My 55g 2.0

Running into a problem trying to clean up my plumbing.

When I initially setup my sump, I planned ahead and installed a union between the pump and the pipe which runs upstairs. Now when I need to utilize this union to change the piping from return pump to this union, i thought piece of cake, just buy another union, put the piping together, let it cure and soak it for a while to remove anything that might leach out. WRONG!! Lowes decides they want to save $.05 and started carrying a different brand union with different threads. I am so happy about this decision. At least I tried to dry fit it before cementing everything together.

So now i have to try to find out either where to find one of these valves, or some other way to change this without having my sump be offline for an extended period of time.

Any suggestions here are appreciated.

 

I am having an issue with poor polyp extension. My acros are hardly extending if at all. My Montis are extending well at night and during feeding but not my acropora.

Any suggestions on what to do?

My lighting is LEDs new 3 months ago and running at approximately 50%. all 5w diodes except for UVs

temp is 77 stable
pH is 8.4 stable
Cal 450 Salifert
Alk 187 Hanna both kept stable with Kalk
Mag 1330 Salifert
Phosphate 0 Salifert
Nitrate 0 Salifert
SG 1.025 stable refractometer calibrated

I feed acropower 30 minutes before Rods about twice a week

Most of the colors on the acros is good, a little on the pastel side. Not sure if the low nutrients is playing a factor here or if it is the amount of light. When I switched to the LEDs in January and while acclimating them the polyp extension was getting better and when the acclimation stopped they were good for a while but now, like i stated, polyp extension is poor.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

Probably lighting is the issue? In my experience acro take forever to get acclimated, once they do, they take off. Ive had some acro for months that i have not got any growth from.

 

I am hoping the lights is the issue because the drivers topping out at 50% is about to change.

Would the lighting effect PE? I figure it would definitely effect the color.

The good news is my Hawkins has some PE and good color. Hopefully that one is not being effected too much.

 

I think lights are the issue. Acclimation in lighting for corals can take awhile and there's no magic number to say when your corals are fully adjusted. Looking at some of your monti pics I see possible bleaching so I'm in agreement with civic here. Tank params seem good. I'm also big on feeding my tank a wide variety.

 

Most of the Montis are fairly new, close to a month. They all have good PE especially at night when i feed. One of my acropora had PE all day and it has none now, this is the one i am most concerned with. It has lost some flesh as well so i broke those bits off.

What all do you feed?

 

I don't feed coral.

 

I assume you have checked for AEFW and red bugs?

 

I have looked and can't see anything on them. With that said, I am no expert and could be overlooking pests.

 

Let your alk drift down, 10.4 might be too high for your N/P levels. Civic is right with regard to the acclimation and LEDS, it takes months. If you do not se any improvement you might consider going down to 45%, I am at 50% as well but it took along time to even get there.

Take a macro image, crop it down and you will be able to see RB if you have them.