[fishgeeksrus]

Well we had no luck with treating the hair algae. So, we had to tear the entire tank down a scrub everything. We had to throw out several corals because of this. This is a picture of our tank after we got everything back in. I threw in some calurpa for our tang.

If we are going to keep this a reef tank, we are going to have to upgrade our lighting. Right now we are running 150w mh's with pc actinics. All of the corals that we have purchased have turned brown. Just not enough light. Kind of stinks. We might turn this one into a fish only and just have the 180 reef.

Current inhabitants...

Maroon Clown (gold)
Purple Tang
Six line wrasse
Lawnmower blenny
Snowflake moray eel
6 emerald crabs
2 sally light foots
30 blue legged hermits
10-15 cerius (sp) snails

Lost my sunburst anthias

so far so good...

[Reefland]

What size tank is this?

I would caution against the Caulerpa sp. in the display as it will start to attch to the rock work and get out of control as well.

For the SPS coloration, it is not only light, but all water parameters too. What are you calcium and alkalinity at?

Scott Z.

[fishgeeksrus]

55g,

Well, to be honest about the calcium. I am not really sure. I have a crappy calcium test kit. I can't seem to get an acurate reading. As far as alkalinity, I don't even have anything to test that. Wow, I am really feeling like an amateur (sp).

[Reefland]

You should keep an eye on your calcium and alkalinity at all times; this is the main driver for SPS growth and coloration next to lighting. Low calcium or alkalinity can also affect the coloration.

Scott Z.

[patsfan1130]

Originally Posted by Reefland

You should keep an eye on your calcium and alkalinity at all times; this is the main driver for SPS growth and coloration next to lighting. Low calcium or alkalinity can also affect the coloration.

Scott Z.

Salifert makes a very good line of test kits. There are better..but are really expensive. For the money...Salifert is one of the best you can buy. I wouldn't waste my money on 80% of the test kits on the market

[fishgeeksrus]

ok, I will watch them.

How expensive are we talking with this kit?
Does this company have both kits?

[patsfan1130]

Originally Posted by fishgeeksrus

ok, I will watch them.

How expensive are we talking with this kit?
Does this company have both kits?

I buy all of my test kits here
http://www.captivereefs.com/captivereefs/index.asp

Competetively priced and outstanding customer service

[Tie]

Are your corals wild harvested or cultured?

I was told by the guy at Reefermadness that 10k lighting is not the greatest for wild corals. He said that with 10k you can expect a lot of color loss on all "sun grown" corals especialy hard corals. He recomended I change my bulbs out from 10K to 20K if I where going to buy wild corals as opposed to cultured frags.

I ordered two 20K to replace my 10k as I plan on purchasing some med to larger "sun grown" corals.

The growth is slower on 20K but your wild corals will hold thier coloration much better. That's what I'm told anyway. Someone correct me if this off base cuz I am a newb at this to say the least.

[fishgeeksrus]

I think we have both wild and harvested. But they were under 150w mh and now some of them were transferred over to the new tank which has 250 mh's. I do not want to transfer all of them because of the hair algae. I don't want to transfer it to my new tank. I am hoping that they will get their original colors back under the new light. (hoping) I am going to look into getting some new test kits. Eventually I want to get one of those aqua controllers. When the finances are right <shrug>