I've been thinking hard about starting over with my tank. It's been a year and a half and it's just not where it should be.
I bought it as a running unit and decided to go with it instead of just ditching the rock and sand giving it a good scrub and going with new (inpatient and new). Anyways, the tank will go good for awhile and have growth then all of a sudden things will start dying (mostly SPS and some quickly), I'll do some major water changes for a couple weeks and things go back to good and even have corals that where on the edge of death come back, some even better looking. so I'll go back to weekly 15-20% water changes and a few months later things start going south again. my readings are always within spec besides nitrates, which i can't get down and always sits around 50ppm. I've notice my phosphates spike when things start going south.
not sure if it's something I'm doing wrong or if i inherited somebody else's problem. I've been useing phosguard and carbon in a bag that the return flows onto. It seems to help but is just a bandaid. am i beating a dead horse? If so, how do i reset my tank without killing the coral and fish i have now? I'm a busy guy so i can't make frequent/large water changes a habbit. Plus i don't want that salt and water bill.
Sometimes i think about paying one of you gurus on here to come over and see what I'm working with and giving me advice on what might get my tank on track and what habbits i should stop or start doing.
Any info you need to know about my tank or my reef keeping habbits just ask.
I don't want to give up yet since I finally have a salt tank after 20 years of having successful fresh tanks but always wishing i had a salt one, but it gets depressing losing coral.
Tank is a 60g cube with a 3" sand bed. 30 gallon sump that starts with a 7" filter sock that i put the phosguard and carbon in and a c7 skimmer in the first chamber, then it goes into second chamber that has a deep 7" sand bed and some rubble with a tiny ball of cheato that hasn't grown and a couple Kenya trees, the third chamber just has a no name return pump, and the sump is lit up on a reverse light cycle with a orbit marine light. Lighting is a maxspect razor 16k and it has a rw-8 powerhead and a no name that came with it. Other hardware is a reefkeeper with temp probe, ph, and salinity. And a smart ATO.
Any advice would be appreciated. I've been researching and trying to get a handle on it, but it's time to ask for help.
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I bought it as a running unit and decided to go with it instead of just ditching the rock and sand giving it a good scrub and going with new (inpatient and new). Anyways, the tank will go good for awhile and have growth then all of a sudden things will start dying (mostly SPS and some quickly), I'll do some major water changes for a couple weeks and things go back to good and even have corals that where on the edge of death come back, some even better looking. so I'll go back to weekly 15-20% water changes and a few months later things start going south again. my readings are always within spec besides nitrates, which i can't get down and always sits around 50ppm. I've notice my phosphates spike when things start going south.
not sure if it's something I'm doing wrong or if i inherited somebody else's problem. I've been useing phosguard and carbon in a bag that the return flows onto. It seems to help but is just a bandaid. am i beating a dead horse? If so, how do i reset my tank without killing the coral and fish i have now? I'm a busy guy so i can't make frequent/large water changes a habbit. Plus i don't want that salt and water bill.
Sometimes i think about paying one of you gurus on here to come over and see what I'm working with and giving me advice on what might get my tank on track and what habbits i should stop or start doing.
Any info you need to know about my tank or my reef keeping habbits just ask.
I don't want to give up yet since I finally have a salt tank after 20 years of having successful fresh tanks but always wishing i had a salt one, but it gets depressing losing coral.
Tank is a 60g cube with a 3" sand bed. 30 gallon sump that starts with a 7" filter sock that i put the phosguard and carbon in and a c7 skimmer in the first chamber, then it goes into second chamber that has a deep 7" sand bed and some rubble with a tiny ball of cheato that hasn't grown and a couple Kenya trees, the third chamber just has a no name return pump, and the sump is lit up on a reverse light cycle with a orbit marine light. Lighting is a maxspect razor 16k and it has a rw-8 powerhead and a no name that came with it. Other hardware is a reefkeeper with temp probe, ph, and salinity. And a smart ATO.
Any advice would be appreciated. I've been researching and trying to get a handle on it, but it's time to ask for help.
Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk