Best quality for stoney corals.

Knight_Solaire01 · May 11, 2020

Hello everyone. I am fairly new to this hobby and have a 32 gallon biocube that I have been running for almost three months. I have selected the appropriate corals that are suitable for ponies to hitch on in the form of Gorgonians and I also have a protein skimmer running to insure clean water for them. I change 5 gallons out a week and test my water once a week. I add the appropriate calcium and Alk as well as Red Sea Reef energy AB+. However I have noticed my montis are not really opening up at all and they have been in it for a month and a half. What am I doing wrong? I set the lighting low, have one voyager nano 2000 for flow, have the correct temp and I even took readings of my water. What am I doing wrong? Salt is 1.026, Nitrate is <20ppm, PH is 8.3, Phosphate is 0, Calcium is 400ppm, and Alk is finally lowering to an okay but not great 10. Also the Zoas you see are fine. They are just cranky that a snail slinked over them earlier.

Hemmdog · May 11, 2020

Do you have wavemakers in there?

Knight_Solaire01 · May 11, 2020

Hemmdog said:
Do you have wavemakers in there?

No sadly I only have the voyager pro and my pump to make any movement.

Uncle99 · May 11, 2020

You indicate 0 phosphate.
Recommend increasing that to 0.03-.15 or they will starve.

Knight_Solaire01 · May 11, 2020

Uncle99 said:
You indicate 0 phosphate.
Recommend increasing that to 0.03-.15 or they will starve.

Oh gosh Okay I will go get the needed stuff from my LFS tomorrow when I am off!

Knight_Solaire01 · May 11, 2020

Knight_Solaire01 said:
Oh gosh Okay I will go get the needed stuff from my LFS tomorrow when I am off!

Are the rest of those water numbers okay?

Hemmdog · May 11, 2020

Knight_Solaire01 said:
Are the rest of those water numbers okay?

What test kits are you using?

CCauthers · May 11, 2020

It could be the low lighting. Do you know what par they are getting?

Knight_Solaire01 · May 11, 2020

CCauthers said:
It could be the low lighting. Do you know what par they are getting?

Honestly I am not sure. I have set the light low because I have read that new colors need to be slowly adjusted to bright lights. In the shop they are almost always under low blue LED. For this reason I set the Biocube's lights to be one hour of daylight for 12-1. The rest of the day hours are set to the lower sunrise and sunset setting, and the time from 7:30pm to 6:15am is the blue moonlight setting.

CCauthers · May 11, 2020

I'm going to say they need a lot more light than that. What lights do you have on the tank?

Knight_Solaire01 · May 11, 2020

CCauthers said:
I'm going to say they need a lot more light than that. What lights do you have on the tank?

The biocube 32 gallon just comes with a panel of Red, Blue, White LEDs.

CCauthers · May 11, 2020

Knight_Solaire01 said:
The biocube 32 gallon just comes with a panel of Red, Blue, White LEDs.

Yeesh I'm not familiar with those, but I'm guessing they are not the best. I would do some research and look for some par charts for them

Knight_Solaire01 · May 11, 2020

In other news I finally figured out why my GSP was not opening. "How is this hardy, aggressive, and downright invasive coral not flourishing?" Turns out they need higher flow so I moved it around after getting the pump and all of it's surviving polyps are out and happy.

Zoajohn · May 11, 2020

Monti's don't look terrible, just a little washed out. In my experience, PAR of 150 or higher is suitable for most. I think the Biocube LED's could accomplish this higher up in your scape if you have the ability to increase intensity. Get some readable phosphate with good flow, and they'll bounce back.