Help Diagnose my sumpless filterless tank!

saggese820 · 12/19/2013, 09:12 PM

I have had my tank set up for about 6 months now, and my corals still havent really warmed up to it. Please help me figure out what I can do to correct this!

Water tests show no nitrate, nitrite, or ammonia and good PH and salinity

Setup:
30 gallon tank
Reef radiance DM-155e LED light
30 lbs Reefrocks.net rocks
5 lbs misc. live rock from my other established tank
550 koralia and 750 koralia
heater

Livestock:
yellow clown goby
misc. snails
hammer coral
candy canes
toadstool
frogspawn
kenya tree
misc. payls
corky finger gorgonia

Most soft corals are opening about 1/2 way. LPS are open most of the way but colors arent great. Toadstool was open for the first couple of months, then progressively got worse and now hasnt opened at all for the past few weeks. None of the corals are bleaching or reaching for light. I perform regular water changes. Trying to figure out what could be wrong! I know i'm probably asking for it by not having any mechanical or chemical filtration, but a filterless, sumpless, skimmerless tank setup has worked for me in the past for years and I know of many other success stories as well. Please let me know if you have any advice!

Duvallj · 12/19/2013, 10:45 PM

In my experience corals need more time to acclimate to leds than other light sources. If the corals do not look like they are reaching/bleaching I would raise the lights up. It looks like its still dark around the sides. Also I found its easier to start off with too low of light then work up rather than just waiting for corals go "get over it" when lights are turned up too high.

What are your other perameters like ca/mg/alk? Although softies don't have build skeletons I've also found they still do appreciate perams close to nsw.

These are just what I can come up with. There could be quite a number of things that could cause this like pest or some type of contaminate. But I would start with this.

saggese820 · 12/20/2013, 05:57 AM

Ok thanks for the help. I will try turning the lights down. The light is already 14" above the tank and raising it more than that would require a new mounting configuration, so I i'm going to try and avoid doing that as much as possible.

I am unsure of parameters such as ca/mg/alk as I do not have tests for those, however, I do have another tank which gets the same salt and water and that tank is doing fine. But I guess water parameters are affected by a lot of things so that could be irrelevant.

Hazratty · 12/22/2013, 12:02 PM

I would definitely suggest you go get those test kits for alk/mag and ca they are quite crucial when keeping a reef. Every tank depending on the inhabitants, WC schedule will sway differently.

I almost bet they are off because those 3 will all affect each other.

12/19/2013, 10:45 PM	#2
Duvallj Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Michigan Posts: 379	In my experience corals need more time to acclimate to leds than other light sources. If the corals do not look like they are reaching/bleaching I would raise the lights up. It looks like its still dark around the sides. Also I found its easier to start off with too low of light then work up rather than just waiting for corals go "get over it" when lights are turned up too high. What are your other perameters like ca/mg/alk? Although softies don't have build skeletons I've also found they still do appreciate perams close to nsw. These are just what I can come up with. There could be quite a number of things that could cause this like pest or some type of contaminate. But I would start with this. __________________ If it's not broke, fix it til it does. -Managment proverb Current Tank Info: 180gal softie reef

12/20/2013, 05:57 AM	#3
saggese820 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2010 Posts: 26	Ok thanks for the help. I will try turning the lights down. The light is already 14" above the tank and raising it more than that would require a new mounting configuration, so I i'm going to try and avoid doing that as much as possible. I am unsure of parameters such as ca/mg/alk as I do not have tests for those, however, I do have another tank which gets the same salt and water and that tank is doing fine. But I guess water parameters are affected by a lot of things so that could be irrelevant.

12/22/2013, 12:02 PM	#4
Hazratty Registered Member Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 55	I would definitely suggest you go get those test kits for alk/mag and ca they are quite crucial when keeping a reef. Every tank depending on the inhabitants, WC schedule will sway differently. I almost bet they are off because those 3 will all affect each other.