Tank Advice

[DanPgh]

About a week ago I had a solon wrasse disappear. I searched all over the tank and could not locate him anywhere. About the same time a long tentacle plate coral closed up and did not recover. I removed the coral and started a water change schedule because I assumed the fish died. My ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels seems okay. However, to be safe over about 4 days I did 3 15% water changes. That ended Sunday. All levels seemed good. Monday and Tuesday all fish and corals seemed good. Then yesterday my toadstool coral and Duncan started to close up. My alk is around 10 dkH and calcium is around 450 ppm. For some reason my alk always seems slightly below where it should be in terms of the calcium. How important is this alk/calcium balance? Should the numbers always correlate or should I just try for 8-12 dkH and 400 to 450 ppm calc? For instance my alk always seems around 9-10dkH but calc more like 450 ppm.

I should also note I started using Red Sea Coral Pro Salt about a month ago.

I have a 90 gallon overflow tank with a 15 gallon sump. Have about 10 fish- all small and most hardy. Have about 10 small corals- mainly LPS and soft. Tank is about 6 months old.

[thegrun]

You will likely see better coral coloration if you lower your CA to 430 and your Alkalinity to 8.5 dKh. Because Red Sea Pro salt is designed for high calcium demand tanks, you may need to switch brands of salt to get lower numbers. Do you have the tank covered? Wrasse are known jumpers, although almost any fish can and will jump out of a tank. Are you running carbon? On a mixed reef tank it is very helpful in reducing the impact of the chemical warfare corals wage on each other.

[DanPgh]

Originally Posted by thegrun

You will likely see better coral coloration if you lower your CA to 430 and your Alkalinity to 8.5 dKh. Because Red Sea Pro salt is designed for high calcium demand tanks, you may need to switch brands of salt to get lower numbers. Do you have the tank covered? Wrasse are known jumpers, although almost any fish can and will jump out of a tank. Are you running carbon? On a mixed reef tank it is very helpful in reducing the impact of the chemical warfare corals wage on each other.

Thanks for the advise. I use chemi pure elite carbon. The tank is covered with a glass top and canopy. I checked around the tank. Do not believe it jumped out but I will take a thorough look tonight.

As for the salt, I originally was using Reef Crystals but was not getting much growth. My calcium often read high with the Reef Crystals too. In addition my pH always ran low around 8.00. I switched to the Red Sea Pro because of the pH after talking to the LFS and researching. It seemed that people got really good results with it. For the first few weeks I had no problems with the Red Sea Pro. I think maybe the corals are adjusting to the additional water changes.

I am actually questioning my test method. I use the digital Hanna meters. I just ordered a Red Sea Kit today to verify. I also have an API kit but find them a pain to use.