Polyp Extension
- Thread starter jsbzcmcdaniel
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atp0726
Active Member
Just realized you tank isnt that old. I started my current reef and tried adding acorpora 4 mths in. Failed miserably! No PE and stuff slowly started to die. On paper parameters looked great and couldn't figure it out. It was sucking down a unbelievable amount of alk and i have a hunch it was getting absorbed by the new dry rock and sand bed. One caveat is i used all dry rock and no live rock, something i will never do again. It literally took 2 years before acropora was thriving (i did eventually add some live rock to seed the tank). Not to be a downer but dont give up hope if things dont work out with these pieces.
I do think you may eventually need more light. The problem with LEDs is if you crank them up you get hot spots and if they are to low you dont have enough light. You also dont want to lower them as you want as much blending as possible by the time they reach your corals, if anything raise them up. I would add another light, get some diffusers and dial in par with a par meter if you want to keep them at the current height.
Your nutrients could also be to low. My hanna ulr read 11ppb when I sent it out to ATI and it came back 0. Not saying one test is right but i think the hanna has a +/- .03 so i like to shoot for .07 as a minimum.
I do think you may eventually need more light. The problem with LEDs is if you crank them up you get hot spots and if they are to low you dont have enough light. You also dont want to lower them as you want as much blending as possible by the time they reach your corals, if anything raise them up. I would add another light, get some diffusers and dial in par with a par meter if you want to keep them at the current height.
Your nutrients could also be to low. My hanna ulr read 11ppb when I sent it out to ATI and it came back 0. Not saying one test is right but i think the hanna has a +/- .03 so i like to shoot for .07 as a minimum.
- Roger that. For future reference -- since many on the forums use the Hanna Phosphate ULR -- the conversion to ppb phosphates (PO4) is in your current measure: 11 X 3.0661 / 1000 = .034 PO4 in ppb
- Again, IMO, that is a perfect number for phosphates (PO4). I would hope to see NO3 (nitrates) around 3-5 to have OK nutrient balance IMO. Cannot be your problem unless that has been extremely noisy or imbalanced.
- You have APEX (I am a big fan), so nothing noisy with Temp, Salinity, ORP right?
- Again, IMO, that is a perfect number for phosphates (PO4). I would hope to see NO3 (nitrates) around 3-5 to have OK nutrient balance IMO. Cannot be your problem unless that has been extremely noisy or imbalanced.
- You have APEX (I am a big fan), so nothing noisy with Temp, Salinity, ORP right?
