T5 Lighting help

[guppymonkey]

OK, so I have a 28gal one of a kind rectangle tank. It is about 18" tall and has a 24" fixture with 4 t5s, metal halide, and moon leds. The water is great and things are growing well, except my GSP. Never had much luck with it. Waving hand is like a weed in there. The lights used are 1- 10k white and 3- actinic Blue. No Halide as some of the corals hate it.

I have large devil's hand, dragon soul favia, pavona, GSP, 6" frog spawn, leather unknown, waving hand groups, zoos randomly all over, various frags, a yellow pagoda, a damsel, and a dragonet.

The problem, all though things are all growing well, Some corals have changed in the last 2 months. The frogspawn is starting grow new heads, but the others have gone translucent green rather than dark. The unknown leather, similar to a Solomon type went from green hue to a white with pink tips and polyps. GSP never really did put out many polyps. after a few months.

So could it be a lighting issue? too bright? I run the lights from 10am-9pm.

[MizTanks]

All parameters stable and acceptable? If so then it may be a light issue. Try cutting back a couple hours, 8hrs a day.

[guppymonkey]

Params good. ph~8.2, ~0s on NH3, and Nits. good on others and trace dosing here and there. Temps are at 79-81. Salinity i keep around 0.025. I plan to rotate a few corals out as soon as my fragging tank is more stable. I want to try pectinia and Lobo, but don't want to toss away money. Chalice never seem to last for me either. They seem to waste away. The favia and pavona thrive along with almost all softies.

[MizTanks]

What about your PO4?

[guppymonkey]

lol typo 1.025 salinity. So I did phosphates and got ~0.5. My KH is 560ppm and CA2+ is ~540ppm.

[MizTanks]

Ok something is definitely off. Acceptable levels for Alk is 125-200ppm, Ca is 380-420ppm, Phosphate (PO4) is 0.03 or less.

What test kit are you using? Are you dosing anything? What is your Mag level?

[guppymonkey]

Access Denied (http://www.petco.com/product/112561/NutraFin-Master-Aquarium-Test-Kit.aspx)
this is the kit. I will check with another kit i have. I don't really test those. I just know our water is very hard. I have tried using RO water and purple bag of instant ocean salt mix.

[guppymonkey]

opps..link doesn't work. nutrafin master test kit. I just got the whole kit since I wanted both when doing freshwater and was planning on getting more involved in marine systems.
I will be trying my API kit I got from a friend.....do the kits expire?

[guppymonkey]

On Phosphate. The kit has 1.0 and above as bad. Is there a unit of measure I could compare with?

[MizTanks]

The API kit for Ca & Alk are pretty accurate. Do they expire, yes. I wouldn't use nor depend on one that's more then a year old.
Is it possible to take a water sample to your LFS and have them test it?
Here's a reference chart for parameters.
Reef Aquarium Water Parameters by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/)

[guppymonkey]

Redid some tests. The test tubes have some contaminates in them. Either residue or something. This time the KH came out at 110ppm and Ca 480 and PO at <0.5. The API test came out as KH 179ppm. Ca 500ppm, and PO ~0.25.
I will be trying to take a sample in to the store today since I had only a half day. Normally they close by the time I get home.

[guppymonkey]

So I plan on doing some water changes and I am looking at doing a Baking Soda add to help raise KH. Any thoughts?

[MizTanks]

I wouldn't start dosing anything. Your levels are fine according to the API. Let your parameters balance out via water changes. Dosing only needs to be done when those elements are being depleted by your corals and that can only be observed by daily testing for at least a week to see how much is being used.

[guppymonkey]

So I got my water tested at the store. He used Salifert. KH came out around 2.3 and Ca around 490. So he suggested I get it raised up to around 3-3.4 to use the Calcium since I have a mix of corals and I want to add a pectinia. So I got a KH and Ca buffer kit from him that they make up and you just go in and refill. They buy it bulk and just refill for you so it's cheaper. I got both since he said the tank is right there and once the KH goes up, that calcium will quickly drop as the corals use it up. Excited to see it work and grow some corals.

[MizTanks]

Any updates?!