hello to all from reeferdude

wanted to say hi and tell a little about myself. i am currently in the hobby of corals or should i say want to raise corals i dont seem to be having any luck with them. sad to say i have killed more than a few. i've had my reef tank a little over 2 years now, everything looks good to the eye but no luck with the corals. just the same old button polyps that still look the same as the day i bought them. good color but not expanding and not growing. i would like to know if i should be vaccuming the sand bed, i read somewhere that you should not disturb the sand. just wondering because my nitrates are through the roof. everything else looks pretty good, but the alk is a little low. anyway i just wanted to say hi for now and hopefully yaw can set me straight on this reefer stuff ;D

 

Do a big water change

Dont vacuum sand let the hermits clean your sand

 

^^ BTW Welcome to 3reef!

 

WELCOME TO 3REEF!!! dont vacuum the sand^^ like horton16 said

 

thanks horton, a while back i did abunch of water changes like 50% everyday for about a week. nitrates did come way down but in no time they would go right back up. i dont have as much live rock as i should but i did add another 20 gal tank (like a regium ) with a deep sand bed,about 4 in. deep live sand. just no luck with the nitrates. i dont have alot of algae.
is the high nitrates causing the problems with the button polyps?

 

What are your water parameters?

 

thanks horton, do you think the nitrates are causing the button polyps not expanding?

 

I'm not sure about that but it could be.
How new are the polyps?

 

welcome to 3reef!