Nothing's wrong but something's not right?...

[Carlo]

hey there everyone, I started a new tank these last couple of months and everything's been good but for some reason I feel something's just no right and it's a bit hard to explain. in short, what I feel is wrong is that the tank seems dead. There's very little growth at all on rock. I'm getting green coralline at a really slow rate so I stopped two part and started adding purple up. What confuses me is that water quality has been perfect for the last two months. So I don't know if it's just a poorly setup led. I'm running a radion gen 2 at like 40% but from my research that should be about right for that tank. I have been wanting to upgrade but the funds aren't there. It is the first time I run those lights on their own though. I used to have some diy uv leds I made but I don't have those anymore. Another thing to take into account is that all my aquascape is that aquamaxx dry rock. My old rock was infested with red mushrooms so I didn't want any on my new rock. I did put a good amount of my old rock in my sump along with some Fiji mud. I know it would take a while for it to start picking up life but it's been 3 months now and the rock still looks completely dead. I should've put some rock in there to seed it but I figured with the rock in the sump and all my snails have purple coralline. I've seen other tanks do similar and their rock looks great within 60 days so I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. Here I'll add alittle more info and below that I'll link the actual tank so you could see the setup. Thanks!

The water quality I'm going off what I remember last week cause my notes aren't with me.

Cal 375
Ph 8.30-8.45
Ka did not test (kit was bad)
Temp 77-78.5
No3 very low
Po4 very low
Mag was low at I think 1180
Salt 1.025

I also do a 5gal water change biweekly

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/carlos-naked-nano.317032/

 

[tdileo]

Purple up is meh IMO. I hear it does work and I hear it doesn't. But at some point you're going to be sick of coralline and wish you never wanted it lol. I was so excited when I first saw some on the rocks and now I have it growing on my glass and you have to take it off with a razor. I finally got an urchin so hoping he will mow it down too. Your tank is very cool looking but having rock hanging like it is without sand or egg crate on the bottom gives me anxiety lol!

 

[tdileo]

And the gen 2 should work fine for most corals you would want. Remember that there was a point when they were the best lights out there. I think you should start getting more corals in there [emoji41]

 

[Carlo]

Purple up is meh IMO. I hear it does work and I hear it doesn't. But at some point you're going to be sick of coralline and wish you never wanted it lol. I was so excited when I first saw some on the rocks and now I have it growing on my glass and you have to take it off with a razor. I finally got an urchin so hoping he will mow it down too. Your tank is very cool looking but having rock hanging like it is without sand or egg crate on the bottom gives me anxiety lol!

lol thank you but the rock is all one piece, I put it all together with epoxy so no need to stress. I worry to add coral because if coralline can't do good neither should coral. Purple up has worked for me in the past but with live rock so I figured I'd try it out with this.

 

[hart24601]

Coralline doesn't seem do grow well under bright lights. I can only grow it under overhangs and it takes a long time for that to happen. None of my tanks the past 5 years have had good coralline with over 300 PAR so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Here is my previous tank with very little coralline:

http://www.reefedition.com/reef-spotlight-bret-hartmans-120g/

 

[devilhunt1231]

I've always tended to find that coralline tend to grow faster at higher kh levels.
Gary

 

[tdileo]

I got SPS when I had barely any coralline and never had a problem. You should judge by coral, not coralline. I don't find they grow well in the bright sections anyway but eventually it makes its way around

 

[Cory]

hey there everyone, I started a new tank these last couple of months and everything's been good but for some reason I feel something's just no right and it's a bit hard to explain. in short, what I feel is wrong is that the tank seems dead. There's very little growth at all on rock. I'm getting green coralline at a really slow rate so I stopped two part and started adding purple up. What confuses me is that water quality has been perfect for the last two months. So I don't know if it's just a poorly setup led. I'm running a radion gen 2 at like 40% but from my research that should be about right for that tank. I have been wanting to upgrade but the funds aren't there. It is the first time I run those lights on their own though. I used to have some diy uv leds I made but I don't have those anymore. Another thing to take into account is that all my aquascape is that aquamaxx dry rock. My old rock was infested with red mushrooms so I didn't want any on my new rock. I did put a good amount of my old rock in my sump along with some Fiji mud. I know it would take a while for it to start picking up life but it's been 3 months now and the rock still looks completely dead. I should've put some rock in there to seed it but I figured with the rock in the sump and all my snails have purple coralline. I've seen other tanks do similar and their rock looks great within 60 days so I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. Here I'll add alittle more info and below that I'll link the actual tank so you could see the setup. Thanks!

The water quality I'm going off what I remember last week cause my notes aren't with me.

Cal 375
Ph 8.30-8.45
Ka did not test (kit was bad)
Temp 77-78.5
No3 very low
Po4 very low
Mag was low at I think 1180
Salt 1.025

I also do a 5gal water change biweekly

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/carlos-naked-nano.317032/

Bump your calcium to 450ppm with calcium chloride.

Get your alk tested and bump it up to 8-9dkh with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)

Bump your magnesium up to 1300ppm with mag chloride/mag sulphate mix (buy at the pet store)

Get your phosphates low, use gfo. I recommend rowaphos. Corraline is inhibited in growth by as much as 80% with as little as .03ppm po4.

Use t5 lights, for some reason they love the soft glow.

If your not using ro/di water with 0ppm then switch and do that.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I started a new tank these last couple of months and everything's been good but for some reason I feel something's just no right and it's a bit hard to explain.

2 months with dry rock is way to early for purple rocks.

Cal 375
Ph 8.30-8.45
Ka did not test (kit was bad)
Temp 77-78.5
No3 very low
Po4 very low
Mag was low at I think 1180
Salt 1.025

Need more accurate info here.

Ca 400 to 450 is an adequate amount.
dKh along with Ca are two important numbers for coralline growth. Invest in test kits.
NO3 between .50-5ppm is desirable.
PO4 0.01-0.08
Mag 1250-1350 is where you want that.

I also do a 5gal water change biweekly

5 gallons is okay. If you invest in at least Salifert test kits, weekly 3 gallon water changes could improve your parameters without dosing. Of course you would have to test the water change water to make sure. Your salt could be off, as well.

I'm running a radion gen 2 at like 40% but from my research that should be about right for that tank.

This LED is perfect for that tank size. I would slow down on coral additions and not worry about light intensity. The tank still needs to mature and coralline algae will be a good indication of that.

Tank looks great by the way!

 

[Carlo]

Coralline doesn't seem do grow well under bright lights. I can only grow it under overhangs and it takes a long time for that to happen. None of my tanks the past 5 years have had good coralline with over 300 PAR so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Here is my previous tank with very little coralline:

http://www.reefedition.com/reef-spotlight-bret-hartmans-120g/

That tank is beautiful man, it's a bit hard to see the rock behind all that coral but I'll take your word for it lol.

 

[Carlo]

2 months with dry rock is way to early for purple rocks.


Need more accurate info here.

Ca 400 to 450 is an adequate amount.
dKh along with Ca are two important numbers for coralline growth. Invest in test kits.
NO3 between .50-5ppm is desirable.
PO4 0.01-0.08
Mag 1250-1350 is where you want that.


5 gallons is okay. If you invest in at least Salifert test kits, weekly 3 gallon water changes could improve your parameters without dosing. Of course you would have to test the water change water to make sure. Your salt could be off, as well.


This LED is perfect for that tank size. I would slow down on coral additions and not worry about light intensity. The tank still needs to mature and coralline algae will be a good indication of that.

Tank looks great by the way!

Thank you! Yes I already ordered new test kits. You're probably right on it being too young. I'll adjust a few things you guys suggested too.