What to do?

[BigBlue187]

11/20/2007 10:05 PM
Well the tank is really starting to go down hill. All of my sps is pretty much gone and I even lost my fire and ice zoa colony. And the tank is slimed up pretty good. My lps and shrooms are doing ok. But nothing seems to be growing. I test my water once a week and it stays about the same. For some reason I can't even get any coralline growing.

I did make one mistake and that was I went on a hunting trip last weekend and left my mom in charge of my tank. Well the jug of water that I use to drip fresh water for my top off ran out and my salinity went way up. So I know that didn't help matters. Stupid mistake on my part.

I know you guys are going to want to know what my water tested at so here it is:

Calcium 420ppm
Phosphates 0ppm
KH 10dKH
Nitrate 5ppm
PH 8.2
salinity 1.026
RO 2 tds

I dose Purple up every day and dow flake once a week. I do a 5 gallon water change once a week.

As far as equipment goes I have a 40 gallon breeder with a 20 gallon sump with a Quite one 800 for a return pump. I run a bak pak for a skimmer. I know its not the best but it will have to work till I get a better one. I have 2 #2 Hydor Koralias for flow in the tank. For lights I have 2 175 watt metal halides. With 20k XM bulbs (I know not a very good choice for growing stuff). With 2 PC actinics. In my sump I have a layer of sand and some LR with cheto. I have a 150 watt metal halide over my sump.

Well I don't know what else I can tell you guys. If I forgot anything let me know and I will post a answer. Well hopefully I can get it figured out cause I'm about at the point of just tearing the thing down and be done with it.


Thanks for lookn'.

[Blown 346]

The lighting you have is good lighting. Did the SPS start to bleach? If so they could be up to high, the halide bulbs themselves might need to be changed. After 8 months to a year the light spectrum goes downhill and the lighting looses its intenisty. This can cause more difficult corasl to wither and go down hill.

[mfp1016]

What was your placement of your corals? Were any close enough to start a chemical war? Any LPS with sweeping nematocysts? IMO your light should be more than good for keeping SPS, as long as they're not on the bottom. What kind of fish do you have? Any clown gobies?

Just presenting a few ideas....

In regards to your Corralline, I don't know. Ask an LFS for some shavings?

[BigBlue187]

Blown 346: No the corals just didn't have any polyp extensions and they would just turn brown. As far as the halides I just got those bulbs like 3 or 4 weeks ago.


mfp1016: Well my sps were higher up in my tank. My lps and softies were in the middle to bottom. None of them were close enough to sting each other.

For fish I have a clown fish, Redhead goby, and a Jawfish.

Thanks for the advice. Any body else have any ideas?

[Craig Lambert]

Purple up could be the source of your problem. (It is not used as a calcium buffer). It contains very fine arogonite that will not disolve when added to your tank. If your pH drops it can go into solution and cause your Alk to skyrocket. It also can interfer with your water testing results. Here is a post I found by Randy Holmes-Farley on the Chemistry forum:

"FWIW, I do not think Purple Up is a useful additive. Not only does the CaCO3 not readily dissolve, but it misleads tests results. Fine aragonite powder in the water will show up as alkalinity despite not being bioavailable. IMO, the folks selling this product either do not understand that, or do not care because it sells well due to its nice marketing name."

Here is a thread you may want to read:


http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...light=purpleup

I see you are also dosing dow flakes weekly. That seems like alot to me. Are you monitoring your magnesium level? You didn't include it in your params.

[BigBlue187]

Craig thanks man for posting that thread. I didn't know that about Purple Up. I was told to use it by a guy at a LFS. I will no longer use it.

As for the dow flake I use that once a week cause it helps keep my Cal in line. I test my water once a week and at the end of the week my cal is down to 400ppm, I add dow and it puts it back at 420ppm.

As far as testing for mag I don't have a test kit of it. I know its bad not to have one but none of the LFS carry them. I checked F&S and they don't have none ether.

Thanks for your help.

[Scuba_Steve]

You may also be shocked some of your corals with the new bulb. Try the screen method to help them acclimate. Put about 7 layersof window screen above your tank, and remove one every 5-7 days.

[BigBlue187]

Maybe I will have to try that.

[tinmanny]

I would have to agree with Craig when you stated that you dose with purpleup all I ever hear is it causes problems in the long run.
also I would suggest not to add anything unless you tested and found it to be lacking.
IMO you should do a big water change and then just let the system run with regular water changes and watch peramiters
hope it comes back for you
Good Luck
Manny

[BigBlue187]

So you don't think I should dose calcium any more ether?

[Craig Lambert]

Originally posted by BigBlue187
So you don't think I should dose calcium any more ether?

I don't think anyone is suggesting not to dose calcium. It's important to dose both calcium and ALK. Dosing purpleup is not dosing calcium. You should be dosing a daily 2 part solution like b-ionic, or dripping Kalk. Those are really the only things you need to dose with the exception of magnesium in the event it falls to a low level.

[BigBlue187]

Ok I will just keep dosing my dow flake that seems to do a good job of keeping my calcium up. The Purple Up is now in the trash.

[Blown 346]

Another option for you instead of screen is to just have the lights on the tank for 2 hours the first day. Then everyday after that first day leave the lights on for 30 minutes longer each day until you reach your lighting schedule. Worked for me like a charm.