My 20-Gallon (Tall) Softie/lps Nano-Reef!

[Fishgirl2393]

Since running the airline outside to the skimmer, my pH has been more stable and higher. I just did a 4 gallon water change. My corals don't seem to be growing very fast (not as fast as I've seen in other tanks). Should I just give it more time or feed more or what?

[jedimasterben]

Don't change anything. Corals grow once they adjust to current conditions and you leave them be.

[Fishgirl2393]

Tank looks pretty good (a little cyano but not much and it's on the rocks in areas of less flow). I'm thinking (we've discussed this before) that I need more flow though... should I get another Koralia 425 or Koralia 240 (or a MaxiJet 400 or something else)? Thanks!

[Roshan8768]

Koralia 425 for sure

[Fishgirl2393]

Temp also soared to 83 today... Wasn't running fan though so we'll see how it does tomorrow w/fan on. Also going to set a small cup (filled with water and frozen) of ice in a bag (so it doesn't leak) in one of the filters to try to combat the heat. It's probably time to change my PhosGuard now too so I may do that tomorrow but we'll see.

[jedimasterben]

Bags with ice will do almost nothing with ~20g water volume. You may get a degree difference for an hour or so. Chiller or fan on a temperature controller.

[Fishgirl2393]

So the ice did nothing (figured it wouldn't) but the fan seems to be working well (besides the evaporation it causes!). I got the LFS to order me a Koralia 425 (they usually have them but were out) so that should be in next week sometime hopefully. Should I expect to see better growth/extension from my corals with the addition of another powerhead? My planned placement is one on each side (close to the back of the side wall pointing somewhat front). Would this be good?

[Fishgirl2393]

Pardon the terrible quality photo (my camera batteries died so I had to use my tablet since the lights were about to go off in the reef). What's the reddish/orange-ish stuff between heads on the stalks??? It's NOT coralline algae (just in case someone thought it was). I really need to know if it's going to hurt the candy cane more (since it is recovering from bryopsis on the stalk and being nearly starved)!!! Please let me know. It doesn't look it, but it is pretty bright colored too (the red/orange stuff).

 

[Tamberav]

Pic is too fuzzy... so random guess.. sponge?

[Fishgirl2393]

Weird, this is now not showing up on the stalk at all (it was there 30 minutes ago!)!!! Is it some type of algae or something??? This is really strange.

[Fishgirl2393]

I think it's cyano (slightly different color than normal but it looks like it other than that). Is there any way to remove it besides scrubbing it off or blowing it off with powerhead (the candy cane is in pretty strong flow as it is)? I may use ChemiClean but I really hate to do it because of my pH problems I've been having (due to low oxygen/increased CO2) and the risks of hypoxia problems. Suggestions? There is cyano elsewhere in the tank as well (not much, but some) and I just did a water change the other day (4 gallons) and changed the PhosGuard. So, any ideas? The last time cyano got on a coral, it killed it by irritating it so I don't want that to happen again!

[Fishgirl2393]

Yesterday the new powerhead came in so I now have two Koralia 425 powerheads on opposite sides of the tank.

[Fishgirl2393]

Tank is doing OK. I still don't really know what's going on with the duncan corals. The other corals look pretty darn good (the candycane is still recovering extremely slowly but it seems to be recovering). I got two new corals (a chalice and a monti-cap). They're being light acclimated right now. I moved the duncan corals to a DIY frag rack but I don't know if they will recover. We'll see. What could have caused the yellow looking stuff on their stalks (read about it and see pic in my thread about them if you need to) and made them recede so fast? I really want them to live because they are cool.

[Fishgirl2393]

As I stated above, my tank is doing "OK". However, I really am wanting to find out why my LPS corals in particular are not thriving (the GSP is also still not growing much and the xenia isn't either). I have duncan corals and a candy cane coral. The candycane coral seemed starved but even after quite a bit of feeding (it's been a while now since I started that), it's still not looking much better. The duncan corals were gotten at the end of May and were seemingly doing well and then all the sudden got this yellow dots (soft, but not a sponge) and then two of the four heads died within 2 days (and the remaining two don't look great and are really shrunken up and closed into the skeleton). The candy cane seems to have a perpetual problem with cyano growing on it (even though it's in not slow flow). The xenia and GSP just fail to thrive but haven't died or anything. What's going on? I do weeky water changes and if I happen to miss a week, I do a larger one (usually I do 10%-15% but if I miss, I do 20%-25%). I feed the fish (royal gramma) Prime Reef (frozen food by Ocean Nutrition) and put enough in (and target some to the corals) for the corals to feed also. The parameters are: Nitrate 6ppm (never gets above 10ppm), pH 7.9-8.1, Alk 7dKH, calcium is 480ppm and temp is 78-80, obviously ammonia/nitrite are 0. I run Phosguard in one HOB filter and in the other I am running carbon (just added it last week). The tank has two Koralia 425 powerheads and an Odyssea T5HO 4x24watt fixture with WavePoint bulbs (two 12,000K bulbs, 1 actinic bulb, 1 purple "reef wave" bulb). Tank has a protein skimmer (Lee's Counter Current skimmer medium size). Any ideas why things are not thriving??? I've struggled with this for a while and would like to get to the bottom of it. Many people in my reef club have amazing tanks and I'd like to have one too. HELP!

[Fishgirl2393]

Anyone (read above post)?

[Tamberav]

Do you dose anything? Like Alk?

[vlangel]

Did you check PO4, maybe the phosguard totally stripped all the phosphorus out? My LPS are huge but I have phosphorus in my tank, probably more than I should. It is usually around 1ppm but I ran a phosphorus sponge and took it down recently to .25ppm. I'm afraid if I took it lower my clam and LPS would suffer.

[Fishgirl2393]

I haven't been dosing alk. Should I be? Checked it today and it is 6dKH. I haven't checked phosphate but assumed I should be using the phosguard because of the cyano. Maybe not though... I'll see if I can test phosphate in a bit (don't have a kit) . If the phosphate is OK (which it may not be), what else could it be? And if the phosphate is too low, what should I do (since I have cyano but corals are clearly not happy)?

[Tamberav]

I asked in case they had alk burn from dosing alk.

 

NSW is around 8 alk. I wouldn't dose alk without knowing Mg too (helps maintain alk and ca) and what your fresh salt water mixes up as. Dosing can really screw things up if you don't know what you're doing.

 

Another thing to consider, is Phosphate inhibits calcification and in my experience, LPS grow faster in tanks with lower phosphate. The goal is to lower phosphate slowly though as a quick change in anything, is generally bad.

 

My advice is to get a hanna phosphorous checker and a Mg kit. Don't bother with the other phosphate kits as all they will tell you is if its 0.25 or 0 (and 0 isn't really 0) and not give an accurate enough reading. In my tank, I would want to know EXACTLY what it is because people generally aim for 0.02 which is difficult to aim for if your reagent kit can't tell you.

 

It's a crap shoot to know whats going on without all the information. They could also still be showing stress from stuff that happened previously and not current conditions now.

 

I am not claiming the problem is alk/mg/PO4. I am just saying, if it was my tank, I would want ALL the information. After that, it is often trial an error.

[jedimasterben]

My advice is to get a hanna phosphorous checker and a Mg kit.

The Hanna phosphorus and phosphate checkers are garbage.

[Fishgirl2393]

Had it checked (with a good kit) and phosphate is extremely low (I'm not going to say 0 because there probably is a tiny amount) and the person who tested agreed that I likely have stripped the water of phosphate.

[Tamberav]

The Hanna phosphorus and phosphate checkers are garbage.

 

What would you recommend for testing it then? I use it to see when I need to replace GFO and it seems pretty consistent.

[Tamberav]

Had it checked (with a good kit) and phosphate is extremely low (I'm not going to say 0 because there probably is a tiny amount) and the person who tested agreed that I likely have stripped the water of phosphate.

 

Then perhaps all you can do is ride it out and feed them.

[Fishgirl2393]

The tank still looks pretty good (unfortunately the duncans died due to brown jelly disease). Here are pics of the new corals I got last weekend. The first is my monti cap. Does it look healthy??? I'm concerned about the white edge on it (is it growth or something wrong). Any idea what it is?

The next is my chalice... if anyone knows what kind it is (morph) that would be awesome.

But anyway, tips on the monti (and if the white edge is something to be concerned about) are greatly appreciated.

[jedimasterben]

What would you recommend for testing it then? I use it to see when I need to replace GFO and it seems pretty consistent.

First and foremost your eyes lol. Basically anything but the Hanna checkers or API kits.