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View Full Version : Water chemistry/tank not thriving Suggestions Please!


FoxyFace
10/15/2009, 11:21 AM
My tank looks next to awful. My parameters are as follows:
pH 8.0
NO3 25
PO4 <0.3
Ca 370
Mg 1280
dKH 10.2
alk 3.9
I have a bunch of fish that do quite well. Every single time I add a coral to the tank it loses it color, and stops expanding. I even added a frogspawn that seems to hate it in there. I'm wondering if I should test for something else? The tank has been set-up for about five years. It was neglected for the past two. With tons of water changes and siphoning of algae, it's coming back to life.
Suggestions please!

bertoni
10/15/2009, 11:37 AM
Any sign of phosphate can be bad for stony corals. Have you tried any soft corals?

Is the alkalinity 3.9 meq/L? 3.9 dKH would be very low, so I'll assume it meq/L. Nitrate is high enough that I might suspect that the water is fairly loaded with nutrients. That can be an issue as well. I'd check into lowering that with better skimming or perhaps growing and harvesting a macroalga. How much food is going into the system per day?

FoxyFace
10/15/2009, 11:57 AM
I've got a variety of coral. I bought a single duncan frag that is growing five tiny heads already. It's been in there about a month. I have a toadstool that has not expanded it's polyps since I got it about one week ago. I have a variety of mushrooms that look good. I also have a green slimer that looks like it may be growing but the color is brown. I can see the polyps but there tight to the coral. The tips expand at night. I've had the slimer since July. My green birds nest is loosing tissue on its tips. I thought these were the easiest coral to grow? I've got a stag that looks brownish too.

I do feed a ton of food because I have a ton of fish. I've been watching that more closely.

I do water changes often. At least once per week 20%. I added GFO and some AC to the sump along with poly filter media.

Billybeau1
10/15/2009, 12:20 PM
I'm wondering where you keep your specific gravity and how do you test it ?

bertoni
10/15/2009, 01:08 PM
I suspect that the nutrient load in the water is too high for many corals to be happy. An oversized skimmer might help some, or perhaps a large refugium would be useful.