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[Jim54]

Hello everyone. I am new to SW. Started about 6months ago.
Current setup
55 gallon
FOWLR but have a few soft corals
mushrooms
star polyps
zoanthus
3 chromis
1 tomato clown
1 half black angel
2 blue and yellow damsels
1 yellow damsel
1 cleaner shrimp
HOT marineland filter 250 (has a bio wheel but disconnected it recently??)
HOT D&D skimmer
marineland 1200 power head
two 50/50 coral life bulbs

I have slowly intoroduced the corals and figure I will have to add mor lighting.

Looking for recomendations
Also my zoanthus coral ahs been closed since Xmas checked water values are all is fine( struggle w nitrate levels but use R/O water and frequent water changes of 10%). It partiallly opens some days but never fully. My half- black has nipped at times is this a problem??
thaks for any feedback

 

[Anonymous]

:welcome:

I think you're probably better off without the filter if you're starting to keep coral, IMO. Coral are more susceptible to nitrates than fish and filters/biowheels etc will start to leach nitrates back into the system at some point.

Have you tested your nitrates recently? If so, what were the results? Low levels of nitrates can still be problematic.

Also, how much are you feeding, and how often?

The Angel may well be the problem with the zoanthids, but not knowing about them as much as others, I'll leave that for someone else to comment on. If not the Angel, then there may be other causes. Small, hard to spot sundial snails might be one culprit. Predatory nudibranches may also be a problem (best addressed with a series of freshwater dips).

Is the area they cover actually shrinking? Is there a white growth on the colony?

Try to give as much detail as possible, based on careful, direct observation. It may be worth having a look after lights out to see if you can spot anything then.

 

[Anonymous]

Oh, and if you're starting to think about getting more and more corals, I'd definitely consider upgrading your lights. It'll increase the types of corals you can keep.

 

[mr_X]

every time i go to the fish store i contemplate buying an angel. there are so many beautiful ones, but i remember when i had a coral beauty not too long ago. he picked on everything in the tank. he stressed my tangs till they were ich ridden. i just don't have good luck with them. :?
i'm sure your coral isn't enjoying getting chewed on, but i doubt that this is the reason your zoos are not opening.
how much live rock is in your tank at this time?
why do you think you struggle with nitrates?
did you notice a difference since you disconnected the mechanical filter? what was it?
i guess the first thing i would do is upgrade the light fixture.

 

[Jim54]

Thanks for the feed back. At this time I have about 25lbs live rock. I am not sure why I am stuggling with nitrates. I have been very careful to feed small amounts. 10% water changes every two weeks. Use only 1/2 cup or less of carbon in my filter and use carbon that supposedly does not leach nitrates. I did the freshwater dip about a week ago and did not notice any critters. As for the angel it has been ignoring the zoo lately.
My skimmer is rated grater than 55 gallons (D&D Marine HOT Cyclone). Can I get away without the filter??? I figured it if anything it offered additional waterflow. Could I run it without the carbon???? Or would replacing it with an additional power head???? I hope to replace lights soon. Again thanks for the feedback

 

[Anonymous]

Jim,

Thanks for the clarification on the filter. Just using it to run carbon shouldn't be a problem, as long as you keep up with replacing the media. I thought you had a filter for biological filtration.

I work in liters and kilos, but I'm immediately struck by the thought that that's not a huge amount of live rock for a 55g tank. If I were you I'd increase the amount of live rock (which acts as a filter). Depending on whether the new rock is cured, semi-cured or uncured, you might have to allow for another small cycle (and do more regular water changes), but it'd give you more stability in the long run.

Any pics of the tank to get an idea of how much rock is in there?

How much flow does your powerhead produce? More flow is never a bad idea, so another powerhead would be a good option whatever. Try looking at the Seio Streams or Tunze Nano streams for the best diffuse flow.

 

[Jim54]

Thanks for info. Obviously I am confused My marineland HOT filter has a basket for carbon and is surrounded by a sponge Ihad assumed this was a biological filter?? I wasn't sure if I had enough live rock. This morning amonia 0 nitrites 0 ph 8.3 salinity? 1.022-23 temp 77.6 NITRATES 40-60
My mushrooms and star polyps wide open ZOO closed with patial opening of some polyps. Do I need to add another type of biological filtration???? :? I will try to post a pic by this afternnon. Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for info. Obviously I am confused My marineland HOT filter has a basket for carbon and is surrounded by a sponge Ihad assumed this was a biological filter?? I wasn't sure if I had enough live rock. This morning amonia 0 nitrites 0 ph 8.3 salinity? 1.022-23 temp 77.6 NITRATES 40-60
My mushrooms and star polyps wide open ZOO closed with patial opening of some polyps. Do I need to add another type of biological filtration???? :? I will try to post a pic by this afternnon. Thanks

Your nitrates are way too high. Most coral will suffer at this level (though some will adapt to higher levels if they're from an environment in the wild where high levels sometimes occur - but this is not sustainable in the long term). Remove the sponge (yes, it's a biological filter, but will start leaching nitrates quite quickly). The live rock acts as a far better biological filter, so buying more will help keep nitrates in check. With enough, and a protein skimmer that's working well (removing dissolved organics from fish waste etc before they have a chance to break down and cause a rise in nitrates), you shouldn't need a separate filter (other than to run carbon). Good water circulation (i.e. powerheads) will help keep waste suspended in the water column, enabling the protein skimmer to take more of it out before it decomposes.

 

[Anonymous]

You should be aiming for 5ppm for nitrates btw. Some consider 10ppm a high reading.

 

[Jim54]

Thanks for your response Should I run the carbon continuously or occassionally. By the way my skimmer is a D&D marine TYPHOON not cyclone. My bad. Also I have mushrooms spreading and colonizing other areas of the tank.

 

[Jim54]

Here are some pics. I tried to get the sick zoo as best as I could. i will tey to get better pics later

 

[mr_X]

i would double the amount of live rock. :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

well if your looking to increase your circulation i would recomend a diffrent kind of powerhead... i think you might look into a seio or a tuze but the seio's are far more reasonably priced.. there is a hole huge debate on this so i wont play favorites but it will crank up the water flow... another thought is if you had more light a clam might help you keep your nitrates in check and there so bichen looken... :idea:

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your response Should I run the carbon continuously or occassionally.

I used to run AC in my systems for various lengths of time depending on what was in the tank. The usual was on one week, off the next for the average stocked tank. If it was lightly stocked, one week out of the month. Never ran it 24/7 unless there was a problem in the tank.

 

[Jim54]

Thanks to all for the great advice. Would I be correct in assuming adding more LR would be the first priority :?:

 

[Anonymous]

First off I would gradually raise your SG to 1.025-26 as that is closer to actual reef SG and is the range most of us keep our tanks. Secondly I would buy more live rock, and consider doing large (50%) water changes weekly to try and reduce that nitrate level.

 

[ChrisRD]

I'm just skimming the thread quickly so maybe I missed it, but what are you using for source water (ie. tap, RO, RO/DI, etc.)?

Personally, I don't subscribe to the 1 to 2 pounds-per-gallon theory with live rock. IME the skimmer is a large factor. With a good skimmer that's working well, you really don't need all that much in the way of rock/sand to provide whatever biofiltration is needed from there.

Also, having 8 fish in a tank that size will make it more challenging to keep levels down. With a good enough skimmer and pure source water it can certainly be done. Just keep in mind that with that sort of bioload, a good skimmer should be producing plenty of skimmate. If it's not, take steps to get it producing better or consider an upgrade.

 

[Jim54]

Thanks for advice. I use R/O water from LFS. My skimmer seems to foam reasonably well i.e. its always producing foam.

 

[rbursek]

I know this is an old thread, I have a 125gal, by buddy has a 120gal, we did all of the comparisons on water changes, 5-10% weekly, bla bla bla, we now find on our reef tanks which are equally stocked, except for his 40 inch spotted ell {big nitrate load] to keep nitrates down and high water specs and trace elements, which we do not add, we do a 25% water change every 10-14 days. We use IO salt, and we have found that the mushrooms are the first thing to start showing us we need a water change, they just are not as large as they used to be. We see a change in them for the better withen 24 hours after a change. As you get more experienced and gain confidence, you will beable to read your tank and know what it needs and when. This is a tuff hobby!!!!!!!!!
Bob