Blah coral colours... any tips?

[doch]

Originally Posted by High tide

Do you get good coralline growth? Is that the 48" or 36" fixture? How much food do you feed and how often? What media do you have in your Tom filter?


Provided your bulbs are still young and it's the 48" fixture, I'd say your lighting is adequate. I would swap a fiji purple for a daylight though to raise the PAR.

Coraline is not great, it's coming along though. It's the 36" fixture (36"55gal). Bulbs are only about 2 months old... maybe 3. As for food, I give the drops almost every day, marine snow and phyto probably 2-3 times per week (about 2oz of each). The media for the filter, I just use the pre filter stuff, and carbon... I don't recall there being anything in the bottom... maybe bio balls? I'll have to check that out on the weekend.

Thanks Wes, I'll try dropping the Alk some. I had read that the higher the Alk, the better the growth, so I'd been trying to keep it on the high side.

\Thanks for all the ideas guys.

[Dyspnea]

Before you drop money on new test kits, you can ask someone else with "better" test kit too check your water. the hagen test kits could be right, you never know.

[High tide]

Coralline algae is a good indicator of water quality. Assuming all Ca, Alk, and Mg levels are as they read I strongly suspect PO4 and probably NO3.

Sounds like your lighting is a bit too dim to maintain good growth and colour for SPS. You may want to try supplementing with an extra strip or switching some of the dimmer bulbs (fiji purple or blues) with ones with higher par values.

Also, if you're feeding everyday and only doing 10% weekly w/c your skimmers cannot keep up with the nutrient export.

Bio balls are unsuitable in a reef tank because they create NO3 that cannot be converted fast enough, with a better test kit I'm sure it would yield NO3 readings.

First thing to do before you do anything is test the water with new reliable test kits.

[doch]

High Tide - Thanks for all the advice... much appreciated. What would you recommend for media in the filter if bio balls are no good? I looked it up on line and the Toms come with bio balls and scintered glass media. As said earlier, I also use the filter floss like stuff, and the carbon. Should I get rid of the bio balls and glass media? Should they be replaced with anything?

[High tide]

No problem, glad to offer some advice.
Just the filter floss, cleaned or replaced regularly, and carbon changed periodically are good enough. Bio balls and sintered glass are designed for fish only systems where NO3 is not as big a deal and much better than NH3 and NO2. They have no place in a reef tank. It would help to put a Chemi-pure Elite in there to bring down your PO4 and NO3 when needed.

[doch]

I'm actually very seriously thinking of running zeo. Found a set up in Calgary that I'm hoping I can buy. He's also got 2 little fishies reactor. If that doesn't work out, I'll likely buy new soon. I'll also make some tweaks in the filtration as soon as I have some time (finish the reno's - 1 more day should do it). Thanks again everyone! Appreciate the advice!

[saltynuts]

buy a bigger tank lol. let use know how things go.

[doch]

Ed, I can't wait until we're done these reno's, and into the new (but not yet found) house with my new (and not yet picked out) 180ish tank. CAN'T WAIT!!! My little 55 is running out of room already! Hmmm... maybe it's a good thing that things are growing slowly!! hahaha