HELP! MY SPS ARE PALING AND I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO

[mcarroll]

I think I will lower alk to 7 too. Right now its around 8.

Birdsnests are particuarly sensitive to many parameters....an alk spike, a significant change in flow, too much time out of water, a nutrient shock....and they might RTN. Be prepared to try again if this one doesn't make it. Once they're established and the tank is stable, they're REALLY fast growers and pretty resilient.

How stable are all these parameters in your system? Any significant time out of water? Are these corals being moved around? Are lights being changed?

 

[Ashish Patel]

flippers4ups - So your saying I should just Keep my parameters stable and leave the 3 sps corals to grow over the dead part? The frags are 2-3"

 

[Ashish Patel]

My 2 birdsnest STN and died from Nitrate spike! I was shocked because my acros seemed to handle it better.

 

[Flippers4pups]

flippers4ups - So your saying I should just Keep my parameters stable and leave the 3 sps corals to grow over the dead part? The frags are 2-3"

I've left a green slimmer go years ago when some of it died off and once I got my water pramameters under control, it rebounded and grew back over the dead areas. So it's possible.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Yeah, I had a monti bleach out in the middle and it grew back over it aswell.. So far its been 5 weeks since the bleaching stopped and has remained stable and colors have seem to gotten darker. SPS requires some new kind of patients! I think I need to spend 14 days acclimating these sps frags to lighting gradually...Why is past experience the only experience that matters in this hobby? lol

 

[mcarroll]

Why is past experience the only experience that matters in this hobby? lol

Isn't all experience "past experience"? Otherwise we call it "the present".

(Humor aside I'm not sure what you are differentiating here....are you disagreeing with a point someone made in the thread?)

Unless you positively know there's something wrong with the current placement of the frags you mentioned earlier, then healthy conditions and stability are definitely the right directions to go in. In a new tank, it's usually more important for there to be available dissolved nutrients....the rest of the microbial food web which would/could/might provide almost all of the particulate food is very poorly developed. In a well-fed, well-cared for mature tank, these food webs might be better developed, reducing the need for dissolved nutrients.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Isn't all experience "past experience"? Otherwise we call it "the present".

(Humor aside I'm not sure what you are differentiating here....are you disagreeing with a point someone made in the thread?)

Unless you positively know there's something wrong with the current placement of the frags you mentioned earlier, then healthy conditions and stability are definitely the right directions to go in. In a new tank, it's usually more important for there to be available dissolved nutrients....the rest of the microbial food web which would/could/might provide almost all of the particulate food is very poorly developed. In a well-fed, well-cared for mature tank, these food webs might be better developed, reducing the need for dissolved nutrients.

Patients is a learning process for me.. but now that i've dosed nitrates I can use my own experience to make sure I never dose again......"Everyones tank is different in its ability to produce nutrients, Mature tanks will have higher nutrient levels because of nutrient buildup. I now test Nitrates twice per week and they are under 0.05 and phosphates weekly under 0.05. I have a high bio load, feed heavy, have cheato growing like crazy so I can't say its nutrient starved. I started this tank without Pellets, zeo, and GFO in the hopes i'll have a higher nutrient but I've come to the conclusion that my tank is high nutrients with low testable nutrients.

 

[Zagreus]

Isn't all experience "past experience"? Otherwise we call it "the present".

(Humor aside I'm not sure what you are differentiating here....are you disagreeing with a point someone made in the thread?)

Unless you positively know there's something wrong with the current placement of the frags you mentioned earlier, then healthy conditions and stability are definitely the right directions to go in. In a new tank, it's usually more important for there to be available dissolved nutrients....the rest of the microbial food web which would/could/might provide almost all of the particulate food is very poorly developed. In a well-fed, well-cared for mature tank, these food webs might be better developed, reducing the need for dissolved nutrients.

The moderators could make this post sticky. It would save people like me a lot of money, time and headache. I read, watched videos etc etc...clearly the wrong ones and was chasing numbers with NoPox and GFO thinking I was doing the right thing and practicing good husbandry to find out I was running a sterile tank and should have used real live rock. Now I have a bunch of pail sps with some dead. One video said use marco dead rock you wont have to worry about hichhickers and other things, another video said run your alk at 12 and another video said .08 po3 was too high use gfo to get it to .02. What we really need is a video saying don't listen to anyone with less than 10 years bonified reef experience and don't be a sucker buying all the products chasing all the numbers, be patient, go through some algea lifecycles and you will be richly rewarded with a beautiful reef.

 

[Ashish Patel]

The moderators could make this post sticky. It would save people like me a lot of money, time and headache. I read, watched videos etc etc...clearly the wrong ones and was chasing numbers with NoPox and GFO thinking I was doing the right thing and practicing good husbandry to find out I was running a sterile tank and should have used real live rock. Now I have a bunch of pail sps with some dead. One video said use marco dead rock you wont have to worry about hichhickers and other things, another video said run your alk at 12 and another video said .08 po3 was too high use gfo to get it to .02. What we really need is a video saying don't listen to anyone with less than 10 years bonified reef experience and don't be a sucker buying all the products chasing all the numbers, be patient, go through some algea lifecycles and you will be richly rewarded with a beautiful reef.

Using all Dry rock was one of my mistake! In the past i used LR and wanted to avoid those pests and dry rock is easy to aquascape. after 3 months my tank was not maturing the way i have seen in the past so I sourced LR from other hobbyist. After adding LR in 2 months my sump and tank where covered with fan worms (over 100) and few varieties of sponges. The bad stuff include tube worms?, asteria star, aiptasia, and bristle worms. I am fairly convinced that these pest come standard on any high quality LR - So take the good with the bad.

 

[GoJimmy]

Using all Dry rock was one of my mistake! In the past i used LR and wanted to avoid those pests and dry rock is easy to aquascape. after 3 months my tank was not maturing the way i have seen in the past so I sourced LR from other hobbyist. After adding LR in 2 months my sump and tank where covered with fan worms (over 100) and few varieties of sponges. The bad stuff include tube worms?, asteria star, aiptasia, and bristle worms. I am fairly convinced that these pest come standard on any high quality LR - So take the good with the bad.

I started my current tank with dry rock, however, i used live sand and supplemented with some live rock from an already established tank. I am very happy with the results. I'm 7 months in and growing sps very well with great encrusting. Lots of sponge growth and even a healthy pod population. Just my experience.

 

[Ashish Patel]

I started my current tank with dry rock, however, i used live sand and supplemented with some live rock from an already established tank. I am very happy with the results. I'm 7 months in and growing sps very well with great encrusting. Lots of sponge growth and even a healthy pod population. Just my experience.

I think this is a good recipe for success!

 

[rtparty]

The dry rock myth is just that, a myth. I've started countless tanks with dry rock and been just fine. You have to prep it and cure it properly though and that takes time that most people won't wait.

My current tank did run into a chrysophytes problem that I've never seen and it could certainly be attributed to the dry rock. But I'll take chrysophytes over some other pests I've had in the past.

Live sand and bacteria are very powerful when using dry rock as well. I am now dosing nitrates as well since my tank has been running at zero. I have three fish and feed pretty heavily. It still wasn't enough. I haven't seen any negative results from dosing potassium nitrate so far and doubt I will.

Almost all of my "issues" are just part of being a new tank that needs to mature. Yes, true live rock would have avoided this but also isn't as fun to me.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Subject of dry vs live is one that I'm well aware of. I've always used live rock for my builds, but this time was my first time with dry rock initially and later took out over half and replaced with live rock. It seemed to take forever to establish coraline. After 9 months, I through in the towel. Taking 3 months later for the tank to settle down. Like Mike Palettas experiment with dry rock in his new tank, my coral frags just wouldn't take off until I removed the dry rock. So in my experience, I lost over a year in growth.

 

[GoJimmy]

I started my current tank with dry rock, however, i used live sand and supplemented with some live rock from an already established tank. I am very happy with the results. I'm 7 months in and growing sps very well with great encrusting. Lots of sponge growth and even a healthy pod population. Just my experience.

I forgot to mention that I also had access to professional grade MicroBactor bacteria supplement. This, along with the live sand really helped kick start the cycle and create a healthy environment ripe for fish and corals.

 

[rtparty]

Subject of dry vs live is one that I'm well aware of. I've always used live rock for my builds, but this time was my first time with dry rock initially and later took out over half and replaced with live rock. It seemed to take forever to establish coraline. After 9 months, I through in the towel. Taking 3 months later for the tank to settle down. Like Mike Palettas experiment with dry rock in his new tank, my coral frags just wouldn't take off until I removed the dry rock. So in my experience, I lost over a year in growth.

Thankfully this tank has taken off with coraline for me. The chrysophytes slowed it down momentarily but once I scrubbed them off the rocks I couldn't believe the amount under them and then the next few days had coraline sprouting up everywhere. It was very noticeable on the overflow and back glass just how quick it was growing. Now I'm fighting cyano but that should be gone this week.

 

[125mph]

Birdsnests are particuarly sensitive to many parameters....an alk spike, a significant change in flow, too much time out of water, a nutrient shock....and they might RTN. Be prepared to try again if this one doesn't make it. Once they're established and the tank is stable, they're REALLY fast growers and pretty resilient.

How stable are all these parameters in your system? Any significant time out of water? Are these corals being moved around? Are lights being changed?

Well, conditions are extremely stable.. I run two MP40s and dont fiddle around with it. I dont mess with the lights either.. I run 4 T5 bulbs with 3 Ecotech XR15Pros. I go through phases where I buy coral to try them out and then they all die, so I just dont touch the tank for a long time. Every time I test, its always the same parameters. The alk and CA are running through a calcium reactor, so its very very stable. I clipped off the tips off the birdsnest.. its still hanging in there but its strange cause the tips are getting thin and bleaching again. its only been 3 days since I clipped them.

My nitrates are still around 2-3PPM... trying to keep it there. I dont see much improvement in the ducans yet either..

 

[rtparty]

Have you tried an ATI or Triton test?

 

[mcarroll]

Well, conditions are extremely stable.. I run two MP40s and dont fiddle around with it. I dont mess with the lights either.. I run 4 T5 bulbs with 3 Ecotech XR15Pros. I go through phases where I buy coral to try them out and then they all die, so I just dont touch the tank for a long time. Every time I test, its always the same parameters. The alk and CA are running through a calcium reactor, so its very very stable. I clipped off the tips off the birdsnest.. its still hanging in there but its strange cause the tips are getting thin and bleaching again. its only been 3 days since I clipped them.

My nitrates are still around 2-3PPM... trying to keep it there. I dont see much improvement in the ducans yet either..

2-3 ppm is still pretty low.....don't be afraid to hit 5-10 ppm. Some things may respond better.

Also, how about PO4/phosphates? Undetectable is a problem in a case like yours. If your PO4 is undetectable, you may need to dose a little of that too.

 

[125mph]

Have you tried an ATI or Triton test?

I havent. Are those considered more reliable and consistent? I have used all the other ones: red sea, hanna, salfin, api.. they all give similar results.

 

[125mph]

2-3 ppm is still pretty low.....don't be afraid to hit 5-10 ppm. Some things may respond better.

Also, how about PO4/phosphates? Undetectable is a problem in a case like yours. If your PO4 is undetectable, you may need to dose a little of that too.

What's the best way to dose po4? I did get my nitrates to 5-10 but algea problems starting popping up.. sand got green in certain areas as did some of the rocks.. It didnt seem to improve so I backed it off to 2-3ppm.