Help!!

[swannyson7]

Yesterday I finally took the dive and plumbed a sump for my 125. I'm using an external overflow with dual 1 1/4" pool hose for my drain and goes into a 20 L that houses my octo extreme 200 and then after the baffles to reduce microbubbles, pumps back up to the DT via a Quiet One 4000HH with a PVC return. The sump, hoses, and PVC were all rinced with a vinegar bath and baffles were held in place with pure silicone. The PVC was cemented together with Oakey Low VOC cement, and it was allowed to dry for about 5 hours (recommends 2 before pressure testing). I removed a couple old maxijets the were hung on the back of the tank to make room for the overflow, but still have 3 koralia 4's and 2 maxijet 900s for flow as well as the sump return, and the return from my canister filter.

Since I did all of this, some of my corals look really ticked off. My bubble coral is barely opening, my duncans have hardly any polyp extension, and the xenia looks horrible MY deepwater lobo isn't as inflated as usual, and my two wellsos look like puffed up water sacks. However, the acans and zoas/palys seem to be fine, as does the SPS. I tested my parameters and here they are:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
pH: 8.2
Temp: 78 F
SG: 1.025
Alk: 8 dKH
Ca: 460
Magnesium: 1320
Phosphate: 1 ppm

I did a 20 gallon water change last night, which seemed to make a little bit of a difference. I also started running some fresh carbon, and I'm about to do another 20 gallon water change. Is there anything else I should be doing?!?! :cry:

 

[Troylee]

how is your skimmer working??? if it's working in a normal fashion i would look into something else besides the glue you used....it would be going nut's if it was the cement or silicone...most likely it is prolly just a change in your flow and they are adjusting...hth..
troy

 

[swannyson7]

The skimmer seems to be working normally. I actually dialed it in so that it would be skimming wet in hopes that it would be pulling out more organics.

 

[gilmour01]

was it aquarium safe silicone?

 

[makingbubbles]

I agree with troy. it might be just a change in flow. i have had corals close up for 2 days just on flow change.

 

[swannyson7]

It was pure silicone, no anti-anything, so it should be fine in an aquarium. The closing up doesn't worry me all that much, but the wellsos inflating so much I find a bit worrysome. There seemed to be quite a bit of "mucus" on alot of the LPS, which has subsided, but the corals still aren't looking any better.

 

[swannyson7]

Any other advice? Things still aren't looking up

 

[swannyson7]

Well after a few major water changes, phosphate sponge in my canister, and a few media bags of carbon in my sump, things seem to be looking up. All of the zoas, palys, acans, and SPS still seem to be opening normally. The bubble coral is opening a bit, although not 100%, and the duncan has a bit of PE. The xenia, candy cane, and frogspawn still look pretty p!$$ed, but they are looking better. Not sure whether it was the phosphates, or changes in the flow pattern, but I'll sleep better tonight knowing that the tank isn't destined to crash. Thanks for the help everyone!!