Coral Issues

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Rutrag

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Jul 10, 2011
Messages
1,158
Location
Richmond, VA
I guess I've been paying too much attention to the new shiny 75 gallon reef and I'm having some issues in my 37 gallon. Lighting is from a 150W metal halide and a 24" T5HO blue. Regimen as far as maintenance is a five gallon water change every other week. (I can't seem to be home long enough to get back to every week as I once was.) Circulation is provided by two AquaClear 301 power heads and a MaxiJet Pro 600 set up as a circulation pump. The return pump is a Mag 5 and I have a Coralife 65 Super Skimmer.

Mobile livestock includes a fire clown, a coral banded shrimp, some blue leg and scarlet hermits, teo large turbo snails and three small ones.

I also have a long tentacle anemone, derasa clam, three varieties of mushrooms (blue & green, red, and green hairy), some green star polyps, a candy cane coral, and some xenia.

The nem, clam, and candy cane seem to be doing fine. My issue is most noticable with the GSP, green hairy mushrooms, and xenia. The GSP isn't opening up like it used to and looks to have green algae growin on the mat. The green hairy mushrooms look so small to be mistaken for individual zoas. The xenia won't extend its polyps and looks pretty much just like brown strands at first glance.

Paameters are as follows:
Specific gravity = 1.024 (refractometer)
Nitrite = 0ppm (API liquid)
Nitrate = 10ppm (API liquid)
Calcium = 440ppm (API liquid)
KH = 10degrees dKH / 179ppm KH (API liquid)
ph = 8.0 (Salifert)
Magnesium = 1360ppm (Red Sea Pro)
Phosphate = 0.25ppm (API liquid)

Here's a pic of the test results in case my color perception was off:
41906-albums1989-picture34941.jpg


Green star polyps a while ago:
41906-albums1989-picture13344.jpg

Lately:
41906-albums1989-picture34937.jpg


Green hairy mushrooms a while ago:
41906-albums1989-picture13345.jpg

Lately:
41906-albums1989-picture34938.jpg


Xenia the day after purchase:
41906-albums1989-picture14514.jpg

Now:
41906-albums1989-picture34939.jpg


Any insight is appreciated!
 
I don't think it's to much or too little flow. The GSP when it was happiest was receiving the brunt of the flow from a powerhead. In any case, I went ahead and moved the three pieces into my 75 to see what happens. (Everything in the 75 seems happy.) If they come back stronger, I'll be fairly certain I've got a water quality issue going on or my coral banded shrimp has gone rogue. I've seen him climb on stuff at night looking for something, but I've never caught him digging into anything, although he will attack / clean my hand at night if I get close to him. He actually let me hold him for a few seconds tonight.
 
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