corals don't seem happy..help!

[apieceoftheocean]

i have three beginner corals: mushroom, green star polyp and zoos. they have been in my tank for about 6 weeks now. they are not as full, lively, or colorful and i can't figure out why. sometimes they don't come out at all!

here are my levels: (3/2/08)
salinity 1.022
nitrite 0
nitrate 10ppm
ammonia .2 (i corrected this)
pH 8.0-8.1

i don't have a tester for calcium, however I do add the All-in-one reef complete supplement which contains calcium and all necessary reef supplements to the tank 1-2 times per week. I usually complete a 20% water change weekly.

my lighting is PC with a total of 260w: 2 10Kdaytime, 2 blue acintic, 4 lunar
my tank is 75 gallons, and the corals are placed about half way to the top of the water.

All of the fish in my tank (hawkfish, yellow tang, blue tang, 2 clowns) are doing and looking fine, but I can't figure out what is up with these corals.

I must be missing something! help! (i hope i provided enough detail )

[scubadude]

help! (i hope i provided enough detail )

No you didnt :P

You left out a couple of important levels like

Temperature, PH, Ca&Alk

Why are you dosing for calcium and you dont even have a test kit for it?!?! Im betting that could be part of your problem. What kind of water flow do you have? what is your photoperiod for your lights? Are you using verified RO or RO/DI water for your waterchanges? Skimmer? Its nice that you gave us some info on your tank but giving us a few basics will not allow us to pinpoint your problems.

[scubadude]

Also if you have pics that can help us out alot too.

[apieceoftheocean]

Thanks for getting back to me...

My apologies for leaving out important details. The temperature is at 80degrees, pH is 8.0-8.1. Like I mentioned, I never got a Ca/Alk test kit because I was told I did not need one. I guess that's the first place to start. I thought that too much supplement was not nearly as bad as none at all. I will admit my mistake here.

My photoperiod is setup so that the blue's only are on for two hours, then the blues and daytimes are on at the same time for 8 hours, then followed by the blues only for another 2 hours. (=12 hours) and then 12 hours of lunar lighting.

I was (for a while, but not anymore) using just tap water that was treated with chlorine, cholarmine, ammonia, and nitrate/nitrite remover. That is until I invested in a RO/DI water filtration system that attaches to a faucet. I've been using this ever since I got it, specifically for water changes.

For flow, I have a Korellia 3 (I believe it's around 300gph or so..) and another smaller model that pushes around 50gph. All of my corals are in the direct path of flow by the Korellia3. I have the tank setup so that the Korellia is on the left side of the tank, the return from the filter is in the center, and the smaller powerhead and skimmer on the right side of the tank.

I do have a skimmer, it is the Coralife venturi model and has been skimming lots of nasty stuff since day 1.

I hope this time you have all the details you need to help me out! I will do my best to get some pictures up here for you.

[scubadude]

Well I would first stop dosing your trace elements such as calcium alk, mag until you get test kits for those.

All of my corals are in the direct path of flow by the Korellia3.

How close are they to the powerhead? you dont want them getting blasted.
so the koralia and other small PH are the only flow methods you have? No sump right?

How often do you clean your skimmer? when do you do the switchover from Tap water to RO water?

I pulled up this picture from another thread you posted

In this picture there is a couple of things that worry me, the first and foremost is the amount of Liverock/baserock. the rock that you do have looks more like baserock (most of it anyway) I dont know though you may have done changes since this picture?

[apieceoftheocean]

scubadude...

yeah that picture was the first day I setup my new 75 gallon and made the conversion from the 20g. Things are much different now than it that picture

First, you can see that there is no Korellia3 in that pic. The Korellia is placed on the left side of the tank, near the heater (about half way down the glass). No there is not a sump. The closest coral is about 3-4 inches from the Korellia, with the farthest being about 9-10 inches from the Korellia.

I usually don't let my skimmer get too bad..in fact I never even let it fill up. I would say around every month or so I clean it. I can fairly say that I am pretty good about maintenance

As far as the rock, that was one of the first suggestions I got when I posted that picture. Now, there is about double the amount of rock in the tank. If you can imagine the exact same amount of rock piled in another layer on top of the rock in this pic, that's about where i'm at with LR.

I have done so more research on the calc alk, mag levels and such, and I find that there are always 15 answers. I will take your advice and stop dosing until I receive my test kits, but I think my problem is going to be here. I would bet that my levels of calc are entirely too low, especially considering I went from a FOWLR to reef without ever testing the calc.

I appreciate any other advice/suggestions that you have, and thanks again! I'm also going to try my best to get a new pic on here tonight (i'm at work now) so that you can see the right stuff. This pic does my tank no justice. Again, that was day 1.

[scubadude]

You very well may have went from a FOWLR to Reef but you only have 3 corals the GSP, zoos, and mushrooms right? If thats correct then none of them are calcium driven growers like SPS, or Clams. Im not saying that you arent using calcium in your tank im just guessing that its not that much you are using. Cmon now and show me that tank now....we have a before pic, we are ready for the after pic now

[apieceoftheocean]

okay..here you go! the wait is over.

the pictures were taken from my iphone and they suck! (sorry steve jobs! )

as you can see, many things are different from the pic you attached in your previous post. removed old lighting. new PC lighting is happily mounted above tank. background in. korellia to push water went in. more rock went in. more livestock went in.

i will tell you one thing: my feather duster never complains!!!

the first picture is of the whole tank now, but the pic is real fuzzy.

the second picture is much better, and you can see all three corals in the picture. (the Korellia PH would be on the very left if it were visible in this picture)

okay dr. rocky..now you have your pictures, and I want my diagnosis!

[scubadude]

What lights where the corals in b4 you bought them and put them into your tank? Where the corals introduced to the old lighting of your tank? did you do a light acclimation? Maybe your corals are used to less lighting or a shorter photoperiod than you are giving them. Even if you have the exact same lighting as where the corals where bought from chances are the LFS you bought from have old lights vs. your new lights which are much stronger.

[scubadude]

I would say around every month or so I clean it.

I personally would change that atleast to once a week....your skimmer will perform much better the more you clean it.

[apieceoftheocean]

you know, if i remember correctly i think it was either MH or T5's that were used before. they were never introduced to the old "florescent" lighting. i got the lighting b4 introducing corals. you are right, the lighting was probably older at the LFS, but the lighting definitely had a ballast. i did not do a light acclimation, and i didn't realize it was necessary.

i'll start cleaning once a week on the skimmer, too

[Ratpack]

Two things I would look at as well are your salinty, looks a little low. Should be around 1.025. May not make a difference, but it at least takes another factor out. Also, what kind of starfish is that? I had a star that was supposed to be reef safe, but he went around munching on my mushrooms and zoas, and kept them closed up a lot. HE may very well be part of the issue.

[apieceoftheocean]

it is a chocolate chip star fish..which i beleive is reef safe. I had the salinity higher, around 1.025 and lowered it to 1.023 thinking this might help. i just don't know. i'm going to test for calc and alk and start there.