Zooanthids struggling

[soldier.1102]

What do you all think thriving or not? I dont think so but all advice encouraged/ welcomed!

[Peter Eichler]

Just from looking at your rocks I can tell that your parameters are out of wack. Lots of nuisance algae and very little coralline algae. What's your alkalinty, calcium, and magnesium? Also, you clearly got excess nutrients, what protein skimmer and other means of nutrient export are you using?

[soldier.1102]

calcium and magnesium i am using a supplement for skimming i have a coral life skimmer...rated for 65 gallons my tank is a 55 gal... i have a 55 gallon tank my other means of nutrient export are a canister filter with a small amount of carbon, polishing pad and few pieces of live rock in it my alkalinity is sitting at 1.020

[Peter Eichler]

calcium and magnesium i am using a supplement for skimming i have a coral life skimmer...rated for 65 gallons my tank is a 55 gal... i have a 55 gallon tank my other means of nutrient export are a canister filter with a small amount of carbon, polishing pad and few pieces of live rock in it my alkalinity is sitting at 1.020

You should not be supplementing anything you're not testing for, get yourself some test kits. API are inexpensive and about as good or better than most kits on the market for alkalinity and calcium. You'll want your alkalinity between 7-10ish dKH. Keep it on the higher side of that until you get a system and rhythm down for supplementing and the demands of your tank.

Also, it's very important you learn the difference between alkalinity and salinty as they're very different and both very important. If you don't already have one, get yourself a refractometer and some calibration solution as well and slowly raise your salinty up to around 1.026. 1.020 is WAY too low if that is in fact accurate.

Lastly, your protein skimmer leaves something to be desired as does the use of a canister filter. Once you get your parameters in check you may want to consider ditching the canister unless you're changing the filter pads every few days. Do you have additional supplementary flow in your tank?

[reefwars]

as mentioned i would get your system stabilized before making anymore coral purchases, youll have less headches dealing with it now than later.

[soldier.1102]

ok ill do some checking and see if i cant find a calcium and a magnesium test kit...thanx for the advice i will keep posting as i find out more facts and figures for sure!!

[Peter Eichler]

Alkalinity is the most crucial! Also, while you're at it you may want to get one of the Hanna checkers for testing phosphate, though I can tell you now that your phosphates are going to be too high.

What about extra flow, you didn't answer that question.

[soldier.1102]

I will look into extra testing and make sure my phosphates are low!!! My alkalinity is low from what i have been researching.... However i think with correcting my checmicals plus i have ordered some lights which should be here mid week hopefully my tank will look better!!!!!

[rogersb]

what light are you currently using?

[soldier.1102]

currently i have a marineland 10,000k led but good news today i ordered a metal halide light plus some phoenix 150w 14,000k bulbs so hopefully between chemicals and lights i will be on the road!!!

[Lee_is_007]

Alkalinity is paramount when keeping corals. Try to keep it steady at 10 dkh. When my dkh goes below 9 I can tell because my corals will look different i.e. Daisy polyps etc... I use the Kent super buffer. Works great along with the API KH test kit.

[soldier.1102]

Sweet ill look into that for sure

[Peter Eichler]

Superbuffer DKH is little more than baking soda. Just get yourself some baking soda and do a google search for Randy and 2 part dosing and read that article.

[ilovetang]

baking soda?? the one you can buy from Safeway??or special baking soda just for reef??

[Dapg8gt]

Alkalinity is paramount when keeping corals. Try to keep it steady at 10 dkh. When my dkh goes below 9 I can tell because my corals will look different i.e. Daisy polyps etc... I use the Kent super buffer. Works great along with the API KH test kit.

There is no need to keep alk at 10 for zoa's.. IMO 8 or higher will be fine.SPS may be a different story but my mixed reef runs at about 8.5 and does just fine.. NSW is not at 10 either. I think ULNS runs at like 7-8 alk.. And IMO super buffer is not the best choice. Standard baking soda will do the trick. Search Randy's recipe to get some ideas of what it does and how to make it up.. and look up the "reef calculator"to find the amount needed to get to your target alk level. DO NOT add it all at once. Most likely will cause alk burn and your tank will not respond well to a massive increase in alk. Good luck and def invest in some test kits. At least cal, alk, mag..I haven't had great luck with API but a lot of people do. I use red sea and salifert. Maybe it was just my API kits but they were always different from other friends tests and LFS. I have a lot more faith in the ones I am currently running. That said could have just been my kits due to the positive results most get with API.

[soldier.1102]

ok sweet since love the advice since...since the original posting i have been hardcore working on the tank as far as testing salinity ph and zooanthids are starting to move around...

[Peter Eichler]

baking soda?? the one you can buy from Safeway??or special baking soda just for reef??

Regular old baking soda and maybe some other random carbonates and bicarbonates. I can assure you they're nothing special and that no one out there is making special baking soda just for the reef aquarium hobby...

[soldier.1102]

I have been researching the baking soda and i am under the impression you just bake it in the oven and its good to go....

[rogersb]

you don't even have to bake it, but I think that takes out any water it may have and makes it a little more potent per gram because you don't have any extra water weight.

[A. Grandis]

calcium and magnesium i am using a supplement for skimming i have a coral life skimmer...rated for 65 gallons my tank is a 55 gal... i have a 55 gallon tank my other means of nutrient export are a canister filter with a small amount of carbon, polishing pad and few pieces of live rock in it my alkalinity is sitting at 1.020

Please plan to change your skimmer. You can get much better than that! The fact that it is rated for a 65gal. doesn't mean anything most times. The quality and design is what makes a good skimmer! The investment is aways worthy!

You don't need canister for carbon. Place the carbon in the sump inside a mesh bag. Make sure your carbon is a good one. Many could leach phosphates to the water!

If you don't have sump please plan for one. Polishing pad doesn't export much nutrients. The biological filtration is done by the bacteria on/in the rocks. If you have many fishes per square inches you need more filtration (surface area) and you'll need to do partial water changes to be able to maintain the system running without nutrient problems. Do not overfeed.

Alkalinity is not the same as specific gravity ("salinity").

Specific gravity at 1.023 or 1.024 would be fine.
Alkalinity between 8 - 10 dKH is fine. The balance between alk and Ca is important.

Alkalinity is important, but please make sure you know that many times the combination of factors could be responsible for most problems with zoas, besides predation.
Your system looks very young and needs to mature in order to be able to keep the ionic and nutrient balances the inverts need.

When you add the new light it will go trough a series of changes and you need to go very slow so you don't shock the organisms! Also the water chemistry needs to be changed slowly.

Make sure you're not introducing phosphates into the system and that nitrates is always in check. Keep a good partial water change schedule. Search for useful additives and use them as directed or less than that, as needed!

Many things...

Try to reduce the number of fishes.

Study more about the water chemistry and maintenance in general.

Maintenance and stability are a must for closed systems!

Your system needs a little more time.
Good luck!

Grandis.