Think I Realized What the Deal is.

[peef]

Originally Posted by Tizzo
http:///forum/post/2679371
That absolutely is to much.
If I were you, I'd cut it down to 6 or 7 hours a day for a while.
Monti caps need very little light. Of course they can be acclimated for more, but at lower light level, they have a very pretty polyp extension.
Our lights are to immulate high noon. 10 hours is a bit much.
9am to 3 pm is the natural sunlight at it's highest intensity on the reefs. o they don't need much more than that.

My own lights, come on at 10:30 and off at 6.
I don't quite agree on this. My lights are on for WAY longer.....Actinic on at 9:30am and off at 8:30 pm.....150w halide on at 9:30am and off at 8:30pm. I notice NO bleaching NO color loss and TONS AND TONS of growth. it went from this........

to this in 4.5 months

And none of my other SPS or LPS are doing anything but growing like crazy.
Originally Posted by Nano Reefer
http:///forum/post/2680296
50 percent change every week? get that down to 10 percent a week.
I would say do 5g a week. Thats right at 25%. Its also the easiest to do as cutting a 5g bottle down is hard and a 1g is a waste of time.
Originally Posted by paintballer768
http:///forum/post/2685756
Okay heres the deal everyone. I ordered the protein skimmer and a Red Sea brand Phosphate test kit (per my friends recommendation). Being a sunday, theyll hopefully ship out tomorrow and Ill have them soon.
Also, due to my bioload on the tank, Im going to be finding a new home for my Coral Beauty Angel, leaving only my 2 1/2inch Maroon Clownfish.
I hope this to be a semi-long term solution to my dissolved organics issues.
Your bioload is not too high at all! You can handle probably at least one more fish if not two. I have three 2" fish and a 100+ polyp sun coral in my 24g with NO problems of nitrates, trites, ammonia, or phos......you just have to be wary of overfeeding and do that 5g a week WC.

 

[paintballer768]

I dont really know, its just a bit crazy. The corals havent been improving, of the two montipora digitata frags I recieved, one bleached due to accidentally shading it. The other bleached a bit, but I clipped the bleached areas and moved it down. The capricornis is getting worse, I might as well just toss it now.
I dont know what to do, I think I just wont try anymore after this. I guess Ill try some LPS. Does anyone think there could be ANYTHING else that could be preventing my success with these? The skimmers running 24/7. The only possible weak link is that I use treated seawater from my LFS. The treat it with UV, run it through a ton of filters, and etc to make sure its safe, yet could there possibly be just something funky with where theyre collecting the water? I simply dont have the time to mix my own water

 

[peef]

I would never use water from someone else. A LFS near here was selling water to people straight from their "for sale" tanks....!!!! It honestly doesn't take that long to mix your own...about 5 minutes to add salt to the water and about 10 to switch from old tank water to new. I would start making your own. All of my SPS is doing great no matter where I have them in the tank. They are all growing fast enough for me to notice on almost a daily basis. You should get a new bulb. They need to be replaced every 5 months. It might not look dim to you now but when you put in a new one I bet you will soil yourself from the difference.

 

[paintballer768]

Originally Posted by peef
http:///forum/post/2698921
I would never use water from someone else. A LFS near here was selling water to people straight from their "for sale" tanks....!!!! It honestly doesn't take that long to mix your own...about 5 minutes to add salt to the water and about 10 to switch from old tank water to new. I would start making your own. All of my SPS is doing great no matter where I have them in the tank. They are all growing fast enough for me to notice on almost a daily basis. You should get a new bulb. They need to be replaced every 5 months. It might not look dim to you now but when you put in a new one I bet you will soil yourself from the difference.
I may, Ill see what I can afford for now. Didnt know they need to be replaced that often. I just bought a macbook so money is tighter than normal haha

 

[aquaguy24]

if u have sps corals or a reef tank for that matter..i would deffinetly mix my own salt water...with a good salt, sometime u won't even need to dose..just as long u keep up with ur water changes to replenish the used up Ca and trace elements..i used to buy ready made saltwater from my lfs for my old nano tank and as soon as i started making my own saltwater my corals have better growth and color even the coralline algea developed faster.....i use oceanic salt btw..

 

[paintballer768]

Originally Posted by aquaguy24
http:///forum/post/2719135
if u have sps corals or a reef tank for that matter..i would deffinetly mix my own salt water...with a good salt, sometime u won't even need to dose..just as long u keep up with ur water changes to replenish the used up Ca and trace elements..i used to buy ready made saltwater from my lfs for my old nano tank and as soon as i started making my own saltwater my corals have better growth and color even the coralline algea developed faster.....i use oceanic salt btw..
I tried mixing my own salt before, and it took way too long to get a consistant reading and all that. Besides, now that I adjusted my powerhead they SPS seem to be doing great.

 

[stdreb27]

Originally Posted by peef
http:///forum/post/2698921
I would never use water from someone else. A LFS near here was selling water to people straight from their "for sale" tanks....!!!!
That is friggen awesome, how stupid do you think their clientel really is.

 

[stdreb27]

they do like lots of flow!