New Ric turning gray

[blennieluvr]

I know you guys are gonna ask for water parameters and maybe pics neither of which I can provide right now but I'm gonna ask anyway. I've been using test strips and am only planning on keeping softies for now so thought the strips might be good enough. I did test with those and the only thing that looked low and just barely was the PH. Pics I could possibly do if I knew how but not till late tonight. Anyway, I'm rambling. I just got my first shrooms and zoo's this past weekend. They all seem to be doing OK EXCEPT the ricordea. Some of them are graying. They have kept their shape except some have the middles sticking out just a tad. I moved them down some in my tank thinking they were shocked by the lights although I know Reefstock had them well lit and that's where I got 'em. I have 4X65 watt Coralife lights....actinic and 10,000K (hope I'm explaining those right.) in a standard 55g tank. Do you think they'll adjust on their own? Should I move them? Take pics? What? Oh...in case you wanna know, my salinity had been at 1.023 (tested with a hydrometer) but I slowly increased it all week to 1.025 with my top offs. I do those at least once a day.

[mdcorcoran]

I don't think that PC lights could be too much for anything, so that's probably not the problem.


You said your pH was a "little" low...but pH is on a log scale, so a pH of 7.8 is 10x more acidic than a pH of 7.9! You really don't want your pH to drop that low! It should be 7.9-8.2, the higher the better. It will be lower when the lights are off, and if your KH is too low, it will swing dramatically when lights go on and off, which is bad news. Do you use RO water? How long has the tank been running?

[blennieluvr]

Tank's been running since January ('06) but this is my first venture into the keeping of corals. I think I'm gonna get a better test kit as fast as I can or have the LFS test it. Problem is, I think they use the same test I have. (I got mine from them.) I thought that about the lights too but wasn't sure what else to do so moved them lower. OH...and yes, I use RO water but haven't tested it. I ordered a TDS tester but not received it yet. Have had contact with someone from this board that lives in my town (a miracle in itself!) that would come over and test the filtered water for me.