KeeperOfTheZoo

Wow that's a gorgeous tank! I love the layout. Very well thought out and unique.

KH is carbonate hardness, a KH test doesn't test for total harness or even true alkalinity in the pH sense of acid/neutral/alkaline. It's worth watching because the carbonates (carbonate and bicarbonate) get used up via biological processes (of the living things in your tank) and when they are gone or too low it can cause pH swings amongst other things. When people talk about 'buffering', they are usually talking about KH. If your KH is where it should be (8-12 dKH), your water is well buffered and it should help keep your pH stable. You have to have both carbonates(KH) and calcium amongst a whole lot of other minerals for your water to be balanced. I read a great analogy one time that talked about balancing pH, KH and calcium. It basically said think of a glass filled with two different colored marbles, red and blue. KH and calcium both dissolve in water and water can only hold so many dissolved solids. If the cup was full of red marbles (calcium) there would be no room for blue marbles (carbonates, KH). Your tank would be in big trouble. Sure, you'd have really high calcium levels which might seem great since most of us are trying to keep our calcium up for our inverts, but remember, balance is key! So, if you started adding some blue marbles (carbonate, KH) to the cup, what would happen? It would displace some of the red marbles which means your calcium would be lower, but that's ok... you really need it to stay in a range that also allows the KH to stay in a good range. The opposite can happen to, you can add too much carbonate and drive your KH & pH up and your calcium down. In your case, if you are dosing calcium without knowing what your calcium level is you might be adding to much. When there is to much calcium your KH will get driven down (remember, if one is too high it displaces the other causing it to drop) which can also drive your pH down. A big drop in either or both of those will start harming your livestock. It's a good rule to never supplement anything that you haven't first tested for. If you don't have a lot of hard corals and are doing frequent water changes you probably won't need to supplement for anything. I do 10-15% water changes every other week and I'm just starting to see my calcium dip down between changes to where I might start supplementing (it gets just below 400 sometimes). The thing is, it doesn't always dip below where I want it to be. If I start to supplement I'll have to test often and be very careful to make sure I don't over dose my tank and screw things up!

What's your calcium and kh at? Everything else is good. Maybe its just their time to go.

Are any of your other corals irritated? Could any of the GSPs neighbor corals be bugging them (anything with sweepers?). Maybe they are falling victim to toxins being released by other corals, I think the fancy term is allelopathy. Basically coral chemical warfare. Are you running carbon? What exactly are your water parameters? Having recently watched a friend struggle with a KH problem I've learned that some corals are a lot more sensitive to certain water parameters being off than others, and it's not always the ones you would think would have problems and be more sensitive.

Well, if the mat still looks healthy there's still hope! Maybe change their location in the tank if you can just to see what happens.

Just depends on if it's happy and inflated or not. Does yours feed at night? Mine is always the prettiest and most extended when the lights are off. I got mine from a reefer who was moving up east. His mother colony was huge! My mini colony is about 6" x 4" , not super fast growing but I've seen noticeable growth since Dec. when I got it.

Hmm, that doesn't sound so good. I have 3 different colonies going in different places. Different levels of lighting and flow and they all open fully. Are yours in a place where something could be crawling on them? I had to move some zoas away from where one of my cleaner shrimp hangs out because he kept climbing on them and making them close. Since your parameters are good I'd look for a physical irritant. Is the Matt tissue still healthy looking?

My nepthea looks like that when it doesnt have its polyps extended but its always neon green, even under non actinic lighting. Its extinct in the wild supposedly but seems plentiful enough amongst folks around here.

What kind of bird do you have? That neurotic id guess a grey or an amazon. I want a sulphur crested cockatoo. Not the best talkers but they are such sweet birds. Gonna wait till my kids are older though. In the mean time I have a lutino cockatiel. He whistles and rings like our phone. I just learned today that my friend who farm sits for me is moving this summer. We're never going to be able to vacation as a family again. Ahhhh! Its so hard to find someone to watch all my animals.

Mike are you going to try to raise any of the clown babies? Seems like the hardest part of the whole process is culturing the rotifers they need as a first food. I think my females biological clock must be ticking. She hosts in hairy mushrooms and hooked up with the first dude that swam by. Obviously not a picky girl!!

Is this Palau nepthea?

I'd be more interested in an October trip. Ya know depending on where you go you can camp on the beach. We went to Corpus a few years back in October and it was really nice. I think Mustang Island is much nicer as far as beaches go but I'm not sure what you could catch. A trip like this would be a blast! Dena, I wish all I needed was a dog sitter!!! LOL

Never happened to me using phosguard. I don't have a reactor but my set up works about the same. I've been using phosguard continuously for about 4 months.

The little clown has turned out to be just perfect. Thanks again for the trade Christian. Corey I missed you at the meeting yesterday. Mama has your anthelia frag. I had heard that when adding clowns it helps a lot make the second one smaller. Im thrilled they are so chummy already.

I've had an ocellaris clown for a few months now, she started hosting in my cluster of hairy mushrooms right after I added them. I just added a second ocellaris that is about half the size of my original clown. The two seem to have instantly bonded. They are constantly together and even slept cuddled together in the same mushroom last night (how cute is that??). The new little clown appears to be hosting in the mushrooms as well already. Have my clowns formed a pair that quickly? There was a total lack of aggressive behavior when I added the new clown last night which kinda surprised me.

Not yet Will. I'm waiting on the Miami orchid to get some big branches then ill frag it but Stephen who gave it to me gets first dibs. Its pretty, and I'm not much of an sps fan.

I don't see why you couldn't try some of the easier sps. That comes out to 6wpg. That's an admittedly flawed measurement system but its something to work from. I have just over 3wpg of PC lighting in my tank and have two sps colonies growing very well. One is some sort of branching digi that really extends its polyps well and glows under actinics. The other is ORA Miami orchid that has grown from.nothing but the broken off base of the original colony. Its color is very pretty and its starting to branch now. I thought it wouldn't be possible to keep sps with PC lighting and I know the real high light species would fail. I'm doing real good with anything in the moderate light range.

Me? I couldn't have possibly started anything! I am, as always, the picture of innocence. Marks dementia is obviously contagious. I think we should quarantine him at Mama's and remove all her livestock for safe keeping. If anyone's left standing after the appropriate 6 week quarantine period we'll discuss terms for the critters return. I get first dibs on ponies and tangs.

Heya, If the deal with Sherri doesn't work, I'd like the urchin! I can offer you a loose kenya tree frag (or two), my momma colony has been dropping babies. None of them are real big, but they grow quick! I'm just outside of Killeen out towards Kempner. I can meet you, pick up or if you're brave you are welcome to come out to my zoo.

And I *so* totally believe you (hey Robb, mines bigger than yours)!!!

Oh! I so feel like I'm back in high school! I'm just waiting for one of you boys to exaggerate about how big your tank is while pretending you're an experienced reef keeper and my flash back will be complete.

Thank you! Just goes to show if you beg and pester enough you shall receive.

Is your dendro that colorful?

Is it the spectrum of lighting that had the most impact or the quantity of lighting? I know they are not mutually exclusive of course. Gabriel I do believe you are correct in that an actual color shift occurs when lower k bulbs are used. I have corals that have completely changed color and it's not just the way the light reflects off them, though that is a factor for sure. Obviously some things really pop under the bluer actinic or higher k lighting. I guess where I'm going with this is what K will produce the best balance between growth and color? I have been really surprised with how well my corals are doing under PC lighting, given I'm keeping corals happy in the moderate light range. I was thinking about going back to a 10K and 50/50 (10k & actinic) combo. I don't like the super blue light of real high Kelvin bulbs. Seems like that's what most people lean towards though. Is it a must to get the best color out of corals?

Please save me a frag!