SPS still not thriving...Ideas?

[ps2cho]

I've really been struggling over the past 6 months with all of my SPS. The hardiest ones haven't died, but they aren't super happy...

Some of the harder ones suddenly started RTN'ing again. One of them was doing great, polyps out, then it fell off the rock, so I glued it back on and it 90% dead the next morning. I salvaged 1/2in of one piece, but its hardly acceptable. I'm just frustrated and don't know what the reason I haven't had much success.

1.025
78f
ph 7.91
nitrates 0.5-1ppm
po4 0-0.02
ca 440
alk 9.8
mg 1360
Keeping ca+alk stable with BRS 2-part and brs dosers.

I don't know what to do here? Is my tank too clean? I'm feeding the fish daily...
Some of my more established SPS are doing alright. The Red Planet is encrusting fine, my Montiporas are ok, but everything else sucks.

The tank is 1 year old next week...

 

[zesty]

Depending on how you set your tank up, 1 year may still be early for SPS. I started out with birdsnest that took months to take off, and they're suppose to be the easy ones. They didn't tell that to my birdsnest...

Your numbers look good, I don't see anything strikingly out of order there. What fish do you have? What is your LEDs set at? Have they been acclimated?

Also, you have a RW40 and more than on WP25 on your tank?

 

[jcdeng]

with those No3 and Po4 numbers it seems like you are running ULNS, couple that with a higher alk of 9.8, you definitely need to supplement the tank. Feeding fish alone won't be enough, you need to feed the corals too with coral specific food and AA.

 

[jcdeng]

some of mine

And my alk is only at 7.8, No3: 5-7ppm, Po4 is 0.04-0.06

I feed the corals once or twice a week depending on how busy I am that week, and fish twice a day, pellets in the AM and frozen in the Evening. coral feeds include BRS reef chilli, liquid phytoplankton, KZ coral vitalizer, and Fauna LPS pellets to my lps corals.

Running Led/T5 combo if that makes a difference.

 

[StikHedRon]

Have you checked for pests like redbugs or aefw?

 

[ps2cho]

with those No3 and Po4 numbers it seems like you are running ULNS, couple that with a higher alk of 9.8, you definitely need to supplement the tank. Feeding fish alone won't be enough, you need to feed the corals too with coral specific food and AA.

So what you are saying is make my water dirtier because my alk is high?

No pests present! I have dipped all corals and monitor closely.

 

[M3ace9]

So what you are saying is make my water dirtier because my alk is high?

No pests present! I have dipped all corals and monitor closely.

Yes, a dirty system is a happy system. Depending on how you acclimate your tank to your parameters, you may get better growth. They could easily be starving.

 

[zesty]

Dirty is such a harsh term.

We don't want you to have dirty water. However, when reading your post, JCD looked at the clues you laid out. You're low on nutrients and your alk is (let's say) above average. So, you need "coral specific food and AA" that is where your water is going to get dirty. Because we cannot just simply feel the coral and not waste any food, your water is going to get dirty in the process.

So, (basically) if your corals aren't being fed, they aren't going to use up your alk to grow.
@jcdeng feel free to correct me if I'm speaking out of turn or missed something.

 

[jcdeng]

I agree with Zesty, dirty is not the focus here, its rather "Nutrients". You need to add nutrients to the tank so the corals can grow and color up. By having such low numbers on PO4 and No3, that means you have the means to export the nutrients being added to the tank (whatever you do, WC, gfo, chaeto, BP, they are working great), so dont be afraid to feed that tank a little.

There are people that always say, don't chase after the numbers, just watch the corals to determine the health of your system. Your husbandry is good, just keep up the good routine and don't be afraid to feed the tank.

 

[ps2cho]

I literally have no export other than the skimmer. I've backed off water changes to monthly 20% because any more and my nitrates go to undetectable...

How do I know how much to use for aminos?
I have coral frenzy in my fish box. How much how often?

Also should I bring my alk slowly down to 9 over the next week? Would that help?

 

[zesty]

I've had good results with acropower for AAs. And there's instructions on the bottle.

 

[jcdeng]

how many fishes do you have in your system? coral feeding once a week should be enough, as to Amino acids, don't go crazy, i would do 1/2 the recommended dose but definitely not everyday like some bottles might say cuz that will guarantee cyano outbreak, just take it slow and keep testing the No3. A good starting point is dose the AA 10 mins before you feed the coral food to entice the PE so they grab food more easily from the water column. So that would be like once a week, then if your tank can handle it you can do that twice a week.

anymore than that then I would suggest you starting dosing bacteria to your tank too to help with breaking down excess nutrients. Long story short just find a feeding regimen you and your tank are comfortable with, and go slow.

 

[ps2cho]

I have a yellow tang, kole tang, royal gramma, and 2 clown fish

 

[jcdeng]

Your lights can definitely play a roll in how your SPS looks too. I am not familiar with Reefbreeders lights but ask ppl that have success with these lights with sps to see what power %, how high they hang the light and photo period, those will help. TBH, I only know of a very few LED brands that ppl didn't complaint about washed out colors though.

 

[ps2cho]

It's not even a brown out issue...it's a near death deal. I will start feeding more and see what happens

 

[ps2cho]

I also wonder if that is why my tank is consuming a lot more calcium than alk on my 2-part?

 

[RandoReefer]

I also wonder if that is why my tank is consuming a lot more calcium than alk on my 2-part?

Is your dosing amounts equal? I suffered the same issue where I thought my Alk was being consumed more than Calcium. After reading and reviewing, Randy Holmes-Farley had mentioned in a thread that dosing the two equally would help balance each other out. I started dosing an equal amount of Ca to Alk, kept Mag above 1300 and the system balanced.

 

[Greg79]

I would start with slowly lower the alk to 8
I'm keeping mine 7.7-8 and they seems pretty happy
Check for potassium it's pretty important from my experience

 

[ps2cho]

No...its not.
5ml of alk per day
16ml of ca per day

I had it at 10ml of each, and my alk was rising quickly so I had to back it off.

I also read though that the concentration can vary quite a lot based on how accurate the initial mixing measurements were.

I will aim to bring down to 8.5 since my salt is close to that and it also gives me a little more safety room just in case something goes wrong.

 

[hinovak]

These are a couple of tips that really helped me get to the next level on sps growing. First off, check out rich reefers article on sps keeping. It is superb. Coral for Sale - Buy Corals Online - RICHREEFER. How is your flow? That was one of the biggest difference makers in my experience. I amped up my flow much more than I thought I needed, this from reading multiple books and articles on sps. Corals that never grew, started growing, corals such as efflos and ice fire echinata, that I only dreamed about keeping, now seem not that bad, I have 3 efflos. Another major turning point for me was not being so lazy about testing. I always would start testing after things started going down hill. I now make myself test at least once every three days. I cannot begin to express how many times this has saved me from disaster. This also allows you to make minor tweaks, and keep things stable. Also check out zeovit flatworm stop, even if you do not have flatworms. It is acro crack! I do not know what all is in that stuff, but struggling acros will actually turn around. I was dumb and did not dip a couple of acros, and of course got red bugs. It has been a year with them, and using flat worm stop and a ton of flow, acros growing like crazy. But for sure read rich reefers article, it is spot on. Hope this helps.