Uhg, made a sump, sad corals, wack params.

[mjszos]

Yeah I generally suck at testing alk/mag/cal I hate titration tests- I also could have done it wrong. My roommate is the one who moved her tank into my larger one and she helped a lot with the tests and stuff, so she moved and now I’m figuring it out.

I may have tested wrong. I did dose some calcium, and alkalinity buffer.

Not all corals are failing as some posts suggested, I’ve had corals in the tank the whole time and they’re doing alright (large hammer lost a couple heads, I readjusted, it looks better. The torch tried to die but seems like it’s coming back).

I don’t like chasing numbers, but also I am terrible with water changes so I need to up my game a bit lol.

I suck at the titration tests so don’t feel bad, if you’ve got some cash to spare the Hanna checkers are worth every penny in my opinion. It’s good you dosed, just make sure you go up slowly. Your tank will be more appreciative of the progressive upward trend than just BAM big a** jump.

Glad to hear your euphyllia is bouncing back though, I love hammers and torches. Hammers have always been rock solid for me and capable to taking a ton of abuse, but torches have always been these delicate flowers that just bail out at the slightest inconvenience lol.

It’s been a couple weeks since your initial post, let’s see some updated pics to see your bounce back.

 

[lainamarie]

I suck at the titration tests so don’t feel bad, if you’ve got some cash to spare the Hanna checkers are worth every penny in my opinion. It’s good you dosed, just make sure you go up slowly. Your tank will be more appreciative of the progressive upward trend than just BAM big a** jump.

Glad to hear your euphyllia is bouncing back though, I love hammers and torches. Hammers have always been rock solid for me and capable to taking a ton of abuse, but torches have always been these delicate flowers that just bail out at the slightest inconvenience lol.

It’s been a couple weeks since your initial post, let’s see some updated pics to see your bounce back.

Hahah well the torch is *slightly* less sad, but I’ll get ya a photo.

Stupid delicate corals The hard ones I can’t keep alive to save my life, so I gotta remove em I’m sure they’re just sucking unnecessary nutrients or something dumb like that.

I did dose low- I was afraid if I did the suggested amount it would somehow be too much still anyway and I’d murder everyone.

Photo shows the empty skeletons :( torch looks extra sad cuz it’s night time. I wanna try moving him too cuz it might improve, I think the spot he’s in makes him sadder.

 

[lainamarie]

I suck at the titration tests so don’t feel bad, if you’ve got some cash to spare the Hanna checkers are worth every penny in my opinion. It’s good you dosed, just make sure you go up slowly. Your tank will be more appreciative of the progressive upward trend than just BAM big a** jump.

Glad to hear your euphyllia is bouncing back though, I love hammers and torches. Hammers have always been rock solid for me and capable to taking a ton of abuse, but torches have always been these delicate flowers that just bail out at the slightest inconvenience lol.

It’s been a couple weeks since your initial post, let’s see some updated pics to see your bounce back.

Oooh yah I went back and saw the photo of it which was also nighttime with lights just turned on lol, in comparison doing waaaay better, much less in its skeleton there.

 

[mjszos]

Things are looking a little better, but hard to compare it to a night time pic. Hope everything keeps moving in the right direction :)

 

[Dom]

I built a sump with my own two hands! Bahaha. Has a skimmer, and live sand, and bio media, but I’m sure I could add more things. ****’s expensive tho.

However my hammer receded like 3 heads, sad day. And my torch just looks sad. Other corals seem to be well, I’d say 30/70% (30 doing ok, 70 being bleached or getting sad) depending which kinds they’re either struggling, or happy/doing okay.

It’s a 54 gallon corner tank with a 10 gallon sump.
Nitrates - 35-40
PH - 8
Alkalinity - 5.4
Calcium - 400
Magnesium - 1080
Salinity - 1.025

**** seems low- how do you recommend solving this?

I’ll do a water change tomorrow, and it’s late as I’m posting this so that’s all the testing I’m doing tonight.

The images look *extra* sad because the lights were on off, I just turned them on for photos.\

Your Alkalinity is very low, and I expect is a large reason why your corals look as they do. In my experience, a coral's struggle begins long before there is any visual indication. So even the corals that "seem to be well" may be struggling.

The nice thing about your tank is that it is only 54 gallons. This means that faithful, weekly 20% water changes will be enough to replenish the elements being consumed by the tank. But remember, as corals grow, their demand increases. This means you would eventually begin dosing your tank.

So do 20% water changes for the next 6 weeks and reevaluate. I'm confident you will see an improvement.

 

[Dom]

DUDE SO MUCH AIPTASIA

also melt the bracing? show me a photo and circle of what you mean and i’ll explain as best i can haha,

i use the red sea test kits, and i use fritz reef pro mix for salt

@Fish Fan

DING... DING...DING... we have a winner!

 

[Dom]

I’m thinking that you should be dosing Alkalinity because your coral is eating it up between your far spaced water changes…?

I have a calcium reactor for alkalinity replacement and Calcium. Some people use a two part dosing scheme to keep up with coral uptake,
But you need something to keep the minerals in balance and steady.

Otherwise you are not going to keep corals long term

I don't see any source of replenishment in this build... not even regular water changes.

 

[KrisReef]

I don't see any source of replenishment in this build... not even regular water changes.

Yup, likely this is a source of the problems?