Need some advice on my coral problems. My 5 month old Miami Hurricane Chalice is bleaching. Started a few months ago very gradually. Started to loose coloration but was still growing so I just thought it was adjusting to its new home. It started to show skeleton a couple weeks ago and now its almost half gone. Also, the heads on my Candy cane are starting to shrivel and it doesn't extend its tentacles at night anymore. I moved it to the sand this weekend. My Zoas stopped multiplying recently and look a little anemic. I have a couple hammers, a goni, torch, acan, and some pulsing xenia that all appear to be doing great.
Tank is a 54g corner tank that cycled 7 months ago. I dose phyto and AFR. Recently started adding Neonitro and Neophos as my nutrients bottomed out and were at 0 for the last couple months. I have a protein skimmer set to skim dry, and pukani rock in the tank for filtration. There is a small population of tiny pods but I need to add more.
Lighting:
Viparspectra 165w mounted 14" above water line. Tank is 21" tall.
Whites on at 1% for 5 hours and blues on 40% for 10 hours.
Haven't made any changes to lighting schedule since the tank was cycled. I did turn down the blue channel 5% recently.
I've never checked par and really have no idea where they should be set.
Fish include a Banghai Cardinal, royal gramma, citron clown goby, and orange firefish.
Inverts include a tuxedo urchin, fire shrimp, and several snails.
All fish and the shrimp look great and are eating well.
Parameters:
PO4 - .02 Nyos kit (best guess as this kit is super hard to read. Need to get a Hanna)
NH3 - 5 Red sea
CA - 430 Salifert
Mag - 1300 Salifert
Ph - 8.2 Red sea
Alk - 8dkh Red sea
SG - 1.026
Temp - 78 F
Nitrite and ammonia were reading zero for so long that I quit testing for them.
I used Red Sea coral pro salt and just switched to aquaforest last week. I change 8 gallons every other week.
So is it a lighting problem? Low nutrients? What am I overlooking?
Tank is a 54g corner tank that cycled 7 months ago. I dose phyto and AFR. Recently started adding Neonitro and Neophos as my nutrients bottomed out and were at 0 for the last couple months. I have a protein skimmer set to skim dry, and pukani rock in the tank for filtration. There is a small population of tiny pods but I need to add more.
Lighting:
Viparspectra 165w mounted 14" above water line. Tank is 21" tall.
Whites on at 1% for 5 hours and blues on 40% for 10 hours.
Haven't made any changes to lighting schedule since the tank was cycled. I did turn down the blue channel 5% recently.
I've never checked par and really have no idea where they should be set.
Fish include a Banghai Cardinal, royal gramma, citron clown goby, and orange firefish.
Inverts include a tuxedo urchin, fire shrimp, and several snails.
All fish and the shrimp look great and are eating well.
Parameters:
PO4 - .02 Nyos kit (best guess as this kit is super hard to read. Need to get a Hanna)
NH3 - 5 Red sea
CA - 430 Salifert
Mag - 1300 Salifert
Ph - 8.2 Red sea
Alk - 8dkh Red sea
SG - 1.026
Temp - 78 F
Nitrite and ammonia were reading zero for so long that I quit testing for them.
I used Red Sea coral pro salt and just switched to aquaforest last week. I change 8 gallons every other week.
So is it a lighting problem? Low nutrients? What am I overlooking?
