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- Jul 31, 2016
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So I moved inhabitants from a long established but mildly neglected 90g bowfront to a 125g about 6-7 months ago. In the 90g, when it came to corals I either had death or growth, obviously not fast, but noticeable changes. Since I moved to this 125, it's almost like the tank has been paused. Nothing growing or spreading... and nothing dying that hasn't been tossed into the abyss by an urchin. I do regular testing on this tank and parameters are good and stable... nitrate might be a little higher than ideal, usually hovering around 10ppm, but I don't think that is a show stopper, my nitrates in the 90g were certainly far higher although I never tested. I moved a good bit of softies from the 90g and I've added a good bit of new softies and lps since getting the 125 up. I'd really like to know if it's something I'm doing that's causing the overall halt.
Short vid of the tank about a month ago, photo below from a little further back: https://photos.app.goo.gl/3h8vTbNsDMHLBZZCA
I have 3 black box LEDs about a foot from the top of the tank, I've tried adjusting settings slowly to experiment... I've had it at blue/full 100%/25%, 70/25, 70/40 and I just toned it down even further the other day to 50/20. I'm pretty sure even at 50/20 they are plenty bright for what I have. I've left each setting for over a month before switching.
I have 2 sumps, each with a skimmer, one bio pellet reactor, 1 GAC reactor, I run a 32w UV. Dose nopox, seachem reef plus, seachem fusion for alk+calc.
On the 90 I did not run GAC, dose nopox, alk or calc but I did run GFO which I do not anymore since nopox does the job. Another differene is I run RODI only in the 125. I used tap + seachem prime in the 90. I actually sold my RODI system that I was using on the 90 because tap seemed to give better coral growth... doesn't make sense but I dunno... it certainly seemed that way.
Each sump has its own return, one 1700GPH running at 50% and one 1400 GPH also at 50%.
I have 4 fluval powerheads at 800GPH each, 2 pointing towards the front of the tank and 2 directed along the bottom back wall.
Temperature set to 79, stays generally stays between 78 and 80 and rarely swings outside of that but it does happen. I tried dropping temp a few degrees (76-78) for about a month with no noticeable changes (maybe some adverse affects, not sure) so I went back to 79
So my current experiment is trying lower light 50/20 and I turned off 3 of the 4 powerheads. I think I may have been overkill on the flow, but I'm not sure this would stunt the tank? Any guesses where I might be going wrong or am I just being impatient?
Short vid of the tank about a month ago, photo below from a little further back: https://photos.app.goo.gl/3h8vTbNsDMHLBZZCA
I have 3 black box LEDs about a foot from the top of the tank, I've tried adjusting settings slowly to experiment... I've had it at blue/full 100%/25%, 70/25, 70/40 and I just toned it down even further the other day to 50/20. I'm pretty sure even at 50/20 they are plenty bright for what I have. I've left each setting for over a month before switching.
I have 2 sumps, each with a skimmer, one bio pellet reactor, 1 GAC reactor, I run a 32w UV. Dose nopox, seachem reef plus, seachem fusion for alk+calc.
On the 90 I did not run GAC, dose nopox, alk or calc but I did run GFO which I do not anymore since nopox does the job. Another differene is I run RODI only in the 125. I used tap + seachem prime in the 90. I actually sold my RODI system that I was using on the 90 because tap seemed to give better coral growth... doesn't make sense but I dunno... it certainly seemed that way.
Each sump has its own return, one 1700GPH running at 50% and one 1400 GPH also at 50%.
I have 4 fluval powerheads at 800GPH each, 2 pointing towards the front of the tank and 2 directed along the bottom back wall.
Temperature set to 79, stays generally stays between 78 and 80 and rarely swings outside of that but it does happen. I tried dropping temp a few degrees (76-78) for about a month with no noticeable changes (maybe some adverse affects, not sure) so I went back to 79
So my current experiment is trying lower light 50/20 and I turned off 3 of the 4 powerheads. I think I may have been overkill on the flow, but I'm not sure this would stunt the tank? Any guesses where I might be going wrong or am I just being impatient?
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