Reef tank recommendations

[Hp1836]

90 gallon display mixed reef 120 gallon system. Lighting 4 AI primes and 1 AI blade. Lighting schedule attached. Flow 2 Nero 5 at 50% on sides. One high one low. Using b-ionic dosing all stays between 8-9. I Try to keep it closer to 8. Calcium and magnesium all within range. Calcium hovers around 425 and magnesium around 1350. I feed mysis in the am and seaweed extreme pellets PM. Dose Live Phyto every 3 days as I have 4 clams. 2 are still small.
Any recomondations?

Have a lot of corals that have not seemed to do well. As in slowly just kind of fade and die but others seem to do awesome. Even within the same species. I have a leather getting massive right below a favia I can watch grow. I put a different favia near it and it faded and died in a week or two.

Is this just part of the struggle with a mixed reef or is something wrong

 

[dedragon]

what is the temp, salinity, nitrate and phosphate levels?

 

[mcarroll]

Have a lot of corals that have not seemed to do well. As in slowly just kind of fade and die but others seem to do awesome. Even within the same species. I have a leather getting massive right below a favia I can watch grow. I put a different favia near it and it faded and died in a week or two.

Is this just part of the struggle with a mixed reef or is something wrong

Question: What's the struggle inherent to "mixed reefs"?
Community Answer: Nothing – we all do it!
mcarroll's answer: Chemical warfare.

Assuming you set up your flow and lighting like someone else you saw with a successful tank they are probably at least "close enough" – nutrients and other factors are more likely to be at issue.

Tell us how you're maintaining/filtering the tank and maybe there are some changes we could suggest.

BTW, your flow should be able to at least tumble small grains of sand on the sand bed – otherwise it will not be strong enough to keep detritus afloat.

 

[Hp1836]

78 F on the ink bird. Salinity 1.025. Nitrate Between 10-25. Phosphate I keep under .4 as recommended by a friend with a massive acro tank and a lfs. Flow can definitely move sand at least across the front. I don’t do water changes unless on occasion phosphate gets high or like when I used chemiclean a while ago to kill cyano.

The lighting and flow I set up by researching online but they seem fairly standard. Flow one high one low across the front of the tank on the sides. Lighting was blue and purples are high the red and green on but low and adjusted the white to how I liked it to look and moonlight at night. UV on the lower end

I filter with filter socks I change every few days, a refugium with chaeto a green fern like plant and 3 red mangroves, I also have a skimmer I have a co2 scrubber on

 

[mcarroll]

Phosphate I keep under .4

.4 or .04?

.4 would be fine

.04 is pretty low....I wouldn't keep a new tank that low IMO. Mature tanks can be a different story.

 

[mcarroll]

I don’t do water changes unless on occasion phosphate gets high or like when I used chemiclean a while ago to kill cyano.

Those things should be infrequent and irregular. IMO a conservative but regular water change schedule can be very beneficial. Randy Holmes-Farley is known for doing 1%. Last time I was doing them it was 5% per day. TO me the difference to my corals from not doing water changes was noticeable. Doesn't have to be a lot...doesn't even have to be the standard "10%".

Consider running some activated carbon to help with the chemical warfare probably happening between corals and between algae and corals. I think something pelleted vs loose is better for your tank. Rinse whatever you pick very well.

I have a co2 scrubber on

If your pH tends to be high (>7.9) then I'd also consider letting pH ride where it wants to for a while to see if corals react better. CO2 and PO4 are both instrumental to photosynthesis and in short supply can cause problems. If pH is artificially high, then it can be a problem in this regard as it restricts CO2...and vis versa, as your CO2 reactor goes. Chances are your pH is fine even if it's slightly on the low side....it's usually only a coincidence when pH is low....doesn't indicate a problem. In theory low pH can indicate bad aeration, but if you're aerating really well with high-co2 air, then the pH number is coincidence, not bad aeration.

(High co2 air is bad for us, BTW, but not bad for the tank. Sometimes just opening the door to the fish room or running fan in there is enough, BTW.)

 

[Hp1836]

I was trying to avoid water changed regularly but I will give it a try for a few weeks and see how it goes. 120 gallon system estimate 100 gallons of water how much would you recommend changing weekly? I will also throw in some carbon.

Phosphate at 0.4

 

[mcarroll]

I was trying to avoid water changed regularly but I will give it a try for a few weeks and see how it goes. 120 gallon system estimate 100 gallons of water how much would you recommend changing weekly? I will also throw in some carbon.

Phosphate at 0.4

Well, maybe it depends on the exact reason(s) for avoiding? But I think anywhere from 1 to 5 gallons would still be meaningful.

I found doing 5 gallons a day very convenient.

A Water Change A Day...

Due to time constraints, I've fallen so far behind on my usual 20% (20 gallon) water changes that I've decided to re-adopt a water change strategy that worked well before, but requires smaller chunks of time to pull off. I'll be doing 5 gallons a day - which is only 5% - but it'll still give me...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Hp1836]

Where I live it’s just a lot of work and I have heard of people who never do them and just dose. B-ionic is supposed to have everything needed in them. I’m on the 3rd floor and rodi system is on the first. Takes a full day or 2 also. Pulling water,Mixing, and heating. I can mix up to 30 gallons at a time as that’s the largest container I have. So I guess just laziness.

So would you recommend a few gallons a day or would say 30 gallons a week be ok?

 

[mcarroll]

Where I live it’s just a lot of work and I have heard of people who never do them and just dose. B-ionic is supposed to have everything needed in them.

...everything, more or less. I will say at the time I mentioned, I was doing Randy's Recipe #2 for the most part....much less complete than ESV.

I’m on the 3rd floor and rodi system is on the first.

You can theoretically run the hose 50-100' or something to where it's more convenient to use.

Takes a full day or 2 also. Pulling water,Mixing, and heating.

No. I had a reservoir with a float valve, so I always had X gallons ready. I'd pump 5 gallons into a bucket, mix the salt in 5 minutes, and be done with the water change and have everything all cleaned up in 10 minutes. Check out that thread I linked...has videos and everything. :)

I can mix up to 30 gallons at a time as that’s the largest container I have. So I guess just laziness.

We don't underestimate laziness....it just has to be leveraged properly. :)

So would you recommend a few gallons a day or would say 30 gallons a week be ok?

The more frequently you do them, the smaller they can be.....that usually translates to "easier" depending on your situation.

But whatever is convenient to you.

In my case, daily was convenient....I had the process down to a science, and I had an extra 10 minutes before work every day. If that sounds good (read the thread for the details of course), then do it that way....I wasn't doing anything too fancy so it should be easy for you as well.

 

[X-37B]

After many years I do 5% a month WC on anything with a sump.
I would increase light.
I ran first 4 at 100% and the other 3 at 50%.
1hr up/down 8 hrs peak
I run all at 100% on my 13g.
2 of my old systems running 2 16hds.
20g

30g

 

[Hp1836]

X-37B would you just bump the primes and blade to 100% on blues and purples or how would you do that?

I have done 2 30 gallon water changes a week apart as well as dosing 10CC of b-ionic a+b 2x a day which is slightly under what I was dosing but So far everything is good. Alk is staying at 9.2 according to Hanna and calcium is in range. Phosphate and nitrate are dropping but still ok for now.

So far everything is good since I started doing water changes. In fact a green acro that was alive but lost its background color has since had the green background color return. The polyps themselves never lost color or closed up. I take that as a small sign the waterchanges are working and making a difference .

Is b-ionic missing something that water changes replace? Using reef crystals salt. Clearly the salt replaces something b-ionic doesnt