I need everyones advice.. Please

[saltylakes]

i currently have a 55 gallon tank with reef.
I have Power compacts... 2 (96 Watt bulbs)
I want to keep hard corals but i dont want to spend huge amounts of money.. Is it possible to keep hard corals with 4 (powercompacts)... That would be a total of 440 watts for a 55 gallon!!!! Is this possible??? I currently use a wet dry and skimmer for filtration.. I want to add a refugium... Should I?????
I currently am keeping frogspawns, mushrooms, open brains, green star polyps, xenia, elephant ear, furry mushrooms.
My finally question:
My corals as of late have not been fully opening especially my Mushrooms.( they are in the bottom of the tank, they are red and purple)
I checked my water and everything was great.... My bulbs are three months old.. please help me, becasue i am interested in getting the other two PC's for a total of four.. can i keep hard corals? thank you everyone your advice is what makes this board awesome

 

[jlem]

How often do you water change. Can you list you maint schedule. A few little ( 5 gallon every day for a week or so) water changes may flush the tank of whatever is bugging the corals.

 

[saltylakes]

i do a 10 gallon water change once a month.
i add one tablespoon on Calcium three times a week (seachem)
i add one tablespoon of ALK three times a week (seachem)
i add two tablespoons of Tech I one a week Seachem
I add two tablespoons Reef Vital once a week
i add two table spoons of Coral Accel three times a week
I add phytoplankton one table spoons four times a week
i add two table spoons of strontium seachem
Is that to many products to be adding to my 55...
could this be making my corals (mushrooms) look limp????
Should i get another set of the PC's.... for a total of 4X96 watt for a total of 440 watts

 

[jlem]

Here is what I would do. Try weekly water changes of 5 gallons. This amount should keep your elements excluding calcium pretty high without the addition of all that other stuff. If you get a maxijet 1200 and a bucket then you could mix up the 5 gallons the night before and it only takes about 15 minutes to siphon out 5 gallons and plug the end of the siphon hose into the pump and pump the 5 gallons in. I use the Kent marine seasalt and am very happy. It is the only thing kent that I would use. I also use the seachem reef complete for calcium with great results. Monthly water changes in smaller tanks can sometimes shock the tank because the tank slowly changes a month and then in one moment gets whipped back into shape.
as far as your light, what bulbs do you have now. A 10k has quite abit of the blue spectrum. You could run two 96watt 10k and then get a 2-40 watt endcap and ballast kit and run 2-40 watt actinics. lights would be cooler and it would look very nice. Plus it would be alot cheaper to.

 

[saltylakes]

so you do weekly water changes? that is alot of hassle... i am going to try it to see if the corals stop wilting... things dont look to good......
do you think it could be all the chemicals.. i dont think so... i have been doing it for a while.. i am not to sure thanks

 

[alti]

you really should find out what is wrong with your tank before you start doing waqter changes. what are you tanks parameters?
how long has the tank been runnikng?

 

[saltylakes]

my water tested perfectly yesturday at the store...
all the fish are fine.
the only problem i had was that two weeks ago the pwerhead in my wet dry which returns the water back into the tank started sparking under the water and it ended up burning the plug and causing some serious smoke in my room... I did two big water changes 30 and 25 gallons three days apart. Everything tested fine yesturday... Could the smoke have hurt the corals and not the fish??? Did i electricute the corals??? very wierd, all you input is greatly appreciated

 

[alti]

did the pump burn or just the plug? i think the water changes are probably what did it. changing that much water at a time can stress the corals quite a bit. even so, you did make the right decision to do them. its always better to stress the corals with an emergency water change than have some toxic chemical be in the system.

 

[alti]

you would probably be better off getting some test kits and doing the readings yourself. no one can understand a tank better than its owner. knowing and understanding you water params is very important in maintaining a sucessful reef tank.

 

[saltylakes]

the whole pump burned and it spread to the cord... it was wierd and the smoke fillled the room... it was on fire under water!!!! incredible

 

[alti]

wow, that does sound bad. if two weeks have passed and you have not had any deaths it probably is not as bad as it seems. have you been running carbon at all?
on your question about lighting, what do you mean by hard corals? you already have some hard corals in the tank. if you get the other 2 pc's you should have more than enough light for any softies, many lps corals and some sps(i dont keep sps, so get another opinion on them).

 

[slothy]

was the pump a RIO ?

 

[iceburger]

first, you might wanna make sure your pump didnt leak any oils into the tank, and second, check your O2 levels of the water, as we all know fire needs oxygen...and i wouldnt add anything at all for a while untill you are positive that everything is fine......IMO you can keep some hard corals with that much lighting*..i wouldnt try clams tho
...*with the upgraded lighting of course...

 

[fshhub]

Originally posted by alti
you would probably be better off getting some test kits and doing the readings yourself. no one can understand a tank better than its owner. knowing and understanding you water params is very important in maintaining a sucessful reef tank.
DEFINITELY, besides, what does perfect mean, many lfs's do not know what we truly feel is acceptable, let alone perfect. They will show 60 nitrates or very low trites and think it is ok to addmore(not quite dangerous). IMO, any amount of trites or ammonia is lethal, but low, they will say it should be ok, if you want to add more.

 

[bang guy]

Saltylakes - Following are my opinions and just opinions so you'll need to decide for yourself.
The fact that nothing has died after a catastrophic failure of a powerhead leads me to believe you had a very healthy tank.
There may be some heavy metals from the powerhead that are contaminating your water. Stepping up your water changes is an excellent idea and I would also suggest a polyfilter that ALL of your water goes through. If it changes color you can verify that there's a contaminant.
I would stop all additives until the problem is resolved. Just do water changes for a month or two.

[hr]
Four 96 watt PC lamps will go a long way IMO and you should be able to keep all but the most light demanding Acropora. I suggest a start with Montipora Cap. It will be very rewarding to see it grow under those lights.
On the Strontium dosing... you could be doing yourself a big disservice if you dose this element without knowing what your levels are.
As suggested, get your own test kits and chart your levels weekly. and don't dose anything you don't test for.

 

[saltylakes]

ok, I am going to get some test kit. Which ones are easiest to use???? Also which ones should i get?
I did use a polyfilter after the accident and for about a week i used 4 of them and the color came back BLUE(which means copper) finally on the fourth poly filter the color was not blue. I have also done two huge water tests.
My tank was very health(3 years) before this disaster and i sustained two looses: My two frogspawns which had been with me for two years.
Do you think I shoud make a refugium??? to control ammonia and nitrates. I m really interested in getting one to complement my skimming and wet dry sump.
also the pump was a rio and i dont know what to do. I feel like calling them and telling them that they almost burned my house down.
Also what is the damage I can do by adding Strontium? So everyone thinks that adding fresh saltwater every few weeks and adding calcium and ALK is all i need?... WOW that is hard to beleive.
Is it possible to over saturate my corals with products?????????
Also how can i test for metals in my water?
also When i get my other set of PC's i am going to start of with a Monti.... anyone selling red monti's?
Thank you to everyone that has helped and I appreciate your advice and you are really doing a great service.

 

[saltylakes]

anyone?????????

 

[alti]

it is possible to overdose trace elements. iodine, for one, is toxic to fish and corals if overdosed.
as for test kits, i recommend salifert's. they are a little pricey, but they are very accurate. you could get by with the nitrate,ph,alk and calcium tests.

 

[melbournefl]

1st let me say how sorry I am to hear this horror story. It's really sad when something like this happens in that it's one of those things that we, as reefkeepers, have absolutely no control over. That said, I'd suggest looking in your local yellow pages under "Water Analysis" and spending the bucks to get a complete analysis done. This might give you some more parameters to guide you in your quest for solutions. The presence of copper was not a good sign unfortunately.
Good luck and keep us up to date as this develops, if nothing else comes of it, you may provide some valuable help if anyone else encounters this kind of thing in the future.
This board has taught me so much but I think one of the things that it's pounded in my head now for sure is that I'm NEVER buying a Rio pump.
Again good luck!
Later,
Paul

 

[kennynj]

ANY CHEM. INTODUCED INTO A CLOSED INVIROMENT
CAN BE TOXIC TO FISH AND ESPECIALLY INVERTS.
REG. WATER CHANGES WILL REPLENISH THE NESSESARY
SUPPLEMENTS NEEDED. A REFUGIUM IS A GREAT ASSET
TO ANY REEF TANK. CALUPRA WILL ABSORB NITRATES,AND
PHOSPHATES, AS WELL AS ADD OTHER NATURAL NUTRIENTS
TO THE WATER OTHER WISE NOT NATURALY PROVIDED.
ONCE YOUR CALUPRA HAS TAKEN TO ITS NEW INVIROMENT
AND IS GROWING STRONG, YOU'LL WANT TO PRUNE IT.
THIS ALLOWS FOR BETTER GROWTH AND ALSO REMOVES
ABSORBED TOXINS OUT OF THE WATER COLUMN. I KEEP MINE
LIT 24/7