout to give up too cuz everything looks so ugly i added standerd actinic 03 or vhos in your case it looks really nice i hope that helps
 
kelly

kelly

Member
How old are the bulbs, and what is the kelvin rating? Provide us with this info, in addition to what Bang Guy asked, and maybe you will get a little more feedback. How often/much to you add your supplements?
 
saltgeek

saltgeek

New Member
No Nitrate Nitrite 20ppm Amonia 0 PH 8.2 I suplement once to twice a week just a hair under the recomended dosage. Bulbs I have one that is a 10K and the other is a sunburst I think it is 12K (nice blue tint) the 10 K bulb is less than 1 month old and the sunburst is close to 4 months old. Thanks
 
m1rodrig

m1rodrig

Member
800 watts is a lot of light.I agree with golfish. maybe where you buy them they are not under such extreme light.It sounds like your water parameters are ok.Do your mushrooms and corals look like they are retracting if they are there is probably too much light.You need aticnics.
 
saltgeek

saltgeek

New Member
Actually the mushrooms are doing just the oposite. They are expanding. The corals are the only thing that is retracting
 
nm reef

nm reef

Active Member
Following is the info you provided to bang guys answer:
No Nitrate Nitrite 20ppm Amonia 0 PH 8.2 I suplement once to twice a week just a hair under the recomended dosage. Bulbs I have one that is a 10K and the other is a sunburst I think it is 12K (nice blue tint) the 10 K bulb is less than 1 month old and the sunburst is close to 4 months old. Thanks
In order to get a grasp on what may be the source of your problems we need additional info:
Temp/specific gravity/additives used&schedule/calcium/alkalinity/iodine/phosphates/current.....it may simply be a problem with lighting acclimation as mentioned ....but it may be a water chemistry/quality problem also.
You say copper meds have never been used so that rules one source of potential problem out.......what are exact readings for calcium & alkalinity and what test do you use?
Its been my experience that problem like you are describing are normally related to stability and maturity of a system..........hope things work out. :cool:
 
kelly

kelly

Member
Salt Geek,
It appears that you nitrites are the problem. Once a tank has cycled you have have 0 nitrites, or very close to it. Most hard corals do not do well in the presence of nitrites.
Some comments from other sites...
"The presence of nitrite may also suggest that you are feeding too much or the tank is overloaded."
"the presence of merely low amounts of nitrite, such still is an indication that somewhere in the aquarium, or in the filters, the natural breakdown cycle has been, or is being, interfered with. The hobbyist should immediately determine where this interference is coming from and remedy the situation."
"Levels as high as 8 ppm of Nitrite result in both Catalaphylia jardinei and Discosoma species corals not opening as much as they do at lower levels"
"many fish can live in obscenely high levels of nitrate. However, nitrate accumulation can harm corals"
"Nitrite is also deadly to fish and corals alike."
Get your nitrites to zero, and this should help resolve the problem...
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Kelly... i have a gut feeling that those numbers are backwards... Nitrite = 0 and Nitrate = 20.. there's nothing wrong with those numbers if I'm right.
Although Nitrite is harmless at that level if your Nitrites are 20ppm then there's a stability issue with your tank.
Need to know the other numbers or there's no way to pinpoint a problem. My best guess is temp + salinity but without numbers there's no way to know.
 
cap'n pete

cap'n pete

Member
Mushroom coral are low light coral, and shrivel up under intense light. If the mushroom are expanding (and aren't in shady areas) that would suggest to me that there is a problem with the MH. Not all MH bulbs are reef safe. If you got some bargain cheapy, they may be producing more heat than anything else.
 
H

happy hopper

Guest
MMMMMMM this is going to seem strang . But you have two things going on at once . one you do have to acliment your corals to the light over time /re puting at the bottom of the tank and moving to the top /say over one week to nine days / please note i am refurning to sps corals /also the (BIG one) you are not running your lights long enough like nature 12 to 14 hrs per day
 
saltgeek

saltgeek

New Member
I did get the numbers on the trit and trate backwards... sorry for the confusion. I just bought a cacium test kit over the weekend and found that my cacium levels are way low. 375 ppm... I have since up'd my kalkweiser doesing (monitoring the PH CLOSELY) also I am getting my water tested at a Walk in Fish Store today... checking for Phosphate leves etc.. I cut my lighting down due to green hair growing wild.. is this normal? I will post my resutls...Thanks again for your help
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
What is your ALK level? If it's too high then adding Kalk isn't going to raise your Ca level. If it's in the normal range then you could have a Mg shortage and your Ca is just precipitating out of solution.
 
broomer5

broomer5

Active Member
How far above the tank are the 400 MH mounted ?
What's the distance from the bulb to the corals that are doing poorly ?
 
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