Not sure what's going on...
 

Hello Guys/Gals

Been awhile since I've posted this conundrum. This has been plaguing me for some time. I have what I believe are Green Botton Polyps (identify to confirm?). They have not been opening completely for about two years now. The individual stalks used to open up with their tentacles fully extended (First photo) and was beautiful.

As far as placement in the tank, you'll see that they're to the left side of the tank which means not directly under the LEDs (Second photo). Not enough or too much light?

The third photo shows how they've looked for quite a long time.

I'm really at a loss as to what caused this changed. Thought maybe the Pox?. The first photo was in the first tank I had them. That tank was torn down and everything eventually moved to the tank that's in this photo. The move wasn't the problem since they started closing up like this when they were in the old tank.

I want to start building my reef, but I'm afraid to buy more corals until I can get this problem figured out.

Here are my parameters:

Tank over year old
Temp 77-78
SG 1.026
Alk 12
Calc 400
pH 8.1 to 8.3
Phos 0.0 (Hannah instruments)
lighting: Radion XR30w Pro
Dosing: Kalkwasser drip w/ PM reactor

Water changes are conducted every Sunday or Monday. I change 7 gallons from a 70 gallon Cadlight. I have a sump with cheato, biopellets, and carbon.

Thanks,

navyvchief out

Only thing that stands out to me from your parameters is your alk is pretty high. That could cause some issues. I would try to bring that down slowly to somewhere between 8-9dkh.

Maybe so. There's really not much more that I can think of either. My last Ca test (API) showed my level at the lower (400) reading. Probably because of the the higher dKH. But the thing is, the dKH reads right for RedSea Coral Pro.

So I think that maybe I should try to bring down the salinity...slowly to 1.023 since that's the one parameter I typically don't log. Maybe water/SG change creep? I just may need to use a Ca suppplement and only if I'm taking up a lot of Ca. I wouldn't think so since my coral load is light.:thumbsup:

I wouldn't lower SG and your CA is in acceptable range so no worries there. Might want to consider a different salt mix if RSCP is mixing up at 12dkh, way too high IMO.

I used Reef Crystals in the past, but moved away from it because of experiencing dino bloom. Changing my salt was the last effort I had yet to take. Granted, a stretch to think that maybe I was getting some bad salt. But sure enough, my Dino problem went away.

Now the thing is I was experiencing the closed polyps even before the salt was changed. Maybe my water is too clean? Or maybe not, and I need to check my TDS meters on my RO/DI. I guess that might be next.

I'll take your advice and see if I can drop that dKH.

Good news
 

James,

So get this. I think you may be spot on in regards to the alkalinity. After a few days of stopping my Kalk drip, my Alk has dropped down to 10 so now the coral tentacles are beginning to reach out.

I think that maybe, just maybe my drip rate of my Kalk was too much? I dialed it back (after having it off), but now I have to consider the evaporation rate overtaking me. I really should devise a setup for Kalk drip from my PM reactor AND a fresh water replenishment.:thumbsup:

I'd stop the kalk all together. Your tank doesnt seem so full of coral that water changes can't keep up with replenishing everything.

good point
 

Yeah. I'm in the process of monitoring my Ca use. I'm thinking that you have a good point and that I will discover that in using Red Sea Pro, there's now no need to drip kalk. Prolly why the alk was always on the high end.

Whereas before, I was using Reef Crystals, but changed to RS Pro as a last possible measure of a Dino outbreak; I had tried all other measures. The interesting thing is the Dino outbreak went away after the switch...coincidence?

So now with the RS Pro, that reactor probably needs shelved until I increase my corals. Right now I have six different corals, one of which is a acropora.