hey everyone, thanks for clicking on my thread!
i hope i can describe my situation well enough.
Starting off, i have a 75 gallon Tank with a 100 gallon Rubbermaid reservoir.
In the reservoir there is a pump supplying a jet system to keep water movement around the submerged 5 gallons of Marinepure Ceramic Bio Balls that are in 5-6 pond baskets, Heater,
In the tank there is about 80 lbs of rock, plenty of water movement, NO SAND, 2 Kessil A360WE LED Lights (turned to half power) on a 12pm - 12am timer(one on 30mins before the other)
.:Tank life details:.
mid to late 2017 i had moved from a 55 Gal to a 75 Gal with 5 ceramic bioballs in the sump, then a few months later in 2018 added the 100 Gal reservoir and put the balls into the reservoir in pond baskets & added a filter sock. the outcome was beautiful the corals had started growing rapidly.
now a bit about why this post is posted here, recently last month (February) i noticed that the soft corals like frogspawn are dying off. we usually grade the aquarium on the way it looks usually it gets a A+ and the fleshy soft looking corals are usually big and beautiful. obviousy this wasnt normal so i checked the dates water had been added and to to my surprise it had been a full 6 days. after asking why person in charge of checking up on the tank(adding top off water daily), had not added fresh water in 6 days, they responded with the salinity meter said it was in range and told me to order more filter socks because the last one broke over a month ago.
After adding half a bucket of fresh water to the reservoir i ran to the store and grabbed a test kit and NEW refractometer, calibrated everything and tested my tank water. unfortunately they didnt have any filter socks.
According to the person in charge of the water changes they remove 20 gallons a month on the first Tuesday.
we havent added anything to the tank livestock wise and have lost a fish(not recent) so the tank is probably understocked if anything. Late 2018(November) We Added 45 lbs of Dry Rock to Aquarium(bringing it to around 80 lbs).
this tank had looked flawless up until Winter.
Parameters Tested
Salinity - 1.024
*Temperature - 73-74F
Ammonia - 0
**Nitrate - 20 ppm
Phosphates - 0
Ph - 8.2
Calcium - 460
dKH - 10
***Copper - 0
* This is usually 78+ during Spring, Summer, and Fall. (Heater Originally for 55-75 Gal)
** Scheduled Water Change on Tuesday
*** Tested for copper just in case, never would add copper.
My thoughts:
1. Temperature is Low, not sure if its low enough to kill coral.
2. A 20% water change a month is not enough.
3. New Rocks Caused an brown algae bloom and maybe thats killing them?
4. Salinity got a bit too high recently.
5. Filter Sock not being used maybe impacting the quality of the water the corals are used to?
6. taking a sample of water to my LFS maybe show something i cant test for.
Looking for suggestions on what to do as i don't want to do one thing and it be the wrong thing to do.
HELP!!!!
Please & thank you
Pictures will be uploaded Friday 3.1.2019 when i get home!
i hope i can describe my situation well enough.
Starting off, i have a 75 gallon Tank with a 100 gallon Rubbermaid reservoir.
In the reservoir there is a pump supplying a jet system to keep water movement around the submerged 5 gallons of Marinepure Ceramic Bio Balls that are in 5-6 pond baskets, Heater,
In the tank there is about 80 lbs of rock, plenty of water movement, NO SAND, 2 Kessil A360WE LED Lights (turned to half power) on a 12pm - 12am timer(one on 30mins before the other)
.:Tank life details:.
mid to late 2017 i had moved from a 55 Gal to a 75 Gal with 5 ceramic bioballs in the sump, then a few months later in 2018 added the 100 Gal reservoir and put the balls into the reservoir in pond baskets & added a filter sock. the outcome was beautiful the corals had started growing rapidly.
now a bit about why this post is posted here, recently last month (February) i noticed that the soft corals like frogspawn are dying off. we usually grade the aquarium on the way it looks usually it gets a A+ and the fleshy soft looking corals are usually big and beautiful. obviousy this wasnt normal so i checked the dates water had been added and to to my surprise it had been a full 6 days. after asking why person in charge of checking up on the tank(adding top off water daily), had not added fresh water in 6 days, they responded with the salinity meter said it was in range and told me to order more filter socks because the last one broke over a month ago.
After adding half a bucket of fresh water to the reservoir i ran to the store and grabbed a test kit and NEW refractometer, calibrated everything and tested my tank water. unfortunately they didnt have any filter socks.
According to the person in charge of the water changes they remove 20 gallons a month on the first Tuesday.
we havent added anything to the tank livestock wise and have lost a fish(not recent) so the tank is probably understocked if anything. Late 2018(November) We Added 45 lbs of Dry Rock to Aquarium(bringing it to around 80 lbs).
this tank had looked flawless up until Winter.
Parameters Tested
Salinity - 1.024
*Temperature - 73-74F
Ammonia - 0
**Nitrate - 20 ppm
Phosphates - 0
Ph - 8.2
Calcium - 460
dKH - 10
***Copper - 0
* This is usually 78+ during Spring, Summer, and Fall. (Heater Originally for 55-75 Gal)
** Scheduled Water Change on Tuesday
*** Tested for copper just in case, never would add copper.
My thoughts:
1. Temperature is Low, not sure if its low enough to kill coral.
2. A 20% water change a month is not enough.
3. New Rocks Caused an brown algae bloom and maybe thats killing them?
4. Salinity got a bit too high recently.
5. Filter Sock not being used maybe impacting the quality of the water the corals are used to?
6. taking a sample of water to my LFS maybe show something i cant test for.
Looking for suggestions on what to do as i don't want to do one thing and it be the wrong thing to do.
HELP!!!!
Please & thank you
Pictures will be uploaded Friday 3.1.2019 when i get home!
