water and coral

[buckeye88]

I asked this question on the tap water thread but no one answered it. I switched to tap water from distilled water because the tap water made my tank look nicer than the distilled water but I never took copper or lead into concideration. My inverts and fish are doing awesome but my coral looks terrible. Even some brand new zoos that I bought just two days ago already don't open all the way and my peramiters are perfect. Could this be from copper and would a ro/di unit get rid of copper??
I have a 16 gal. bow w/ 80 watt PC lights. I add calcium, kent essential elements, and phytoplankton hoping to help keep them healthy but they just do not look that great. What causes corals to not grow or not open up?

 

[buckeye88]

There is a water softener and a filter (not ro/di just a regular filter) in my home. Wouldn't those take lead, copper and that kinda stuff out? I just can't figure out what I'm doing wrong with my corals and that's the only thing that I can think of.

 

[nycbob]

try not to dose anything. many people w successful reef dont dose anything besides maybe calcium when low. regular water chng should do the trick. wha corals do u have? hv u chng ur lighr bulbs? what r ur parameters?

 

[buckeye88]

I haven't changed my light bulbs but they're only about 4 months old.
Perameters are:
Nitrate - 0ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
pH - 8.2
Ammonia - 0ppm
Phosphate - 0ppm
Calcium - about 360 ppm (last I checked)

 

[buckeye88]

oh, and I have a leather, some green zoos, kenya tree, recordas, and green mushrooms.
I'm afraid of doing water changes because I'm worried that the water is the problem. Do you think that it's ok to do water changes?

 

[nycbob]

absolutely do water change. most of the time, tank problem can be resolved by a simple water change. i'd go w distilled water over tap water. all the corals u listed r very hardy. r they enough flow? r u running any filter? if so, try changing carbon. anyone that runs carbon need to replace them once every 7-10 days imo.

 

[buckeye88]

I have 2 power heads for a 16 gal, a penguin (I don't know the name of it) filter with a bio wheel and a carbon filter, and a skimmer so the water is well filtered and moving.

 

[buckster71]

Originally Posted by nycbob
absolutely do water change. most of the time, tank problem can be resolved by a simple water change. i'd go w distilled water over tap water. all the corals u listed r very hardy. r they enough flow? r u running any filter? if so, try changing carbon. anyone that runs carbon need to replace them once every 7-10 days imo.
Careful with that becuase some distilled water is made from with a distillary using copper pipes.
Regular filters, I am assuming is carbon filters will just remove the chlorine taste from the water. Best thing is to by a couple of gallons of good RO/DI water for your water changes. Tap water will be full of particulates, worse or better depending upon where you live.

 

[buckeye88]

well I plan on bying a filter really soon. I'm not even sure that it is copper or anything that is doing this to my corals. I just want to know if that is what could be causing my corals to fail? If it is, is there anything I can do to remove the copper from my water?

 

[chano]

Ro/di filter will take the copper out as well as most other metals it did in my water. I have well water so i was way too scared to put it into my tanks without an RO (Never really know what is in there.)

 

[buckeye88]

I heard that running carbon for too long can drain the water of trace elements essential to coral growth. has anyone else heard this?

 

[saltymac]

yes, carbon will remove harmful and beneficial stuff in the water. I hear that a couple days a month is all you should use it for.

 

[buckeye88]

Ah Ha!! I just found this out a couple days ago. I've been using carbon 24/7 since the day I started my tank not realizing the damage that I was doing.

 

[michaeltx]

I dont think thats your only problem it may not be helping but I think there is probably something in your tap water that is causeing it. I would look for RO water when you go to purchase water if you have an LFS close you can check with them alot of them sell RO/DI water that is the closest to pure as you can get.
Mike

 

[buckeye88]

Thanks for the advise! I actually plan to purchas my own ro/di unit very soon.

 

[wfd1008]

Originally Posted by Buckeye88
I haven't changed my light bulbs but they're only about 4 months old.
Perameters are:
Nitrate - 0ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
pH - 8.2
Ammonia - 0ppm
Phosphate - 0ppm
Calcium - about 360 ppm (last I checked)
what's your S.G.?

 

[wfd1008]

also, i didn't see, but do you have a protein skimmer of some sort. for a tank that size, i would guess that you could get away with a small one if you have room.

 

[buckeye88]

my salinity is about 1.024 ppm and I do already have a protien skimmer.

 

[petjunkie]

I would think copper in the water would be affecting your shrimp/crabs also and would kill all inverts. Did you just recently switch back to tap? If you just changed the water and now they look bad it could be the tap but if it's been a while since the last change I doubt it. Are you using Prime or something before adding to the tank? How are you mixing your water and testing sg? Hydometer or refractometer?
I don't remember why but distilled isn't good for tank water, try to get ro from a grocery store machine (check the dates to make sure they change their filters regularly) and do a 3-4 gallon water change. Don't dose anything you can't test for, the essential elements is probably overdosing you on trace elements that regular water changes would keep up just fine but your calcium is low, shoot for 400-450. What's your alkalinity at?

 

[buckeye88]

I use a hydrometer to test the salinity and it's about 8.2. I took a sample to a my lfs today. The guy who tested it owns the place and he sells nothing but saltwater stuff and knows everything about everything when it comes to marine aquariums. He said that he can't find anything wrong with my water at all. He said that it could possibly be that the carbon that I had in my filter for the past 10 months sucked all the trace elements out of my water and it starved my coral and that is why they had a slow decline. Monday I'm going to order my deionizer and when it gets here I'm gonna do a water change of about 20% or so and do small changes evey week until the my stuff comes back around. I did notice today that most of my coral with the exception of my zoos (which still won't open) looked nicer today. I did a 20% change yesterday. I'll keep you all informed and I can't tell you all how much I appreciate all of your help