Ok... Imma need some help here guys

[Reef Keeper 18]

So thus far in my keeping an aquarium I have not been very successful keeping corals. I've had problems with dosing so recently i bought a bubble magus. Everything in my tank in general is more stable. So i decided to get some more corals the other day... and I'm needing help as to What the best way to care for them is. I bought a beautiful acan frag. I've had one acan frag die completely and the other is recovering. Is there anything I can do to nurse this acan back to good health?? Because it was my first and i loved it. I was also wondering if there was anything esle i should dose for my tank now that I have a birdsnest and another larger easier to keep sps...Which i forgot name of and dont feel like going and finding recipt now because I'm at the computer. Should I start spot feeding my Lps? if so how and what should I feed them. Just needing a bitta help at this point. I know you guys will provide it for me as you always do.

 

[soccerbag]

We'll certainly try and help. Would you mind giving us a bit of info on your tank? Water parameters (including Salinity, Ca, Alk, temp, Mag, NO3 and PO4), flow,and lighting would be a good start. I know that's a lot to ask for but it's hard for us to help without knowing the full story. : )

 

[Dave3112]

We'll certainly try and help. Would you mind giving us a bit of info on your tank? Water parameters (including Salinity, Ca, Alk, temp, Mag, NO3 and PO4), flow,and lighting would be a good start. I know that's a lot to ask for but it's hard for us to help without knowing the full story. : )

+1 I agree with all of that. And also how long has it been set up and how many corals are there?

 

[Hyprviperx]

you can try spot feeding if your lights and water params are correct

ive fed mine reef caviar, cyclopeze, brine, mysis, even chopped krill, they love the reef caviar and the mysis the most, i get the cubed mysis because it was smaller than the bagged PE mysis

 

[Reef Keeper 18]

okay. Its a 34g Solana. Lights are usually on timers unless im absolutely so **** tired i unplug the lunar leds and pass out in bed. I have a inch or so think sandbed. I'm running activated carbon and phos guard and do weekly water changes with a gravel vac to remove unwanted biological material from my sandbed. My temp with the glass top on and the hailides on gets max 81F. My heater can go NO lower but without the hailides and the glass top cooking things up its a comfortable 78degrees. Magnesium has been inconsistant but right now is wheres it should be.( I will do a FULL test and post exact results when I get home I have off ice training for hockey tonight So I cant test between that and eating. But I will test what kits I have. Alk ammonia calcium nitrate and ph. 99.9% when I check everything is where they should be. and if their not its because I was "to busy" to dose calcium or alk. But the bubble magus will fix that. The acan I will also post b4 and after pics of it. While I'm at it I'll get pics of all my new corals up so you guys can help me some more with the specific needs of each. The tank has built in return pumps which provides flow to my tank but I also put a koralia on the side glass facing across which flows over the sandbed. The acan was doing well until i went on vacation. right before I left it looked like a gonner. Its slowly coming back.

 

[Reef Keeper 18]

The tank has been set up since September. i've gone through the usual learning curb at the expense of my livestock :/ but I'm starting to get more of a hang of it now. i have a birdsnets frag. a rainbowey acan frag a recovering grade A acan lord mini colony a female harlequin shrimp a Lubbocks wrasse a pair of ocellaris clownfish a cleaner shrimp and a purple firefish. I also have one of those acan.. something or anothers that look similar to a favia that is a colony and another difficultly named stinging green sps which I was told was easier to keep. I have various palys in the tank like radioactive dragons eye frag a mini colony of bam bams a frag of bam bams some type of pink palythoa that I got at a swap. i feed the harlequin a sandsifting star about once a month or so. I had a pair and still want to add a little male to replace the one lost and hopefully have the two pair up.

 

[Reef Keeper 18]

I feed my fish brine and mysis and Usually when I try to just take a dropper or turkey baster and some tank water and shoot food at the coral It sucks in and doesnt catch it and it gets eaten by the fish

 

[soccerbag]

Gotcha, when you say 99 percent of the time your parameters are where they should be, would you mind telling us what those are? May sound silly but it will help. And if you've had alk swings lately (before you got the doser), then that could lead to a multitude of issues. Guessing the green SPS is a hydnophora. They are really aggressive and will kill anything it touches so be careful with it in a smaller tank. Sounds like you are busy so let us know when you've had a chance to test everything and we can go from there. Do you test your salinity (and if so, with a refractometer or another test)?

 

[KLR]

I had this same problem for the LONGEST time. I found out one of the most important things,that I was doing wrong,was consistantly topping off my water. I dose chemicals/minerals with my top off water,if I slacked off on the top off, everything would bleach due to high salinity and low alk,then I would try to rebound it by adding extra alk buffer,stupid I know, then that would make matters worse. Once I started topping off about 1-1.5 gal a day with the appropriate chemicals in the RO, I have had pretty good success with any coral ive tried, knock on wood.

 

[Reef Keeper 18]

........Kelby that is pretty much what I've been doing wrong. Thats why I got the doser and I'm looking into setting up an ato for my tank. So That laziness or business isnt a contributing factor. I/'d do the exact same. alk goees down. oop just add and add till its where it should be. But i learned now

 

[Reef Keeper 18]

I always test salinity esp when Im doin water changes(sorry if my replys are late and other stuff im eating as we speak and then imma leave. B home around 9ish to post test results for you guys.

 

[Reef Keeper 18]

I use a refractomoter which I always make sure to calibrate. The saltwater I add I mix for 24 hours in a countainer and mesure to exactly 35ppm. So as long as I top off my salinity is stable there

 

[Reef Keeper 18]

Alright guys. As of this morning my readings are;

Ph 7.4
Nitrate 20ppm(this is only because it is two days past when I usually do water changes because ive gotten caught up in some other stuff all day as you guys can see) so after the change that will be normal.
Ammonia "0ppm"
Alkalinity 8.0Dkh
Calcium 470ppm magnesium 1290ppm


Those are readings from ALL of the test kits that I currently have. I am dosing B-Ionic two part calcium and alkalinity solution

 

[Reef Keeper 18]

Still looking for feedback as to what I should do for the acan thats trying to come back too

 

[Troylee]

You could raise the mag a tad... Your ph is kind of low well actually it's alarmingly low... Do you have a skimmer on the tank and what do you have for flow in there???? When you top off with ro are you using kalk or a buffer to bring it up???? That's about the only thing I see wrong with the big 3....

 

[Reef Keeper 18]

Hmm my ph reading seemed to be at that. Idk what might have gone wrong. I will test again to be safe. I could start dosing mag if you think that would help. I have the built in skimmer but it was off for a lil because there was a crack developing and I was using acrylic glue to fix it. Flow wise I have a koralia and the built in return pumps coming from the overflow. I will take a pic later hopefully for you of exactly what the pumps look like in the tank and directions etcetc. and I will also have the info on what model the koralia is.

 

[Troylee]

mag is very important if you don't keep it up your cal and alk will always swing and not hold stable....do you run the tank with the lid???if so i would remove it and get that ph up to at least 7.8 or higher preferably 8.4 but that seems impossible for some including me... my tank runs 7.8 to 8.0 if your not using the lid i would recommenced topping off with kalk to help it... if you go the kalk route make sure to adjust your dosing accordingly.... honestly it sounds like on your little tank you don't have much corals i would just top off with brightwells kalk+2 it contains mag and strotium and that would prolly hold your tank nice and stable alone.... sometimes we over complicate things lol....

 

[Reef Keeper 18]

Yeah I had the glass top break rathar recently..... So i had to improvise for the night and use the top of one of those giant plastic containers because I was afraid of my wrasse or firefish jumping out. When I top off I just use a ghetto version of the built in top off. I'm hoping to get an ato system set up for my tank soon. I just use a cleaned out soda bottle filled with ro. The way the built in top off is designed when the container is upsidedown and the water level falls water from the bottle falls into the overflow. Just enough to fill to the right level.

 

[Reef Keeper 18]

So if I start adding the kalk+2 in with my Ro water how should I adjust my dosing?

 

[Troylee]

Yeah I owned a solana one of my favorite tanks actually... You would adjust by testing at least every other day and backing off on the 2 part... I personally feel the kalk +2 would be more than enough for your tank for a long time until you get into bigger colonies of Stoney coral...