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Coral Vue Hydros

Slowed down growth


Groot

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Hello everybody I have 42 gal cad light aquarium it's 30" wide and 18" deep. Trying to make it a SPS dominat tank. Lately things seem to slow down with growth and I'm trying to figure things out. One possible thing is my ph is averaging 7.8 these days due to the house being closed up for winter. My ph is alway been in the low end It seem I can only go back on my records in October but it was averaging 7.9 that's when things start getting cold in New England. My nitrate and phosphate are zero that might be another problem why I'm getting slow growth. I use a Hanna low range for phosphate test and Red Sea for nitrate. I do feel I been over feeding to get them up a little but still getting zero readings. I dose NO3 PO4 X from Red Sea but cut back to .5 ml since I'm getting zero readings I'm wondering if I sound not dose at all. I do get some hair algae so I must have a little phosphate it's not problem at the moment it's manageable. I did change out my lights also I had a Current Pro led light and I also ran two 24" t5 bulbs along with it and seem like I was getting good growth but I did upgrad the light to a nanobox retro with four bulbs and two leds array. Maybe I'm getting too much lighting now. Had the lights running since October. My corals seem happy for the most part with good polyp extension. Im running the t5 8 hours and the led 13 hours ramp up and down that's why 13 hours. The lights are about 5 " off the water line. Mid day my lights are the highest point with roayal blue at 90% and violet also, white lime 70% and cyan 80%. I was thinking of adding a co2 scrubber to the tank but didn't want to ad the expense if the ph was not the problem. Let me know guys what you think do I need to alter my lights stop dosing pox or try to raise my ph?

My cal is 430 and kh is 9.2 my mag is 1400

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Please let us know how well it works. Are you putting it in a reactor and hooking it to your skimmer's airfeed? Did you get it from BRS?

 

I Just ordered a soda lime so I'll give that a try.

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Groot,

 

your SPS look healthy so be careful with whatever you do, this is about the time most of us make a terrible mistake and lose everything. Do not spike KH, do not drop PO4 too low or too fast, and whatever changes you make do them slowly.

 

SPS will grow fast after getting settled in. That could take months and months of making sure KH is very steady plus regular small feeding to help speed things up.

 

I would stop measuring PH if I were you. If it's a real problem then start dripping Kalk. Be very careful with any product that will alter KH. If you try and raise PH and end up spiking KH it's all over.

 

EDIT: Soda lime, right, to absorb CO2. I used it for a while and it works but gets exhausted quickly. I no longer even run my skimmer intake outside due to Kalk raising my average PH to 8.1 or so.

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Groot,

 

your SPS look healthy so be careful with whatever you do, this is about the time most of us make a terrible mistake and lose everything. Do not spike KH, do not drop PO4 too low or too fast, and whatever changes you make do them slowly.

 

SPS will grow fast after getting settled in. That could take months and months of making sure KH is very steady plus regular small feeding to help speed things up.

 

I would stop measuring PH if I were you. If it's a real problem then start dripping Kalk. Be very careful with any product that will alter KH. If you try and raise PH and end up spiking KH it's all over.

 

EDIT: Soda lime, right, to absorb CO2. I used it for a while and it works but gets exhausted quickly. I no longer even run my skimmer intake outside due to Kalk raising my average PH to 8.1 or so.

Yeah I'm just scared to run kalk even though I test KH often my KH is real steady I do weekly water changes of 5 to 7 gallons. I just thought I use the scrubber to get through the winter months until I can open some windows. It seem more of a natural solution.

Please let us know how well it works. Are you putting it in a reactor and hooking it to your skimmer's airfeed? Did you get it from BRS?

brs was all out so I orders some from eBay. But I did get the canerster from them.
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You can dose other products like esv bionic liquid 2 part doser if you are hesitant of using kalk.

 

If your nutrients aren't high then I wouldn't dose any longer. Monitor and dose as needed. You don't want to deplete the nutrients in the system.

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You can dose other products like esv bionic liquid 2 part doser if you are hesitant of using kalk.

 

If your nutrients aren't high then I wouldn't dose any longer. Monitor and dose as needed. You don't want to deplete the nutrients in the system.

I have to agree with Clown and Mark. Be careful and patient. Ignore your sps, that usually gets them to grow for me. Whenever I watch too closely, its like waiting for water to boil. If they are RTN or STNing, I personally wouldn't hit the panic button yet and toss the tank off balance. Also keep in mind that the different algae/bacteria that thrive on phos/silicate will deplete the tank and make it difficult to note what the true numbers are.

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I do dose two part with B-Ionic my calcium and ALK has always been study 430 Cal and 9 for Alk I do have a low nutrition tank nitrate always at 0. I just installed the scrubber my ph has drop as low to 7.6 the last couple of days. If you guys are telling me to ditch the scrubber I will. It just concerns me that my ph drops that low. I did order some stump remover to get my nitrates up I'm starting to lean more that is the cause of things slowing down.

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Installed at 7.87 my ph went up to 7.93 over the night which is great because at night it was dropping to 7.64 I'm sure I'll see it in the 8 today.

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Stopped dosing NoPox and Phosphate goes up to 0.05 then I dose 1ml and goes back to 0. I'm going to have to to figure out how to keep my Phosphate down while increasing my nitrate.

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That P04 reading is not bad at all. You can have water that is too clean. Maybe dose some aminos, I use acro power and my sps seem to like it.

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That P04 reading is not bad at all. You can have water that is too clean. Maybe dose some aminos, I use acro power and my sps seem to like it.

 

im using acropower aswell

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Since putting my scrubber my ph has gone up and I feel my SPS are much happier I have also stopped dosing Red Sea NoPox my phosphate has gone up but not my nitrates. I did notice that my KH has been dropping so I'm going have to increase my two part I increase it by 10 ml and I just tested again and I'm going have to increase to 15 from original me consistently dosing 7.5 ml every night at rock steady KH reading at 9. So that is a good sign right? I bielive I'm seeing new growth.

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