spamreefnew
09/08/2015, 10:24 AM
I just wanted to start a new aquarium log and perhaps by logging my actions and with the help from others I can get my corals to start growing again.
I have been in the hobby for a long time well over ten years. My current set up is a 90 gallon RR with a 40 gallon sump. I run a 6"x8" ATS and a second generation coralife super skimmer 165 slightly modded. My current water parameters are as follows.
Ph. 8.3
Alk. 7.0 dkh
Cal. ? Sorry test kit ran out,but it never changes much from 400
SG. 1.0265 refract and hydro
N. 0 api
P. .25 ppm. API
Mag. 1300-1600. Red Sea. Hard to tell,but always high.
Corals are as follows with current conditions added.
Hammer coral, ten years old (my first coral) looks healthy but grows painfully slow.
Hairy green mushrooms, look great and slowly dividing/ spreading
Giant green&pink toad stool leather about 9 years old. Looks great but seems to be shrinking slowly
Neon green tree leather , bought at 12" and now down to 2" stays closed alot.
100000 paylays , spreading slowly but don't ever seem to fully open any more
Kenya tree, looks semi retracted,used to cover the tank in a month,but now just slowly shrinks away
Duncan coral , looks great but has not grown in the month i have owned him
GSP , had thousands all over but think the last one melted away two days ago.
Fish are as follows.
Coral beauty
Kole tang
Anthis
Clowns
Cardinals
Blue damsels
History.
Well about 5 years ago all of my livestock was in a 40 gallon cube lit by two 150 watt hqi and with the same filtration I have now, my corals grew like weeds,to the point where every few weeks I would bring bags of hammer corals and Kenya trees to the LFS for trade. Then I made the switch to a DIY Rapidled lighting system,growth slowed a bit,but things wear still thriving. The system stayed like that up until about one year ago when I moved to a new home,and I bought a new 90RR tank. I moved all the livestock,filtration,and lighting over to the 90. Realizing that my old lighting was not going to cut it on the 90 I ordered a new light fixture that contains two 250 watt HQI and four 4 foot t5 actinic .
And here I sit today and my tank just is not looking that great and nothing is growing,in fact most of it is withering away. I have a lot of algae on the glass,and only the glass. I have fine sand that is always brown.
I tested my water today and the results are above.
Now there are two schools of thought I have been struggling with when it comes to growing soft and LPS corals, one way of thinking says that LPS and soft corals like "dirty" water with lots of food partials and some N&P. The out her way of thinking says that ALL corals will thrive in pristine water with ultra low N&P (at least as low as our kits will detect).
Now I have no idea what school of thought is the right one and I don't believe anybody does , so my idea is to try both methods and log my results. Hopefully one of the methods will produce results.
I am first going to start with the ULNS approach.
So today I turned up my skimmer to the wet setting,added 5ml of vinegar,and added my last two cups of GFO. I will let the GFO run for a month and will continue with the carbon dosing for about 3 to 6 months. I will also change 5 gallons of water once per week.
If my corals start to take off,then I will just keep going with this method,but if they do not start growing then it will be on to the dirty water approach where I will pull the skimmer and stop carbon dosing for six months.
I just want to state that I have no real interest in keeping SPS corals other than plating montiporas ( I would love to get one some day) I want my tank full of soft corals swaying in the flow with a few LPS thrown in the mix.
I have been in the hobby for a long time well over ten years. My current set up is a 90 gallon RR with a 40 gallon sump. I run a 6"x8" ATS and a second generation coralife super skimmer 165 slightly modded. My current water parameters are as follows.
Ph. 8.3
Alk. 7.0 dkh
Cal. ? Sorry test kit ran out,but it never changes much from 400
SG. 1.0265 refract and hydro
N. 0 api
P. .25 ppm. API
Mag. 1300-1600. Red Sea. Hard to tell,but always high.
Corals are as follows with current conditions added.
Hammer coral, ten years old (my first coral) looks healthy but grows painfully slow.
Hairy green mushrooms, look great and slowly dividing/ spreading
Giant green&pink toad stool leather about 9 years old. Looks great but seems to be shrinking slowly
Neon green tree leather , bought at 12" and now down to 2" stays closed alot.
100000 paylays , spreading slowly but don't ever seem to fully open any more
Kenya tree, looks semi retracted,used to cover the tank in a month,but now just slowly shrinks away
Duncan coral , looks great but has not grown in the month i have owned him
GSP , had thousands all over but think the last one melted away two days ago.
Fish are as follows.
Coral beauty
Kole tang
Anthis
Clowns
Cardinals
Blue damsels
History.
Well about 5 years ago all of my livestock was in a 40 gallon cube lit by two 150 watt hqi and with the same filtration I have now, my corals grew like weeds,to the point where every few weeks I would bring bags of hammer corals and Kenya trees to the LFS for trade. Then I made the switch to a DIY Rapidled lighting system,growth slowed a bit,but things wear still thriving. The system stayed like that up until about one year ago when I moved to a new home,and I bought a new 90RR tank. I moved all the livestock,filtration,and lighting over to the 90. Realizing that my old lighting was not going to cut it on the 90 I ordered a new light fixture that contains two 250 watt HQI and four 4 foot t5 actinic .
And here I sit today and my tank just is not looking that great and nothing is growing,in fact most of it is withering away. I have a lot of algae on the glass,and only the glass. I have fine sand that is always brown.
I tested my water today and the results are above.
Now there are two schools of thought I have been struggling with when it comes to growing soft and LPS corals, one way of thinking says that LPS and soft corals like "dirty" water with lots of food partials and some N&P. The out her way of thinking says that ALL corals will thrive in pristine water with ultra low N&P (at least as low as our kits will detect).
Now I have no idea what school of thought is the right one and I don't believe anybody does , so my idea is to try both methods and log my results. Hopefully one of the methods will produce results.
I am first going to start with the ULNS approach.
So today I turned up my skimmer to the wet setting,added 5ml of vinegar,and added my last two cups of GFO. I will let the GFO run for a month and will continue with the carbon dosing for about 3 to 6 months. I will also change 5 gallons of water once per week.
If my corals start to take off,then I will just keep going with this method,but if they do not start growing then it will be on to the dirty water approach where I will pull the skimmer and stop carbon dosing for six months.
I just want to state that I have no real interest in keeping SPS corals other than plating montiporas ( I would love to get one some day) I want my tank full of soft corals swaying in the flow with a few LPS thrown in the mix.