Monti lost color & polyps - looking for advice - Thanks
- Thread starter Calpoly2103
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Awe man. I’d love to see pics of a 240 gallon cube. I’m so jealous. Are you struggling with keeping nutrients up? I just think your alk is too high. Bring it down closer to 8.3-8.0. What lighting do you have on that beast?
biecacka
Valuable Member
yeah the alk issue is new. I usually run it around 7.5-8. its been a little low on ph since its in a smaller apartment so I added a small amount of kalk to my ATO and it went up more than anticipated but not too much to cause concern. its slowly going back down. I just added a bunch of frags (Jason Fox Flame, Walt Disney, Oregon tort, Matt envy Peter Pan, AV99 orange crush, classic red planet, and a few others). I run 2 250 watt 20k Hamilton bulbs on it. Ill post a few pics here soon. I have always struggled to keep nutrients up, I'm like you, a few years back I chased zeros with nopox and had bad luck. So I let them come back up naturally, they stay about where they are now for me.That BK skimmer is a beast man, it is conservatively rated for sure!
corey
corey
Nicholas Dushynsky
Valuable Member
I only have 3 fish so I don't want to put too much food in as that will create other issues. So dosing it ,phosphates that is. Could this be a solution to raise it?
I cant tell you how many of us are brainwashed with the old notion of " strive for zero phosphates " this is very incorrect. Your Monti died from lack of PO4. PO4 is vital to cellular function and needed to calcification. I too was a a victim of this. Once I realized after chasing down many rabbit holes, that after a water change I noticed a dino spike and color loss. That was because I lowered my PO4 even further. Nitrofying bacteria feeds off PO4 also.
Moral of the story, Keep your PO4 around .1-.05 and you will see one heck of a difference. With weekly water changes and dosing ( yes dosing ) po4 you wont need any GFO or anything. I will guarantee this to be the issue.
Moral of the story, Keep your PO4 around .1-.05 and you will see one heck of a difference. With weekly water changes and dosing ( yes dosing ) po4 you wont need any GFO or anything. I will guarantee this to be the issue.
I cant tell you how many of us are brainwashed with the old notion of " strive for zero phosphates " this is very incorrect. Your Monti died from lack of PO4. PO4 is vital to cellular function and needed to calcification. I too was a a victim of this. Once I realized after chasing down many rabbit holes, that after a water change I noticed a dino spike and color loss. That was because I lowered my PO4 even further. Nitrofying bacteria feeds off PO4 also.
Moral of the story, Keep your PO4 around .1-.05 and you will see one heck of a difference. With weekly water changes and dosing ( yes dosing ) po4 you wont need any GFO or anything. I will guarantee this to be the issue.
Moral of the story, Keep your PO4 around .1-.05 and you will see one heck of a difference. With weekly water changes and dosing ( yes dosing ) po4 you wont need any GFO or anything. I will guarantee this to be the issue.
Have you checked your par? 2-250 watts on a 240 gallon doesn’t sound like much light.
biecacka
Valuable Member
I am in line to get the par meter from my club. The rock work is set up in the middle of the tank so the lights are there. The tank is only 24 tall and the lights sit 8 inches off the water. Essentially my rock is consolidated to a center region of the tank where the light is focused. I ran the meter before but I forget what the numbers where but they were adequate if I recall correctly. But I don’t remember. So about 2-3 weeks ago I asked to get on the list for the par meter just to double check. Might need to switch them out to 400’s. That just seems like a ton of light for such a small footprint. I’ll snap some pictures and show how I have the rock set up so 2 bulbs cover it all.
Corey
Corey
Over sized skimmers can be a problem too. All that gunk in a skimmer cup is delicious to sps. So if you don’t have a bunch of fish or you’re not a heavy feeder skimmers aren’t a necessity. My skimmer was off for 6 months and I had zero losses. In fact I had the craziest polyp extension durring that time and I only turned it back on a couple weeks ago because the glass algae was driving me crazy. But the corals seemed happier with it off.
biecacka
Valuable Member
A buddy of mine took his skimmer offline awhile back and runs only cheato and has had great luck. I run a bubble king double cone 200. Rated for a 250 gallon tank. I have a 240. About 25-30 fish, auto feeder turns 5 times a day and I add frozen cube a day or so. So not that much food or that many fish really.
Plenty of ways to skin a cat
Corey
Plenty of ways to skin a cat
Corey
OP's issue is mine as well. When I installed my sump I foolishly (I think) went big on my skimmer. I am just beginning to experiment with putting it on a timer. I think it's just stopping all nutrients from the water.
I've noticed when I leave it off for a while my coral all seem healthier and happier.
I've noticed when I leave it off for a while my coral all seem healthier and happier.
OP's issue is mine as well. When I installed my sump I foolishly (I think) went big on my skimmer. I am just beginning to experiment with putting it on a timer. I think it's just stopping all nutrients from the water.
I've noticed when I leave it off for a while my coral all seem healthier and happier.
I've noticed when I leave it off for a while my coral all seem healthier and happier.
OP's issue is mine as well. When I installed my sump I foolishly (I think) went big on my skimmer. I am just beginning to experiment with putting it on a timer. I think it's just stopping all nutrients from the water.
I've noticed when I leave it off for a while my coral all seem healthier and happier.
I've noticed when I leave it off for a while my coral all seem healthier and happier.
OP's issue is mine as well. When I installed my sump I foolishly (I think) went big on my skimmer. I am just beginning to experiment with putting it on a timer. I think it's just stopping all nutrients from the water.
I've noticed when I leave it off for a while my coral all seem healthier and happier.
I've noticed when I leave it off for a while my coral all seem healthier and happier.
OP's issue is mine as well. When I installed my sump I foolishly (I think) went big on my skimmer. I am just beginning to experiment with putting it on a timer. I think it's just stopping all nutrients from the water.
I've noticed when I leave it off for a while my coral all seem healthier and happier.
I've noticed when I leave it off for a while my coral all seem healthier and happier.
OP's issue is mine as well. When I installed my sump I foolishly (I think) went big on my skimmer. I am just beginning to experiment with putting it on a timer. I think it's just stopping all nutrients from the water.
I've noticed when I leave it off for a while my coral all seem healthier and happier.
I've noticed when I leave it off for a while my coral all seem healthier and happier.
OP's issue is mine as well. When I installed my sump I foolishly (I think) went big on my skimmer. I am just beginning to experiment with putting it on a timer. I think it's just stopping all nutrients from the water.
I've noticed when I leave it off for a while my coral all seem healthier and happier.
I've noticed when I leave it off for a while my coral all seem healthier and happier.
Nicholas Dushynsky
Valuable Member
My skimmer broke and I never replaced it. I don't think 3 fishes worth of poop is enough.
Leave it off then. Skimmers are only needed if you have too much input. I’m sure someone’s going to chime in about gas exchange, heavy metals or ph, but that wasn’t an issue for me the 5 months my skimmer was off. I only turned it back on because the algae on the glass was getting to be a pita and my phosphorus was creeping up to 100 which my sps look happiest in the 35-70 range.
Nicholas Dushynsky
Valuable Member
I've had my skimmer off for nearly a year now ph is 8 and for gas exchange power head breaking the surface
Nicholas Dushynsky
Valuable Member
I think I found the reason why my sps withered as I brought a new phosphate test kit (salifert) and tested twice once as the normal and second at the higher sensitive range and I get no colour at all so do say my corals were starved. My only filtration is a little floss to catch big bits and some biohome ultimate marine filter media, no skimmer. All I need to know now is best way to raise phosphates.
You said your corals withered away? What is your lighting and tank size?
Nicholas Dushynsky
Valuable Member
Well when I say withered as in sps having rtn and stn issues after paling and fading and it grew well previously! the fish stock hasn't changed, only 2 clowns and a yellow watchman, (lost a royal gramma 6 months ago) pistol shrimp, 2 hermits some nassarius snails. The tank is a sumpless 24x18x18 setup Aug 2016, so around 90l with displacement the lighting is a viparspectra 165w about 9" above the surface which has been on it for over 2.5 years.
then to this
and now I have no sps left apart from what is on the rock that I didn't remove as was still showing polyps albeit faded and pale.
My levels are:
Kh 7.7
Cal 440
Mag 1320
Ph 8.1
Nitrate 10
Phos undetectable
I'm assuming I have a phosphate deficiency and starved my sps. I still have all the same equipment on it which I have maintained. I have been trying to find out why the sps started fading back in March and having a cyano outbreak around the same time. I was on the understanding that cyano was caused by an imbalance between nitrates and phosphates and my old phosphate kit showed a reading so I never thought of that. I just need to find out how to get it back to where it used to be, even minus sps as not sure if I'm going to try again. I had a gold/yellow hammer that doesn't look as yellow anymore could that be due to low/no phosphates?
My levels are:
Kh 7.7
Cal 440
Mag 1320
Ph 8.1
Nitrate 10
Phos undetectable
I'm assuming I have a phosphate deficiency and starved my sps. I still have all the same equipment on it which I have maintained. I have been trying to find out why the sps started fading back in March and having a cyano outbreak around the same time. I was on the understanding that cyano was caused by an imbalance between nitrates and phosphates and my old phosphate kit showed a reading so I never thought of that. I just need to find out how to get it back to where it used to be, even minus sps as not sure if I'm going to try again. I had a gold/yellow hammer that doesn't look as yellow anymore could that be due to low/no phosphates?
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