Keeping my corals fed without hurting my water quality. (long post lots of pics)

[nickyeager]

I have a 4 month old 125 Gallon with 150lbs of rocks using RO water. Salinity is 1.026, PH 8.4, Water Temp 78.6, Ammonia 0ppm, Nitrate 20ppm, Nitrites 0, Phosphate 0 (not sure about that last one because I definitely have Cyano in tank possibly consuming the phosphates).

I hardly did any water changes the first 6 weeks because I didn't want to stop the tank from cycling. Then I did one water change in month 3 and two in month 4 and plan on doing them every other week from now on (30% water changes). I feed one cube of frozen mysis shrimp and a couple algae discs for the foxface and the coral beauty once a day.

My fish seem quite happy but some of my corals are not looking to great, specifically my hollywood stunner chalice is brown since i added him to the tank 2 weeks ago and my green Goniopora added 2 days ago is mostly retracted (but maybe just adjusting still).

That being said I have read the forums and come to the conclusion that I need to maintain Calcium and Alkalinity levels in order to keep my corals healthy so I plan on purchasing the Seachem Reef Fusion 2 part system. Additionally I have read that I need to feed these corals? Is that true? The LFS says he does not spot feed his corals although the system there is much older than mine and probably teaming with all types of pods and plankton.

I am worried if I don't spot feed my corals they wont look great and they may slowly starve. But if I spot feed I will be introducing more nutrients into the system which is not good since I am already at 20ppm Nitrates just a few days after a 30% water change and I have a alot of Cyano in the tank, no skimmer and no reactor.

Here are the corals I have and what I read they need to be fed;

Green Goniopora norfolkensis - Liquid Life with Cyclop-eeze, rotifers. Supplement with PhytoPlankton ( not sure if they meant live or dead. I have seachem dead phyto last time I added it the Goniopora retracted and isn't this just adding more nutrients to my water?)

Hollywood Stunner Chalice - a mix of brineshrimp and small mysis (PE mysis maybe too big) possibly oysterfeast?

Torch Coral - mysis shrimp (that's fine I feed my fish this already and my torch seems pretty happy)

Trumpet Coral - brine shrimp and zooplankton most often enriched with selcon, (do trumpets really need to be fed?)

Zoas- I dont think i need to spot feed these

GSP- I dont think I need to spot feed these

Is there one magical thing I can feed all these corals or should I turn my sump into a refugium and try to culture rotifers, zooplankton, phytoplankton, pods etc all in the same fuge? Is that even possible?

I have a wet dry sump with bioballs but I am considering taking out the bioballs and making a refugium In my sump now that I found a magnetic fuge light I can attach to the side of the sump.

In an Ideal world I can grow rotifers, pods, phyto/zoo plankton in that refugium and have them make their way through the foam filter and safely through the return pump and into the DT to be eaten by my fish and corals, is that even possible?

I have been told they can get through the foam block but some say the return pump would kill pods some say they would totally survive. I have no idea if I can culture all those organisms in the same refugium without them eating eachother or if i even really need to.

If that does not seem likely to be successful then maybe I just leave it as is and add a GFO reactor and Protein Skimmer to my sump, increase water change frequency and spot feed all my corals? But in that scenario I am spending an arm and a leg on additional equipment and all these different suggested live small coral foods.

I feel as though I have to get some food for my hollywood stunner chalice because it is brown and not happy looking and with the addition of the green goniopora with only 4 months since inception of this tank I feel like these corals need some sort of supplementation.

Attached are pics of my sump and the proposed changes as well as my corals and fish, comments and advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

What kind of lighting do you have and for how long per day is it kept on? What are you using for water flow? On the food thing, only the green Goni needs to be fed regularly. I wouldn't worry at all about the others for now. If you really wanted to push growth you could but keep in mind there are those long time hobbyists out there that have never fed their corals for years anything other than "fish poop".

Also, the Bio Balls in your sump setup are completely redundant, and not in a good way. You should remove them and just use your live rock for biological filtration. Get a decent protein skimmer.

 

[elishapep]

completely agree with the statement above

 

[nickyeager]

What kind of lighting do you have and for how long per day is it kept on? What are you using for water flow? On the food thing, only the green Goni needs to be fed regularly. I wouldn't worry at all about the others for now. If you really wanted to push growth you could but keep in mind there are those long time hobbyists out there that have never fed their corals for years anything other than "fish poop".

Also, the Bio Balls in your sump setup are completely redundant, and not in a good way. You should remove them and just use your live rock for biological filtration. Get a decent protein skimmer.

My powerheads are a Saio 1500 and a Hydor Koralia Evolution 1150. I also have two strong return pumps that create surface disruption and flow when they hit the front of the tank.

For lighting I have a large LED Strip light that is mostly white LED with some Blues mixed in and it has a blue only mode as well. That's generally what I run 10 hours a day I also have two Aqueon Colormax fluorescents but I don't run those usually because I don't want to promote more Cyano or green algae growth (although my fox face and coral beauty eat green hair algae before it gets a chance to grow long.)

Interesting thing is I put the fluorescents on today just to see what would happen and all of a sudden the Goniopora started to extend but it was nothing close to what it did at the LFS. It was about 5 times bigger at the LFS than it is in my tank. Do you think my lights should be replaced? Perhaps my lighting is why some of my corals aren't happy or fully extended? And if the lights I use are fine, should I run the fluorescents or the LEDs or both?

Do i literally just suck up the fish poop with a baster and drop it on the corals? Or just let the nutrients end up in the water column as they break down?

 

[ChiCity]

Your led's are no bueno...
Get 2 ati blue+ bulbs for your fixture, sit back and enjoy the results

 

[nickyeager]

Your led's are no bueno...
Get 2 ati blue+ bulbs for your fixture, sit back and enjoy the results

I just turned off the fluorescents now and left on the LED and the Green Goni retracted completely and turned into a golfball. I think you are onto something! I am going to order the bulbs now if the Corals prefer to those crappy fluorescents to the LEDs they will love these T5's. Thanks!

 

[nickyeager]

Your led's are no bueno...
Get 2 ati blue+ bulbs for your fixture, sit back and enjoy the results

So now I am using just the fluorescents and the Green Goni starting to come back out again but the Torch and the GSP and the Trumpets closing up, sigh. Maybe they just need to adjust to the change in the lighting so ill run them instead and ill order the T5's and hopefully everyone will be happy when those are installed.

 

[miyags]

I feed my corals about 1/2 to 1 hour before I do a water change. I shut off all flow--then feed-- wait 1/2 hour to hour. then siphon out the food that fell to bottom of the tank.

 

[Jk120]

When corals turn brown it's not getting enough light. LEDs are very powerful that's why they retracted.. slowly increase the LEDs and ATI bulbs have alot of par so slow with them as well .

 

[nickyeager]

I got excited when I saw these ATI Bulbs are only 20 bucks but then I realized the cost of the Fixtures ouch! I wanted to use my existing 36 inch strip lights but those are t8 fixtures and pretty crappy. Can I get away with 2 Dual 36 inch Coralifes for a 125 Gallon? Maybe I can put the ATI bulbs in it??

 

[nashorn]

That Goni might be hard keep.
I haven't try I'm many years but before they just wither away.

I Volka dose and that allows me to feed a lot and keep good water Q.

 

[nickyeager]

Thanks but its moot at this point. I live in the Keys and hurricane Irma wiped out my tank. Mandatory evacuation had to leave them. I left the tank on battery backups but that was weeks ago and still no power there, pretty depressing.

 

[305Reefer]

Thanks but its moot at this point. I live in the Keys and hurricane Irma wiped out my tank. Mandatory evacuation had to leave them. I left the tank on battery backups but that was weeks ago and still no power there, pretty depressing.

That sucks to hear man. Keep you're head up though.

 

[nickyeager]

Thanks 305, things have a way of working out, my buddy is going to sell me a few acres of his property in WV and help me build a house. I'm going to custom build that house with an awesome reef tank in mind, I will go slow but do it right and takes lots of pics for a mega build thread on here. I am not giving up at all, I learned so much from this community and that last tank I had, i'm going to do it right and do it big next go round (with a backup generator this time haha).

 

[305Reefer]

Thanks 305, things have a way of working out, my buddy is going to sell me a few acres of his property in WV and help me build a house. I'm going to custom build that house with an awesome reef tank in mind, I will go slow but do it right and takes lots of pics for a mega build thread on here. I am not giving up at all, I learned so much from this community and that last tank I had, i'm going to do it right and do it big next go round (with a backup generator this time haha).

Thats the bright side to disasters for sure, you get start over and do it even better.