Can't keep acros, what am I doing wrong?

[Richards_reef]

Like I said before I have have 5 tanks and my 2 largest systems have completely different pH. They are only 10 feet apart so for me that rules out co2.the two tanks use different supplements so I'm under the impression that that might be the difference.

 

[pirate2876]

Does your water district use chloramines in the tap?

 

[mstockmaster]

I would suggest getting a co2 monitor to make sure that's what is causing the pH to be that low. No use drilling holes if that's not the problem.

Too late... I figured I could get the hole drilled and get it plumbed before the wife gets home from work. Easier to ask for forgiveness and all of that...

 

[mstockmaster]

Does your water district use chloramines in the tap?

No.

 

[BigJohnny]

Anyone have any advise on how to convince my wife that it's a good idea to drill a hole in my floor to run the skimmer line outside?

Brs co2 scrubber will work better and you don't have to drill a hole. Also if you had to run a long line to get outside it greatly effects skimmer performance

 

[Richards_reef]

Honestly don't try too hard to chase pH. I did when I was a newbie and it just stressed me out and my aquarium. Now I barely pay attention to it. My aquarium that runs 7.4-7.8 pH is doing almost as good as my aquarium that runs 8.1-8.4ph. Both are mixed reefs with softies lps and sps. The corals and fish have acclimated to the pH.

 

[Richards_reef]

Do you have any land pets? How many people live in your home and about how many square feet is it? Last question, is your aquarium in a basement?

 

[mstockmaster]

There's a cat. Just me and wife. 2300 Sq ft. Aquarium is on first floor. Skimmer line is now run outside.

 

[Richards_reef]

OK just wondering. There are other things that emit co2 in your house, but occupants wise I kinda doubt co2 is a huge issue. Since you did it already keep us updated on what happens.

 

[Fishinwall]

I started with about 80lbs dry rock and about 15 lbs of old live rock. I also added a bottle of brightwells at the beginning. I have plenty of pods, lots of life on my rocks, a few micro brittle stars, lots of pineapple sponges and some others.

Your tank sounds just like mine. Three years in and it is just starting to hit its stride. Montis finally happy.

 

[David Cher]

IMO a 9.3 alk with zero nutrients and LED lighting is a recipe for alk/lighting burn.

As a comparison, I keep my alk at 8.1 and when I have had "issues" with my chems and the alk goes over 9ish I start to get tip burn and generally ****** off acros.

@Ibn above is having success with the lower alk also.

I'd try feeding more and knocking the alk down a little and see what you get with some "easy" acros.

Hope that helps,
Ed

What do you mean ??? Do u mean if my alk 6.5 to 7 I can use led ???

 

[Richards_reef]

You can use leds at any dkh that works for your reef. I've used leds with a dkh from 7.0 to 12.0, my system prefers dkh @ around 9-10dkh. Some people get burns on their corals at a higher dkh, but I usually see this problem when these people are carbon dosing in some way.

 

[acro-ed]

What do you mean ??? Do u mean if my alk 6.5 to 7 I can use led ???

What I mean is that there is a very fine balance between nutrients, alk, and lighting intensity. If you have too much light and alk and too low of nutrients you will have burn issues. It’s not necessarily an LED thing, just that this seems to be a common issue in today’s age of low nutrient-LED tanks.

Hope that helps,
Ed

 

[lolmatt]

Did you get the triton test results back? I can report that having lowered my ALK and trimming my chaeto (removed ~80%) has brought significant improvements to PE on my spongodes, presumably other montis/acros to follow. Haven't checked in a couple days, need to see if I hit my target 7.5 yet, then recalculate how much I should be dosing.

 

[TexasReefer82]

To be honest, the acro photo that you posted on Page 9, Nov 3rd looks perfectly healthy. It's displaying excellent polyp extension, clearly has several growing tips/branches, growth tips have decent color, and it appears to be encrusted. I'd say that you have a healthy and growing acropora frag.

Polyp extension only at night is very common and nothing to worry about, especially for the axial polyps.

I'd say that all you have to do now is sit back and enjoy. Frags grow slowly at first. Once they hit some critical mass their growth can really take off. As that frag settles in polyp extension, color, and growth will all improve.

Just keep doing whatever you're doing... CONSISTENTLY. stability is what matters.

There was one point raised earlier about high alkalinity in an ULNS and that's a valid point. Don't know if that's really a concern here but with noting. Looks like your acro frag isn't minding though!

 

[mstockmaster]

Not yet. I lowered my dosing by 1/3 as of about 10 days ago. Alk went down from 9.3 to 8.7 but last time I tested it was back up around 9 again. I took another 4 ml out of daily dosing as of Friday. I'll retest today to see where I'm at.

My big issue is that this is the only acro out of the three currently alive in the system that is showing any sort of pe. First two show nothing (picture 1 is a procorals rainbow, picture 2 is a green slimer). Green slimer is showing some slow die off from the base.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

This is a par map I did a few months back, but it's not accurate currently as I've messed with the light a bunch of times.

This kills acros! Stop messing with stuff!

 

[mstockmaster]

This kills acros! Stop messing with stuff!

I understand. Just have been trying to get it tuned in to where I'm not frying things. Although par measured out okay at that point I had issues with bleaching things. I've only adjusted a couple of times and I think I'm in a much better place now.

 

[mstockmaster]

Water analysis is back... Some interesting results. View attachment Analyse9546.pdf

 

[mstockmaster]

Maybe this will work...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Cabmy9evgqr5GkpNSflPtw1Y8orD78Vf/view?usp=drivesdk