Hi Jason, thanks for the thoughts,
I have not tested for Phosphates in quite a while but will do so tonight. The frag in question is right in the middle of the tank, so I was actually worried that it had too much current from the return line. Since I have no wavemaker I thought that the reason polyps stopped coming out may have been to get some respite from current.
Here is how the system is set up presently current wise:
The tank is 60 gallon but the sump and fuge are built into the back and take up about 7 gallons of that amount. The return pump is a mag9.5 with about 6 inches of head so that alone is about 13 times volume. The duckbills from the return branch off in two different directions but essentially push the water from the right side of the tank to the overflow located on the left side of the tank. I have a maxijet 900 across from the overflow up high so that pushes water back towards the return (Lots of movement). Lastly, the other day I added a small hagen power head down low below the overflow just to get some more current lower down in the tank.
I hope that this is enough current but I guess my next investment should be a wavemaker of sorts. I use RO/DI water but the reservoir is actually outside (covered), on a covered balcony. It seems pretty clean with no dirt in it but do you think that particulate matter could be getting into the reservoir?
Lastly, the tank overall is about 1.5 years old. However it has been moved twice, once from California to Whistler (November '02), and then again just a few km away (June '03). Each move went very well with at least 50% of the water being saved, keeping all the rock and all the sand.
I'm not sure how much the moves would affect the tank, I would imagine that the cross country one resulted in some rock die off, even though it was kept immersed in water throughout.
I hope this answers your questions Jason, please keep the thoughts coming! I am presently holding off on buying any new frags until I get this figured out. I'm also watching the remaining ones closely!
Thanks,
Rob
|