Does anyone make house calls to gauge the health of a tank?

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BookFam

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Location: Marietta / east cobb
We have been at this hobby about 9 months now, and are looking for someone who can come take a look at our current setup and maybe give some pointers on why some things are thriving, but other (more expensive corals) keep dying.

Maybe be able to point out pests that I havent been able to see or eradicate. Help tune the adjustable lights for optimal coral growth vs optimal hair algae.

I'd be willing to pay for an hour of time for a lesson in better reef keeping and maybe pointing out some mistakes or tips.

I have weekly records to review going back to when I started the tank.
 
I might be close to you, I’d be happy to come by at some point and let you know what I see. Posting here is definitely a good idea too, more brains the better :)
 
BookFam said:
Location: Marietta / east cobb
We have been at this hobby about 9 months now, and are looking for someone who can come take a look at our current setup and maybe give some pointers on why some things are thriving, but other (more expensive corals) keep dying.

Maybe be able to point out pests that I havent been able to see or eradicate. Help tune the adjustable lights for optimal coral growth vs optimal hair algae.

I'd be willing to pay for an hour of time for a lesson in better reef keeping and maybe pointing out some mistakes or tips.

I have weekly records to review going back to when I started the tank.
Click to expand...
Give us some info on the tank/equipment and post your paramaters..i.e. alkalinity, Calcium, mag, nitrate, phosphate. Like @civisa8d some pics also.
 
Funny that OP asking if anyone is willing to give tips by observing his system.

I reached out to few members in the past insisting if they like my help with no responses. So that’s kinda bummer to me. I don’t bite -.-

I am local to marietta and willing to stop by and give you any assist you may have.

Also there are many cool reefers here and we all can contribute to your needs.


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I think it would help OP to share detail pics of the current set up, current issues, provide tank parameters, equipment info, current regimen, etc. will help a lot more than a single person visiting his tank for an hour.

We all been there and let our tanks go, I know I have. We all get in the dumps when things go south and can lose motivation. Hence why its nice to be part of the club to talk about it and know that these kinds of things happen and get some feedback on how to correct things.
 
Op’s tank is now 9 month old and he wants to know if he can get any feed back as what he can improve on etc. His corals are dying. There can be so many reasons to that.

Seeing in person is different from seeing online. Some times, like OP, new reefers don’t even know what to ask for or pinpoint the issues that’s causing the issues etc.

As we all know each tank is different. He will get much of general suggestions mainly.


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I can share the details (see below), but like project1004 said, i'm more looking for some in person help. Msg me if you can help in person.

The tank is a biocube 32
The lighting has been upgraded to steve's leds
I mix my own water about once a month using rodi water and instant ocean reef crystals, i use a heater and a flow pump for about 24 hours to mix
I had a refugium in the back but got rid of the cheto
I have a uv light in its place at the moment
I have the in tank 3 tier media basket with active charcole, a piece of filter floss that gets changed about 1x per week and chemipure blue.

I have the biocube protine skimmer but it doesnt seem to work all that well.

I have a thread talking about my issuse with vermitd snails and pinapple sponges.

I've also lost a plate cora (much earlier) a hammer, and most recently an acropora.

But most of my zoas and torches seem to be doing fine.

Some of the gonaporas do good from time to time and right now one is definatelly not happy.
 
Hourly with a seneye i get temp, ph, and ammonia. Others i test weekly. I mainly check calcium, Kh, phosphate, mag,and salt. Sometimes nitrate or nitride. Most of my tests are API still.

Nothing in the tests is showing off, even when i brought my spreadsheet to one of the swap meets one of the main ARC guys said things looked good except a flux in Kh
 
I just did my tests for the week, so here are the numbers that everyone has been waiting for...

Salt: 35 ppt
pH: 7.95
Temp: 80.4
Ammonia: 0.001
Phosphate: 0 ppm
Calcium: 360 ppm
Magnasium: 1320
Kh: 6
 
project1004 said:
Op’s tank is now 9 month old and he wants to know if he can get any feed back as what he can improve on etc. His corals are dying. There can be so many reasons to that.

Seeing in person is different from seeing online. Some times, like OP, new reefers don’t even know what to ask for or pinpoint the issues that’s causing the issues etc.

As we all know each tank is different. He will get much of general suggestions mainly.


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Click to expand...
We can probably pinpoint some problems without even going there. I'm in acworth and could swing by but right off the bat API test kits will make me question the numbers even when they are posted.
 
BookFam said:
I just did my tests for the week, so here are the numbers that everyone has been waiting for...

Salt: 35 ppt
pH: 7.95
Temp: 80.4
Ammonia: 0.001
Phosphate: 0 ppm
Calcium: 360 ppm
Magnasium: 1320
Kh: 6
Click to expand...



Alkalinity is low if the test is correct..im thinking the test is off. 7 is natural sea water.

Zero phosphate is starving the coral..again..don't know if api is right

Calcium would be better at 400 at least but 360 isn't a deal breaker

Mag is OK but I prefer to run it higher around 1400-1500

No idea what the nitrate is.

Summary, alk is low, phosphate is low and corals are probably starving. Have you taken your water to a LFS to get tested?
 
I havent taken my water anywhere to get tested.

The mag reading is from a saliford kit, all others are API at the moment
 
Salifert is pretty inexpensive and a lot more accurate than api. If the water change is just once a month I would say your alkalinity isn't being kept up enough by simply doing water changes..then again I don't know how much you have in your tank. If your bioload is small then chemipure and a protein skimmer may be too much nutrient removal. I could plan to run by sometime but these are all the same things I'm going to tell you. Some pics would help.
 
Once ypu know your parameters better and understand your tanks consumption rates..you can dose the appropriate amount accordingly. I would get alk up immediately if nothing else but do so slowly. NeoNitro and NeoPhos are easy to start dosing for phosphate and nitrate as well.
 
billyocean said:
Salifert is pretty inexpensive and a lot more accurate than api. If the water change is just once a month I would say your alkalinity isn't being kept up enough by simply doing water changes..then again I don't know how much you have in your tank. If your bioload is small then chemipure and a protein skimmer may be too much nutrient removal. I could plan to run by sometime but these are all the same things I'm going to tell you. Some pics would help.
Click to expand...
Let me make a small clarification here.

I do between 10 - 20% water changes most weeks.

I make the batch of salt water once per month.

One of the reasons the phosphros is so low this week, it usually tests at about .10 - .25 ppm, is that I have been dosing phos correct to try to combat all the hair algae. This was a method, along with tuning the light schedule that i saw on youtube that was supposedly successful. Since my lawnmower blenny isnt taking care of it.

I will try and take some new pics for posting today.
 
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