Please Help - Corals are not looking well - All Parameters are normal

BillyP

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I am starting to think it's the lights. I changed my 460nm wavepoint t5 to a coralife 10k bulb and the anemone looks a lot better. I might try and not run the halides tomorrow to see how they look. It can't hurt right?
It shouldn't hurt if you turn it off for a week or two to see what happens, as long as the photo period with the t5's are about an hour or two longer than usual then you should be good.
 
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JCOLE

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Oh alright same lol the lfs I trust is pretty far away from me as well! then I looked up that store and they seem to be the store that doesn't sell horrible salt considering what kind of corals and fish that they're selling. I can only think that problem would be the RODI, unless it's something smaller. Can you remember the last change that you did to your tank? And how's that anemone doing? I am not an expert on anemones but definitely know more than enough about corals and they're pretty similar.
See pictures. Before and after. This is with just the t5s and no halide. It looks like the anemone really prefers this lighting. I think I might have been giving them a suntan...lol
fc59af385b12a74a062dc5a160494850.jpg
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BillyP

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See pictures. Before and after. This is with just the t5s and no halide. It looks like the anemone really prefers this lighting. I think I might have been giving them a suntan...lol
fc59af385b12a74a062dc5a160494850.jpg
9f07f16783ef7657bbbe28ba59f45f2e.jpg
Oh yeah the corals and anemones usually need to acclimate to lights that powerful. And also considering that the par values changes throughout the tank. Not gonna lie though that water you use actually doesn't seem that bad because the coloration of your corals and anemones look great!
 
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JCOLE

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Oh yeah the corals and anemones usually need to acclimate to lights that powerful. And also considering that the par values changes throughout the tank. Not gonna lie though that water you use actually doesn't seem that bad because the coloration of your corals and anemones look great!
Appreciate it. I am thinking of adding 2 more t5s for a total of 4x54w t5s and eliminating the halides. I don't plan on keep sps for a while. Do you think I can get by with 4x54w at 55 gallons?
 
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JCOLE

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Also after changing the bulb out to a 10k there is a bright green algae over all the rocks. Popped up within an hour...weird
 

BillyP

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Appreciate it. I am thinking of adding 2 more t5s for a total of 4x54w t5s and eliminating the halides. I don't plan on keep sps for a while. Do you think I can get by with 4x54w at 55 gallons?

Yeah no problem, and yeah my first tank was run completely off of t5's and it looked great. It might take some adjusting though to figure out the new photoperiod of t5 only though. Also you can't really cook the corals or anemones with t5's.
 
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JCOLE

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Yeah no problem, and yeah my first tank was run completely off of t5's and it looked great. It might take some adjusting though to figure out the new photoperiod of t5 only though. Also you can't really cook the corals or anemones with t5's.
Yeah I never has t5s on my other tanks. Only PCs and halides. what photoperiod do you recommend with t5s?
 

BillyP

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Also after changing the bulb out to a 10k there is a bright green algae over all the rocks. Popped up within an hour...weird

Yeah that is weird, next time you go to your lfs I would get your phosphates tested because it might be your test kits, I use API for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate, and Red Sea for the rest of the parameters.
 
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JCOLE

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Yeah that is weird, next time you go to your lfs I would get your phosphates tested because it might be your test kits, I use API for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate, and Red Sea for the rest of the parameters.
Ok. I was reading that it might be the start of coraline algae. Maybe the halide bulbs and super blue 460 t5 were crap bulbs and suppressing the system??

Just staying optimistic here....
 

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Yeah I never has t5s on my other tanks. Only PCs and halides. what photoperiod do you recommend with t5s?

I would reccomend starting off with your normal photoperiod, and then adding an hour or two since you're replacing metal halides with them. I ran a 10 hour photo period with t5's only until I got sps, then I got Metal Halides (20k) and then still ran a 10 hour photoperiod but with Metal halides on for 4 hours. But I wouldn't start at 10 I would start at whatever your normal t5 photoperiod is then keep adding hours until 9 or 10 unless they react badly.
 

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Ok. I was reading that it might be the start of coraline algae. Maybe the halide bulbs and super blue 460 t5 were crap bulbs and suppressing the system??

Just staying optimistic here....

I think your system needs to stabilize more before it gets coralline algae (a couple more months) and I don't think the T5's suppressed the growth. It might have been the Metal halides.
 
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JCOLE

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It appears that it is green Coraline algae. The lime green algae is hard and there are bits of red and pink coming through. Looks awesome. Also I just noticed I have a bunch of little Spirorbid Worms on the back glass and on the rocks which I believe the system is starting to mature??

I have 20 gallons of salt churring for tomorrows water change and I just changed all the filters.

I picked up some Instant Ocean Bio-Spira bacteria. I am going to add that tomorrow after the water change.

Should I add the bacteria or wait to see how things look? Will it start another cycle and cause stress to corals, etc?
 

BillyP

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It appears that it is green Coraline algae. The lime green algae is hard and there are bits of red and pink coming through. Looks awesome. Also I just noticed I have a bunch of little Spirorbid Worms on the back glass and on the rocks which I believe the system is starting to mature??

I have 20 gallons of salt churring for tomorrows water change and I just changed all the filters.

I picked up some Instant Ocean Bio-Spira bacteria. I am going to add that tomorrow after the water change.

Should I add the bacteria or wait to see how things look? Will it start another cycle and cause stress to corals, etc?

Adding bacteria is never bad, it will always benefit the tank. It should start another cycle if anything it will help prevent another mini cycle, which is good, because the corals will then be less stressed, and yeah I like that type of coralline algae! It eventually will turn all purple but I personally like both looks!
 
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JCOLE

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I changed the filters, did a 30% water change, and added bacteria. The anemone is looking better already but the corals still aren't looking that great. I am going to redo my lights and just put one 250w in the middle because I still think it's too much light.
fb6abe866a0c46c0564457a6a72be219.jpg
 

BillyP

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I changed the filters, did a 30% water change, and added bacteria. The anemone is looking better already but the corals still aren't looking that great. I am going to redo my lights and just put one 250w in the middle because I still think it's too much light.
fb6abe866a0c46c0564457a6a72be219.jpg

Yeah the anemone looks great!
 
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JCOLE

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Thanks for all the help everyone.

What I learned. More light isnt always better, WATER CHANGES, bacteria is your friend, oh and......PATIENCE. I never like to admit that one though... :)
 

Del’s Reef

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Thanks for all the help everyone.

What I learned. More light isnt always better, WATER CHANGES, bacteria is your friend, oh and......PATIENCE. I never like to admit that one though... :)
I’m late on this, but one thing I found in this hobby is “slow down.” Our tanks and critters do best when we leave them alone. Most of the stuff we do to constantly try to re-invent the wheel many times can have the opposite effect than what we were going for. Make changes very, very slowly (unless you have dire cause to change it right the heck now, such as a huge ammonia spike or spotting disease) and let the critters acclimate. Unfortunately, we humans have tank ADHD and just keep changing things to suit our mood, rather than for the inhabitants.
 

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How often are you doing water changes? I've read - or perhaps watched on YouTube- that Protein skimmers can take out helpful things like trace elements and such as well as taking out the bad things. A once a week partial water change of about 5 - 10 percent is the most recommended cure for this skimmer-related issue. On YouTube there's a channel called "Tidel Gardens" who is one of my first go-to's for everything. He's a HUGE advocate of "water changes cure all."
 
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