Thanks Doug!:wink:

I had great success with my low budget 72G. I attempted dosing and felt it wasn't for me...I was extremely inconsistent and just did not want to put in the time.:redface: ( My time spent on the tank is somewhat limited)
I do believe I started seeing a decline in certain corals once my leathers reached a good size. So perhaps chemical warfare may be to blame. Running carbon is a necessity with leathers.
Also I have experimented with certain salts and found different salts affected the tank. (ofcourse that alone could be explained by parameters rather than salt but I have never been real good at consistent testing).
I have the same frustrations at being able to keep certain corals with great success and others that just don't do well and slowly fade or die. Frustating as that may be I just chalk it up to some things are happy in one tank and not another.:wink:

Carmen

I keep a 20G with the 150W Coralife Aquapro, HOB filter with carbon, no skimmer. I do water changes every week to two weeks. I'll do it more frequenty is something looks unhappy. I find my colt and frogspawn to be like 'canaries in the coal mine' to let me know it something isn't right. I have eerything in that tank... softies, LPS and SPS. I have a HUGE toadstool in the tank which is a bit of a polluter that upsets the others from times to time but typically I find with carbon this goes away. Oh, and I keep my candy cane right on the sand and he grows like stupid.

Definitely get some test kits. You might it could be something as simple as your pH being off. Test, then dose IF you need it.

Hmmmm, some interesting thoughts. I am not using carbon right now, but I might have to start I guess? haha.

The xenia and colt coral were, when at their peak size maybe the size of a couple soft balls for the xenia and a tennis ball for the colt.

They are definitely doing poor now and I dont know if theyre going to make it. Think they are the culprit?

Don't forget that a reef is really just a pretty looking battleground. There may be something attacking the softies who are then fighting back with chemical warfare which is ****ing off the other corals. It's vicious circle. Just work your way through the solutions: water change and parameters, carbon (lots), look for pests like Xenia-eating nudibranchs, crabs, etc., make sure nothing is touching/ relocate certain corals, pray.

Hmmm, ok so I've got a minimal amount of carbon running now just in a HOB aquaclear 50. Its about 3 cups or so maybe 4?

How much do you guys run at a time on an aquarium with a 165G display and probably another 40G of water in my 60G sump? Also how long is it good for? A month?

Anyways, thanks for the help guys, I'll try this for now and see if it helps. Probably won't see results very fast.

Water Parameters - What do they mean for my tank?
 

Ok so I just got a test kit to test the water, here are my readings:

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - Very low, near 0
pH - between 8.1 and 8.3 (probably closer to 8.3)
Calcium - < 340 > 320
Phosphate - 0 - 0.25
Alkalinity - How do I test for this? There wasnt a way to test it in the kit I got.
Magnesium - See Above
gH - Should I test this? I cant find info on what a good range would be for it
kH - See above
Iron - I didnt test for this but could if needed.

So what do you guys think I should do to get my corals to start responding better to their environment? I see my calcium is below the ideal conditions and I could look at dosing that, but everything else seems adequate

They sell test kits for both of these tests. Just about every test kit manufacturer has their own and your favourite LFS should have one. Might want to call to check stock first thought as these kits seem to always be out of stock or have low stocking for some reason.

alkalinity is your kh. At least that's what I think it is. GH is more for fresh water.

Can anyone else verify this?

So Im just doing some reading about how Alkalinity Calcium and Magnesium levels all kinda need to be balanced and therefore you cant just up say the calcium right now (or so thats how Ive interpreted this article Im reading)

So I was wondering if you guys can give me an example of how the numbers might change for all three if I dosed just calcium. Would alk and mg go down or how does it work exactly?

What do you add to the water to up or lower any of the three levels? Whats the easiest way to add, as well? Do I need some kind of dosing system? Could I use my ATO to dose once I get my levels correct? just add my dosages in proportion to a 5g bucket that would auto top off the system during evaporation?