Growing out corals.

[DorySaid]

Originally Posted by Frank Infanti

I completely understand.

I admit I'm kinda shoot from the hip when it comes to this hobby. I'm deffinetly going to pay attention to levels much closer this time around.

Ok so what happened? About a year ago everything was fine in my 160gal reef tank with a med/high bio load with LSP & SPS corals. Sorry can't name them since I'm not that technical. Had it running brand new introducing frags & everything was growing. I was running GFO, algae scrubber which was doing great. Since I was thinking of getting more fish I thought let's put a BIO pellet reactor online which I believe was the down fall of everything.

So hear I am. I had a huge crash and lost all the coral except for two heads of my hammer. So about a min of 6months have passed with just water changes & now I have started to get back in.

I have started to introduce new frags. I bought from a fellow reefer a frogspawn which seems to be doing great & SPS from another member which are shitting the bed.

Everything I'm experiencing is in the above thread & I'm truly nervous to continue investing in this hobby.

I'm going to try and modify my sump this week so I can add a refugium with hopes that it could keep my nitrates & phos in check.





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It's ok to own a biopellet reactor and this and that but you have to make slow subtle changes with any new piece of equipment that could or will change water chemistry. I would only add a piece of gear if I know I have a problem I need to correct. But again, you have to use a slow approach.
Furthermore if you have a good setup in the past there was likely no need to add a reactor or much anything else. If it ain't broke don't fix it attitude.
We wouldn't wanna see you get discouraged and throw in the towel just yet. My recommendation is to double check parameters and start with a couple inexpensive frags. Monitor there color growth over the next little while then slowly start adding again.

[DKoKoMan]

I test my water every Sunday for salinity, alkalinity, phosphate and nitrates. I am currently carbon dosing and slowly make adjustments based on the numbers. I have had some good growth, coloration and limited algae.

I do have two separate frags (Acro and Monti) which are currently brown. I had these in my reef from the start and when I had excessive nutrients. They have not died and have not computed up. Just the other day I noticed the acro finally getting a green base and the color appears to be coming back. That being said I have great coloration in all other sps.

[adam84]

Other than lowering your nitrates my suggestion would be to keep your lighting high but lower the length of time at 100% try to replicate natural sunlight starting the day with only the blue spectrum for an hour or two then the whites and then full spectrum for only a few hours and ramp back down. I have been using led for a few years now and what works well for me is I start my blue channel in the morning for 2 hours then the whites come on, 1.5 hours later I have 3 T5s that come on for 4 hours (2 true actinic 1 coral plus for a more full spectrum light) 1.5 hours later the whites are back off and it's 2 more hours of just blues.

[DKoKoMan]

Forgot to add... you could get your water tested by another reefer or LFS to compare against your water tests. That way you will ensure accuracy.