Corraline, lack of growth

Question
Hi Gerry,

My tank is a 90 Gals and is 12 Months old, it contains 60Lbs of liverocks. My water is as follow:

PH 8.2, Alk 3.5 mEq/L, Calcium 400, Sg 1.026, Temp 79F, Canopy Light includes two 65 watt dual Actinic (420nm + 460nm) and two 65 watt dual daylight (6,700K + 10,000K) which are on for about 10 hours a day. 15 Gal sump tank with Protein skimmer. All other water chemicals are at 0, including Ammonia, copper, Nitrite, Nitrate, Phosphate. Water replacement/topup is done with reverse Osmosis filtered water. Adding Tropic Marin Bio-Calcium and Kent Marine Pro-Buffer dKH on a daily basis.

My Coraline is not growing as it should, as a friend of mine set up his tank 6 months ago and has so much Coraline that he had to buy a scraper to get the Coraline off his glass. My Coraline is barely growing and some liverock had started to show some dying Coraline. I also have problems keeping simple soft corals.

What should I be looking for to increase Coraline growth and keeping soft corals alive.

Thanks for your advice.

Answer
IT'S FUNNY YOU SHOULD BRING THIS UP. I HAVE, IN THE PAST, HAD THE SAME PROBLEM. WHAT IS ODD, HOWEVER IS THE CORALINE GROWTH WOULD SKYROCKET AND THEN DIE OFF TO A DEGREE. IF YOU TEST YOUR FRIENDS WATER IT MAY BE HIGH IN NITRATES, ON WHICH ALGAES FEED. GO TO ABOUT.COM AND CLICK ON HOBBIES AND GAMES, THEN CLICK ON SALTWATER AQUARIUMS. YOU WILL BE AT THE SITE MANAGED BY STAN AND DEBBIE HAUTER. YOU WILL FIND ANSWERS TO JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING. P.S. YOUR WATER QUALITY IS BETTER THAN MINE - GOOD JOB. ONE MORE THING, ASK YOUR FRIEND IF YOU CAN PUT A COUPLE OF YOUR LIVE ROCKS IN HIS TANK TO GET SOME CORALINE TRANSFER AND YOU WILL BE ABLE TO SEED YOUR TANK. GERRY.