Help!! Help with biocube.

What kind of lighting schedule should I have them on?

Currently, I have the 3 moonlight LEDs on at all times and the actinic/10,000k on
930am-630 pm

 

They do offer that attachment to the system that I plan on ordering in the next week.

 

ughhh

Every day for the last week I've done tests on my water and have consistently gotten

1230-1250 magnesium
420-440 calcium
8.0-8.1 ph
9 alkalinity
0 nitrate
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
.2 phosphate

To me, it seems like everything is in line.

About 5pm last night, out of nowhere, a huge section of my yellow polyps closed up (maybe 1/3 of the colony...about 75 polyps) and didn't open back up for a couple hours.

At the same time as that happened, the torch coral also shrunk way down.

I wake up this am and check the tank and the torch coral is backed up mostly into his skeleton, every other night he has shrunk up, but never gone into his skeleton like this.

I just hope when I get home from work he's not completely dead.

Some other observations from the tank...

I posted a pic of the salinity tester (which I don't use anymore, but things are growing in it, so I don't want to trash it) and now, inside of it there are a few tiny red things. Very, very small and they crawl over the inside of it.

I have a hermit crab that got huge fast (he's probably 20 times bigger than the rest) and he tends to move rocks around a lot. Especially the larger ones...and when I stayed up and watched him a couple days ago, he was trying to pull the torch corals drag off the rock...I have another coral I superglued to another rock that I think he pulled off it last night because it's not there anymore and is in the sanders below it. Has anyone had problems with larger hermit crabs in a tank where they had to get rid of them for the peace of the tank?

I included a pic of him to try and show size because he's really big (I think he ate my coral banded shrimp, too)

I feel a bit like a dog chasing his tail.

 

What do you mean by "stray electrical current"?

I think I'm going to take the big hermit and put him in the bio ball chamber until I can find someone that wants him.

If somebody has time to come by and lend a hand, I could give them a Xenia frag, a yellow polyp drag and that big hermit...

 

Should I dose a teaspoon of magnesium every other day till I get it higher?

I wonder if we are over feeding the tank or something that's keeping that phosphate level where it is. I ran some phosphate sponge and got it down to 0, took it out (it says to only leave in for 8hours - 48hours and remove) and 2 days later we had measurable phosphates again. Even right after a water change.

The next water change I'm gonna do will be from my own RO/di unit...like I mentioned, I've been using the culligan water for water changes the last couple months. The machine claims its ro deionized and uv filtered, but some have mentioned that they might not replace their membrane/filters often enough.

Hopefully having my own unit will help.

The tank has been up and running total for 4 years or so. I got it about 3 years ago in trade (I always wanted one and the opportunity arose and I traded for it and the guy brought it to my house and set it up for me) when I got it, it was thriving and I knew very little about salt water tanks...I bought additives the people at petco (and other stores) sold me and added them, didn't do enough water changes and over time, the colonies have gotten smaller and smaller. I moved up to Cedar Falls from Marion a year and a half ago and during the process, the tank sat for an extended period of time with just timers and my brother feeding the fish.

Ever since the move, I've been fighting to get it back to the point it was when I got it, but I know so little and apart from this place, I really don't know where to look because there aren't any local salt water fish stores.

I've probably spent over $500 on additives, test kits and whatnot to try to get it to that point, and still feel like I'm chasing my tail.

Believe me, I appreciate every ounce of knowledge I've gotten here.

You guys are a huge help.

 

ill add a teaspoon per day till it gets to 1320 or so.

How about iodine and strontium? Should I buy tests for those? I've noticed that it lists those as things to have as additives for hammer/frogspawn/torchcorals...I have the additives, but no test so I don't use them anymore.

 

Should I stop using this?

--- Auto-Merged, Mar 23, 2016, Original Post: Mar 23, 2016 ---

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I put him in the third chamber in the back till I can get someone to take him.

It's a shame, too, because he's a way cool looking little bugger...but I like my corals more.

I also have an emerald crab, but he seems harmless....as well as 7-8 other hermits that are small and a medium sized one thats super dark red with blue that's equally as harmless.

 

Just getting rid of that hermit crab and getting the magnesium up has made the corals a lot happier.

I'll post some pics tomorrow.

Progress!

 

I did some running around and stopped at petco and they had a little frogspawn frag for 20 bucks that was mostly closed up that I grabbed...Flores him for 35 minutes and gave him a good spot for lighting and a little flow and he ballooned out like crazy within a half hour. Here's a pic of the tank.

--- Auto-Merged, Mar 25, 2016, Original Post: Mar 25, 2016 ---

That torch I picked up a few days ago.

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The frogspawn I picked up an hour and a half ago

 

I checked today and my calcium is down to 380...ph is good at 8.1-8.2...alk is 9...magnesium tested at 1290.

It seems like every time I test my water the last week or so, ph and Alkalinity don't sway much, but my calcium and magnesium keep dropping....so I have a couple questions...

1) how many points is it safe to increase Calcium (and other components of the water) per day?
2) is it normal for these 2 to go down so quickly?

--- Auto-Merged, Mar 28, 2016, Original Post: Mar 28, 2016 ---

The corals look great, btw.