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Why is my tank not thriving


uwharrie

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Ok. Tank ( 28gal  biocube) has been running for 2 yrs now. I am still struggling to get corals to thrive. Steves leds running about 10 hr including ramp time) at 22% 

sal 1.025

phosphate .55

dkh 9.6

mag 1200

cal 440

ph 8.2

5 gal water changes every two weeks. RODI water IO reef crystals ( switched from RS)

my duncan is not doing well ( was at one point) torch not as full as it was

cannot keep Gsp going. Palys and mushrooms good. 

IMG_2097.JPG

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Is that cyano or coraline? I see some turf algae.

 

Anywho...

 

Your phosphate is way too high,

 

phosphate 0.55

 

Should be 0.03ish

 

To put it in perspective, your phosphate is 18 times higher than it should or 1800% higher.

 

I find that corals hate high phosphates, moreso than nitrates. I believe I read somewhere it interferes with calcification. 

19 minutes ago, uwharrie said:

Ok. Tank ( 28gal  biocube) has been running for 2 yrs now. I am still struggling to get corals to thrive. Steves leds running about 10 hr including ramp time) at 22% 

sal 1.025

phosphate .55

dkh 9.6

mag 1200

cal 440

ph 8.2

5 gal water changes every two weeks. RODI water IO reef crystals ( switched from RS)

my duncan is not doing well ( was at one point) torch not as full as it was

cannot keep Gsp going. Palys and mushrooms good. 

IMG_2097.JPG

 

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It sounds like your issues are with calcifying corals which would make sense if your phosphates are at 0.55. Phosphates prevents calcification of corals because free calcium ions in the water will bind with phosphate preventing the corals from being able to absorb the calcium ions. Until your phosphates are at acceptable levels any LPS and SPS will not do well in your tank. The increased phosphates also causes zooxanthalae to overpopulaye which is difficult for stony corals to deal with, usually leading to their death.

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Ok thanks And to Answer first question that is Coraline

Filtration

Intank basket with floss ( changed weekly and I know it should be more)

Skimmer and a reactor

 

Just added chempure blue  and changed out the Phosphate minus in the Reactor and hope that will help. Did not even occur to me to test Phosphate!   ( stupid me) Explains why I am getting GHA again. I swear I think a big tank would be easier.

 

 

Thanks again!!

 

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Don't strip phosphates overnight to zero. Try and do relatively slowly. Also posting one set of numbers isn't enough. You need stability. Have those numbers been stable?

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Got home late yesterday and tank looks much better. Have not have a chance to test parameters yet but my guess is phosphate is down. stay tuned!

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Ok finally had time to test.

Phosphate 0,2 ( safrit) 0 API ( HANNA gave me an error reading of INV)

Nitrate- 0

Tank is looking better. Looks like I need to be a bit more diligent about changing out floss and GFO

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