Coral in my DT just... doesn’t seem to do great. It’s two years old, very stable in terms of parameters. I’m trying to figure out what I can test to pinpoint my problem. My corals grow GREAT in my QT. It pulls corals from the brink of death and gives them new life. Until they go back into my DT, that is...
My Display Tank:
My Coral QT
So what’s different about the two setups?
Really what I'm looking for at this point is a way to experiment/test to see what's causing my problem. I have two tanks that are very similar, so I should be able to change one thing at a time and see how my corals react over the span of a few weeks.
Thoughts on likely culprits? I'm thinking of ditching the sandbed all together for my DT... it just seems like there's way too much detritus for my bioload, and things that sit in the sand seem to do the worst (aside from mushrooms).
My Display Tank:
- Total Volume: 139 gallons
- 1.026 specific gravity
- 9 alk
- 420ish calc
- 1350ish mag
- ~15 no3
- ~0.03 po4
- Lights: 2x Orphek Atlantik v4s
- Flow: 2x MP40 on reef rest
- Salt: HW Marinemix Reefer
- Sand: about 2” of Fiji pink
- ICP Analysis: https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/icp-oes/114261
My Coral QT
- Total Volume: 30 gallons
- 1.026 specific gravity
- 9 alk
- 420ish calc
- 1350ish mag
- no3/po4: haven’t tested recently
- Lights: 1x Orphek Atlantik v4 Compact
- Flow: 1x MP10 on reef rest
- Salt: HW Marinemix Reefer
- Sand: Bare bottom
- Misc: some large rocks and a bunch of media that sat in my DT sump for a couple months.
So what’s different about the two setups?
- Sand. QT is bare bottom. I have what I consider excessive detritus buildup in my DT sandbed.
- Flow. I don’t really know how to match it perfectly because of the difference in tank size. I would say it's similar, though...
- Algae growth. My DT grows almost ZERO algae. I think this is because I have a tang and a foxface that are constantly grazing. My QT grows all kinds of crazy stuff.
- Age. My DT is 2 years old. My QT is about 4 months old, and seeded with rock/material from my DT.
Really what I'm looking for at this point is a way to experiment/test to see what's causing my problem. I have two tanks that are very similar, so I should be able to change one thing at a time and see how my corals react over the span of a few weeks.
Thoughts on likely culprits? I'm thinking of ditching the sandbed all together for my DT... it just seems like there's way too much detritus for my bioload, and things that sit in the sand seem to do the worst (aside from mushrooms).