Feel like quitting 2 years almost no growth please help sps dominate

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Ryan Mansa

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This is because of you. Most people ask for help and then discount or turn away the people who are not already onboard with what they are doing. These other people are called ********. Some posters want help and then are upset in the manner that people try and help them. You have mostly been very receptive and this is why you get so much help.

Most of the folks on this board want to help, but not everybody is help-able. ...and the stupid board polices say that we have to be nice and not let them know that they are hurting themselves like they are some crazy helicopter or snow plow mom of a grade-school child... so I will just point out the good people since I cannot point out the bad ones.

This is WAY jumping the gun, but once you get some of these to grow, then there is fine tuning to be done. However, this is not the time. The N needs to come down below 10 since you are surely growth limiting some of your acropora at 20 - others will surely not care, so this is not your issue right now since nearly nothing is growing. Alk and calcium down a bit. Again, do not do any of this now, but there are some acropora that will do a lot better with different values, so if you want them all to thrive, then you have to fine tune to the trickier ones since the easier ones will not care either way.

Edit - FWIW, that snow-plow mom's robot replaced ask holes with the ********.
Haha love it JDA. Well at 1.7 years I’m not being combative I think I need help here and open to ideas , I’m not a combative person to begin with and a open minded thinker , I’m up for any idea on here and thank everyone for this support this is insane to me , im so happy with everyone here it’s awesome , sorry if I ever came off “questioning” anyone’s theory’s but for every action there’s a reaction , some one tells me my nutrients are high okay so I’m going to respond with well what should my Chems be ? , or my lighting or equipment , so on and so on
 

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I lowered alk from 8-8.5 like you run but my po4.02-.06 no3 1-2.
I am now at 7-7.3 and actually see better growth and color on my system.
If you decide, in the future, do it slow. I took about 3 weeks after looking back at my logs to reduce it.
I run ca 470 as it just fell into that number and has not changed.
Mag is 1400.
 
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Ryan Mansa

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This is because of you. Most people ask for help and then discount or turn away the people who are not already onboard with what they are doing. These other people are called ********. Some posters want help and then are upset in the manner that people try and help them. You have mostly been very receptive and this is why you get so much help.

Most of the folks on this board want to help, but not everybody is help-able. ...and the stupid board polices say that we have to be nice and not let them know that they are hurting themselves like they are some crazy helicopter or snow plow mom of a grade-school child... so I will just point out the good people since I cannot point out the bad ones.

This is WAY jumping the gun, but once you get some of these to grow, then there is fine tuning to be done. However, this is not the time. The N needs to come down below 10 since you are surely growth limiting some of your acropora at 20 - others will surely not care, so this is not your issue right now since nearly nothing is growing. Alk and calcium down a bit. Again, do not do any of this now, but there are some acropora that will do a lot better with different values, so if you want them all to thrive, then you have to fine tune to the trickier ones since the easier ones will not care either way.

Edit - FWIW, that snow-plow mom's robot replaced ask holes with the ********.
So should I buy a pax bellum or a plumb a fuge ? How should no3 come down ? Or use no pox or cheato or......? I was banking on the coral growth consuming it one day ...
 
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Ryan Mansa

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I lowered alk from 8-8.5 like you run but my po4.02-.06 no3 1-2.
I am now at 7-7.3 and actually see better growth and color on my system.
If you decide, in the future, do it slow. I took about 3 weeks after looking back at my logs to reduce it.
I run ca 470 as it just fell into that number and has not changed.
Mag is 1400.
I’ve heard lower alk better color , but slower growth maybe that’s just for the few that has told me that , and high alk better growth less color , maybe one day I can add alk drop to my list and try it !
 

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So should I buy a pax bellum or a plumb a fuge ? How should no3 come down ? Or use no pox or cheato or......? I was banking on the coral growth consuming it one day ...
Just a thought. I run 3 liters of eheim substrate pro in a mesh bag in the sump. No3 has been 1-2 since startup. It may help keep no3 low and is simple to implement.
I am not a fuge fan and just really dont have the room for one anyway.
20200505_180508.jpg
 
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Ryan Mansa

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Just a thought. I run 3 liters of eheim substrate pro in a mesh bag in the sump. No3 has been 1-2 since startup. It may help keep no3 low and is simple to implement.
I am not a fuge fan and just really dont have the room for one anyway.
20200505_180508.jpg
Okay very interesting never heard of product will keep that in mind if this comes down to a high no3 issue
 
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I have a entire box of those ceramic spheres in my sump that claimed to lower po4 no3 ..... think my wallet got played
 

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I have a entire box of those ceramic spheres in my sump that claimed to lower po4 no3 ..... think my wallet got played
Substrate pro is the size of a pea. Reduced water flow through them may help reduce no3 fwiw.
Yours are just biological imo.
 

homer1475

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In your opinion a alk of 8.4-8.8 you don’t think po4 of .05-.10 and no3 for 15-20 doesn’t qualify ? What would be your nutrient level on my chems of cal 450 alk 8.4-8.8 mag 1400 ?
8 to 8.5 is what most consider middle of the road. Your nutrient levels are a bit high, and the reason your not seeing the typical burnt tips you do with an Alk that high.

I use to run my tank the same way, high ALK, high nutrient. I got very drab colors, but great growth. Since I'm not trying to grow out and frag my corals, I decided to take the route of lower nutrients, lower ALK for better color. Funny part about my little experiment over the course of a couple years now, I think I actually get better growth and color. Anecdotal I know, but just what I've witnessed in my own tank.

I now run my tank @ 2 to 5 NO3, .02 to .06 PO4, and my ALK at 6.8 to 7.4( I always test at 7.1 on my Hanna, but we all know with it's margin of error I could be anywhere between 7.4 to 6.8).
 

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I like the marine pure blocks for nitrate reduction. They are thick enough to get those precious anoxic zones for the bacteria that consume nitrates.

You could try carbon dosing, just go slow. It certainly won't hurt anything as long as you don't overdose. Personally I would just do a few smaller water changes to lower them.
 

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Hello,

I do have a very similar light setup, 4 T5 bulbs (3 B+ - 1 C+), 2 XR15W G4, 1 XR30W G4 and finally two reefbrite blue LED bars.
IMG_0468.JPEG


My main parameters (Cal, ALK, Mag, NO, PO) are similar to yours, so no real difference here. My main concert is that your running your radion lights at 100% intensity, right now Im at 50% and at some point was as high as 65% but then I started to see that some corals bleached and or stop growing like before. Also the color took a hit. I did read my par and at the highest point I do have around 450. That is with all lights ON. Also I have two MP40 at 50% and one at 40%. My tank is 88 gallons Reefer 425XL and have been up for two years. MY point is that I think you first, need to calibrate your radions (using your PC or via echosmart live) and then probably reduce your intensity a lot. Im not an expert by any means, and every tank is different, but at the same time not every tank can handle par of 600+. Not trying to said that your tank cant handle that, but that you should try with lower intensity to see if you have an effect. Like some of the guys here mentioned, the first thing you will notice is that your ALK will take a hit if corals are reacting positive to your changes.

Your tank look good, so dont give up!! is a matter of finding that missing tweak that will make your corals get comfortable and once you figure out they will grow like nothing you see before.
 

homer1475

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And as @jda pointed out, your being very receptive to help. Hence why your getting more help then most receive.

Quite a few people who come here for help, just disregard what is said because it doesn't align with what they read somewhere else, or saw on youtube. So those people receive very little help.

We as a collective group, come here to help others. When others are receptive to the help, or at least are willing to try the advice given, they get all the attention.
 

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All on the tank has been stable for 2 years at 8.4 to 8.7 Ish always what would making it less do ?

I'm not necessarily telling you to lower your alk. I just saw that your question about possibly lowering alk and what would that do hadn't been answered.

I would say that successful acro tanks that run alk over 8.5 absolutely exist, but the majority are significantly lower than that. If you lowered your alk to say, 7.5 range over the course of a month or so, I don't think you have much to lose by trying.

I run my tank at 7.0-7.2 with ~8-10 nitrate and .15 phosphate. I have also tried running my tank in the 8.4 range for a while and most corals didn't look as happy.
 
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Ryan Mansa

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Hello,

I do have a very similar light setup, 4 T5 bulbs (3 B+ - 1 C+), 2 XR15W G4, 1 XR30W G4 and finally two reefbrite blue LED bars.
IMG_0468.JPEG


My main parameters (Cal, ALK, Mag, NO, PO) are similar to yours, so no real difference here. My main concert is that your running your radion lights at 100% intensity, right now Im at 50% and at some point was as high as 65% but then I started to see that some corals bleached and or stop growing like before. Also the color took a hit. I did read my par and at the highest point I do have around 450. That is with all lights ON. Also I have two MP40 at 50% and one at 40%. My tank is 88 gallons Reefer 425XL and have been up for two years. MY point is that I think you first, need to calibrate your radions (using your PC or via echosmart live) and then probably reduce your intensity a lot. Im not an expert by any means, and every tank is different, but at the same time not every tank can handle par of 600+. Not trying to said that your tank cant handle that, but that you should try with lower intensity to see if you have an effect. Like some of the guys here mentioned, the first thing you will notice is that your ALK will take a hit if corals are reacting positive to your changes.

Your tank look good, so dont give up!! is a matter of finding that missing tweak that will make your corals get comfortable and once you figure out they will grow like nothing you see before.
You might want to check your par meter I had to go to 100 percent to get 500 par my par meter or yours was wrong because at NO WAY at 50 percent my par was that high I actually almost cried on how weak these xr15s are
 
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And as @jda pointed out, your being very receptive to help. Hence why your getting more help then most receive.

Quite a few people who come here for help, just disregard what is said because it doesn't align with what they read somewhere else, or saw on youtube. So those people receive very little help.

We as a collective group, come here to help others. When others are receptive to the help, or at least are willing to try the advice given, they get all the attention.
I thank everyone more then I could write here , this is beyond awesome and honestly I’m mad at my self I should have reached out sooner but I tired staying patient for as long as I could thank you everyone beyond belief this is so cool
 
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I would say that successful acro tanks that run alk over 8.5 absolutely exist, but the majority are significantly lower than that. If you lowered your alk to say, 7.5 range over the course of a month or so, I don't think you have much to lose by trying.

I run my tank at 7.0-7.2 with ~8-10 nitrate and .15 phosphate. I have also tried running my tank in the 8.4 range for a while and most corals didn't look as happy.
I will add that to my list for a possible next round of mods in 60 days since round 1 was equipment change round 2 maybe I will go with chemistry changes
 

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You might want to check your par meter I had to go to 100 percent to get 500 par my par meter or yours was wrong because at NO WAY at 50 percent my par was that high I actually almost cried on how weak these xr15s are

One of the two is bad, thats a possibility. I used a Seneye par meter. But also I check the par following the guidelines here using a Lux meter and both readings were very close. Another observation is that I have been following a few peoples that also use radions with very nice tanks and almost all of them had the intensity between 50 to 70% on AB+. Even WWC having all those radions over their tank, none of them are at 100%.

Like I said before, did you calibrate your radion lights? Here is my Cherry bomb acro:

October 2019
IMG_1664.jpeg


February 2020


Cherry bomb 1.jpg


Last Monday

cherry bomb 2.jpg


This frag is getting around 400 par according to my Seneye par meter, it was with the intensity set around 55%. My lights are at 12" from the top of water column. When I was running at 65% intensity, this was the first acro to lose some color.

Again, not an expert here. Just giving you my opinion as my light setup is almost identical to yours. Another observation is that ATI bulbs are know to have a high PUR, PAR is not the only important measure when evaluating the light.

Regards!
 
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One of the two is bad, thats a possibility. I used a Seneye par meter. But also I check the par following the guidelines here using a Lux meter and both readings were very close. Another observation is that I have been following a few peoples that also use radions with very nice tanks and almost all of them had the intensity between 50 to 70% on AB+. Even WWC having all those radions over their tank, none of them are at 100%.

Like I said before, did you calibrate your radion lights? Here is my Cherry bomb acro:

October 2019
IMG_1664.jpeg


February 2020


Cherry bomb 1.jpg


Last Monday

cherry bomb 2.jpg


This frag is getting around 400 par according to my Seneye par meter, it was with the intensity set around 55%. My lights are at 12" from the top of water column. When I was running at 65% intensity, this was the first acro to lose some color.

Again, not an expert here. Just giving you my opinion as my light setup is almost identical to yours. Another observation is that ATI bulbs are know to have a high PUR, PAR is not the only important measure when evaluating the light.

Regards!
Beautiful stuff but I’m sorry I don’t want to start a war but I used a apogee510 that’s a Ferrari of meters compared to the Honda Civic seneye , the apogee 510 came back with 250 par at 65 percent like I said I almost hit the floor with sadness after buying 1300 dollars in lights ,slid that baby up to 100 and had the 450-500 i was looking for ( that I thought was the right ammount , but guys on here are wanting that number dropped )
 
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Ryan Mansa

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One of the two is bad, thats a possibility. I used a Seneye par meter. But also I check the par following the guidelines here using a Lux meter and both readings were very close. Another observation is that I have been following a few peoples that also use radions with very nice tanks and almost all of them had the intensity between 50 to 70% on AB+. Even WWC having all those radions over their tank, none of them are at 100%.

Like I said before, did you calibrate your radion lights? Here is my Cherry bomb acro:

October 2019
IMG_1664.jpeg


February 2020


Cherry bomb 1.jpg


Last Monday

cherry bomb 2.jpg


This frag is getting around 400 par according to my Seneye par meter, it was with the intensity set around 55%. My lights are at 12" from the top of water column. When I was running at 65% intensity, this was the first acro to lose some color.

Again, not an expert here. Just giving you my opinion as my light setup is almost identical to yours. Another observation is that ATI bulbs are know to have a high PUR, PAR is not the only important measure when evaluating the light.

Regards!
Also what is this calibration you speak of? I took the lights out of the box installed them as per the packet and then par’d out the tank accordingly
 
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