Constantly Failing At SPS What Am I Missing?

[RMS18]

I'm beyond frustrated with trying to keep sps. Maybe someone can find something wrong with my set up that I'm over looking.

In short frags don't last, they come in with great color and great PE and within 2-3 weeks slowly fade, bleach, and PE goes away.

System 40 breeder total water is 55 gallons.

No GFO and no Carbon.

My average parameters over past 4 weeks are as follows:
Po4 .03
Nitrate 15-20ppm ( can not get it lower and I'm running Zeovit high fish bioload)
Cal 400
Mag 1400
Alk 7.8
Potassium 400
Strontium - does not read on test kit. I have strontium additive on it's way.
Temp 79
Salinity .35
PH 8.3

Using red Sea blue bucket.

Lights:
2 Primes HD
Aquaticlife T5 Hybrid
2 ATI Blue Plus
1 ATI Purple Plus
1 ATI Actinic

Lights 10 inches from tank, 15 inches from rock work.

PAR ranges from 250-345 for SPS frags.

I run t5 and led for 6.5 hours at peak power 1.5 hour Dawn and dusk for LEDs only.

I use a frag rag to acclimate them over a week or two.

Flow is strong.

I don't understand what I'm missing.
Weekly water change, hands are not in the tank. I did a Triton test not to long ago other than strontium and potassium low that was all. I corrected the potassium since then.

System is 8 months old I have been attempting to keep sps frags for 5 months now.

My frags have come from DD, liveaquaria, LFS, JF and Cherry Corals.

LPS corals are doing well and growing. This is not my first system but this is my first SPS system, LPS and softies outgrow any system I've had.

Setosa Monti came in bright orange with PE, now a faded pink with some bleaching no PE.

Red Planet came in with red and green with great PE, now bleaching at tips and base where it grew on frag plug. PE is disappearing and colors are almost all gone.

Pink bird's nest had good pink color, now is whiteish, pe is ok.

These are the newest frags, I have probably had over 20 frags in the past 5 months.

The only thing that I'm thinking is lighting, to much or wrong spectrum?

Thoughts?

 

[Dan I]

Is your pH really 3.4? pH's ideal range is at 7.8-8.2.

 

[RMS18]

Is your pH really 3.4? pH's ideal range is at 7.8-8.2.

Sorry typo!!! 8.3!!! I'll go back and edit that.

 

[Eric23]

Your phosphate is kinda low... Are you sure your nitrate is that high ? I had colors fade on me like that when my nutrients went to low. What test kits are you using ?

 

[Mal11224]

Your alkalinity could be a little low for your nutrient level. Also, how long did you take to acclimate the corals? If your levels are stable then your lighting may be the culprit.

 

[RMS18]

Your phosphate is kinda low... Are you sure your nitrate is that high ? I had colors fade on me like that when my nutrients went to low. What test kits are you using ?

So I just opened a new salifert nitrate kit the other day and I'm getting the same average number of 15-20ppm.

Po4 is Hanna.

 

[Dan I]

So, there can be many possible reasons for SPS dying off. Maybe dropped something in the tank that can be rusting or an equipment leaching metal. Also, stray voltage can be something to look into.

 

[RMS18]

Your alkalinity could be a little low for your nutrient level. Also, how long did you take to acclimate the corals? If your levels are stable then your lighting may be the culprit.

I stated them off in about 140 par and over 2 weeks for this batch of those above corals increased to their current places. The pictures on the frag rack is about 180 par at that point.

What would you recommend for alkalinity level?

My plan was if no one found any issues with my levels (which are stable with my doser) then I was going to mess with the lighting and lower the LED and bring pars to Max of 250-275.

 

[RMS18]

So, there can be many possible reasons for SPS dying off. Maybe dropped something in the tank that can be rusting or an equipment leaching metal. Also, stray voltage can be something to look into.

The Triton test should have picked up any meatals leaching I would think.

Voltage I can't say I'm 100% sure about, I don't get shocked when my hands do go in the tank... Will have to eliminate that possibly for sure though.

 

[Eric23]

The Hanna phosphate reader has a pretty wide error range ... I like to keep my phos at .06 or .07 testing off the Hanna ulr phosphate reader.. if you're getting a reading of 10 off the Hanna ulr checker which would be equal to .03 then your actual phos could be anywhere from .014 to .048
I look for a Hanna reading of 20 - 22 any lower and my colors start to fade but any higher and I start to get algae... Please take this all with a grain of salt what works for me may not work for you and I just recently got my system dialed in for sps. I was having almost the same problem as you and after a lot of tweeking I finally got things to stay alive for a few months.

 

[RMS18]

The Hanna phosphate reader has a pretty wide error range ... I like to keep my phos at .06 or .07 testing off the Hanna ulr phosphate reader.. if you're getting a reading of 10 off the Hanna ulr checker which would be equal to .03 then your actual phos could be anywhere from .014 to .048
I look for a Hanna reading of 20 - 22 any lower and my colors start to fade but any higher and I start to get algae... Please take this all with a grain of salt what works for me may not work for you and I just recently got my system dialed in for sps. I was having almost the same problem as you and after a lot of tweeking I finally got things to stay alive for a few months.

Interesting, this is the insight I'm looking for! Hopefully others will chime in and after a couple of days I'll try 1 new change and see where that goes.

 

[Mal11224]

I stated them off in about 140 par and over 2 weeks for this batch of those above corals increased to their current places. The pictures on the frag rack is about 180 par at that point.

What would you recommend for alkalinity level?

My plan was if no one found any issues with my levels (which are stable with my doser) then I was going to mess with the lighting and lower the LED and bring pars to Max of 250-275.

With your nitrates near 20ppm, I think you can do well in the mid to upper 8's. Some sps can be difficult to keep if your system is not stable. Also, it helps to know the lighting they came from if possible. I would not try to change many things at once, working on the lighting may be a good place to start.

 

[Fishfinder]

How often are you checking alk? And your other parameters? 7.8 is a good number but daily or weekly how much does it change? Also how about temp fluctuations?

I would not change your lighting. If your LPS is fine your not overlighting SPS. LED/T5 is a proven combo. I would look at minor alk, nutient, and temp changes

 

[RMS18]

How often are you checking alk? And your other parameters? 7.8 is a good number but daily or weekly how much does it change? Also how about temp fluctuations?

I would not change your lighting. If your LPS is fine your not overlighting SPS. LED/T5 is a proven combo. I would look at minor alk, nutient, and temp changes

I check alk 2 times a day morning 7am and evening 6-7pm. 7.7-8.1 is the range I will see. Cal twice a week, mag once a week. Po3 and po4 every day since having SPS issues. Potassium once a week. Salinity I check before my water change and after my water change. Ph is on my seneye 8.2 morning and can get as high as 8.4 during mid day within 24 hours. Temp goes from 77.8-79.5 per seneye also with 24 hours.

 

[Fishfinder]

Does your water change make them look worse?

 

[Nick.B]

You said you do weekly water changes. Does the Alkalinity match your display water that your adding it to? That could stress them.

 

[PlayerUnknown]

Nitrate 15-20ppm ( can not get it lower and I'm running Zeovit high fish bioload)

Do you run Zeovit system?

 

[RMS18]

You said you do weekly water changes. Does the Alkalinity match your display water that your adding it to? That could stress them.

Yes I should have added that. I usually get 7.8 once my nsw is mixed. I do 5 gallons weekly out of 55 total gallons.

 

[RMS18]

Do you run Zeovit system?

Yes I am running Zeovit for nutrient control. Because of my high bio load of fish I'm not getting uln like others. I used to run gfo and carbon on my lps systems however had issues with gfo staying consistent with po4. When I was building this tank, it was about 1.5 years in on BRS Zeovit tank and decided to try it out to gain the consistency with nutrients being stable. I only dose the basic 3 for the system because I'm not uln so the other additives would not apply to me. To much fish poop!

 

[RMS18]

Does your water change make them look worse?

I do not see any difference after a water change with any corals. Nps, lps or SPS.