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spamreefnew
08/16/2012, 09:27 PM
a little history: I have a 45 gallon cube tank lit by 12 cool white cree XPG and 12 royal blue XRE led's all running at full power about a foot above the water with 60 degree optics. I have a basement sump where the only filtration is a 8"x5" ATS lit by two 26 watt CFL and two 17watt led(grow) lamps(new addition). I started using the ATS about 3-4 years ago. Well over the past 2 years I have had some kenya tree coral that took over the entire tank and smothered several corals. A few weeks ago I removed ALL of the kenya. Now that I can see inside my tank again I have noticed that 95% of my coraline is gone! One of my monti caps is bleaching,and I have these strange little nems all over? My water params are this:

ph=8.5
alk=11
ca=380
mag=1400
sg=1.025--6


Tank inhabitants: Corals, GSP,cabage leather,green toadstool leather,paylays,green branching hammer,atlantic nem,monti caps,long tent nem, trumpet coral,and one ausi sps.

fish: yellow tang,coral beauty,3 clowns,2 damsels,one cardinal.

cuc: one hermit,100 tiny snails,2 big nasser snails

Please feel free to question me,yell at me,or whatever it takes to get my reef back to where it should be! My corals and algae are just not growing like they should be ,,and the lack of coraline scares me! this tank is almost ten years old and I feel it should look better than it does........

OKDOHK
08/16/2012, 10:22 PM
There are some things that might cause these issues that i can see. Your calcium is low (should be 400-450), alk is high (should be 7-10), Ph is high (should be 8.1-8.3), magnesium is good. The small nems taking over might be majano (pictures would help). Since you have removed alot of kenya tree corals that took over the tank, might they have obstructed any light from getting to the live rock. No light, no coraline algae. It sounds like you have neglected your tank for a while. Not to be rude but you should know all that i am saying with 10 years of experience.

spamreefnew
08/17/2012, 08:53 AM
I know ,I know ,,,had a baby,hours got cut,all equaled neglect. With all that kenya in there the tank looked just fine,,guess I had just got used to it. My system was sooo bulletproof for sooo long that I have forgot some of my troubleshooting skills,,that's why i am here:)

Lwhite
08/17/2012, 09:11 AM
Have you tried doing a really deep clean? I know it sucks, but if you get in and really blast your rock and clean your substrate that might help considerably on the overall health of the tank. You might buy yourself enough time that you can get everything else re-aligned without it slipping any further?

It could be possible that the kenya tree was providing some nutrient removal function that has now been removed? Or released some toxin with the mass removal that is causing problems?

Good Luck and keep us up to date :)

OKDOHK
08/17/2012, 10:08 AM
Congratulations on the young one. I can understand why it would be hard to make time for a tank. I would start with getting your parameters in order. Do you have any algae problems? Have you tested nitrates and phosphates? Also, look up pictures of majano and make sure the anemones aren't them. If they are remove them. As Lwhite mentioned and good cleanup is likely in order.

spamreefnew
08/17/2012, 11:20 AM
I will try to post some pics but def not majano,,,look more like apistasia(spelling) but some are clear and tiny and some are half dollar size and have golden markings.

I did a big cleaning when I removed the kenya,,I blew off rocks,ran a diatom filter for 24 hours, and ran 4 pounds GAC for a week. also did a 20% w/c with nsw.

Don't get me wrong here,,most of the corals are looking healthy,It's just a few that look a little drab,and there is no more coraline,this tells me that something is a tad out of whack. Who makes an affordable phosphate test kit that works?

thegrun
08/17/2012, 11:27 AM
Another thing to check is your lighting PAR value. If your lighting levels are too high it will kill off the coraline. If the coraline is growing in the darker areas and not in the high light areas that is the likely cause.

spamreefnew
08/17/2012, 11:56 AM
here you can see the whole tank and some of the back wall that used to have coraline on it

spamreefnew
08/17/2012, 12:28 PM
o yea here is one of the nems...

OKDOHK
08/17/2012, 01:05 PM
Hard to tell from pictures. But not majano like you said. Could be Aiptasia. I use a Hanna phosphate checker because it's way more sensitive then the API i once used. Hanna is more expensive and you can only test 6 times before you have to buy more phosphate reagent. The benefit is that i know exactly what my levels are, not a rough idea using API.

coralsnaked
08/17/2012, 02:31 PM
Raise the Ca to 450

spamreefnew
08/17/2012, 07:39 PM
just raised calcium to about 500,,,phosphate meter will have to wait a week or so$$ what now?

OKDOHK
08/17/2012, 11:09 PM
Well. First you are not suppose to raise or lower your parameters that quick. You can shock your system with quick changes. Plus now your calcium is too high!

Honestly, i really think you need to start doing research instead of asking "what now." You need to understand the processes in your tank. Start with parameters and work your way from there. That's how i began. Everytime you have a question, research the answers first. Read books or articles. Search on google, whatever it takes. Then if you are still having issues, ask an informed question. The problem with always asking others is the variety of answers you might receive. Then what? Who's advice do you follow? At least if you have educated yourself alittle you can make healthier decisions for your tank and have a better idea of who's advice to take. After all, we are playing god with these inhabitants. I take that rather seriously.

I very much apologize if i am coming on rather strong. However, you have 10 years of experience. These are newbie questions. There is no excuse.