What am I doing wrong? Or am I just being impatient ?

[Reefer Rob]

Originally Posted by mandyplo

Ok. As far as I know I'm not using any chemicals I don't know what you mean about that?

I thought my system was simple: dual carbon gfo reactor, water changes weekly, top of the line lights, no dosing, skimmer, RO/DI water. What am I doing wrong?

I feed 1 frozen cube of food a day, but I split it up into 3 different feedings throughout the day. This is literally all the maintenance I do with my tank, as well as testing with test kits and using a magnet cleaner...

I say unstable because this was happening in your tank less than a month ago. You need to give this tank some time.

Definitely get something to test phosphate, a Hanna Checker would be best.

[mandyplo]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

I'm going to possibly disagree with Rob, I think if the tank has been running 14 months with a move 2 months ago, it's probably fine. Maybe not stable, but in a state that you should be able to keep what you have.
You mention you don't think the reactors are working right..why?
Also, get the skimmer going today, it's going to help a lot. Pics of the tank and corals will give us a better picture of what things look like. I don't see any chemicals, just the zooplankton..if this is a liquid food, stop using it for now.
What is the intensity of the light? Should be fairly high to cover than much tank.
What is your water change schedule? Changing to a new salt can sometimes throw things off a bit.

I talked to the guys at BRS today they are sending me a new carbon canister - they think its faulty. I am having almost no flow coming out of the product line - its coming out drip by drip, and when I take the carbon canister out, the GFO tumbles perfectly and the flow is much faster, so any ways they're replacing the carbon canister for me hopefully that fixes the problem.

Okay so the lights came on this morning, everyone was looking much happier than yesterday. The clam was open a lot more its inhalent siphon wasn't gaping open, the frogspawn open a lot more, I could actually see the frogspawns mouths. A few hours later (now) the clam has closed up a bit a gain, its inhalent siphon is wide open (I don't know if this is a sign of stress but it seems that when the clam closes up and pulls its mantle in its inhalent siphon always seems to be wide open aswell) The frogspawn however still looks happy and a lot more open than yesterday.

the skimmer is now running. I have stopped using the zoo plankton I didn't use it yesterday or today at all.

I'm really sorry I don't know a whole lot about lights - I just read up on the kessils and saw great reviews about the A350W and was recommended to buy 2 for my tank so I did. Here is a site that talks about the intensity of the lights, but I can't really make out much from what they are saying, so maybe this link will answer your question regarding their intensity, sorry I couldn't be more helpful However I am now determined to learn about them to further my understanding about my lights and set-up as a whole. Keep in mind I have the A350W (wide angle lights) 2 of them.
http://blog.aquanerd.com/2012/04/kes...a350w-led.html

My water change schedule is once a week every sunday and I change about 10 gallons of water which would be almost 15% water change. Is this too much or too little, or is this amount okay? Could I reduce the water changes to once every 2 weeks with this amount, or is once a week better?

In the pictures attached in my album, tell me anything you think. Corals / clam look happy sad? Lights positioned ok? Anything else lol?

In the pictures, the first pictures are old (from yesterday) of the coral and clam when they looked unhappy. The pictures at the bottom (the newer ones) are from today, where the corals and clam look much happier and more open.

Note: In the third picture (the clam when I was drip acclimating) has what I think are sponges (2 different kinds) One large colony on the right and another large colony on the left - growing all over the clams shell. It also seems to have 2 barnacles on it, and as you can see some bubble algae, and on pics 6 and 7 you can see a bright pink thing on the top left part of the clam, could be another sponge not sure. Are these things that can irritate the clam? As of right now he is more open again and the inhalent siphon is not gaping anymore.

Update: The Frogspawn is even more open now than in the pic I took about an hour ago, looks way happier than yesterday.

[mandyplo]

Originally Posted by Reefer Rob

I say unstable because this was happening in your tank less than a month ago. You need to give this tank some time.

Definitely get something to test phosphate, a Hanna Checker would be best.

It was only completely green at my boyfriends house - when we did the move, and I did the huge water change it has done nothing but improve since then and there is no trace of cloudy-ness / green water in the tank now.

[mandyplo]

Originally Posted by reefwars

Humm frogspawn and clam...two animals that react to flow, have you tried moving them around? What are u using for flow??

The clam will handle any volume of flow but may be ****ed while getting use to it.

Also what type of clam and where do you have it sand or rock??


Cheers

Hi I have not moved the clam or corals around since I first put them in the tank friday morning. The clam is on the bottom in a very low flow area for now, and is perched up on a few rock rubble pieces which are sitting on the bottom of the tank (his mantle was already attached to a piece of rock when I bought him) It is a derasa clam.

The frogspawn as you can see in the album pics is positioned 1/3 of the way up from the bottom in a very low-medium flow area.

I am using 2 Koralia Hydor 1050 gph power heads and my return jet from my sump.

[Aquattro]

You might be better doing a larger water change less often, say 20 or 25g every 2 or 3 weeks. Greater dilution. The skimmer will help too. It doesn't sound like you're in deep trouble, just need to tweak water quality and figure out your lights more. I think they have a dial or something to turn them up and down, not really sure how it's indicated for brightness/intensity.

[mandyplo]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

You might be better doing a larger water change less often, say 20 or 25g every 2 or 3 weeks. Greater dilution. The skimmer will help too. It doesn't sound like you're in deep trouble, just need to tweak water quality and figure out your lights more. I think they have a dial or something to turn them up and down, not really sure how it's indicated for brightness/intensity.

Hi I see what you mean now about the lights - Yes the brightness/intensity is about 1/2 way up. They have 2 dials, one for brightness(intensity) one for how much tuna blue/white light you want.

So what do I have to change about my water quality exactly and how do I go about doing so? If these are my params
Ammonia 0.00 ppm
Nitrate 0-2.5 ppm
Nitrite - 0.00 ppm
Magnesium 1300 mg/L
Alkalinity 11 dkh
pH 8.2
Calcium 400-410 mg/L
Salinity 1.024

Is the Alk the only thing that is high? Everything else seems to be in the right range?

And thank you for the tip on the water changes.

Update: As the day progresses the clam and frogspawn continue to open more and more and look happier and happier. I am relieved, I think they just took a few days to acclimate but I do want to get on top of my water quality, any tips will help - and I will be picking up a phosphate test kit. Anything else I should be checking or are those all the essential parameters?

[Aquattro]

For water quality, it's more about dissolved nutrients than all the stuff you can measure. Get the skimmer running well, it will clean the water and likely raise pH a bit, add more O2 in, etc. And be patient

[mandyplo]

Whoah sorry guys I guess all the pics I linked earlier didn't work?

Here is my frogspawn yesterday when he was still ticked off



Here he is today, much happier from what I can tell



Here is my clam yesterday not fully open (It is much more open today sorry I didn't get a pic of it today)



My unknown Favia frag



Here is my overall set up with lights over tank - some before/some after corals & clam were purchased (Are the lights too high?)





Panda can has corals?


Edit: Please ignore the ugly mesh disaster DIY top It is being replaced asap......... lol

[MMAX]

I would say your lights are too high. I'm not familiar with these LEDs that you have but from the picture they seem like they're quite a ways away.

[Spyd]

I would definitely lower the lights more. I would say a good 6" or so. It is amazing how much that will increase your par levels at the bottom of the tank.

You have very little rock in there, but, that should not be a problem because you have very little livestock in there. If you do decide to start stocking heavier, I would suggest running bio-pellets to help with the denitrifying process. Your perameters look good though. ALK is a little high but everything else is in a good range. I doubt from the pictures that you have any phosphate issues as you would see some nusience algae by now. I would suggest purchasing a Hanna checker though when you get the chance.

Definitely stop feeding the zooplankton. Your corals and clam will get enough food from the fish food. Excess zooplankton can decompose and cause all sorts of problems.

It looks as though everything is back on track for you.