Zack09
New Member
I had a 29 gal reef tank that I upgraded to a 40 gal breeder with a 20 gal long sump about 3 weeks ago. All of my coral and fish were looking happy until this past weekend. Starting Sunday after doing a partial water change my hydnophora, gongorian, and gsp all have looked bad. Most of my zoas seem to be unaffected.
Current parameters-
Nitrate- .1 (hanna) 0(salifert), I tested this yesterday hanna showed 0.
Phosphate- .08 (hanna) 0 (salifert), I tested this yesterday as well and hanna showed .07
Alk- 7
Mag- 1200
Cal-430
Salinity- 1.26
I was thinking that maybe phosphates were being my issue as previously they were either non-existent or around .02. Additionally I could just have misunderstood the set up of my sump and am missing key parts.
My sump is pictured below but it goes inflow->refugium (has chaeto, live sand, and dragon's breath, with a refugium light that is set to turn on at night)->filter media (activated carbon, a sponge block, and ceramic bio beads)-> final chamber has heater and pumps for bringing water back up to tank.
After testing last night and seeing phosphate was at .07 for the Hanna Checker, I did added back on my Aquamaxx Protein Skimmer in chamber one of my sump. Although after running all night the phosphate and nitrate went up.
When I sat up the 40 gal, I brought over the majority of the old tank water, all of the live rock, and put the old filter media into the sump. I bought new live sand and mixed a few cups of the old sand bed into it (but only from the top layer of the old tanks sand bed).
Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Current parameters-
Nitrate- .1 (hanna) 0(salifert), I tested this yesterday hanna showed 0.
Phosphate- .08 (hanna) 0 (salifert), I tested this yesterday as well and hanna showed .07
Alk- 7
Mag- 1200
Cal-430
Salinity- 1.26
I was thinking that maybe phosphates were being my issue as previously they were either non-existent or around .02. Additionally I could just have misunderstood the set up of my sump and am missing key parts.
My sump is pictured below but it goes inflow->refugium (has chaeto, live sand, and dragon's breath, with a refugium light that is set to turn on at night)->filter media (activated carbon, a sponge block, and ceramic bio beads)-> final chamber has heater and pumps for bringing water back up to tank.
After testing last night and seeing phosphate was at .07 for the Hanna Checker, I did added back on my Aquamaxx Protein Skimmer in chamber one of my sump. Although after running all night the phosphate and nitrate went up.
When I sat up the 40 gal, I brought over the majority of the old tank water, all of the live rock, and put the old filter media into the sump. I bought new live sand and mixed a few cups of the old sand bed into it (but only from the top layer of the old tanks sand bed).
Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.
