Please HELPPPPPPP Me with my reef tank

[Feems]

I am so confused and need help!!!! what am i doing wrong and how can i fix it!!!????? I have a 50 gallon Tank with 50 pounds of Live rock and 50 pounds of live sand as well as

yellow tang (1)
sailfin tang (1)
hippo tang (1)
maroon clown (1)
manderin (1)
yellow watchmen gobby (1)

I have alot of assorted polyps,
I also have 3 kenya trees,
1 elegant,
1 sun coral,
1 rock full of mushrooms,

My torch coral and green star polyps recently died. The fish store said it was due to lack of water movement.

So, I purchased two pumps, a koralia 2-3. I test my levels on the regular. I have a power compact light, I use a pro clear wet dry, I have a remora skimmer, with a pre skimmer, a turbo twist uv sterilizer. I also have a phosban reactor.

The guy at the fish store told me to remove the bio balls, (hand full/per day) until there are none.

I conduct my water changes with ro water bi-weekly. I was using salifert coral calcium. but told to use tech cb (part a) (part b) instead, and not to continue adding various chemicals.

Here is a list of things I was putting into the water
Monday-phytoplex and coral-vite
Tuesday-zooplex and microvert
Wednsday-calcium and stronium and molybdenum
Thursday-phytoplex
Friday-zooplex and microvert
Saturday-phytoplex
Sunday-zooplex and microvert

The fish store guy told me to only put tech cb (part a) (part b), as well as, pro buffer dkh.

I lost two of my favorite corals. What should I test and how often? What are the most important levels and Where should they be in the reef tank?

Any and all advise is greatly appreciated!!!!!! Thanks

[Aloha Corals]

You need more tangs! (sorry, had too)

But if your being serious... you need to tell us what is actually wrong before anyone can help.

AC-Kevin

[Feems]

Lol I deserved that lol I added more to the thread read it and let me know

[Aloha Corals]

Lol I deserved that lol I added more to the thread read it and let me know

No worries... I figured I would break the ice before the tang police show up.

As far as your tank... I run with an old school mentality. I add absolutely nothing to my tanks at all. Adding the things you are adding scare me, especially since i'm too lazy to test for them.

I personally wouldn't suggest bio balls, though I know people that run them with great results. I personally don't like UV sterilizers since they kill the good along with the bad, but again... I know reefers that swear by them.

Can you post your latest test results?

[Feems]

Your funny, thats cool.
Nitrite= 0ppm
High ph =8.3
Amonia =0ppm
nitrate between 0ppm and 5.0
calium= 640

[Feems]

i did a water change 4 days ago and am about to do another to lower the calcium and nitrate

[Feems]

The guy from the fish store told me to add alot more live rock, he says the live rock is what should be filtering the tank, I have 50 pounds of fiji live rock how much more should i add?

[Feems]

I use the test kit with the viles and dropps, are there better more acurate test kits? That dont cost a fortune that is?

[Nanodude]

Your water looks fine. Have you asked your lfs if your light is strong enough? I thought power compacts weren't strong enough for most corals??

[Feems]

can anyone give me advice on afordable yet good lighting for a reef tank? I have been looking into LED but dammm there expensive!!!! I looked at solaris!! is there a light that does similar for less?

[TimH07]

nova extreme pro, i just bought the 6 bulb one

[Feems]

whats the model number and how many gallons do you have?

[gregr]

I noticed the calcium is out of whack- 640 is much too high. In fact it's so high it makes me think the test kit is off. pH and nitrates are good. What temp and salinity are you running? With the possible exception of the Elegance coral the pc lighting is actually ok for what you have in the tank. If you wanted to get some more light demanding corals then you would want to look at more intense lighting but for the kenya, mushrooms and polyps (assuming zoos) pc lighting is usually ok.
I agree that you should cut way back on the supplements. The two part solution might not even be necessary either because you have such a low bio-load. As long as you keep up with decent sized water changes every other week I think you should be good to go. More water movement was a good call. You might want to get an alkalinity test kit. Be good to know where that is, escpecially if the calcium reading is actually correct (which would really surprise me).

[Feems]

my salinity is 1.026 temp is 78.2/
amonia is at 0
ph is between 8.2 and 8.4
nitrate is between 0 and 5.0 ppm

I think your right maby i am not using the calcium tester the right way so i will tell you what i am doing,
First i put 5 ml of my tank water into the tube then i put 10 drops of calcium bottel 1
second i put drop by drop of calcium bottel 2 and it doesnt turn blue until i reach 32 drops.
Where am i going wrong?

[gregr]

Sorry- I'm only familiar with how the Salifert calcium test kit works but I was thinking more along the lines that the kit was bad not what you did. Got a fish store or reefer friend nearby that can test it for you? All the other numbers look good. Be nice to know what your alkalinity is too though I think the guy who told you lack of water movement was the problem was probably right.

[IxLr8]

If your calcium were up that high, I would think it would be percipitating into your tank. If your water is cloudy white then you indeed may have your calcium levels too high and you would need to address that with water change.

You're dosing other things to improve on your Strontium and moly. As a general rule for me, I never dose anything that I can't measure first. If it's only a 50 gallon tank, they minus the displacement of your rock, then it can easily be overdosed.

Torch corals need only moderate lighting, I don't believe that the lighting is an issue and it certainly would kill off your livestock quickly as you would notice their decline over a period of time.

My guess is that there is an imbalance in your water paramenter with somthing your dosing and it difficult to pin until you can get an accurate assesment of the water parameters.

With regards to Stront and Moly dosing, I personally feel that it's not necessary if your doing regular water changes with reef salt that already contain these elements.

Just my $.02 cents.

[Feems]

I agree, my water is crystal clear,
I am going to purchase another test kit when i get out of work
I hear salifert is good.
I did 2 ( 25% ) water changes last week with reef crystals and i have not added anything to the tank since until i test.

[Feems]

Is Anyone In Jersey or know of anyone in Jersey who can swing by and help?

[IxLr8]

my salinity is 1.026 temp is 78.2/
amonia is at 0
ph is between 8.2 and 8.4
nitrate is between 0 and 5.0 ppm

I think your right maby i am not using the calcium tester the right way so i will tell you what i am doing,
First i put 5 ml of my tank water into the tube then i put 10 drops of calcium bottel 1
second i put drop by drop of calcium bottel 2 and it doesnt turn blue until i reach 32 drops.
Where am i going wrong?

Reading this again, are you using the Elos test kit? If you are, it's a lot more sensitive than the Salifert kits and it's easier to use. If you are indeed getting this high concentration of Ca in your tests, then the next thing to do is determine your KH using an KH test kit. If it's far off from being between 8-12 dKH then there may be where your problem is. It will also skew any testing you may be doing on your tank due to the fact that when they develop these tests, they use a specific dKH range.

Also, I have not personally kept my salinity at 1.026, I usually keep it at the natural seawater level of 1.025. How are you measuring your salinity?

[brandonb]

As far as adding all those random chemicals a good product that I use and have seen great results with is Kent Marine Nano Reef Part A and B. Works very well, is easy and inexpensive.