paisley
New Member
I've had a saltwater fish tank for a little over two years, but just recently got into invertibrates. I have a 75-gallon tank with a Fluval canister filter, an Emperor filter, and a backpack protein skimmer. I have two 50/50 actinic bulb, planning on getting a third (will this be enough?) I've been doing 10 percent water changes every two weeks with distilled water (should water be added right after mixing with salt? I've always done this with fish and never had a problem -- maybe that's my problem with inverts?), adding the "Essential Elements", "Coral-Vite", Calcium, etc., keeping track of ph, specific gravity, alkalinity, ammonia, nitrate & nitrite, etc. I have about 50 lbs of live rock now, planning on getting more soon. I've had some green star polyps and some clover polyps for about 3-4 months, and they've been fine. I've also had a piece of moon coral for about 2 months. About a month ago the moon coral got a spot where it was dying, and now there is another. These spots are small, and the rest of the coral looks fine. About two weeks ago, both colonies of polyps just stopped coming out. From time to time, one or two will come out a little, but that's it. I keep checking the water and EVERYTHING is perfect. I have quite a bit of algae, and I am planning on getting a bunch of turbo snails, hermit crabs, etc. (one of the "cleanup packages" you can buy). Anyway, I've spent all this time and money on the tank, and I look at it and none of the polyps are out and the moon coral has dead spots on it. Very frustrating! I've got the water perfect, but things don't seem to be going well. I don't want to buy any more livestock until I know they will be OK. Any advice anyone can give me is GREATLY APPRECIATED. Thanks.
