need help with reef tank

[donnymagic]

hi! i have had a 125 gallon tank for about 2 years it is cycled and i have succesfully kept 5 perculas, a coral banded shrimp, many scarlet hermits, astrea snails and 3 serpant stars. but i have had a horrible time with corals and introducing new fish. i have about 50lbs of lr a 120 volt compact fluorescent. please help me figure out what i am doing wrong.

 

[steamboat1569]

You gave the voltage for your lights, what we need is the wattage and Kelvin degrees of the bulbs.
Also need to know water parameters, type of substrate, filtration, and anything that you can tell us about your system. The more detailed the better, even down to what kind of water you use.
By the way, Welcome!!!!!!!

 

[alf3482]

Agreed! more info needed. Test the tank for copper and Nitrates as well.

 

[donnymagic]

my light has 2 96watt, 8800 kelvin bulbs i also have a 48-inch blue actinic fluorescent. i have a fluval 404, 2 seastorm biological filters powered by aquaclear 802 powerheads with prefilters and i also have a seaclone protein skimmer. for my substrate i have about 2 inches of crushed coral. my ph is aroun 8.3, my ammonia, nitrite and nitrates are all at zero as for everything else i do not have the testing equipment. the water is at 80degrees. my local fish store never told me about anything else, what else do i need? i am also haveing a hard time with bubble algae and another kind of grapevine looking algae. i also have a couple of flame scallops doing very well and a coral that i do not know the name of. once i figure how to post pictures i will

 

[alf3482]

Well For a 125gal size tank you are way under on lighting. IMO and IME This may play a major factor. What corals have you tried that did not make it? I would also doulble check your Nitrates. With CC and Fluval I would expect some Nitrate readings because you do not have a set up that will help reduce those. If there is a high Nitrate reading this will also stand in the way of keeping corals. HTH What test kit's brand do you use?

 

[donnymagic]

i checked again and still no nitrates. what kind of setup helps reduce nitrates? how much more lighting would you guys recomend. actually the only coral that i had die off on me was a green star polyp coral, it lived for a couple of months and was beautiful then it just started to fall apart. another question i have is about ro water, i only use tap water that i dechlorinate and let sit for about 2 days. i am obviously not very well informed. fi you guys could please just let me know what type of lighting, test kits, additives etc. i would be most greatful. and by the way this is one of the best sites for help i have ever been on and its ten times better than traveling an hour to the fish store where there is people who know what their doing.

 

[alf3482]

Well the green star polyp is a very easy coral to keep. If Nitrates are Zero then this would leave me to belive that with all water parameters inline that lighting is one of your problems. On my 125 gal I have 800w of light but I keep everything in this tank. If you con't with pc I would atleast add two more then you would be able to provide enough lighting for leathers and LPS, mushrooms and polyps. But it would really depend on what you want to keep to give a good lighting suggestion.
As far as a setup to help with Nitrate build up's a 4"DSB is good for this, But if your using Tap water and still have no nitrate buildup then I wouldn't worry about it.
For additives I suggest none other than doseing for alk and Ca. and good water change schedule will take care of evrything else. IMO
Test kits I recommend sealfert {sp} brand. Cheap and accurate. HTH