Beginner SPS Questions

[JCA]

Hey all,

I appreciate you taking the time to help me out here. Previously, I've successfully kept sw fish, soft coral, and LPS coral in a 180 gallon before I took a hiatus. I started up a new 90 gallon approximately a year ago and wanted to have a primarily dominant SPS tank with some LPS at the lower levels.

This go-around I was immediately intrigued by the Triton method. Do away with water changes? Yes please. So, I've been dosing per their regimen since the beginning and have not done a single water change to this point. I have no problem doing them if needed, but at this point I still have undetectable levels of nitrate and clear water without the use of carbon or GFO. The fish and LPS are active and seem very healthy.

Full tank shot

Now for the issue, I can't keep SPS healthy to save my life.

I have the following parameters:

Alk: 8.2-8.4
Calc: 444
Mag: 1530
Salinity: 1.025
Phosphates: Undetectable
Nitrate: Undetectable

I'm sending in a water sample to Triton today so I should have more parameters available soon.

I use a Giesemann 48" LED T5 Hybrid light fixture. I run it for 8 hours a day, 100% T5 and 10% LED with an hour ramp up/down on either side for the LED only (6 total hours at the full 10%). I have 1x 54w Super Purple, 2x 54w Actinic Blue, 1x 54w Aquablue Coral T5 bulbs, all Giesemann. Plan was to slowly increase the LED up to ~40%, but immediately ran into bleaching problems so I haven't progressed.

Here is what I'm experiencing:

Acro 1: Seems like I'm getting some bleaching at the tips, RTN at the base, and the polyp coloration is all, but gone. Average PAR level is only 88 at this location. Would increase it, but again I'm experiencing issues.

When I got it 3 weeks ago

One week ago

Yesterday (apologies for the light on this. I can try to take a better one if needed)

Acro 2: Had some bleaching on the tips when I got it, but it's progressing badly and starting to grow algae on the bleached parts. Average PAR is only 69 at this location.

When I got it 3 weeks ago

One week ago

Yesterday

Like I said above, everything else in the tank is healthy including a torch and hammer

That is except for chaeto algae in the fuge. I run a Kessil H380 Halo II LED Algae Grow Light and I get little to no growth out of it. It gets quite a bit of flow through the sump and I have a power head in the chamber, but only hair algae seems to grow.

Sorry for being so long-winded, I just wanted to be sure to be as thorough as possible. Any thoughts?


Thank you in advance!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Wait for the test to come back.

Increase light.

Those are not “white tips “ that’s dead coral.

Try to get 150 to 200 on the sand.

 

[Oscaror]

#Welcome to R2R! I agree on increasing lighting, those corals are very far down. Also undetectable nutrients can negatively impact SPS aswell

 

[Bpb]

Looks like some brittle tissue on those acros. How old is your tank?

 

[Flippers4pups]

#Welcome to R2R! I agree on increasing lighting, those corals are very far down. Also undetectable nutrients can negatively impact SPS aswell

I would agree on 0's for N03 and P04. They need some.

Oh and welcome to reef2reef!

 

[JCA]

Wait for the test to come back.

Increase light.

Those are not “white tips “ that’s dead coral.

Try to get 150 to 200 on the sand.

Will do. I was more-so afraid increasing light to those levels would just cause more bleaching. Should I increase all colors of LED or only some since I have mostly blue T5 bulbs?

 

[JCA]

#Welcome to R2R! I agree on increasing lighting, those corals are very far down. Also undetectable nutrients can negatively impact SPS aswell

The undetectable nutrients had me worried as well. What would you suggest to get them higher?

 

[JCA]

Looks like some brittle tissue on those acros. How old is your tank?

It has been fully cycled for 10.5 months at this point

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Undetectable on what test.

 

[JCA]

Undetectable on what test.

Red Sea's standard marine test kit for nitrate and Red Sea's phosphate pro test kit for phosphates.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I’d still wait for the test.
Feed more.
Build no3 and Po4. You cold dose them but...

You have no corraline. That’s odd.
Could be low nutrients ,but....

I’d still slowly increase light.

 

[JCA]

I’d still wait for the test.
Feed more.
Build no3 and Po4. You cold dose them but...

You have no corraline. That’s odd.
Could be low nutrients ,but....

I’d still slowly increase light.

The lack of coralline was actually something I forgot to mention in my initial post. I have gone through a few algae blooms, but to this point zero corraline. Add that to my list of on-going issues.

Very curious what Triton's test comes back with.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Corraline also needs no3 and Po4.

How big is your skimmer?

Rodi water ?

 

[JCA]

Corraline also needs no3 and Po4.

How big is your skimmer?

Rodi water ?

I'm running a Vertex Omega 150 Protein Skimmer and yes, RODI water through a 4-stage system.

 

[Oscaror]

The undetectable nutrients had me worried as well. What would you suggest to get them higher?

around 5 ppm consistently IMO

 

[JCA]

I received my Triton lab results back and it looks like there are two items in the red category. I have 22 ppb of tin present in the aquarium and I only have 1.63 ppb Strontium, where it is recommending 8.

I imagine the tin is a huge contributing factor to my SPS woes... I've attached the report for your viewing.

 

[Colorado reefer]

Any updates?
If you lost the colonies I would recommend trying some sps that are not Acros. And if/when you do try Acros again, pick healthy frags over colonies. I found my acros do best with high random flow (but not blowing directly at the corals) and par around 200, alk 8, with always a detectable amount of no3/po4

 

[NickC]

If it were me, I’d get on a water change schedule and stick with it for a few months. I’d be willing to bet that things improve.

 

[mstockmaster]

If you can't grow coralline then you're not going to be able to grow sps. They both need similar water conditions with the exception of light, flow and stability. It looks like your flow is okay. But your light is way low. I run my LEDs (reefbreeders) at 100 on all channels except white red and green. And it wasn't really until I dialed in my water chemistry stability and decided to bake the corals under light that I had success. Under lit sps will also pale out and die. I'd try increasing your light, and absolutely make sure your water parameters are stable. Did you start this tank with dry rock by any chance?

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Yeah I see no coralline, maybe a few spots on the overflow. Was your tank started with dry rock? If so keep adding in soft corals and lps, try to get a nice piece of live rock or a piece of rock from a well established reef tank. Doing those will help to continue to seed your system and increase needed biodiversity. I would try a frag of tank grown montipora, sylophora or birdsnest corals these will be much hardier. Looks like you have some larger wild acro colonies, these are hard to keep alive even for acro masters. We just cant match the conditions of a natural reef and larger pieces dont adjust well to aquariumsp life. Add that to stress from collection and shipping .I would try to find the source of the tin in your system. Send in an ICP of your RODI and fresh mixed saltwater to be sure its not your source water, check for corroded metal like impeller shafts and magnets. Doing a decent water change will correct your low strontium and high tin as long as the tin is not in the salt or water scource. You mg is really high imo. Be sure to match alk, sg and temp of you new water to your tank water. Doing regular water changes helps to ensure you dont go low on trace elements and that things like waste and hard metals ect dont build up over time.