My softies won't open!

[Dieselbreath]

Does anyone have any ideas on this. My rbta's are staying nearly all the way closed, and when they do start to open up it is very minimal. The tenticals are a very vivid purple. My mushrooms do open up just a bit, and are very bright in color. My polyps look great! Fish don't seem to be bothered. Lighting is on about 4 hrs a day. Water change just last weekend. I will look at water quality this evening. I only have access to a computer in the morning so it may take a while to get back to any responses. Thanks for your input.

DB

 

[tike]

DB, we will need to know more about your water parameters as well as tank size type light running and how long. If you provide this information I am sure many of us can chime in with some good ideas about what's happening.

willie

 

[Dieselbreath]

The tank size is 120 display and a 30gal sump.
Lighting is 4 100 VHO's.

The tank has been running about 5 months.
I'll post more info as I get it and can get ont eh computer.

DB

 

[Blazer88]

Why are your lights only on for 4 hours? Seems a bit short to me. Post up your water parameters when you get a chance, that will give a better clue to what is going on.

 

[Dieselbreath]

Water parameters

Nitrite NO2- 0ppm
Nitrate NO3- 0ppm
Ph 8.2-8.3
ALK> LOW***** How can I raise this back to proper parameters??
Ammonia NH3 0ppm

So with that what do you folks think?


DB

 

[Dieselbreath]

Water temp is usually 79 low to as high as 81
Salinity is 1.023

DB

 

[mmkeeper]

What is your calcium level? You can add buffer to raise your alk levels, but you want to keep them in balance with you calcium level.

 

[Dieselbreath]

I do not have a calcium test kit. But I do plan to try and get one this weekend. I'll let you guys know when I find out those results. What should the calcium and alk levels be?

DB

 

[mmkeeper]

Here is a charting graph to help you. http://www.reefnerds.com/ChemPlot/ChemPlot.html

 

[ScottT1980]

Yeah, it sounds like an Alk/Ca imbalance. Also, I would make sure oyu are using a quality Alk test kit (not a red sea kit...you just said low, which is how the red sea kits read).

Take er easy
Scott T.

 

[Elmo18]

Can you answer Blazer's question?

- Ilham

 

[Lgo12545]

This is DieselBreath.

It would not let me log in so I used me dads account.

My lights were on for shorter periods of time, since that was reccomended to help with an algea problem that I was fighting.

As for the alk test kit I do only have the Red Sea test kit. I also purchased a calcium test kit and found out that it was around 550ppm. Since then I have added some buffer to bring the alk up to the OK zone. I will re test later tonight and post when I can.

DB