jonthefb
Active Member
Ok guys, need some help here!
at the lfs i work at we have a 150 gallon reef tank that is considered our show tank, however we do sell corals out of it....the left side of the tnak has a huge rose bubble tip anemone ( about as big as a 5 gallon bucket when its open), some green star polyps and a giant yello toadstool....thats all on the right 1/3 of the tank....it is separated via aquascaping from the rest of the tank which is colonized by sps corals...montis, acros, poccilipora, etc...
The tank is illuminated by an Aqua Medic AquaSpace Light... a 6 footer with 3X250 watt 10K Hqi Halides and 4 34 watt PC actinics...the fixture is hung about 18 inches from the top of the tank
the tank is filtered with a self-made sump consisting of a large plenum/caulerpa chamber that is lit 24/7 and is returented to the tank with a mag 12 that is split off to 2 i/2 inch sea swirl returns!
We have had the tank running with the filtrationfor about a year and the lights have been on since october..we had originally had pc on the tank, but upgraded to mh;s and started the fixture off at 2 feet above the tank, and gradually lowered it....
we add calcium and carbonate once a week to maintain calcium levels...which unfortunately no one has ever tested...this is one thing i am going to remedy this weekend as i amgoing to take my test kits to the shop and do a full gammete on water quality
no other additives are placed into the tank, however the corals are fed daily with a food that we make in the shop..
p.s. sorry aout the long post..
now for the problem....we added the sea swirls and dropped the lights to where they are currently sitting about a mont ago....during that time period all of our acros went from brilliant colors to brown, and many are actually showing signs of tissue recession....all of us at the shop are just stumped...we are debating wether its lighting, or calcium or water moveent, as these things were really the only things that we have changed over the past two months
i personally dont think it is water movement, because although the corals have turned brown, the polyps still exten and extend well...the only two that are left are lighting and calcium/alk.....however with the lighting issue, the soft and lps corals that we have in the right 1/3 of the tank are just jamming....its only the sps that seem effected...the bulbs have been run since october, so they are only 7 months old, and i thought that they lasted a year w/o replacing...
the only other thing that could have an effect on thetank, was that at the same time the sea swirls were added, our timers on the light went out so we were turning hte light on by hand, and it wasnt at set tiems during the day....the pwner is concerned about using electrcity so there would be times when he wouldnt turn it on till 1 and then he would turn both th eactinics and halides on at the same time...could this rapid change in photoperiod have caused this to happen?
lastly i have read at garf, and several other online retailers that if acros are in a tnak with many softies they will turn brown in color in response to the toxins released by the softies....is there any relevnace to thsi statement at all> as i stated before the left 1/3 of the tnak is primarily softies, GSP, button polyps, mushrooms, leathers, etc...could these guys be causing the browning and recession of the acros?
thanks for taking the time to read through this all of you, and any insight into this weird phenonenon would be greatly appreciated!
thanks again
jon
at the lfs i work at we have a 150 gallon reef tank that is considered our show tank, however we do sell corals out of it....the left side of the tnak has a huge rose bubble tip anemone ( about as big as a 5 gallon bucket when its open), some green star polyps and a giant yello toadstool....thats all on the right 1/3 of the tank....it is separated via aquascaping from the rest of the tank which is colonized by sps corals...montis, acros, poccilipora, etc...
The tank is illuminated by an Aqua Medic AquaSpace Light... a 6 footer with 3X250 watt 10K Hqi Halides and 4 34 watt PC actinics...the fixture is hung about 18 inches from the top of the tank
the tank is filtered with a self-made sump consisting of a large plenum/caulerpa chamber that is lit 24/7 and is returented to the tank with a mag 12 that is split off to 2 i/2 inch sea swirl returns!
We have had the tank running with the filtrationfor about a year and the lights have been on since october..we had originally had pc on the tank, but upgraded to mh;s and started the fixture off at 2 feet above the tank, and gradually lowered it....
we add calcium and carbonate once a week to maintain calcium levels...which unfortunately no one has ever tested...this is one thing i am going to remedy this weekend as i amgoing to take my test kits to the shop and do a full gammete on water quality
no other additives are placed into the tank, however the corals are fed daily with a food that we make in the shop..
p.s. sorry aout the long post..
now for the problem....we added the sea swirls and dropped the lights to where they are currently sitting about a mont ago....during that time period all of our acros went from brilliant colors to brown, and many are actually showing signs of tissue recession....all of us at the shop are just stumped...we are debating wether its lighting, or calcium or water moveent, as these things were really the only things that we have changed over the past two months
i personally dont think it is water movement, because although the corals have turned brown, the polyps still exten and extend well...the only two that are left are lighting and calcium/alk.....however with the lighting issue, the soft and lps corals that we have in the right 1/3 of the tank are just jamming....its only the sps that seem effected...the bulbs have been run since october, so they are only 7 months old, and i thought that they lasted a year w/o replacing...
the only other thing that could have an effect on thetank, was that at the same time the sea swirls were added, our timers on the light went out so we were turning hte light on by hand, and it wasnt at set tiems during the day....the pwner is concerned about using electrcity so there would be times when he wouldnt turn it on till 1 and then he would turn both th eactinics and halides on at the same time...could this rapid change in photoperiod have caused this to happen?
lastly i have read at garf, and several other online retailers that if acros are in a tnak with many softies they will turn brown in color in response to the toxins released by the softies....is there any relevnace to thsi statement at all> as i stated before the left 1/3 of the tnak is primarily softies, GSP, button polyps, mushrooms, leathers, etc...could these guys be causing the browning and recession of the acros?
thanks for taking the time to read through this all of you, and any insight into this weird phenonenon would be greatly appreciated!
thanks again
jon
