freddiec
Member
Well, I'm finally asking for help because I don't know exactly what's wrong and would like some advice on what to do next. My 65g reef tank is almost a year old and I'm having problems with my corals. Here's what's happened recently.
I went out of town for 2 1/2 weeks and had to have a friend take care of my tank. I left very detailed instructions and he managed to keep everything alive, although one Zoo colony has been almost completely closed up (looked very healthy before I left), and my Frogspawn looks significanlty smaller and quite a bit whiter. Even the mushrooms are not opening as large as they used to. When I returned the calcium level was 500+ and the DKH was very low, (around 4).
Also since my tank is at the 1 yr mark I replaced the MH bulbs, I was worried the lighting had really started to drop off. I switched the default sunpod 2 x 14k 150w MH bulbs with 2 x 10k 150w MH by Ushio. I did raise the light by 6" after a couple days because all the corals seemed to be reacting negatively, although the one that was previously closed up had a few more polyps open. (Other zoo's tentacles got longer, polyps seemed to shrink because I could see rock inbetween them where they were a solid mass before.) Since all corals now seem a little stressed I'm worried something else is going on and I'm in a lot more trouble than I thought.
I have made 15% water changes daily for the past week, and my sick zoo colony has a few more polyps open, although they are much smaller and they don't look well. The other corals look stressed still. Oh I didn't mention it but I have 2 x clowns and they're doing fine, they seem unphased by everything.
Should I go back to the old bulbs? Raise the lights higher? More water changes? Any help would be appreciated, I'm just worried my tank is on the verge of a crash and I'll lose my entire past year.
Current Water Parameters:
DhK : 10
Ph : 8.3
Calcium : 480
Nitrate : 0-5ppm
Nitrite : 0
Ammonia : 0
I went out of town for 2 1/2 weeks and had to have a friend take care of my tank. I left very detailed instructions and he managed to keep everything alive, although one Zoo colony has been almost completely closed up (looked very healthy before I left), and my Frogspawn looks significanlty smaller and quite a bit whiter. Even the mushrooms are not opening as large as they used to. When I returned the calcium level was 500+ and the DKH was very low, (around 4).
Also since my tank is at the 1 yr mark I replaced the MH bulbs, I was worried the lighting had really started to drop off. I switched the default sunpod 2 x 14k 150w MH bulbs with 2 x 10k 150w MH by Ushio. I did raise the light by 6" after a couple days because all the corals seemed to be reacting negatively, although the one that was previously closed up had a few more polyps open. (Other zoo's tentacles got longer, polyps seemed to shrink because I could see rock inbetween them where they were a solid mass before.) Since all corals now seem a little stressed I'm worried something else is going on and I'm in a lot more trouble than I thought.
I have made 15% water changes daily for the past week, and my sick zoo colony has a few more polyps open, although they are much smaller and they don't look well. The other corals look stressed still. Oh I didn't mention it but I have 2 x clowns and they're doing fine, they seem unphased by everything.
Should I go back to the old bulbs? Raise the lights higher? More water changes? Any help would be appreciated, I'm just worried my tank is on the verge of a crash and I'll lose my entire past year.
Current Water Parameters:
DhK : 10
Ph : 8.3
Calcium : 480
Nitrate : 0-5ppm
Nitrite : 0
Ammonia : 0
