Good afternoon everyone,
Sorry, but just to warn you, I might be all over the place...LOL. I just recently joined and I love all the support. I recently got back into the hobby after taking 8 years off. I wanted to start off small and I went with a 55 Gallon. I used to have a 150 Gallon in the kitchen which my Wife really enjoyed. Sarcasm,
The tank is about 2 months old. Originally I only had (1) head of Torch Coral, (1) Condy Anenome, and (2) Chromis and (1) Maroon Clown. I had these in the tank for a couple weeks. I recently purchased the following a week ago, (1) Yellow Tang, (3) heads of Frogspawn, (1) Open Brain, (1) closed Brain, (1) beautiful Elegance Coral!, and (1) frag of GSP and (1) Duncan head.
My Torch doesn't look that great. It used to extend about an inch or so. Now all arms are short and kinda shriveled. I had the Elegance Coral placed on the left side of the tank. It had minimal flow and I think the Tang wouldn't leave it alone and was eating food around it. The Elegance starting looking bad a couple days after putting it in the tank. I moved the Elegance to the middle under some shade and away from the Tang spot. I fed the Elegance some Mysis (2) days ago and it is starting to look better. The Condy Anenome isn't as big and full like before. I fed the Anenome some Mysis at the same time. Both the Coral and Anenome are sticky and instantly took the food so I know they're not on their last leg. My Frogspawn has always been open until yesterday. Out of nowhere, all heads closed up.
I tested my water last night and everything tested good. Please see parameters below,
Temp - 76 - 78
PH - 8-8.2
KH - 9 dkh - 161.1 ppm
Ammonia - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - 0 ppm
Phosphate - 0 ppm
CA - 440 ppm
MG - 1500 ppm
I used to have my lighting setup with 2x54w T5 HO 420 and 460 bulbs and 1x250w 14k Metal Halide in the middle. I switched about 2 weeks ago with the same T5's. However, I moved the halide from the middle to the side and added another 250w to the other side. I changed the bulbs to 20k. I installed this light setup in a canopy I built for the tank. The temperature was getting a little hot so I added a fan to blow through the canopy which cools it enough to kick the heater on.
I was thinking this was too much light so I added some digital timers and changed up my lighting schedule. I have my Actinics come on 1 hour before and after the halides. I have the right halide come on for 3 hours and then the left one comes on for 3 hours. A total of 6 hours between the two. Both halides only come on together for an hour. The halides are about 6-8 inches off the water. I am thinking about raising the lights to about 10-12 inches because I think it is to intense??
I was starting to think the flow was also too much so I turned the powerheads off and just used the returns for flow. Everything looks really distressed so I am starting to run out of ideas.
Sorry for the long-winded post. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks, everyone!
Sorry, but just to warn you, I might be all over the place...LOL. I just recently joined and I love all the support. I recently got back into the hobby after taking 8 years off. I wanted to start off small and I went with a 55 Gallon. I used to have a 150 Gallon in the kitchen which my Wife really enjoyed. Sarcasm,
The tank is about 2 months old. Originally I only had (1) head of Torch Coral, (1) Condy Anenome, and (2) Chromis and (1) Maroon Clown. I had these in the tank for a couple weeks. I recently purchased the following a week ago, (1) Yellow Tang, (3) heads of Frogspawn, (1) Open Brain, (1) closed Brain, (1) beautiful Elegance Coral!, and (1) frag of GSP and (1) Duncan head.
My Torch doesn't look that great. It used to extend about an inch or so. Now all arms are short and kinda shriveled. I had the Elegance Coral placed on the left side of the tank. It had minimal flow and I think the Tang wouldn't leave it alone and was eating food around it. The Elegance starting looking bad a couple days after putting it in the tank. I moved the Elegance to the middle under some shade and away from the Tang spot. I fed the Elegance some Mysis (2) days ago and it is starting to look better. The Condy Anenome isn't as big and full like before. I fed the Anenome some Mysis at the same time. Both the Coral and Anenome are sticky and instantly took the food so I know they're not on their last leg. My Frogspawn has always been open until yesterday. Out of nowhere, all heads closed up.
I tested my water last night and everything tested good. Please see parameters below,
Temp - 76 - 78
PH - 8-8.2
KH - 9 dkh - 161.1 ppm
Ammonia - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - 0 ppm
Phosphate - 0 ppm
CA - 440 ppm
MG - 1500 ppm
I used to have my lighting setup with 2x54w T5 HO 420 and 460 bulbs and 1x250w 14k Metal Halide in the middle. I switched about 2 weeks ago with the same T5's. However, I moved the halide from the middle to the side and added another 250w to the other side. I changed the bulbs to 20k. I installed this light setup in a canopy I built for the tank. The temperature was getting a little hot so I added a fan to blow through the canopy which cools it enough to kick the heater on.
I was thinking this was too much light so I added some digital timers and changed up my lighting schedule. I have my Actinics come on 1 hour before and after the halides. I have the right halide come on for 3 hours and then the left one comes on for 3 hours. A total of 6 hours between the two. Both halides only come on together for an hour. The halides are about 6-8 inches off the water. I am thinking about raising the lights to about 10-12 inches because I think it is to intense??
I was starting to think the flow was also too much so I turned the powerheads off and just used the returns for flow. Everything looks really distressed so I am starting to run out of ideas.
Sorry for the long-winded post. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks, everyone!