My 55g 2.0

so sorry to hear about all of the troubles md. I'm hoping your luck will turn around - it seems once there's a few things that go wrong, other things start to turn around. I think it also helps us appreciate the "good reef days" more I'm not sure about the clownfish - mine viciously attack my hands anytime they hit the water but attacking corals is a bit unique - one upside is that they don't seem to attack other fish - so hopefully yours will be the same way - do you have a pair or just the one? Someone mentioned to me one time on a forum that clownfish getting very aggressive toward you can perhaps be a sign they are getting ready to breed - I'll just go on the assumption that's true

 

I appreciate the encouragement! I have needed it recently. Hopefully my wife doesn't cut my throat in my sleep for the water on the hardwood floors, which there is some damage to.

I hope you are right about the clowns aggression. I do have a pair and I love them being in the tank. Even more awesome if they do breed. If they do I will have to devise a plan of action if that happens.

I also forgot to mention, I need some input on how to prevent water from getting on my power strip in case, when, it overflows again. It soaked everything under and around the tank the last 2 times so I don't think any other time would be any different. Any advice here is greatly appreciated!

 

I'm not very good about planning and organizing wires but is there a way to mount the strip up higher? Not knowing your total setup, I don't know if that's possible.

 

I can get it up as high as the bottom of the tank. It almost seems like it went down the sides and then dripped off the bottom this last time it overflowed. Are you talking above the bottom of the tank?

 

Been having some trouble recently with my sps. A few are starting to look quite sad and seems like i am about to lose one and one is already lost.

Basically, most of them don't have as vibrant color as they had in the past and the flesh has started to come off of the one and that is basically what happened to the dead one.

Tank parameters today:
pH 8.5
salinity 1.026
Mg 1620
Calcium 440
Alkalinity 10 dkh
Phosphate 0
Nitrate 0

Have had some issues recently. RODI was giving me ~20 tds which did not make it into the tank. Replaced all the filters: sed, carbon, ro membrane, and di canister, all spectrepure except for sediment, but while i was waiting for funds for the replacements the water level traveled a lot. So Salinity has not been stable for about 2 weeks but has been for the last week.

This also put a halt on WC for that time period which I have switched back to Red Sea Coral Pro since all my levels were great and I was getting great growth from it before. I had switched to Seachem Reef Salt because i am a cheap bastard but will never make that mistake again. So I had to get salt as well which i received a day or so ago which i did a WC yesterday. So the parameters are what I have since the WC but i know the alkalinity was as low as 7 before the WC. Not sure if that has anything to do with the SPS issues or not.

I do not dose Magnesium so I don't know how it is as high as it is. Also don't know if that has any bearing on the sps issues. The salt i was using never gave me levels of Mg Ca or Alk that i appreciated out of reef salt, hence the change, and the Mg would lower when using it so i don't know why it is high right now.

The pH was steadily below 8 usually around 7.8 and 7.9 for the past several months and when I changed my rodi filters is when it decided it wanted to sit at 8.4. My Hanna probe may be off on its calibration on this. The only test i have to go by other than it is an ATI test kit which i don't even know if it is worth using. So, unfortunately I don't know how reliable that is at this point.

I did start using lime water from my ato yesterday which probably is why the pH is up .1 today and I think this will help with keeping the calcium and alk at steady levels which they have not really been at in the past.

So I am just trying to get some ideas as to if something I have listed here is the problem or if i should look into something else to fix the issue. Even my zoas aren't doing very well at this point, So I am open to any advice you guys can give me.

 

RBTA and blood red shrimp seem to be doing very well thus far. The anemone is on the move a little but at least it is not floating around. It was attached to a rock which i added to my scape. Not real sure i like the rock but so long as the anem is happy i can figure out a way to let it be.


I also got the green light for new lights. So Mike at Rapidled has been helping put together a great set of DIY lights. They will be strong enough to support SPS and my new anem, plus will have sunrise/sunset ability. I am pretty excited about not paying for new bulbs all the time.

 

Had a bit of an issue with my temp a few days ago. In the morning before the DT lights came on my heater, which has a temp probe on it, said it was ~2-3 degree cold. I decided i would turn on a heater I have in my fish room to see if the ambient temp in the room had some effect. That seemed not to be the case so I threw my old heater in the sump as well which has brought the temp up to my stable 78.

Makes me want to put some money I was given for Christmas toward a controller. But then on the other hand there is coral. Decisions, decisions.

 

Not a decision to me Controller all the way.

 

^^^^ I second the controller. If you have the money pull the trigger. There are some things that make this hobby a little easier and 1 is a controller.

 

I am definitely leaning the way of the controller.