Hello All,
I am new to the forum and I have a 150 gallon standard size (72x18x27) mixed reef tank. The tank is moderately stocked with zoanthids, leather corals, green star polyps, torch corals, bubble corals, frogspawn, Acropora, Montipora, Poccilipora, and Millepora. I am running two Hydra 52 lights and 2 original Hydra lights overtop the tank. The percentages are
• 50% CW
• 60% V
• 10% R
• 10% G
• 100% DB
• 100% RB
• 50% UV
The lights are mounted approximately 12 inches above the surface of the water. I run the lights for a full 8 hours capped on either end with a 1.5 hour ramp timer. For filtration I have a 55 gallon tank as a sump with a 16 gallon refugium filled with miracle mud, live rock and caulerpa. I run an Eshopps 150 skimmer and a phosban reactor with biopellets. I also run 2 bags of chemipure elite. The tank is supplemented with a dosing pump putting 95 mL of Natureef hardness plus and 95mL of Natureef Alkalinity plus per day. My parameters are as follows
• Calcium – 480ppm (Red Sea test kit)
• Alkalinity – 10.6dkh (Red Sea test kit)
• Magnesium – 1380ppm (Red Sea test kit)
• Nitrite – 0ppm (Red Sea test kit)
• Nitrate – 0ppm (Red Sea test kit)
• Ammonia – 0ppm (Red Sea test kit)
• Phosphate – 0ppm (Salifert test kit)
• pH – 8.0 (Red Sea test kit)
• Salinity – 35ppt
My bioload includes a medium sized regal yellow belly blue tang, a medium sized kole tang, a medium sized melanarus wrasse, 2 medium yellow bar chromis, a blue reef chromis, 3 percula clownfish, and a swissguard basslet. I feed once a day with either Mysis shrimp, Cyclops or pellets as well as strip algae for the tangs. The tank originally started as a 55 gallon 2 and a half years ago and it finally worked its way to the 150 in September of 2014. I have slowly been trying to make the tank more sps dominated but I have having certain issues. The corals are showing signs of growth, but coloration is an issue. Many of my acros are showing minimal coloration. What I mean, is that most of the acros have color on the tips but the branches either fade to a dull color or are brown. In some cases, as well, the acros tend to shade themselves out and lose color completely and have sometimes led to dead tissue. I have also experienced cases of RTN in some of my acros. Polyp extension on all of my acros is good both day and night. I am looking to find a few solutions that may help me to become more successful with sps corals and allow my colonies to thrive and be entirely colorful. Any suggestions on how I might be able to achieve this would be greatly appreciated.
I am new to the forum and I have a 150 gallon standard size (72x18x27) mixed reef tank. The tank is moderately stocked with zoanthids, leather corals, green star polyps, torch corals, bubble corals, frogspawn, Acropora, Montipora, Poccilipora, and Millepora. I am running two Hydra 52 lights and 2 original Hydra lights overtop the tank. The percentages are
• 50% CW
• 60% V
• 10% R
• 10% G
• 100% DB
• 100% RB
• 50% UV
The lights are mounted approximately 12 inches above the surface of the water. I run the lights for a full 8 hours capped on either end with a 1.5 hour ramp timer. For filtration I have a 55 gallon tank as a sump with a 16 gallon refugium filled with miracle mud, live rock and caulerpa. I run an Eshopps 150 skimmer and a phosban reactor with biopellets. I also run 2 bags of chemipure elite. The tank is supplemented with a dosing pump putting 95 mL of Natureef hardness plus and 95mL of Natureef Alkalinity plus per day. My parameters are as follows
• Calcium – 480ppm (Red Sea test kit)
• Alkalinity – 10.6dkh (Red Sea test kit)
• Magnesium – 1380ppm (Red Sea test kit)
• Nitrite – 0ppm (Red Sea test kit)
• Nitrate – 0ppm (Red Sea test kit)
• Ammonia – 0ppm (Red Sea test kit)
• Phosphate – 0ppm (Salifert test kit)
• pH – 8.0 (Red Sea test kit)
• Salinity – 35ppt
My bioload includes a medium sized regal yellow belly blue tang, a medium sized kole tang, a medium sized melanarus wrasse, 2 medium yellow bar chromis, a blue reef chromis, 3 percula clownfish, and a swissguard basslet. I feed once a day with either Mysis shrimp, Cyclops or pellets as well as strip algae for the tangs. The tank originally started as a 55 gallon 2 and a half years ago and it finally worked its way to the 150 in September of 2014. I have slowly been trying to make the tank more sps dominated but I have having certain issues. The corals are showing signs of growth, but coloration is an issue. Many of my acros are showing minimal coloration. What I mean, is that most of the acros have color on the tips but the branches either fade to a dull color or are brown. In some cases, as well, the acros tend to shade themselves out and lose color completely and have sometimes led to dead tissue. I have also experienced cases of RTN in some of my acros. Polyp extension on all of my acros is good both day and night. I am looking to find a few solutions that may help me to become more successful with sps corals and allow my colonies to thrive and be entirely colorful. Any suggestions on how I might be able to achieve this would be greatly appreciated.
I will also try to up my feeding to try to get some more nutrients into the tank. I never would have imagined that I would get to the point that I would starve my corals.
