First, thanks for all the great suggestions and input.
Tank:
This is a 70g corner tank with a 20g sump.
Water:
I have an RO/DI and an in-line dual TDS meter that has been reading 0 after the DI stage. I check PH, Calcium, Magnesium, Salinity, Alkalinity and now Nitrite/Nitrate weekly and even though I have an ammonia disk in my sump I checked it with the seachem test kit and it confirmed that it is at an undetectable level. The PH has always been at 8.3/8.4. I had checked phosphates a while ago when I saw green sponge forming on one of my rocks and at the time it showed around zero. I’ll check again now.
Lighting:
The bottom of the MH pendant is about 12” from the surface of the water along with the T5’s. The T5’s are on for 8 hours and the MH is on for 5 hours in the middle of the 8 hour period. The tank isn’t exposed to much outside light as the tank is a corner tank in a dark corner of the room.
Water flow:
I have a Vortech MP40 running in lagoon mode at about 25% of max output on one side of the tank and a Koralia 2 hooked up to a wavestrip on the other side. The sump has a mag7. There seems to be good flow and movement in the tank, but I’ve got the flexibility to kick it up with the Vortech.
Feeding/corals:
I have been spot feeding the duncans, hairy mushrooms, pagoda and palys chopped up mysis and occasionally cyclopeez. I’ve been feeding Eagle eyes, candy cane (after the lights go out) and richordea cyclopeez and I’ve been feeding the feather dusters and candy cane phytoplankton. The Duncan, hairy mushrooms, palys and pagoda have really responded to the feedings. The richordea look fine but haven’t really grown much if at all. I also have a red and yellow monti, a hammer coral and blue and pulsing xenias that all seem to be doing well. There are two corals that haven’t been doing as well as the rest and those are an Acan and Kenya tree. The acan was doing well until it kept getting knocked into the sand by the crabs and snails. I glued him to a rock and he never seemed to come back.
Feeding fish:
I feed them twice each night. I hand feed the tank only as much as they eat in a few minutes with flake or pellets and then I come back several hours later and feed them chopped up mysis and that’s when I feed the corals with a turkey baster. I add the mysis slowly waiting for them to eat what I just added before adding more.
Filtration/Skimmer:
I have a 20g sump with a 50micron filter sock at the intake side, a skimmer and a piece of live rock in the middle section and a 25micro pad on top of a sponge between the middle and return sections. The skimmer is a marineland 100. I really don’t like it. It is really difficult to regulate and I go from next to nothing to overflowing with a minor change in water level, like when I stick my arm in the tank to move things around (I normally wear aqua gloves, not 100% of the time). I want to do the mesh mod but haven’t been able to find a replacement impeller to modify. I set the bubble level to the bottom of the neck of the skimate chamber. I have an ATO running directly from my RO/DI with a float valve and a solenoid/float switch backup.
I’m going to cut back feeding the corals to every 4 days and I’ve already reduced the MH lighting. I think I’ll also do smaller partial water changes and keep and eye on everything. What was the verdict on stirring the sand? I thought releasing any built up nitrogen would be a good thing and keeping whatever it is from forming would also be positive.
