I think my lighting was inadequate for this coral and they all closed up

[00youknowit00]

Yeah, not a fun boat to be in. What's your stocking like?

 

[TheGrapeApe]

Clown fish. Damsels. Goby. Blue tang. Shrimp. Hermit crabs.

 

[00youknowit00]

Clown fish. Damsels. Goby. Blue tang. Shrimp. Hermit crabs.

How many clowns and damsels?

The blue tang needs a much bigger tank by the way

 

[TheGrapeApe]

I know but it's ok 2 clowns 2 damsels

 

[JMance]

I had a tank with "old tank syndrome" it was a fish only tank with a few soft corals the way I fixed it was a massive water change where I took out almost all my water and replaced it...nothing died and everything flourished after
Here check out this article it's how I revived my tank
http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/nitratecontrol/ss/sbsnitratereduction.htm

 

[TheGrapeApe]

Awesome I'm gonna do it this weekend and rebuild my sump

 

[JMance]

Sweet let us know how it goes. Ohh and don't forget to warm up the water you will be putting in your tank

 

[TheGrapeApe]

Yeah I thought of that. I'm going to redo my sump as well I just ordered the glass

 

[00youknowit00]

As long as you have it temp and salinity matched, huge PWC's can't hurt IMO. I've done 90%-95% multiple times and only have experienced good results, my corals seem to love it, and lots of coral gets exposed to air periodically in the wild anyways.

Although with such high nitrates I'd suggest taking it modestly slow. When I've done massive water changes my parameters have already been near perfect. Drastic changes in parameters are never good.

 

[TheGrapeApe]

Well my lacksidaisy actions have cost me a few fish. I just want this **** cyanno gone and grow some beautiful corals. Wish me luck

 

[00youknowit00]

Id recommend a reactor and phosguard to help with the cyano. With high phosphates the phosguard will exhaust quickly, but its some potent stuff. Works great if you change it every 3 days until your phosphates are under control. Then you can go a couple Weeks or so between changes, just depends on the bioload.

 

[TheGrapeApe]

Okay so for now I can just use a liquid phosphate buster?

 

[TheGrapeApe]

I just started looking for a reactor I never knew anything about this

 

[00youknowit00]

Define liquid phosphate buster, do you mean like chemiclean? If so, I would strongly advise to stear clear.

For reactors get something like a BRS reactor or phosban reactor. I have both and like both, I favor the phosban since its smaller.

 

[00youknowit00]

Your primary nutrient exporter should still be water changes, but the reactor will just make it easier to keep parameters low.

 

[TheGrapeApe]

So the reactor lets you to just put media in there like phosphate buster right. I'm looking for possible hookup pictures on here.

 

[JMance]

Hey man there is no need to worry about a nitrate shock when I did it my nitrates were off the charts 160 ppm or so maybe more and everything in my tank was fine just try to have to ph salinity and temp as close as possible but you mentioned your ph was already in the 8 range so you should be fine with a large water change

 

[JMance]

But like you said revamping your sump might be a good idea as they can harbor nitrates and so can your substrate I literally just did this same procedure about a month ago cleaned my sump modified it to add a refugium and replaced my substrate...a month later now and I'm already starting to put in sps my tank is doing great everything is flourishing

 

[TheGrapeApe]

Is a calcium reactor the same as a phosphate reactor can you put any media in any reactor?

 

[JMance]

I'm not sure I don't have any reactors