Can’t seem to keep softies happy

[Diveks]

Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with your parameters and would look at your lights. In my experience when I've had trouble with softies, it's been too much par

I feel like i have pretty high par since even sps bleach out fast if i don’t acclamate. Its pretty weird since my lights are mounted pretty high and my lights are at %59 max, while some are okay at the %90-100 with almost the same tank size.

Also they are usually placed on the deeper end of the tank (don’t mind the closed euphillias, i was moving them around)

 

[vetteguy53081]

Alk is a little low. (should be 8-11dkh)
One thing in common softies have is they all do best under moderate light and water flow. They requires aminos weekly. If you have leathers in your tank, they release toxins known as terpenes and can make softies miserable. I use chemipure blue which keeps those terpenes at bay

 

[Diveks]

Alk is a little low. (should be 8-11dkh)
One thing in common softies have is they all do best under moderate light and water flow. They requires aminos weekly. If you have leathers in your tank, they release toxins known as terpenes and can make softies miserable. I use chemipure blue which keeps those terpenes at bay

im trying to raise it up to 8.2 right now
any good aminos that are recomended?
No leathers just yet, although wanting to move one from the other tank. used to run chemipure on my nano, might start using it here too.

 

[vetteguy53081]

im trying to raise it up to 8.2 right now
any good aminos that are recomended?
No leathers just yet, although wanting to move one from the other tank. used to run chemipure on my nano, might start using it here too.

I use seachem Fuel

 

[shwareefer]

Nitrate: 1-2 (Really faint colour, hard to tell) (salifert)

Read through the side instead of the top and divide by 10. Much easier.

 

[Diveks]

I use seachem Fuel

thanks ill consider getting it!

Read through the side instead of the top and divide by 10. Much easier.

i'ts around 1.5 i think? in between the two

 

[vetteguy53081]

thanks ill consider getting it!

i'ts around 1.5 i think? in between the two

These are some of my softies and using Seachem fuel under moderate light and water flow

 

[Uncle99]

My tank is pretty narrow and i was going to go for 2 on the ‘front’ 2 on the ‘back’. It is a three sided tank tank and i thought that having only one side would make light distribution a bit weird.

But would having 4 on such a narrow tank + led be too much? I feel like if i only have 1 on each side that are different colors it would be a little uneven.

It seems a lot, but that might depend more on what intensity they run at.
Two would be just fine IMM.
We are using them to “blend” any spotlights in the LED array.

 

[Spare time]

Hello, so this tank is almost a year old now and I can’t seem to keep softies happy after the 6 month mark. Im not sure what is wrong because sps is growing really well.

The zoas were closed and the mushrooms were shrinking. I decided to give around $100 worth of softies to a friend that just started off in the hobby since the corals were all suffering in my tank anyway and some free corals would be good test corals. After a few days in his tank the softies are doing great! I do not know his params as he does not test. But he does tell me everyone in the family like to randomly feed the fish so it shouldn’t be low nutrient.

My params:
Calcium: 430 (hanna)
Magnesium: 1260 (salifert)
Alk: 7.4 (the wild sps seem to like lower alk) (redsea)
Nitrate: 1-2 (Really faint colour, hard to tell) (salifert)
Phos: 0.04 (hanna)

I want to try again with softies if i can keep both the sps and the softies happy. For those of you that have both. What do you do to make everyone happy?

You have no nitrate. That is the problem imo. That's also why your sps probably like the lower alk. I would consider dosing some amino acids daily. My tank tolerates low nitrate as I add reef energy, vitachem, and some brightwell fish amino hufa (to the fish food), as well as live phyto. Low nitrate or phosphate tanks require more input of energy

 

[Subsea]

Would dosing iodine help chaeto grow faster?

No.

 

[Ryde]

Would dosing iodine help chaeto grow faster?

Usually, an iron supplement helps with chaeto.

 

[Diveks]

It seems a lot, but that might depend more on what intensity they run at.
Two would be just fine IMM.
We are using them to “blend” any spotlights in the LED array.

decide to try out two first! ordered them a few days ago im waiting for them to arrive now.

You have no nitrate. That is the problem imo. That's also why your sps probably like the lower alk. I would consider dosing some amino acids daily. My tank tolerates low nitrate as I add reef energy, vitachem, and some brightwell fish amino hufa (to the fish food), as well as live phyto. Low nitrate or phosphate tanks require more input of energy

the fishes won't take in any more food so guessing ill start dosing food for the corals. I do have amino acids for the fishes but haven't tried the coral ones. ill try out the reef energy as they are pretty common here. Im also grabbing some phyto to feed the clam more (think the clam is also taking up the nutrients).

As i am raising the alk, my tri-colour browned out and my birdsnest decided to rtn on me. I only raised it to 8, guessing the birdsnest couldn't take the alk raise. fortunately, it's looking like everyone else will be okay.

 

[Subsea]

maximize your clam growth with nitrogen. I use ammonia and so does Gerald Heslinger, the owner of IndoPacific SeaFarms.

 

[Diveks]

maximize your clam growth with nitrogen. I use ammonia and so does Gerald Heslinger, the owner of IndoPacific SeaFarms.

now even after the addition of two new fishes around 4 days ago i think the tank is still too clean. ill start dosing more food and add some nitrogen. ive just realised what i had all this time was not algae, it was dinos. I noticed them starting to trap bubbles which made me realise they are dinos. The dinos seem to get a bit better as i stop limiting the fish food and start feeding until they are full.

 

[CanuckReefer]

I go with everything low on those parameters.
Softies like a more nutrient rich tank, it’s their food.
Nitrate 10-15ppm
Phosphate….ok with 0.04ppm….but not less……0.1ppm fine.
MG is low, pump that up to 1350-1400ppm.
Alk, 8-10dkh is fine, but keep it rock solid.
Good reef spectrum lighting.
Salinity and temp….rock solid.
Don’t miss the “whites” for at least 4-5hours a day.
Consider some T5’s if you only have LED.
T5 lights make a big difference IMM.

I'm gonna echo every single thing you said here with a bullet. Softie dominant tank on my end 25 years, with a couple SPS slowly succeeding....not sure if it's my Alk so high at around 12 consistent or not that is giving them an edge with the slightly higher nitrates at 10-15....

 

[Cnidoblast]

I think your nitrate crashed

There are a few different products on the market to address this:

ESV B-Ionic Nitrate

Provide your reef with nitrogen essential to great growth and color, with no unwanted by-products. B-Ionic was introduced to address the low nitrate conditions found in many modern reef aquaria, in a formulation that would avoid some of the side-effects of other similar supplements, such as...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

NeoNitro - Balanced Nitrogen Supplement

Used in conjunction with MICROBACTER7 and REEF BIOFUEL or KATALYST, enables natural phosphorus uptake to take place in systems with inadequate nitrogen content, lowering phosphate concentration without the use of chemical filtration media and without resorting to polluting the system with...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Dosing halide salts (KF, KBr and KI) and running lots of carbon were things I used to do and tell people to do for soft corals but that could just be conjecture on my part - I think I used this product for that dosing!


[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/korallen-zucht-potassium-iodide-fluoride-concentrate.html[/URL]

 

[Diveks]

I'm gonna echo every single thing you said here with a bullet. Softie dominant tank on my end 25 years, with a couple SPS slowly succeeding....not sure if it's my Alk so high at around 12 consistent or not that is giving them an edge with the slightly higher nitrates at 10-15....

I think your nitrate crashed

There are a few different products on the market to address this:

ESV B-Ionic Nitrate

Provide your reef with nitrogen essential to great growth and color, with no unwanted by-products. B-Ionic was introduced to address the low nitrate conditions found in many modern reef aquaria, in a formulation that would avoid some of the side-effects of other similar supplements, such as...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

NeoNitro - Balanced Nitrogen Supplement

Used in conjunction with MICROBACTER7 and REEF BIOFUEL or KATALYST, enables natural phosphorus uptake to take place in systems with inadequate nitrogen content, lowering phosphate concentration without the use of chemical filtration media and without resorting to polluting the system with...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Dosing halide salts (KF, KBr and KI) and running lots of carbon were things I used to do and tell people to do for soft corals but that could just be conjecture on my part - I think I used this product for that dosing!


[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/korallen-zucht-potassium-iodide-fluoride-concentrate.html[/URL]

So checked my nitrate again today and its at 0.5! Haven’t started dosed the amino and phyto yet, should i try dosing them before going straight to the nitrate dosing?

 

[Uncle99]

I’d dose nitrate first as the additive is immediately ready for consumption, whereas feeding requires time to breakdown and convert to nitrate.

 

[Subsea]

So checked my nitrate again today and its at 0.5! Haven’t started dosed the amino and phyto yet, should i try dosing them before going straight to the nitrate dosing?

I see little point in amino acids for macroalgae. There are > 20 amino acids in nature, which are formed by bacteria acting on proteins. 75% of amino acids are derived from animal protein (fish food) while the rest of amino acids are formed from bacteria acting on algae proteins.

@Diveks
you have been told repeatedly that your nitrogen is dangerously low. If your phosphate gets low, you will have a real catastrophe with nuisance algae in your display.

Phytoplankton is a primary food source. If it is live phytoplankton and introduced during light cycle, it will continue growing thereby absorbing nitrogen to further exacerbate your depleted nitrogen as well as phosphate at a ratio of 16:1 which is the Redfield Ratio. Chaetomorphy consumes nitrogen to phosphate in a ratio of 30:1.

 

[Cnidoblast]

Since your levels are so low (not even at 1 ppm) I think dosing the liquid nitrate source would be better than upping feeding

You are running your tank too lean if that makes sense