Can’t keep SPS alive

[Charlie’s Frags]

How do you like that one, icp-analysis vs the others you’ve tried? Similar results?

I’ve only used it and ati. I like it way better than ati…..but I honestly don’t do them very often. I think this 1 was from May 2020.

 

[Acrofiend]

12” 6g cube no diffusers

You don’t have near enough light

Looks like the necrosis is in the shade…compounded by probably too much flow on those areas as well.

Do you have this plumbed into your main tank?

 

[gbroadbridge]

Have had 0 problems with inverts dying. Still probably worth using some cuprisorb and running another icp test.

Corals are inverts :)

I'd suggest dropping PO4 and Copper (Cu should be 0)

 

[TheBiochemist]

Hi, parameters seems to be relatively fine (although I prefer much lower PO4 and higher Mg). ICP shows quite high Cu and Al, but Im not convinced that these concentrations might cause this especially if your other inverts are OK. Do you dip the corals before introducing them into the tank? From your first photo it looks that there is a polyp-free spot on the upper side of the coral, which could be eaten out by pests. My experience is that when STN occurrs on my acros its mostly due to rapid changes in parameters. After I got the parameters back, STN stops and acros are even able to re-grow the skeleton with a new tissue. But in these cases, STN always starts at the base of a coral. In contrast, I once had an infestation with pests and they ate tissue randomly causing these tissue-free spots. Some pests are able to persist in a tank for a long time even without hosts, so this could be an issue (my experience with MENs). :)

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Do you have this plumbed into your main tank?

Yes

 

[llowry87]

Wow! I did originally take par measurements over a year ago and I believe they were a decent range (my lights are 10” from the water line btw), but your SPS’s are clearly doing better than mine! Maybe it’s time to (slowly?) crank things up.

Completely forgot I did one back in September and had no idea how to interpret the results.

Your copper is perfectly fine!! it is at less than 0.002ppm(0.002mg/L). Two things stick out though. Your aluminum is high and not sure what to do. Second, your iodine level is half of what you should aim for. Other than those, your numbers look good.

 

[CHIEF_OF_THE_REEF]

I have had this exact same issue and could not figure it out before I left for deployment.

lights were upgraded to radion G5’s..
ICP tests, came back good
Added nitrates…
Added phosphates..
Make alk stable, ran 10, 9,8 and now around 7…
Added flow..
Reduced flow…
Added microbater 7…
Water changes…
Let the tank mature… (which I have been doing the last 5 months due to military deployment)

I could not figure it out.. still have not been able to figure it out. So interested in how this thread goes, free bump for ya.

 

[CHIEF_OF_THE_REEF]

Plan when I get home will be to dose phosphates and nitrates to keep them away from 0 but I will dose thru the dos instead of manually doing it. Instead of trying to see if I am good with cheap hard coral I am going to try and keep macro algae alive first

 

[killerbren]

Take my opinion with a grain of salt, as I know this is a bold claim. I couldn't keep sps in my tank for the first 3 years, LPS and softies would do okay but growth was super slow. I was using Lanthanum chloride to control phosphates. In a last ditch effort I gave up on the lanthanum and switched to gfo. The tank took off, and test sps frags I put in there would actually grow (I've only had sps slowly die in my tank until this point). LPS and softies are growing fast, snails are not lethargic anymore and they stopped falling off rocks and glass. I'm not sure if it was the lanthanum, or if the gfo was taking out some toxins, but whatever happened it is a welcome change. I know it's a bold claim, as lots of guys use liquid phosphate reducers with no issues. All I know is the week I stopped my whole tank just took off and seems much healthier. I had a friend start using lanthanum and he started having the same symptoms I did so went back to gfo.

 

[spsick]

From your results I see your salinity is a bit low and your phosphate/phosphorus and aluminum are crazy high. I’d recommend getting a Hanna checker for low range phosphate and work with that and feeding to get your phosphate to reasonable levels. Bumping your water changes up to closer to 5g/week will help keep everything in check on that small tank as well. As for the aluminum I’m not sure. Do you have ceramic media in the sump? May want to send in some new salt water in for an ICP to see if it’s coming in from there.

 

[brahm]

Plan when I get home will be to dose phosphates and nitrates to keep them away from 0 but I will dose thru the dos instead of manually doing it. Instead of trying to see if I am good with cheap hard coral I am going to try and keep macro algae alive first

I’d stop dosing nitrates and phosphates. This new trend will be one we look back at and shake our heads, you can get all the ‘nutrients’ you need from feeding, and if dropping below .25 is causing issues with your Lps something else is going on I’ve had acans for decades shooting for (not always getting) .03 (sometimes 0 sometimes more.)

 

[Jedi1199]

Personally, I suspect your lights are not providing you the correct spectrum and intensity.

I had issues with "easy" SPS until I upgraded my lights. Once I did (Kessil A360X) I have been able to keep pretty much anything I put into the tank. For example, several months ago I got a frag of purple plate monti and a frag of green elkhorn SPS from a local vendor I trust. Both of those pieces bleached out and died within weeks. I upgraded my lights in early December and got 2 new frags of the same SPS from the same vendor from the same mother colony. BOTH are thriving in my tank now.

Water parameters? Your guess is as good as mine.. I don't test it. I do a 14g water change (55g tank) every week. If you like, I can post some pics of what they were when I got them vs. what they are now.

 

[CHIEF_OF_THE_REEF]

Personally, I suspect your lights are not providing you the correct spectrum and intensity.

I had issues with "easy" SPS until I upgraded my lights. Once I did (Kessil A360X) I have been able to keep pretty much anything I put into the tank. For example, several months ago I got a frag of purple plate monti and a frag of green elkhorn SPS from a local vendor I trust. Both of those pieces bleached out and died within weeks. I upgraded my lights in early December and got 2 new frags of the same SPS from the same vendor from the same mother colony. BOTH are thriving in my tank now.

Water parameters? Your guess is as good as mine.. I don't test it. I do a 14g water change (55g tank) every week. If you like, I can post some pics of what they were when I got them vs. what they are now.

I have the gen 5 Ecotechs...


I am now home from deployment, my suspicion of 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates was not the issue as I have both. A little high actually. I am suspecting that the rock may be the cause here. I have changed everything else..

 

[Drummingbaker2010]

Hi all,

I have been having issues keeping SPS alive. Pretty much all SPS going into my tank gets STN within the first month. Easier coral like Zoas always do fine. I’ve posted info on my tank, hopefully someone has an idea of the cause! Thanks.

22 gallon display with 15 gallon sump
-Tank has been running 2 years, 4 months
-Dosing tropic Marin carbocalcium
-dosing a tiny amount of brightwell aquatics phosphate - E
-Daily .6 gallon water changes
-Using protein skimmer
-PH 8.06 at night, 8.3 during the day
- temp fluctuates 77.5-78.8 throughout the day

parameters below (I used multiple tests and there is a variance between brands):
-Alk (trident) - 8.8-9 consistently
-Alk (Hannah) - 9.8
-Alk (salifert) - 9.6
-Cal (trident) - 500-520 consistently
-Cal (Salifert) - 470
-MG (trident) - 1221
-Nitrate (salifert) - 2ppm
-Phosphates (salifert) -.25 ppm

 

[Drummingbaker2010]

have you added iodine? what are the foods you've been using? Maybe back off on daily water changes and do them weekly? Daily to me sounds like a bit much, but maybe if it's preferable and you have the time, and it's working out for you, then it's cool, but I just think that sounds a bit much. I do about 10 percent water changes weekly, and that works well. My parameters have stabilized to the point where I can try and encourage the growth of my coraline algae, but these are just some thoughts. Soft corals are the heartiest and easiest to care for as they don't require the calcium and alkalinity along with iodine supplements for their growth, so these are just some thoughts. I hope it helps if only a little.