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Innovative Marine Aquariums

Tank slowly going downhill?


duncan-junkie

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duncan-junkie

Well, after close to 4-5years, my BC 29 is slowly crashing and I cant figure out why. Let me tell you how this began. about 2 months ago, my DIY LED's took a swim in the tank so I needed a new light fixture.....so I found a 150w HQI on the forum for $75. I though this was great, since I had seen so many tanks lit with MH and the growth and colors of the sps were insane. So I set the light up and crossed my fingers. Well, little did I know but this was the begining of something awful.....I notaced a few corals became bleached....so I backed off on the photo period......still, corals slowly turn white and lose color.....so I decide to get a PAR meter from my LFS and see what kind of light this thing is putting out. Long story short, the PAR at the bulb is around 250PAR and about 2" under the water, I'm getting about 37PAR and on the sand bed, which is 19" under the water, I get 3PAR.......seriously WTF!!!!!! So now I've lost close to half my sps, and others are showing signs of bleaching! I'm at a loss, so I begin to test my water and see if something is maybe out of wack.........nothing was. MAYBE im having an alk swing at night........so i test.......my alk is solid at 8.7dKH........and I made sure to check multiple times during the course of 3 days. At this point, Ive decided to fix my LED's and get them up, because the HQI just isnt packing the punch I thought it would. After I fixed my LED fixture I took the par meter and started getting some numbers, and the fixture was 1445PAR 2" from the diode, 759 PAR 2" under the water 485 PAR 8" under the water and on the sand bed I was getting anywhere from 75-150 PAR. So now Its been about 1 week since I Hung my LED's back up and my sps are still slowly bleaching. I did dim the LED's down a lot, so not to fry my corals, but something is still not right? SO I NEED SUGGESTIONS!!! F This tank has been bullet proof for the past 3 years and now something is way out of wack, but I'm unsure what? All of my normal water perams are within there normal ranges.....so maybe its something I dont test for? I use RSCP salt mix for water changes every week. I have 3 chromis, 2 clowns, and a clown goby that I hate, but cant catch so hes gotta stay. My PO4 was .08 with the HANNA, and nitrates hover around 0-5ppm on my API test kit. Salinity is @1.025, ammonia 0 and nitrite was .0008 with HANNA ULR. ANY help would be appreciated.

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