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No Coraline Growth?

SoulFish

SoulFish

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Ok, now that my algae problems are under control and the tank is seeming stable, I'm now curious to why I cannot get any coraline to spread/grow? The tank is about 6 months old, I add/replace saltwater, and am now adding Kalwassier 1/2 teaspoon to one gallon. Then adding that gallon to the tank over a week.

I have the following equipment on the 90 gallon tank.
1. XP3 Canister - Added Carbon
1. XP2 Canister - Added Carbon
1. GFO Reactor - Granular GFO & Carbon
1. Corallife 220 Skimmer - Wheel mod installed, with 200 micron sock used instead of sponge box.
1. Koralia 2
1. Koralia 3
1. 200wt Heater

I did read that my brown bacteria problem prolly slowed coraline growth with the toxins it was releasing, hence why I run so much carbon. The brown bacteria slim stuff seems to be gone now too. Any ideas? When I moved all my equipment and corals from the 40 gallon to the 90 the coraline seemed to stop? I had plenty of coraline growth when I just had the corals in the 40 gallon with the skimmer and one XP2 canister?

Ideas?
 
Oh my lights are: Tek 6 bulb T5 setup. Set on 4 bulbs to run 4hrs, then off one hour then on again for 4hrs, and the two bulbs run just prior and after the 4 bulbs turn off. I split up the light entervals to decrease algae growth. A guy at Aquarium Concepts told me that if I had a algae problem to not run the full light spectrum longer than 4hrs in a row. Could this be the problem? Did the guy give me wrong info on that?

I'm also dosing with iodine & kalkwasser
 
Coraline always booms in the first year though John.

You can have low CA and tons of coraline. You can't have tons of coraline and low MG thoiugh.
 
Double check your CA level. You "may" not be dosing sufficient Calcium Hydroxide to keep up with consumption. If it's below 400, that may be the reason you're not seeing coraline build-up. My Elos is 4 months old and the coraline is spreading like wildfire. My CA holds between 440 and 460.

PS You'd be wise to do as Gresham suggests first :) Check your Mag. When I use two part, I add 20 oz of mag solution after each gallon of two part is exhausted.
 
Maybe from the salt that you are using. Not all salt is hyped to be. Just a note, before testing for Mg, you will need to make sure your test kit is accurate by testing a standard control. If you find a control, lmk.
 
SoulFish said:
:) thanks guys you guys rock.. I'll get that test tomorrow and post results :) Why would I have low mag though?
Click to expand...

Are you dosing it currently? It needs to be dosed along with CA/ALK. There isn't any in Kalk IIRC. Corals and other stuff use it up along with CA/ALK.

I also seem to rip through it more now that I run a Nilson Reactor. Dunno if that holds up to science but it's my observation.
 
12 is a little on the high end for KH IMHO. I like it more between 8 and 10
CA anything about 380ish is ok but I like to keep mine around 420
MG 1200-1400
PH 7.9-8.4

Obviously you want to keep some sense of stability (i.e the above are ranges) but some fluxuation is ok.

All the above are my opinions only
 
Most of my corals are LSP, Blasto, Acans, Plate, Duncan, Elegance, frogspawn, brain

Would that make those target parameters better or worse in your opinion?
 
I feel really stupid right now. Honestly my tank corals look fine and my water is crystal clear. But my parameters are wacked!

Current
PH: 7.6
Mag: off the chart low, too low to measure
KH: 7
Calcium: 600

The only thing I can guess is that the real problem was my Mag. Then I thought it was Ca and I added what I thought was a tiny amount, but looks like it was already high and I spiked it up. I have been running alot of carbon and wet skimming, along with the GFO reactor due to my algae problem. My LFS guy thinks the carbon was taking out Mag and KH and that through the whole tank into a weird situation.

So tonight I did a water change, kept the carbon in to help decrease the calcium and added 2 teaspoons of Kent Tech M Magnesium. The LFS guys said keep the carbon in there a week to help decrease the CA, then once the Mag gets between 1200-1250 to slowly work on the KH.

Does this sounds right? The crazy thing though is the tank looks geat, the corals seem to be opening up right, hell even my new ellegance is twice the size it was yesterday. But then again I just changed the carbon yesterday and it's pulling CA out!

Hope this makes sense, I know I should have been testing, but I've always done it by feel. Guess I cant do that anymore.

What I learned, test your tank regularly and dont be afraid to look stupid :)
 
:glasses: Ha I'm a nerd.... I got it right :)

It's always MG for me when coraline starts going away.
 
u need alot more them a couple bottles of Tech-M to bring that mag up to 1300.u better off mix it yourself,it alot cheaper.i can give you 7.25 lbs of mag chloride and .75 lb of mag sulfate and u mix that with 2 gallons of ro/di .and dosing a quart of mag at time. to those bring mag up.lmk


lapsan
 
thanks I will prolly take you up on that, gonna try dosing till friday and take measurements after each 24hrs. If by then it's still too low to measure I'll come get some this weekend, this dosing stuff makes me nervous 4 sure, on a positive side my corals look great :)
 
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