Entire tank seems to be on "pause", for quite some time

[sikemd]

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?

 

[Saltyreef]

How long ago was the move? I may have missed that part.

 

[PanchoG]

If parameters are all stable, I would go for the light. To notice changes however you would have to keep the same light settings at least a month so it will take a while to figure it out.

 

[sikemd]

How long ago was the move? I may have missed that part.

Around October last year around 6 months or so

 

[Saltyreef]

Around October last year around 6 months or so

Around October last year around 6 months or so

Can you post all known parameters?
The lights shouldnt be giving you issues as the black boxes work very well for coral growth.
Theres plenty of other variables.

Some hobbiests cant even grow corals reliably under kessils lol....

 

[Saltyreef]

I have a feeling its gonna be water related

 

[sikemd]

Alk 10.2 calc 420 ph 8.1 mag 1500 phos 0.05 nitrate 11.3ppm salinity 36 ppt. All those been pretty close for last few months. Alk has fluctuated between 9.9 and 10.9 but lately been closer to 10 and nitrate has fluctuated from 5 to 15ppm usually close to 10 last few checks

 

[sikemd]

I use hanna for alk phos and nitrate. Salifert for mag and calc. Electronic and refract for a salinity both showing the same

 

[sikemd]

Salinity has fluctuated also it was close to 37ppt almost 2 weeks ago and I've been slowly bringing it down. 36 today. Couldnt have been that high too long...don't think thats enough to stop the tank though ?

 

[Saltyreef]

Hmmmmm.....
You got my hamster wheel spinning lol.

I had a big stall out in my tank but it was directly related to nitrate and i believe an overdose knocked out a lot of my bacteria.

Did you let the rocks dry out any?
New sand?

 

[sikemd]

Na I moved everything the same day and kept everything submerged in a tub... It is all new sand though I threw out the sand from the 90. Added sand not long after setting up the tank though so it's been months

 

[sikemd]

Ive been relying totally on the hanna nitrate checker for the last few months... I have a salifert I will have to check with that see if maybe I'm getting bad readings with the hanna for some reason

 

[Jekyl]

Maybe an ICP test is in order? Did you transfer all the rocks from the 90 over? Residual leeching from something in the tap water?

 

[sikemd]

I did transfer all of the rock... you might be on to something that I've considered with metal. I did have a metal top brace that was rusted out on the 90 but most everything did good in there up until 2 or 3 weeks before I did the switch when the tank started to go down hill and had a cyano outbreak... Which triggered me to upgrade and be more attentive. That tank was going for about 3 years in the place it sat. I've been running heavy gac since setting up the 125

 

[Garf]

Why are you using NOPOX and biopellets? presumably you think your N & P is too high?

 

[sikemd]

Why are you using NOPOX and biopellets? presumably you think your N & P is too high?

The biopellets were carryover from the 90 that I just didn't think about removing. Nopox is new with the 125... I'm a heavy feeder and was never able to get my no3 or po4 in an even close to ideal range.but they both are manageable now with nopox.
Should I dump the pellets? I like it because they last forever and I can clearly see when they are low. Nopox on doser can run out without me knowing.

 

[Garf]

The biopellets were carryover from the 90 that I just didn't think about removing. Nopox is new with the 125... I'm a heavy feeder and was never able to get my no3 or po4 in an even close to ideal range.but they both are manageable now with nopox.
Should I dump the pellets? I like it because they last forever and I can clearly see when they are low. Nopox on doser can run out without me knowing.

Speed read your initial post, sorry. If your phos is undetectable your gonna need to increase feeding no matter your nitrate.

Edit - or add a phosphate solution, obviously.

 

[GeoSquid]

Have you been adjusting your lights often? I was doing this with my LED black boxes and my corals were not growing much - mostly softies. I stopped adjusting and just left them on one setting and things improved immensely. Also, you might consider moving them higher. I think you said they were a foot off the water. I watched a BRS video on cheap LED black boxes and they showed to work best at about 2' off the water. I moved mine to about 20" off the water but couldn't go any higher.

 

[sikemd]

Have you been adjusting your lights often? I was doing this with my LED black boxes and my corals were not growing much - mostly softies. I stopped adjusting and just left them on one setting and things improved immensely. Also, you might consider moving them higher. I think you said they were a foot off the water. I watched a BRS video on cheap LED black boxes and they showed to work best at about 2' off the water. I moved mine to about 20" off the water but couldn't go any higher.

Right on... thanks for the suggestion... the more I think about it the more I think this may be the main reason for the halt. I had originally lowered the lighting power to accommodate some new corals and that is about the time the tank seemed to halt and around the same time some corals/nems seemed to get aggitated. I probably should have just kept the new corals on the bottom and shaded but dang thefty pincushion urchin makes that risky business. I think I'm going to accept this as the most likely culprit right now and do as you said and keep it stable. I bumped the power back up to where I want it and I'm going to leave it be. I watched that BRS vid too I think I'm in ok shape with the height I have them set I have 3 of 'em over each brace divided section of my 125. I think the thing BRS trying to resolve by raising was spread but I think I have pretty good coverage and some nice shaded areas as well.

 

[GeoSquid]

Right on... thanks for the suggestion... the more I think about it the more I think this may be the main reason for the halt. I had originally lowered the lighting power to accommodate some new corals and that is about the time the tank seemed to halt and around the same time some corals/nems seemed to get aggitated. I probably should have just kept the new corals on the bottom and shaded but dang thefty pincushion urchin makes that risky business. I think I'm going to accept this as the most likely culprit right now and do as you said and keep it stable. I bumped the power back up to where I want it and I'm going to leave it be. I watched that BRS vid too I think I'm in ok shape with the height I have them set I have 3 of 'em over each brace divided section of my 125. I think the thing BRS trying to resolve by raising was spread but I think I have pretty good coverage and some nice shaded areas as well.

I don't have a PAR meter and I think I was frying my corals having the black boxes closer to the water. I noticed this when I added a monti cap from a local refer. I put it on the bottom of the tank and it started bleaching in a couple days. I had another cap, which I had for a long time that was fine but not growing as much as I would think. The softies were doing ok up higher but not a lot of growth. Once I moved the lights up higher and kept the settings stable everything improved a lot. I had metal halides before the black boxes and the halides seemed brighter and I was trying to match the black boxes to what I was used to with the halides. Different kind of light source I guess.