375 gallon tank - 10 yrs old - still no coraline

My friend has a 375 (96x30x30) gallon tank with a 30 gallon refugium and a 75 gallon sump, about 450 gallons of total water volume. Tank has about 400-500 lbs of live rock and about 1200 watts of metal halide and atinic vho bulbs. He pays someone to take care of the tank but hes only around maybe once a mth or so, so...in my opinion the tank needs more love and care. Hes looking to me for answers and boy what an undertaking this tank will be. He runs alot of top of the line equipment but i would change out skimmer and redo refugium, anyway....I did some tests and everything checked out xcept nitrates and phosphates. This is what i suspected obviously b4 even running a test. Phosphates were at 1 on my salifert test kit and nitrates were somewhere in between 50-100. Lets say this was yer tank and money wasnt and object...what would u do to help get this tank where it should be besides the obvious massive weekly water changes, huge phosban reactor, and testing the r/o unit? Im gearing up for one hell of a battle with this one, tank has so much potential and i wish it would have been me who set it up cause its hard to work on and around someone elses mess. Thanks everyone, any ideas and advice is apprectiated.

 

What are the calcium, and Alk parameters?

 

calcium was 500 + and alk dkh was 10.6, mag was about 1300 79.7 degrees, ph of 8.0, salinity 1.025

 

I would find the source of the phosphates and nitrates and start from there. Find the source, fix the problem.

Ive been reading a lot over the past year or two about denitrafiers etc... When I started in this, your goals was to have them at ZERO or undetectable. Any amount was unacceptable. My first 75g was maintained by that standard and I never had a nitrate problem. My first only experience with green hair is when my tank was first set up during the cycle about 13yrs ago and the only other times were either during a cycle or after a crash of some sort.

 

is there any coralline on the rocks at all? maybe seeding from another's scrapings and then bump up the Mg a little(1400-1500). I did it for mine and the coralline has taken off!

 

i have so many snails eatting my coraline that the glass is bare.i think mainly stometellas are eatting it in my tank.could this be the cause in that tank?

 

Nope I'd doubt the snails are eating it , If that was the cause then the snails would not be reef safe Coralline algae is not a plant, Its a coral in fact . One of the oldest forms of corals living . People who have a problems with with getting them to grow usually started doing somthing wrong . Usually over skimming and lighting the tank with the wrong spectrum of bulbs , I myself would love to never see it in a system. If it would just stay on the rocks and overflows and piping that would be fine..But it won't stay put.

 

Its more than just a lack of coralline algae growth. A leather coral wont even grow, 90% of all coral will perish. A few mushrooms and maybe a colt coral survive but thats it.

 

I'd say the lack of being able to keep coral alive is realted to your nitrates. Get those down and you should be in good shape. Mushrooms and a lot of softies like "dirty" water.

 

do you have any references to back this up??? I didn't know this and would like tod o some reading on it.