Reef tank problems

fire fish

New Member
We have a 150 gal reef tank that has been set up for about one year now. Having some problems wish the corals. Not sure of the type of corals, they are a white to tan in color looks kinda like a flower bulb and has ripples along the edges. They grow up and out, at one time they were large in size but have now shrank down to about half the size they were.
We have 2 metal halid lights, reef grow 10k 175 watt and two 65 watt actinic 20k blue 450nm compacts. Lights are on a timer for 7 hours a day. Water checks are as follows, Ammonia is 0ppm, ph is 8.2, Nitrates are at 0ppm, and Nitrites are 0ppm, Salt level is at 1.023 temp is at 77.5. We feed the fish once a day, and add Iodine at a rate of three teaspoons a week, also get some Kalkwasser mix per directions. Not sure what else we need to check. The system is on a wet dry with Bio balls and a skimmer, red sea's berlin xl model. The tank has about 12 fish in it, and full of live rock, sand bottom, some brown anemones, 3 sea cucumbers, some snales, hermit crabs. some small star fish.
What do we need to do from here?
Also have two cinnamon clowns that have laid eggs in the tank twice but we have no idea what to do to get the eggs to hatch and the fish to make it.
Thanks in advance for your help.. :help: :help:
 

fishieness

Active Member
well first of all, id suggest your learn what you have, that way, if you ever have a problem like you do now, people will know what the heck you are tlaking about.
you said everythign is white and shrivled. did you jsut get the lights? it is possible that the corals are dieing form too much light if you did not acclimate them from their previous setings.
and also, dont does iodine, you will get enough of it form your salt IMO. and PLEASE dont does kalk or anythign else IF YOU DONT TEST FOR IT!!!!! tell us your levels.
to learn how to raise clowns, buy the book "clownfishes"
 

fire fish

New Member
The system has been up for about a year and it was all set up at the same time. The corals, I have looked in books and on some of the on line supply sites and have not found them. I'm not sure what to test for above what I'm testing now.
Thanks for the info on the clown fish book.
 

fishieness

Active Member
if you have a tank, esspecialy if you have a reef, ESSPECIALY if you are dosing anything, you should test for everything. some stuff that you didnt include was PO4 (phosphate), alkalinity, and Ca (calcium)
kalkwrasser is dosing Ca. if you dont test for it, then you would throw off your Ca, which throws off your ALK, which makes your pH not stable.
but i still say dont dose iodine. buuuut that is my opinion. if you can find a tester, buy it. iodine is only needed in small amounts anyways. overdosing leads to premature invert death.
and IMO, raise your specifig gravity to 1.025
 
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