Jewel 240 Tank

[davidpatel]

My Tank. Its been running now for 2 Years. I use to do a lot of regular changes, but seem to have let this drop down without too much problems.
Config; Jewel 240, 3 Power heads, Not much sand, Lots of LR, Not much by way of variety of soft mushrooms (need to swap with others - let me know).
Internal Jewel Pump fitted with filer wool. External Enheim Filter - no media.
I have a Prizm Skimmer (external Hang-on)
I top up the water with RO made at home using RO Unit.

I have a blue actinic light on from 12miday to 10pm, and the aquastar twin halides on from 6pm to 10pm. this was 2nd hand, and I have to assume the blubs are at least 3 years old.

Water Nitrite is 0, Ammonia is 0, Nitrates is 80 or more. PH is typically 7

I'm afraid I don't do much by way of adding rowa or Kalk or Iodine etc. Need advise on this.

Feeding is basically frozen brine/artema/ruto etc.

Fish - 2 stripped clowns, 1 african clown, 2 convict blennys, 1 powder blue, 1 yellow tang, 1 lipstick tang, 1 king solomon.

I have 1 sandshifter star fish. A few turbos and a couple of hermits.

I really need advice on where to take this tank to next. I don't get algae (I do get red corraline against class on back and sides). I ve tried lots of other corals and wasted buckets of money - they last and then then die. I use to have mushroom corals the size of footballs, but these have died some time ago and now I have what you see. Need general comments on Nitrates, should I have more sand, more pumps, do i / must I have a sump. etc etc.

All comments welcome. Also anyone offering any frags I'm interested to buy or swap. Live in Essex and can collect.

[alfa]

For corals your bulbs are 2 years too old , you need to change them . How long have you kept the PB ?

[baden187]

Have to agree with Alfa first thing you should do is change your bulbs ASAP the right spectrum for your corals needs has long but gone Bulbs should be changed every 12 months at least also IMHO you need to increase your lighting period 4hrs of light is not enough at least 8hrs why don’t you try Actinic on at 12pm - 12am then Halides on at 2pm - 10pm just a thought

Nitrites are high do a large water change for starters this will bring them down but you need to find out where they are coming from are you feeding to much have you checked your RO water do the filters need changing? Overstocking maybe? You can bring them down with water changes but if you don’t find the cause then you will be doing huge water changes all the time

I cant advise you if you need Rowa or Kalk etc... because you have not posted results of Calcium, Phosphates, Magnesium do you test for these??? If not think about getting them Salifert test kits are excellent value for money and most will last nearly a year if testing once a week a lot of board users use these test kits I would get the following

Phosphate
Calcium
Magnesium
KH/Alk

Just a few things to think about I'm sure you will get good advise from other more knowledgeable reefers than me but on the bright side your fish look great and healthy and I like your aquascaping :thumbsup:

HTH

Baden :thumbsup:

[davidpatel]

Originally posted by alfa@Aug 31 2005, 00:54
For corals your bulbs are 2 years too old , you need to change them . How long have you kept the PB ?
Hi Alpha
Tx for reply. Will take the general concensus and change bulbs.
Also, will change lighting times to what has been recommended.

The Powder blue is now 7 months old. He was big to start off with but has got bigger. In reality he is too big but doesn't seem to have a problem.

Any comments on whether I have enough sand ?.

And would you know/advise on starting to buy/get SPS type frags. If so, any particular ones that you would recommend. I suppose I'm like a kid, just wanting to get variety into something i already have.

David.

[davidpatel]

Originally posted by baden187@Aug 31 2005, 01:06
Have to agree with alfa first thing you should do is change your bulbs ASAP the right spectrum for your corals needs has long but gone Bulbs should be changed every 12 months at least also IMHO you need to increase your lighting period 4hrs of light is not enough at least 8hrs why dont you try Antinics on at 12pm - 12am then Halides on at 2pm - 10pm just a thought

HTH

Baden:thumbsup:
Baden
Tx for advice. Will do lighting changes.

David.

[panda]

:wacko:
Your Ph seems very low at 7 .It should be around 8.2!

If you are using RO you need to find out why the Nitrates are high. Could be overfeeding or something decaying in your tank.

Have you checked for Phosphates as you don't use phosphate removal products?
The low Ph and high nitrates are probably killing the corals.

What is your S.G. ?

How often and what percentage water change do you do?

[mariusz621]

Originally posted by davidpatel@Aug 30 2005, 23:17


And would you know/advise on starting to buy/get SPS type frags. If so, any particular ones that you would recommend. I suppose I'm like a kid, just wanting to get variety into something i already have.

David.
Sort out your problems first. SPS will not be happy with high NO3.

[JasandJules]

Hi David,

What happened to your nems and all those lovely corals I saw a year ago?!? Did you swap them?

You will need to go a few large water changes (say 40% or so) to get those nitrates down. I wouldn't be thinking of adding any more stock at all (except for clean-up crew) until you have the parameters under control.

Why are the nitrates so high? Possibly because you aren't doing enough water changes. Keep this consistent weekly/fortnightly and you can keep them under control.

You may also be adding too much food, and not have enough clean up crew or flow.

Personally I think you need to get rid of those three tangs as the tank is too small for them. They will likely get stressed and whitespot.

What are you other parameters?

[davidpatel]

Originally posted by JasandJules@Aug 31 2005, 14:41
Hi David,

What happened to your nems and all those lovely corals I saw a year ago?!? Did you swap them?

You will need to go a few large water changes (say 40% or so) to get those nitrates down. I wouldn't be thinking of adding any more stock at all (except for clean-up crew) until you have the parameters under control.

Why are the nitrates so high? Possibly because you aren't doing enough water changes. Keep this consistent weekly/fortnightly and you can keep them under control.

You may also be adding too much food, and not have enough clean up crew or flow.

Personally I think you need to get rid of those three tangs as the tank is too small for them. They will likely get stressed and whitespot.

What are you other parameters?
Sorry mate, didn't see your post here.
Will do what you've advised and come back to you.

David

[JasandJules]

Best of luck with it..

If the worst comes to the worst, a nitrate reductor unit is a poss??