sjgsm
Member
Hello everyone, and thank you for reading my post. I am a long time reef tank owner here and as of late it has started to show decline. The tank first of all is 30gal 30"W/ 12 1/2" D/ 18" H. I tend to purchase coral frags from a LFS and over time have had some lovely colonies at some points. My assumptions of problems right now are Current (I never fully can understand the best way to get good current although it has never been throughly explained to me), Lack of darkness as I live upstairs and only have my light come on at night (set by timer) even on 80 degree days tended to try to get 82+ with the light on (a long time ago i noticed this and changed it). For this I purchased decent blinds for the room it is in (not direct sunlight as it is on the opposite wall of the windows) but still gets a decent amount of light. To further help this situation I am now building a DIY Canopy with velcro and a thick black curtain drapery (have been clothes pinning the same drapery as of the last couple days and have great reduced light to almost none during "night time." I also feel as if it could be a lack of magnesium or maybe something else as well? (I have no test and at this point in time I can't afford any of the saltwater test kits). My brother has allowed me to use his a couple times recently to check the basics which follows on average. (If you have any assumptions or knowledge as to what my problem may be feel free to chime in as much as possible. I am very open to any ideas as I just want whats best for my reef tank)
Nitrites - 0
Ammonia -0
Nitrates - around 4-5ppm
PH - Usually stays around 8.0 - 8.3
Temperature - 77-78
Salinity - 1.23 with a cheap coralife hydrometer
Feedings of once per day and sometimes every other day for corals (fish fed 2-3x daily pellet food and sometimes get rare frozen blood worm on top) of Coral Frenzy,Mysis Shrimp,Phyplankton,Food processed silversides (tiny tiny pieces),and Micro-vert(was worse about feeding corals a while ago and started to feed more to help growth and overall health). I spot feed them as much as possible with an old turkey baster and turn off all filters and only have one powerhead on to mix the food around for 2-3 minutes at a time. I also dosed Kent Essential elements, Kent Liquid Calcium, Kent Iodide every 2 weeks or so in smaller amounts, but have slowed down a little since my lps,sps species have faded away. I am planning on going to the LFS today to get my water fully tested by them and then if need be will buy small bottles of magnesium or whatever may be my problem. At this point it is too early to do so now as nobody is open. I have a tight-money situation so this has lead to my lack of testing and what not at this point. I also always use R/O water and tend to use coralife salt.
Corals:
Frogspawn started with 3 heads and after 1 year and about 14 heads is now down to one (each frogspawn would let go of the skeleton and get sucked into a filter or powerhead or just float to the back). Middle of tank.
Red/Green Blasto Frag started as one head and instantly grew 4 more (great poofyness and polyp extension), after about 3-4 months each head began to deteriorate. Middle of tank. Deceased
Toadstool 6+ inch top that's stalk started to show extra mucus (whatever it may be exactly) and would refuse to be where he was once happy for months. After letting go of his rock I eventually tried to rubberband his stalk to another, this only lead to him removing that part of stalk and floating around the sand endlessly. He rarely has a stalk now and at times it can get two inches of stalk and he extends polyps, but later that recedes. Middle left side of tank near side glass. now floats around freely as I can't seem to get him to take anywhere.
Green finger coral frag which instantly showed growth and then the bottom part turned black as it withered away. Bottomish left side. Deceased
Acropora frag which showed good polyp extension and grew double its size before the bottom tissue slowly came off (showing the white skeleton) and lead to the rest dying off. Was near the top left side of the tank at the time. Deceased
Duncans ( recent purchase four heads with skeleton growth of a 1/2" in 3 weeks. Decent polyp extension but seems picky at the moment as I noticed they tend to look more like whiskers and mine rarely extend so far) Middleish right side of tank.
Cinnamon Palys -small colony(look good 20 or so polyps after years...) Top right under Penguin, seems to like it there.
Lunar eclipse zoa frag (looks great 5 polyps, better heath then I ever had as red slime would invade the tank around the same time killing them off), top left side of tank under the aquaclear (seems to love its flow)
Orange ricordea which has two mouths and hasn't split after maybe about a year and lacks overall poofyness. Central part of the sand bed.
Elegance Coral which looked good for a week (decent poofyness and polyp extension) and is slowly receding, sometimes poofing out with no polyps, have been wondering if it is due to clownfish brushing the sand and getting caught inbetween the skeleton and the soft tissue? Recently the toadstool floated and got stuck on it and it looks worse than ever where the toadstool was setting (as I would assume). Perched up on old frog spawn skeleton on sandbed to attempt to keep sand from entering... no luck... and since the toadstool the left side of it is dying, right side is still semi poofy and mouths look fine (has/had 4 mouths)
Blue striped mushrooms which look great splitting quite often
Brown semi-fuzzy mushrooms which look great and split rapidly as well.
Green semi-fuzzy mushroom - Newer Frag, Was insanely big for a week or two ,even compared to fish store i got it from and then started to fold over the rock mounted on plug and has seem semi smaller ever since.
Green star polyps frag - 2 week old frag which showed great extension at first and now only has three to five polyps fully extended at a time (out of maybe 15 polyps)bottom closer in between middle and sandbed right side of tank.)
Red Montipora cap frag Newer frag which seems to be doing good and has grown fairly quickly in two weeks. Middle left side of tank.
Meteor Shower Cyphastrea frag - Newer frag that as far as I am aware is looking great, red polyps are full and extended out from the green base and shows brown growth encrustation on the plug it came with (grown at least 6 new red polyps) bottom right side of tank.
I personally believe I killed some other random frags of SPS by touching them with bareskin causing the skin to burn and eventually leading to the small frags deaths via the tissue dissolving/releasing. The above mentioned corals in bold were never touched with skin as I have used Vinyl gloves for a while now and was always as careful as possible anyways.
Equipment:
I have used two hang-on filters for about 3 years
Penguin Bio-wheel 350 The Penguin seems to grow more of the algae and has just one newer replacement filter on each side,and both bio-wheels (removed top and front which increased algae growth) - Back right side of tank going towards front glass
Aquaclear 70 <-- pretty sure its the 70, which was modded for extra flow.) I use these mainly as hang on refuges as they are growing chaeto,other various algae and coralline (which has removed my hair algae entirely from inside the display) The aquaclear has about 40 ceramic cylinder bio-modules placed in the bottom and filled loosely with small liverock. Back left side of tank with the stream headed downward towards the front glass.
Aqueon 500 powerhead - Top right back side of tank pointed at water surface and front glass (straight ahead)
PH-103 powerhead - Top left back side of tank pointed at water surface and front glass (straight ahead)
125w heater - keeps the tank at 77-78 even during the colder 47ish nights (also due to the mh being on at night)
250w MH - 22" above the tank as it seemed when it was closer to the tank would only worsen the extension of the polyps and I thought may have been part of the cause of the toadstool,and was during the time of the extreme frogspawn depletion. The corals show no signs of bleaching or lack of light at this point. Even montipora is staying colored.
I am currently in the process of building a 10g sump and refuge with the pvc overflow design.
Livestock:
Sailfin Tang - Temporary home while my brother sets up his new 90gal. Seems to have plenty of room for the time being and is very social, loves food as well... lol
3 Clownfish - Very large female which ended up turning black after the first stripe behind the head after 2 years,another who seems to want to be here male mate which I purchased at the same time is semi-smaller and has shown a little black but nothing compared to the female. One more clown which I bought since after 5+ years of the other two showing no signs of breeding and looked to see if it was due to either not accepting the other as a mate.
1 Green spotted mandarin female - which has exploded in size and can't seem to eat even a minority of the pod population (her shape reminds me of a bloated great white shark
) I also have a small male in a desktop 12biocube sitting right next to me to help it grow off of the insane pod population I have in there before introducing it to my 30 and semi aggressive female that chased a male out of my tank (also part of why I am building canopy). Been alive for about a month, doubled in size from 1 inch to 1.75 or so inches. Huge belly and am getting fairly close to adding him to the tank
2 Mithrax crabs - One white and one purple, which look exactly like emerald crabs,same claw size,same shape,maybe even slightly more docile. - Seem healthy when I can see them, always picking at rocks only
1 Cleaner Shrimp - Very healthy and has grown double his original size
100's of brittle/serpent stars which have been slowly growing one has gotten pretty large and shows a dark with white stripe pattern on the legs and little bristles (maybe 2 inch legs) I believe these were the result of a brittle star I had and a green and white serpent star breeding. The serpent star my brother gave me when he shut down his tank and both seemed to be around adult size at the time... I'm not sure though.
20+ Blue-leg Hermit crabs - some have had eggs on their backs which I have noticed when they reach out to flip themselves.
I also have some nassarius snails and cerith snails which are in small numbers now. Never much luck keeping snails alive and not sure why.
If I left anything out feel free to ask me and I will attempt to get you the info. Under will be some pictures that hopefully should work. If you have trouble seeing them I can try to send a direct URL link via imageshack. PS. Please excuse the poor camera I am using a 3g Iphone to take these
Lunar Zoa's
Montipora cap, The large female clown and a coral which I did not list (underneath the clown, the blueish purple polyps) because I do not know what it is. My brother loaned it to my because at the time it looked horrible in his tank and was worth trying to save with mine. Have looked great ever since. They remind me of a blue xenia mixed with clove polyp... not sure)
Elegance, left side dying, right side poofyish, you can barely see stuck sand and what not(assuming it is done for). Meteor shower on right.
Green semi-fuzzy mushroom, Green Star polyps and Meteor shower. Also hard to see is a blue striped mushroom in the bottom right as it somewhat matches the coralline.
Brown Shrooms, large female in black and male underneath to the right. pay no mind the powerhead suckers on the left in the sand >.< .
Random blueish sponge on left and yellow one in middle. GPS coral inbetween them both below.
Palys below penguin filter. more on back or rock.
Duncans, Male clown on left, newer clown on right, sleeps with both the male and female on average.
Full tank shot - Water is much clearer then it appears(I did not wipe it down with a paper towel). You can see the orange ricordea in the middle of the sandbed. Can barely see PH-103 Powerhead in top left next to water heater. Right Aqueon 500 is just belown the penguin filter to the right a tad. Feel free to leave comments on how I should rotate these powerheads to make a nicer flow.
Shot of Aquaclear. Algae in this prevents display tank algae.
Shot of penguin. Noticed better algae growth with front and top panel off and I don't personally mind the dirty look lol.
Tank from far away, Sailfin in the middle bottomish.
Thank you again for taking time to look at my post. Please feel free to leave any opinions as to what the problem may be. Also if I have bad grammar anywhere please excuse that as I was in a rush and have to head to work.
Nitrites - 0
Ammonia -0
Nitrates - around 4-5ppm
PH - Usually stays around 8.0 - 8.3
Temperature - 77-78
Salinity - 1.23 with a cheap coralife hydrometer
Feedings of once per day and sometimes every other day for corals (fish fed 2-3x daily pellet food and sometimes get rare frozen blood worm on top) of Coral Frenzy,Mysis Shrimp,Phyplankton,Food processed silversides (tiny tiny pieces),and Micro-vert(was worse about feeding corals a while ago and started to feed more to help growth and overall health). I spot feed them as much as possible with an old turkey baster and turn off all filters and only have one powerhead on to mix the food around for 2-3 minutes at a time. I also dosed Kent Essential elements, Kent Liquid Calcium, Kent Iodide every 2 weeks or so in smaller amounts, but have slowed down a little since my lps,sps species have faded away. I am planning on going to the LFS today to get my water fully tested by them and then if need be will buy small bottles of magnesium or whatever may be my problem. At this point it is too early to do so now as nobody is open. I have a tight-money situation so this has lead to my lack of testing and what not at this point. I also always use R/O water and tend to use coralife salt.
Corals:
Frogspawn started with 3 heads and after 1 year and about 14 heads is now down to one (each frogspawn would let go of the skeleton and get sucked into a filter or powerhead or just float to the back). Middle of tank.
Red/Green Blasto Frag started as one head and instantly grew 4 more (great poofyness and polyp extension), after about 3-4 months each head began to deteriorate. Middle of tank. Deceased
Toadstool 6+ inch top that's stalk started to show extra mucus (whatever it may be exactly) and would refuse to be where he was once happy for months. After letting go of his rock I eventually tried to rubberband his stalk to another, this only lead to him removing that part of stalk and floating around the sand endlessly. He rarely has a stalk now and at times it can get two inches of stalk and he extends polyps, but later that recedes. Middle left side of tank near side glass. now floats around freely as I can't seem to get him to take anywhere.
Green finger coral frag which instantly showed growth and then the bottom part turned black as it withered away. Bottomish left side. Deceased
Acropora frag which showed good polyp extension and grew double its size before the bottom tissue slowly came off (showing the white skeleton) and lead to the rest dying off. Was near the top left side of the tank at the time. Deceased
Duncans ( recent purchase four heads with skeleton growth of a 1/2" in 3 weeks. Decent polyp extension but seems picky at the moment as I noticed they tend to look more like whiskers and mine rarely extend so far) Middleish right side of tank.
Cinnamon Palys -small colony(look good 20 or so polyps after years...) Top right under Penguin, seems to like it there.
Lunar eclipse zoa frag (looks great 5 polyps, better heath then I ever had as red slime would invade the tank around the same time killing them off), top left side of tank under the aquaclear (seems to love its flow)
Orange ricordea which has two mouths and hasn't split after maybe about a year and lacks overall poofyness. Central part of the sand bed.
Elegance Coral which looked good for a week (decent poofyness and polyp extension) and is slowly receding, sometimes poofing out with no polyps, have been wondering if it is due to clownfish brushing the sand and getting caught inbetween the skeleton and the soft tissue? Recently the toadstool floated and got stuck on it and it looks worse than ever where the toadstool was setting (as I would assume). Perched up on old frog spawn skeleton on sandbed to attempt to keep sand from entering... no luck... and since the toadstool the left side of it is dying, right side is still semi poofy and mouths look fine (has/had 4 mouths)
Blue striped mushrooms which look great splitting quite often
Brown semi-fuzzy mushrooms which look great and split rapidly as well.
Green semi-fuzzy mushroom - Newer Frag, Was insanely big for a week or two ,even compared to fish store i got it from and then started to fold over the rock mounted on plug and has seem semi smaller ever since.
Green star polyps frag - 2 week old frag which showed great extension at first and now only has three to five polyps fully extended at a time (out of maybe 15 polyps)bottom closer in between middle and sandbed right side of tank.)
Red Montipora cap frag Newer frag which seems to be doing good and has grown fairly quickly in two weeks. Middle left side of tank.
Meteor Shower Cyphastrea frag - Newer frag that as far as I am aware is looking great, red polyps are full and extended out from the green base and shows brown growth encrustation on the plug it came with (grown at least 6 new red polyps) bottom right side of tank.
I personally believe I killed some other random frags of SPS by touching them with bareskin causing the skin to burn and eventually leading to the small frags deaths via the tissue dissolving/releasing. The above mentioned corals in bold were never touched with skin as I have used Vinyl gloves for a while now and was always as careful as possible anyways.
Equipment:
I have used two hang-on filters for about 3 years
Penguin Bio-wheel 350 The Penguin seems to grow more of the algae and has just one newer replacement filter on each side,and both bio-wheels (removed top and front which increased algae growth) - Back right side of tank going towards front glass
Aquaclear 70 <-- pretty sure its the 70, which was modded for extra flow.) I use these mainly as hang on refuges as they are growing chaeto,other various algae and coralline (which has removed my hair algae entirely from inside the display) The aquaclear has about 40 ceramic cylinder bio-modules placed in the bottom and filled loosely with small liverock. Back left side of tank with the stream headed downward towards the front glass.
Aqueon 500 powerhead - Top right back side of tank pointed at water surface and front glass (straight ahead)
PH-103 powerhead - Top left back side of tank pointed at water surface and front glass (straight ahead)
125w heater - keeps the tank at 77-78 even during the colder 47ish nights (also due to the mh being on at night)
250w MH - 22" above the tank as it seemed when it was closer to the tank would only worsen the extension of the polyps and I thought may have been part of the cause of the toadstool,and was during the time of the extreme frogspawn depletion. The corals show no signs of bleaching or lack of light at this point. Even montipora is staying colored.
I am currently in the process of building a 10g sump and refuge with the pvc overflow design.
Livestock:
Sailfin Tang - Temporary home while my brother sets up his new 90gal. Seems to have plenty of room for the time being and is very social, loves food as well... lol
3 Clownfish - Very large female which ended up turning black after the first stripe behind the head after 2 years,another who seems to want to be here male mate which I purchased at the same time is semi-smaller and has shown a little black but nothing compared to the female. One more clown which I bought since after 5+ years of the other two showing no signs of breeding and looked to see if it was due to either not accepting the other as a mate.
1 Green spotted mandarin female - which has exploded in size and can't seem to eat even a minority of the pod population (her shape reminds me of a bloated great white shark
) I also have a small male in a desktop 12biocube sitting right next to me to help it grow off of the insane pod population I have in there before introducing it to my 30 and semi aggressive female that chased a male out of my tank (also part of why I am building canopy). Been alive for about a month, doubled in size from 1 inch to 1.75 or so inches. Huge belly and am getting fairly close to adding him to the tank2 Mithrax crabs - One white and one purple, which look exactly like emerald crabs,same claw size,same shape,maybe even slightly more docile. - Seem healthy when I can see them, always picking at rocks only
1 Cleaner Shrimp - Very healthy and has grown double his original size
100's of brittle/serpent stars which have been slowly growing one has gotten pretty large and shows a dark with white stripe pattern on the legs and little bristles (maybe 2 inch legs) I believe these were the result of a brittle star I had and a green and white serpent star breeding. The serpent star my brother gave me when he shut down his tank and both seemed to be around adult size at the time... I'm not sure though.
20+ Blue-leg Hermit crabs - some have had eggs on their backs which I have noticed when they reach out to flip themselves.
I also have some nassarius snails and cerith snails which are in small numbers now. Never much luck keeping snails alive and not sure why.
If I left anything out feel free to ask me and I will attempt to get you the info. Under will be some pictures that hopefully should work. If you have trouble seeing them I can try to send a direct URL link via imageshack. PS. Please excuse the poor camera I am using a 3g Iphone to take these
Lunar Zoa's
Montipora cap, The large female clown and a coral which I did not list (underneath the clown, the blueish purple polyps) because I do not know what it is. My brother loaned it to my because at the time it looked horrible in his tank and was worth trying to save with mine. Have looked great ever since. They remind me of a blue xenia mixed with clove polyp... not sure)
Elegance, left side dying, right side poofyish, you can barely see stuck sand and what not(assuming it is done for). Meteor shower on right.
Green semi-fuzzy mushroom, Green Star polyps and Meteor shower. Also hard to see is a blue striped mushroom in the bottom right as it somewhat matches the coralline.
Brown Shrooms, large female in black and male underneath to the right. pay no mind the powerhead suckers on the left in the sand >.< .
Random blueish sponge on left and yellow one in middle. GPS coral inbetween them both below.
Palys below penguin filter. more on back or rock.
Duncans, Male clown on left, newer clown on right, sleeps with both the male and female on average.
Full tank shot - Water is much clearer then it appears(I did not wipe it down with a paper towel). You can see the orange ricordea in the middle of the sandbed. Can barely see PH-103 Powerhead in top left next to water heater. Right Aqueon 500 is just belown the penguin filter to the right a tad. Feel free to leave comments on how I should rotate these powerheads to make a nicer flow.
Shot of Aquaclear. Algae in this prevents display tank algae.
Shot of penguin. Noticed better algae growth with front and top panel off and I don't personally mind the dirty look lol.
Tank from far away, Sailfin in the middle bottomish.
Thank you again for taking time to look at my post. Please feel free to leave any opinions as to what the problem may be. Also if I have bad grammar anywhere please excuse that as I was in a rush and have to head to work.
