Constantly Failing At SPS What Am I Missing?
- Thread starter RMS18
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Weekly water changes and still have higher Nitrates? The Zeovit is not working for you. You should have low low NO3 with water changes and Zeovit. Could be you fed too much or to many fish. More likely a combination of things. Do 30% water changes weekly, run some carbon, clean your sand and skimmer. Get the NO3 down to 5 ppm by the end of 30 days. You can do it.
lewisriverfisherman
Active Member
What kind of rock did you start this tank with?
OP
OP
RMS18
I keep water chemistry as my hobby
With 8 months of it running I'd say it should be there to support some basics SPS at least.
There is a decent amount of coraline, I started to see a growth increase about 2 months ago. I only introduced 2 lps frags that had Coraline on them and that was 3-4 months ago.
Yes to ATO and Yes to doser using red Sea alk, Cal and mag. Alk, Cal and potassium are on doser. Mag dosent budge much before wc day.
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OP
OP
RMS18
I keep water chemistry as my hobby
One cube if rinsed food per day. Total of 8 fish average of 4 inches per fish. I do siphon sand weekly on wc water isn't to dirty. Skimmer is cleaned once a month other than cup and neck, and I skim wet. I can increase the WC % for sure!
Paul Howard
Active Member
Do you think the rock is "old" enough yet, frag rack is immaculate- nothing growing on it- it's brand new?
Just throwing this out there? FWIW I stopped testing ph years ago, never saw anything higher than 8.1 on salifert kit.
Just throwing this out there? FWIW I stopped testing ph years ago, never saw anything higher than 8.1 on salifert kit.
USMC 4 LIFE
Valuable Member
I also agree with Bif that the lack of Coraline is an indicator that something is considerably off. I’ve set up three tanks and have always had an explosion of coraline at month 3 without the introduction of it. By month ~7 my rocks are 90% covered by it.
Your nitrates staying that high is another mystery. Can you share your testing equipment? What test kits are you using and how are you testing your salinity.
Your nitrates staying that high is another mystery. Can you share your testing equipment? What test kits are you using and how are you testing your salinity.
OP
OP
RMS18
I keep water chemistry as my hobby
Frag racks we're brand new, I don't keep them in the tank unless there is a frag in them. That was 3 or 4 days after recieved the frags. My seneye tests pH. I have co2 scrubber without it I can't get pH over 8. Been using a co2 scrubber for almsot 2 years I believe.
lewisriverfisherman
Active Member
Your tank may not be mature enough to support sps. There have been reports of it taking 16 months to be able to grow sps from tanks starting with dead rock.
OP
OP
RMS18
I keep water chemistry as my hobby
Even with my old lps systems I never had Coraline that fast thats amazing.
Nitrates is salifert
Po4 Hanna
Alk Hanna
Cal mag red Sea
Potassium salifert
Salinity refractometer - and I have standard solution for calibration once a week.
OP
OP
RMS18
I keep water chemistry as my hobby
Comes from my lfs. What should I check? Silicate? I do not have any dimatons, or cyno. Just some light brown and green algea on glass and rocks.
slayerhellfire
Valuable Member
I have never seen this chart why is there such a wide range of error I have never even heard of this by any reefer with a ULR test kit for phosphorusThe 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.
That’s what I’m thinking, either not enough food or immature system or even both. I know it gets thrown in your face not to over feed and nutrients are the devil but all these things have to eat. I’m still baffled by your Nitrates, what parts of the Zeovit system are you using and what amount and frequency? This is very important to Zeo.
NY_Caveman
likes words, fish and arbitrary statistics
If you buy RO/DI from the LFS I would definitely test the TDS. Perhaps you do. I experimented with the LFS around me and it was a wide range of TDS level for RO/DI:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/poll-do-you-know-your-tds.349288/
I’ll also say this, my 180 didn’t take too well to SPS/Acros <1year. This part just takes time and part of the reason many do not recommend SPS in a system that is <1 year old. Other part being experience getting to know the equipment and chemistry, I feel this really applies to first reef folks. 90% of my acros lived in my system that young but did little in growth.
Please tell me about how exactly your useing the Zeovit, that can help me determine/make a recommendation.
Please tell me about how exactly your useing the Zeovit, that can help me determine/make a recommendation.
It’s only an error of about .03, that’s really good considering most test kit can not detect a difference of .05-.01.
What is throwing you off is the thousandths digit. .035 is just .04 or .03, which is good.
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.
Error rates per Hanna can be reduced from those number by using their testing tips. Look at the bottom of your card,
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