smallreef

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I started a Nuvo 20 several months back. Mixed Reef with soft corals, some SPS and some LPS.

I have around 20 different kinds of zoas all were doing great and growing quickly. Example had a 2 polyp Utter chaos within 6-8 weeks now 8 polyps.

Last couple weeks some colonies closed up, have had some die off, some have gotten smaller and some the heads are mis-shaped and look unhappy, unresponsive to touch etc.

I started using Kalk on July 1st, have never used it in 17+ years I've kept reefs, always used 2 part. I started very low dose and have been raising it slowly since July and sometimes supplementing 2 part during the week as well when I test. I am up to around 1 tsp per gallon in the ATO as of now, which loses around .25 DKH a day. There definitely have been ALk swings throughout the week since I started but usually slowly goes down during the week whereas 9.5DKH after a water change might be 8 a week later.

Other than that salinity 1.26, some carbon, ghost skimmer. I change around 5 gallons a week as its a newer tank, might go down to 3 or 4 gallons / week after tank reaches 6-8 months. 2 clownfish and a clown goby, no pests, no amphipods in the tank, no nudi's, spiders, etc. lighting AI prime (not HD) 80% power on 20K. I started the tank at 60% and raised to 80% of last 3-4 months. Out of the 20 something colonies most are zoos, some are paly's. the issues are with both.

I can't seem to figure out whats wrong, have kept reef tanks on and off for many years.

Any suggestions?
 
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MURICA
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All other parameters are the same..?

Are u able to relocate the frags?

What led u to start dosing kalk? Was kH low?

I had some mushrooms that went from ok to all distressed and not opening. Moved them around to a lower flow area and now their fine. Guess they just didnt like it where they were anymore.
 

smallreef

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other parameters the same. the frags are on the bottom 25% of tank, lights around 8 inches off tank.

I started dosing kalk as I like how kalk is equal parts alk and cal especially in a nano tank. I used to use the BRS 1.1 / but they never stayed at 1.1, one 1.3, the other one at 1.5-1.7 which over time can throw levels out of whack.

Flow is moderate nothing crazy. I too have had mushrooms that look distressed as soon as move to low flow do much better but zoas unlike mushrooms can handle variety of flow, low flow to moderate in some cases higher.
 

smallreef

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I keep the lights on for 13 hours a day, but I have a 4 hour ramp up and 4 hour ramp down so around 4 hours a day the par is probably so limited that its not strong enough to add value to the corals or over light them in terms of amount of hours per day lights are on.

I did measure calcium which I haven't done in a while and noticed it was high (495). I stopped dosing kalk since Sunday and just dosed ALK (ESV B-ionic) in attempt to lower the calcium. I tested tonight (Hanna testers) and ALK is 8.9, calcium lowered to 436 which is almost balanced. Balanced for calcium @ 8.9 DKH is probably around 425. I will dose 1 more ALK tomorrow morning and then start Kalk in the ATO again.

I have a refugium in the back of the nuvo 20 and the chaeto used to grow like crazy. I did notice the growth slowed down a lot so perhaps the tank is "too clean" affecting the zoas. I don't have a phosphate or Nitrate tester as the tests kits are expired so might pick some up to test the theory that perhaps the water is "too clean". I've noticed a slight improvement with the zoas this week since I lowered the lights from 80% 20K to 60% 20K
 
Location
MURICA
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495 is on the higher end but certainly not too high.

I agree with laying off the kalk for a while too.

If im not mistaken, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but high calcium will not let the kH rise and vice versa.

So if your calcium is at 495 the kH might be at it's max no matter how much kalk you add.
 

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