150 Gallon, Help?!? Advice please!

MaxThePowderBrown · 05-01-2008, 07:56 PM

I had a 75 gallon saltwater aquarium that was doing great. I recently upgraded, to a 150 gallon, about 3 weeks ago... and it's going just ok.

Real quick: the stats:
150 Gallon, 2 Rena XP3 Canister filters, 3 powerheads, a heater, Prism Skimmer (I know it's crappy, but better than nothing), about 120 pounds of live rock, and a nice light with two metal halide's vho and blue actinics, I think a total of 760 watts...

Fish: 1 yellow tang, 1 blue hippo tang, 1 powder brown tang, a mated goldstripe maroon clownfish pair, a niger trigger, and a fu man chu lionfish.

Corals: colt, mushrooms, button polyps, star polyps, finger leather, gorgorian, and frogspawn

Also two anenome's, one rose bulb and one african yellow.

The anenome's and corals were doing excellent and now they are all unhappy. I don't know why or what the problem is. Oh yeah, everything is tested fine. Nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia, all 0, and calcium is about 400.

Any advice??? I would like more corals and no more fish. But my corals are so unhappy. I do have food for the corals too that I feed once a week. I add calcuim, strotium, and iodine.

One more thing: I'm thinking of adding a 3rd filter, the fluval fx5 (rated for 400 gallons). What do you think????

MaxThePowderBrown · 05-01-2008, 08:44 PM

Some pictures...

I also have little to no coraline purple algea, and would like some.

The pics were taken with my phone, they don't do justice.

chadf · 05-01-2008, 09:10 PM

They may need more time getting used to the new lighting and flow. The calcium is good, what's your alk? If you keep that high also coralline will grow in time.

MaxThePowderBrown · 05-01-2008, 09:24 PM

Thank you for the reply!
I don't know what my alk is. I need to by a tester for it. What do you recommend? Also, is magnesium important to test? I've read that it contributes to coraline algae.

chadf · 05-01-2008, 09:59 PM

I recommend seachem, their test for it comes with alk and ph, both are extremely accurate. I don't test magnesium and have coralline out of control after like 7-8 months. I can't keep it off of the front glass!

Judge · 05-02-2008, 05:16 PM

Hi Max and welcome to the best forum there is. I think I would opt for more live rock instead of another filter. Not sue about the corals being unhappy although I had read that the lionfish is a nibbler of corals. However if all these guys you have listed have been together all along then maybe they just have not quite acclimated to the new digs. Believe me I understand the protein skimmer dilemma. I HAD a Visi-Jet wannabe skimmer and have replaced with an Aqua C Remora. Good luck and keep us posted.

MaxThePowderBrown · 05-13-2008, 12:36 PM

Well things have been ok. I did buy more live rock, about 20 pounds. I just can't seem to find a store that has nice LR. I bought about 10 lbs of figi and 10 lbs of tonga.

I did get the Fluval to replace one rena, and I like it so far.

I also ordered a Coralife Super Skimmer 220 (to replace the Prism) and a Koralia 3. Waiting impatiently for them to arrive...

I did get more testing supplies and am a little confused. I get different readings... I posted another thread regarding my calcuim tests. I am getting a reading of 360 now from Hagan Nutrifin and 400 now from API. I now have phospate, hardness, iron, and a magnesium test in also on the way.

I keep spending money! I can't stop!

One more thing... water changes. How often? And how? I recently read something about salt burn? After mixing the salt with freshwater, how long before you add it to the tank?

Oh yeah, the anenome's. One did die and the other looks like it's on it way out. The corals are doing well and the fish are great.

chadf · 05-13-2008, 02:21 PM

I change 15% weekly. The salt should be mixed a least an hour prior IMO, but the longer the better. Also the sw should be at tank temperature before doing the change.

MeadowSky · 05-13-2008, 10:15 PM

I do my water changes weekly on Sunday. After I do it I mix up more saltwater for the next week. It sits with a powerhead and a heater all week. When it is time to change the water I top off the tank with freshwater first to the normal level and then do the saltwater change.