Ironfish
Community Member
I've been dealing with several issues in my tank and I'm running out of ideas on how to solve them. Hoping to get some feedback/ideas here.
I'll try to give as much info on my tank as possible. I hope you have the time to read through!
The length of my post will probably show how frustrated I am and how willing I am to really find some helpful answers.
My biggest issues are:
- Chronic low PH since starting this tank.
- Super slow coral growth and/or dying corals.
- An ongoing problem of cyano or dino (I still can't figure out what it is).
I built kind of my dream tank except that I don't have much room so I can't have a dedicated fish/filter room. Everything is under the cabinet plus a small electronics cabinet next to the aquarium.
System is 250gal (RS Reefer 1000), set up July 2023 but with rock and 80gal coming from my previous tank (4+ yrs running).
ReefMat 1200.
Skimmer: Bubble King DX200.
Ozone: Ozotech 200 to skimmer going for 3hrs at night plus 2hr in the day and connected to Apex to shut it down if ORP goes above 400.
Kalk: Geos Kalkwasser Reactor dosing almost 24/7.
Algae Scrubber: IceCap with reverse photoperiod (very low algae growth).
Phosphate reactor with Rowa Phos to keep it below 0.1.
UV: AquaUV 57w (24/7)
Lights: 3x Kessil AP9X
Return Pumps: 2x Vectra M2s (@57watts)
In-Tank Pumps: 2x Vortech MP60s (random)
Apex
Trident
Dosing with Versas:
- Kalkwasser.
- All for Reef. Very low amount since day 1 bc tank just doesn't consume much.
- Red Sea Amino AB 40ml/day dripping.
Everything controlled with Apex/Mobius/ReefBeat/Kessil (I wish we could have everything integrated in 1 single App).
Water parameters: (here I have huge discrepancies between what the Trident measures and what I manually measure with Hanna Meters)
Temp: 24.8C to 25.5C
Salinity: around 37 (per Apex), 1.026 (Milwaukee refractometer)
PH: 7.8 - 8
ORP: 350 - 380
Alk: 8.5 - 8.8 (Trident) and 9.5-10 (Hanna)
Ca: 480 - 490 (Trident) and 420-440 (Hanna)
Mg: 1300 ish (Trident) and planning on getting a Mg test.
Phosphate: 0.06 to 0.09 (sometimes it will go above 0.1 and i'll change the media)
Nitrate: 20 to 26
Water changes vary between 1 and 4 weeks depending on travel schedule.
Salt: Red Sea Black Bucket in RODI water.
When I do every week to 10 days I'll go with 25 or 30 gallon. If it's every 3 or 4 weeks then I'll change 80gal or more.
I have to clean the glass 2 times a week with magnet and/or scraper.
I live in costal CA so I leave windows open for most of the day/night year round with good fresh air coming in.
It should supposedly help with lowering CO2 levels and export ozone leftovers.
Tank is a mixed reef with a good amount of Fish (I like Fish probably more than corals)
6 Tangs
2 Big Angels
2 Pygmy Angels
5 Bartlett Anthias
6 Mixed Wrasses
2 Skunk Clowns
A mix of 5 small guys (gobies, etc)
A nice clean up crew: trochus, astreas, turbos, bumblebees, nassarius, some hermits, some 6 lysmatas, 2 sand stars, 2 conchs, 2 brittle stars, 1 urchin.
A group of BT Anemones confined to 1 rock where the clowns live (I have to remove new small anemones that appear around the tank every couple weeks).
Corals:
Several big Euphyllias (torch, hammer, frogspawns) from previous tank plus some new smaller ones.
Several big-ish SPS colonies (acros, millis, montis, birdnests, pavona) from previous tank plus many smaller colonies and frags.
Several mushrooms and zoas.
I believe in a VERY varied diet (similar to a human diet) so I mix all kinds, types and brands of food available.
Pellets, frozen, liquid, powder from Ocean Nutrition, Hikari, SFBB, Pisces, Reef Nutrition, PolypLab, Benepets, New Life Spectrum, EasyReefs, OmegaOne, Captive Aquaculture, Julian Sprung, etc.
If you read through all this then I hope you have some ideas on how to help me
- I believe the one thing I have not tried to increase PH is a CO2 scrubber but since I live in rural coastal CA with good air and windows open I don't really see the point.
- Some SPS corals have been doing OK. Nothing has amazing colors but some have ok polyp extension but not much growth. Some encrusted the rock around but have never really taken off.
During one month-long trip my skimmer stopped working and parameters went higher than ideal and I completely lost some SPS, some others got damaged mainly losing tissue on the tips and some other were not really affected other than getting darker.
After my return almost 2 month ago I made a couple big water changes and brought parameters back to normal but I still haven't seen any improvement in corals.
- I posted a couple weeks ago a picture of what I'm sure is either Cyano or Dino and most people voted Cyano. I've read is hard to tell without the use of a microscope.
Its mostly on the sand. Reddish in color.
I do frequent sand stirs and I also do some siphoning during water changes but this reddish stuff comes right back the next day.
About 10 days ago I started doing some Coral Snow with Calcium Carbonate and Microbacter7 to see if it helps with Cyano/Dyno eradication, water clarity and just overall reef health. I've been following Sonny (ReefSite) recipe and doing it every other day.
So far I haven't seen any improvements.
What else is out there to try? Product, process, changes in parameters or equipment?
Thank you!
PS: I could add pics or some more info if needed.
I'll try to give as much info on my tank as possible. I hope you have the time to read through!
The length of my post will probably show how frustrated I am and how willing I am to really find some helpful answers.
My biggest issues are:
- Chronic low PH since starting this tank.
- Super slow coral growth and/or dying corals.
- An ongoing problem of cyano or dino (I still can't figure out what it is).
I built kind of my dream tank except that I don't have much room so I can't have a dedicated fish/filter room. Everything is under the cabinet plus a small electronics cabinet next to the aquarium.
System is 250gal (RS Reefer 1000), set up July 2023 but with rock and 80gal coming from my previous tank (4+ yrs running).
ReefMat 1200.
Skimmer: Bubble King DX200.
Ozone: Ozotech 200 to skimmer going for 3hrs at night plus 2hr in the day and connected to Apex to shut it down if ORP goes above 400.
Kalk: Geos Kalkwasser Reactor dosing almost 24/7.
Algae Scrubber: IceCap with reverse photoperiod (very low algae growth).
Phosphate reactor with Rowa Phos to keep it below 0.1.
UV: AquaUV 57w (24/7)
Lights: 3x Kessil AP9X
Return Pumps: 2x Vectra M2s (@57watts)
In-Tank Pumps: 2x Vortech MP60s (random)
Apex
Trident
Dosing with Versas:
- Kalkwasser.
- All for Reef. Very low amount since day 1 bc tank just doesn't consume much.
- Red Sea Amino AB 40ml/day dripping.
Everything controlled with Apex/Mobius/ReefBeat/Kessil (I wish we could have everything integrated in 1 single App).
Water parameters: (here I have huge discrepancies between what the Trident measures and what I manually measure with Hanna Meters)
Temp: 24.8C to 25.5C
Salinity: around 37 (per Apex), 1.026 (Milwaukee refractometer)
PH: 7.8 - 8
ORP: 350 - 380
Alk: 8.5 - 8.8 (Trident) and 9.5-10 (Hanna)
Ca: 480 - 490 (Trident) and 420-440 (Hanna)
Mg: 1300 ish (Trident) and planning on getting a Mg test.
Phosphate: 0.06 to 0.09 (sometimes it will go above 0.1 and i'll change the media)
Nitrate: 20 to 26
Water changes vary between 1 and 4 weeks depending on travel schedule.
Salt: Red Sea Black Bucket in RODI water.
When I do every week to 10 days I'll go with 25 or 30 gallon. If it's every 3 or 4 weeks then I'll change 80gal or more.
I have to clean the glass 2 times a week with magnet and/or scraper.
I live in costal CA so I leave windows open for most of the day/night year round with good fresh air coming in.
It should supposedly help with lowering CO2 levels and export ozone leftovers.
Tank is a mixed reef with a good amount of Fish (I like Fish probably more than corals)
6 Tangs
2 Big Angels
2 Pygmy Angels
5 Bartlett Anthias
6 Mixed Wrasses
2 Skunk Clowns
A mix of 5 small guys (gobies, etc)
A nice clean up crew: trochus, astreas, turbos, bumblebees, nassarius, some hermits, some 6 lysmatas, 2 sand stars, 2 conchs, 2 brittle stars, 1 urchin.
A group of BT Anemones confined to 1 rock where the clowns live (I have to remove new small anemones that appear around the tank every couple weeks).
Corals:
Several big Euphyllias (torch, hammer, frogspawns) from previous tank plus some new smaller ones.
Several big-ish SPS colonies (acros, millis, montis, birdnests, pavona) from previous tank plus many smaller colonies and frags.
Several mushrooms and zoas.
I believe in a VERY varied diet (similar to a human diet) so I mix all kinds, types and brands of food available.
Pellets, frozen, liquid, powder from Ocean Nutrition, Hikari, SFBB, Pisces, Reef Nutrition, PolypLab, Benepets, New Life Spectrum, EasyReefs, OmegaOne, Captive Aquaculture, Julian Sprung, etc.
If you read through all this then I hope you have some ideas on how to help me
- I believe the one thing I have not tried to increase PH is a CO2 scrubber but since I live in rural coastal CA with good air and windows open I don't really see the point.
- Some SPS corals have been doing OK. Nothing has amazing colors but some have ok polyp extension but not much growth. Some encrusted the rock around but have never really taken off.
During one month-long trip my skimmer stopped working and parameters went higher than ideal and I completely lost some SPS, some others got damaged mainly losing tissue on the tips and some other were not really affected other than getting darker.
After my return almost 2 month ago I made a couple big water changes and brought parameters back to normal but I still haven't seen any improvement in corals.
- I posted a couple weeks ago a picture of what I'm sure is either Cyano or Dino and most people voted Cyano. I've read is hard to tell without the use of a microscope.
Its mostly on the sand. Reddish in color.
I do frequent sand stirs and I also do some siphoning during water changes but this reddish stuff comes right back the next day.
About 10 days ago I started doing some Coral Snow with Calcium Carbonate and Microbacter7 to see if it helps with Cyano/Dyno eradication, water clarity and just overall reef health. I've been following Sonny (ReefSite) recipe and doing it every other day.
So far I haven't seen any improvements.
What else is out there to try? Product, process, changes in parameters or equipment?
Thank you!
PS: I could add pics or some more info if needed.
