Photo inhibition

yup, start from the ground up with the changes and see what happens. water is the biggest change. let me know if it works, i think it will. Alot of people underestimate what the water source can do to the tank and the livestock.

and if you need a salt recommendation, I'd say Instant Ocean Reef Crystals are the best. Just get a powerhead into the mixing bucket, and let it do it's thing for a few hours. that's what works for me

 

I do not really understand why you put 250w MH over a 20g tank. That's not ideal. I understand if you though the LED was causing a problem, but 250w? It isn't like a microwave, you can't just hit them with short periods of light a day and call it good. PI is possible

I actually think you are not feeding enough. The whole point of having a sump and good skimmer and reactors and such is so that we can feed a TON, and still have good water quality. I believe your water is too clean.

First, coraline is not all that. It certainly is not an indicator of a healthy tank. When my tank got clean and I had good lights, it went away. Frankly, I was happy. I got tired of scraping it off the back wall. And my coral growth was very good.

Second, I know you said you started oysters, but use more types. Corals feed 24/7. But our skimmers do remove it. I do not go as far as the ATS guys that argue against skimmers... but you do need to feed more.

Timing matters. Day time is day time. But at night, if you have moon lights, turn them OFF. I work rotating shifts. I observed my tank a lot late at night. I gave my corals 6 hours of total darkness a night... and it was like... well... day and night. Every thing came out. All corals extended and fed.

I would dose a variety.. not every night, every other night or so... Reef Chili, oysters, phyto. When I did I had a feed timer and turned my skimmer off for a couple hours. When I didn't dose, I stirred up my sump with a power head to put the muck back into the water column. Everything is food to something.

I never target fed either, I did not see the point.

I honestly think you are not having enough patience. Yes, I understand why you think something isn't right. You had a problem, you did a bunch of fixes and changed a bunch of stuff for the better, but I really think like others have said they have not had enough time to recover. And I also think with all the changes, that you went too far the other way and your water is too clean.

Nutrients should always read zero... there should not be "free" nutrients. They should be sucked up by bacteria, pellets, algae... as long as your water is clean, and algae is not growing where it shouldn't... then feed. Feed a lot. I fed all I could. My number were fine, my cheato barely grew, and everything grew fast. You will be able to tell when it is too much.

It's just a guess... like others have said, you are not out in left field. You sound like you are doing things right. But also like others have said in general, "keep your hands out of the tank". When I finally got my build where I wanted it, and stopped changing things, and just did maintenance and left everything alone... things got much better. Sometimes, the best thing we can do is leave it alone.

 

You have to trust your water guy. I trusted mine. I knew the guy that maintained his RO/DI system and he said the guy had impeccable maintenance. But there are plenty that don't.

But instead of some exotic "something" mysteriously inhibiting SPS growth... you are going to have a bigger problem from just having nutrients in the water and causing algae/cyano growth. It is more probable that your water is not the cause of your problems. If anything, test the salinity of the water you get... I always did, but it was always right on the money.

 

I missed this part. Not sure a bulb with more par is needed after all.

matt

 

Thanks!

Yes, my system was like a ULNS system. I did a ton of research and talked to several people about this about 6-8 weeks ago. I haven't dosed vinegar in 4 months. I started dosing amino acids and oyster eggs about 6 weeks ago and saw my worms etc. multiply since, so that's a good sign.

No burnt tips and the UV shield is indeed on the unit.

 

Yeah, it is determinately growth, so that's encouraging, to say the least.

 

I would salivate for slow growth at this point. It's better than none.

 

Yeah, I think I will go ahead and start some water changes. I had success when mixing my own salt. I guess I'll go back to what works.

 

alright man, best of luck to you. glad i was able to contribute

 

Thanks for your very detailed post. I really appreciate it.