Help needed SPS keep dying.

[Perry]

Competition for nutrients, essentially corals are not getting the uptake, because the rock, sand, ceramic media, protein skimmer, and perhaps coralline are out consuming, leading the corals to starvation. My take...

 

[Tamberav]

Sometimes things that happened weeks before can be the cause. So maybe the po4 thing was an issue.

Bacterial diversity I feel matters too which is why live rock starts seem to be so much easier.

 

[ying yang]

Are these the size of the frags you bought ?
Or are they what you've fragged off from the frags you got to try save the piece of sps that not stn/rtn?

When I see threads like this I get that people say it's new tank and could be pests and what not,buy often think is it because size of frags that we often buy and they so dang small and just recently cut at the lfs before we buy ( can often see gleaming white plugs with no algae growth or corals entrusting ) and think with just being cut/fragged and it so small and going from lfs system to ours and lights/flow/parameters different then the tiny incy windy frags just not strong enough to cope .
.as I say just what I wonder,don't know if true or not

 

[Lavey29]

Yea of course. Like i said i only added sps, because coraline is growing very well. I have had to clean pumps recently because of it.

Is it all over your rocks or just on plastic?

 

[Lavey29]

Are these the size of the frags you bought ?
Or are they what you've fragged off from the frags you got to try save the piece of sps that not stn/rtn?

When I see threads like this I get that people say it's new tank and could be pests and what not,buy often think is it because size of frags that we often buy and they so dang small and just recently cut at the lfs before we buy ( can often see gleaming white plugs with no algae growth or corals entrusting ) and think with just being cut/fragged and it so small and going from lfs system to ours and lights/flow/parameters different then the tiny incy windy frags just not strong enough to cope .
.as I say just what I wonder,don't know if true or not

Looks about WWC size for $$$$$$$$$$$$$

 

[ying yang]

Looks about WWC size for $$$$$$$$$$$$$

Kind of sad the prices that get paid for such small frags but if there is demand and people buy and people are happy with their purchase then so be it I guess.
I've bought a few small 2 inch frags but only £10 each and seen bigger mini colonies at one my local lfs,sizes are like 5-6 inch across and 5-6 inch tall and about 20 or so branches for generally £ 65 but then I get paranoid are they newly imported wild corals and been under alot if stress getting from ocean to lfs and read often that wild collected sps don't adapt as well as tank raised corals so put me off as £65 for 5-6 inch 20 branch sps is appealing but not if going have higher chance if not surviving but I'm only 1.5 years I to reefing so only early days for me but may try one soon see if does any better than £10 green slimer I got with black bugs and after 2-3 months only tips left with small pe and slowly died from base up and bow coraline starting to grow on it on top the normal algae lol or another small £10 sps frag that forget the name but one if the beginner friendly sps that doing great for few months then accidently snapped it so re-glued piece that broke off ( 3-4 branches) and left small 1 inch nub where snapped with did start growing 1/2 inch branches from it then started getting really bright but pale and bow dead and full off algae lol

 

[branbray07]

Competition for nutrients, essentially corals are not getting the uptake, because the rock, sand, ceramic media, protein skimmer, and perhaps coralline are out consuming, leading the corals to starvation. My take...

Hey Perry nice to see you are still in the hobby. I used to see you on my old thread on RC for my 62g SPS in wall cube. So cool to see you. Greetings aside, what do you recommend?

Sometimes things that happened weeks before can be the cause. So maybe the po4 thing was an issue.

Bacterial diversity I feel matters too which is why live rock starts seem to be so much easier.

Yes you got that right . Its very difficult to find quality LR now days. So i tried to see it with the 4 different bacterias i mentioned.

Are these the size of the frags you bought ?
Or are they what you've fragged off from the frags you got to try save the piece of sps that not stn/rtn?

When I see threads like this I get that people say it's new tank and could be pests and what not,buy often think is it because size of frags that we often buy and they so dang small and just recently cut at the lfs before we buy ( can often see gleaming white plugs with no algae growth or corals entrusting ) and think with just being cut/fragged and it so small and going from lfs system to ours and lights/flow/parameters different then the tiny incy windy frags just not strong enough to cope .
.as I say just what I wonder,don't know if true or not

Na those are little tiny piece i was able to save from original frags. sighttttt

Is it all over your rocks or just on plastic?

Its growing on both. However my rock is purple from get go, but it is growing rather nice. It also started to grow in the back glass and side glass as well.

Looks about WWC size for $$$$$$$$$$$$$

LMAOO no actually they were all very nice chunky frags

Kind of sad the prices that get paid for such small frags but if there is demand and people buy and people are happy with their purchase then so be it I guess.
I've bought a few small 2 inch frags but only £10 each and seen bigger mini colonies at one my local lfs,sizes are like 5-6 inch across and 5-6 inch tall and about 20 or so branches for generally £ 65 but then I get paranoid are they newly imported wild corals and been under alot if stress getting from ocean to lfs and read often that wild collected sps don't adapt as well as tank raised corals so put me off as £65 for 5-6 inch 20 branch sps is appealing but not if going have higher chance if not surviving but I'm only 1.5 years I to reefing so only early days for me but may try one soon see if does any better than £10 green slimer I got with black bugs and after 2-3 months only tips left with small pe and slowly died from base up and bow coraline starting to grow on it on top the normal algae lol or another small £10 sps frag that forget the name but one if the beginner friendly sps that doing great for few months then accidently snapped it so re-glued piece that broke off ( 3-4 branches) and left small 1 inch nub where snapped with did start growing 1/2 inch branches from it then started getting really bright but pale and bow dead and full off algae lol

Yea the coral game has gotten quite pricey.

 

[Lavey29]

Kind of sad the prices that get paid for such small frags but if there is demand and people buy and people are happy with their purchase then so be it I guess.
I've bought a few small 2 inch frags but only £10 each and seen bigger mini colonies at one my local lfs,sizes are like 5-6 inch across and 5-6 inch tall and about 20 or so branches for generally £ 65 but then I get paranoid are they newly imported wild corals and been under alot if stress getting from ocean to lfs and read often that wild collected sps don't adapt as well as tank raised corals so put me off as £65 for 5-6 inch 20 branch sps is appealing but not if going have higher chance if not surviving but I'm only 1.5 years I to reefing so only early days for me but may try one soon see if does any better than £10 green slimer I got with black bugs and after 2-3 months only tips left with small pe and slowly died from base up and bow coraline starting to grow on it on top the normal algae lol or another small £10 sps frag that forget the name but one if the beginner friendly sps that doing great for few months then accidently snapped it so re-glued piece that broke off ( 3-4 branches) and left small 1 inch nub where snapped with did start growing 1/2 inch branches from it then started getting really bright but pale and bow dead and full off algae lol

They say colonies are more difficult to acclimate and survive then frags are.

 

[branbray07]

 

[Lavey29]

Hey Perry nice to see you are still in the hobby. I used to see you on my old thread on RC for my 62g SPS in wall cube. So cool to see you. Greetings aside, what do you recommend?

Yes you got that right . Its very difficult to find quality LR now days. So i tried to see it with the 4 different bacterias i mentioned.

Na those are little tiny piece i was able to save from original frags. sighttttt

Its growing on both. However my rock is purple from get go, but it is growing rather nice. It also started to grow in the back glass and side glass as well.

LMAOO no actually they were all very nice chunky frags

Yea the coral game has gotten quite pricey.

Recent ICP?

 

[branbray07]

This video is from June 15

 

[branbray07]

Recent ICP?

Yea I posted on on the chemistry forum, but its about 1 month old.

 

[Perry]

Hey Perry nice to see you are still in the hobby. I used to see you on my old thread on RC for my 62g SPS in wall cube. So cool to see you. Greetings aside, what do you recommend?

Yes you got that right . Its very difficult to find quality LR now days. So i tried to see it with the 4 different bacterias i mentioned.

Na those are little tiny piece i was able to save from original frags. sighttttt

Its growing on both. However my rock is purple from get go, but it is growing rather nice. It also started to grow in the back glass and side glass as well.

LMAOO no actually they were all very nice chunky frags

Yea the coral game has gotten quite pricey.

Hello my old friend!
Yes still at it
AF rock is pre-seeded with bacteria, from my understanding. It appears that your tank may in fact be processing nutrients too quickly. For starters, up the feeding to fish. Are you using a carbon source? As stated, I think I saw that different bacteria are being added. Getting P04 up, like around .08- .12ppm would be a starting point. In that range, keeping N03 at 10-20ppm would be a good holding point. I would strive for elevated levels, ensuring the corals get a chance at available food sources. Just my 2 cents

 

[Lavey29]

Yea I posted on on the chemistry forum, but its about 1 month old.

Aside from low phosphate the elevated aluminum might be my only low level concern. Everything looks pretty good so we defer to flow and lights now. Do you have par numbers?

 

[Perry]

Aside from low phosphate the elevated aluminum might be my only low level concern. Everything looks pretty good so we defer to flow and lights now. Do you have par numbers?

Don't certain ceramic medias leach aluminum? Thought I heard that moons ago... Only siporax here, pumice next choice

 

[Lavey29]

Don't certain ceramic medias leach aluminum? Thought I heard that moons ago... Only siporax here, pumice next choice

They say stuff like Marine pure does. I run marine pure bio balls and had elevated aluminum also but try to use media to bring it back down

 

[vetteguy53081]

Numbers seem ok . Dont think it a nutrient issue but rather environmental within tank or atmospheric. Stressors such as increased temperature either modify the structure of the coral microbial symbiotic community or trigger the production of virulence factors. Temperature stress can increase chances of coral disease development in several ways by creating stress in the coral zooxanthellae and decreasing its resistance to infection, increasing growth and virulence of opportunistic coral pathogens, and decreasing the production of antimicrobials by symbiotic bacteria in the coral mucus, thereby facilitating the growth of opportunistic and potentially pathogenic bacteria.

Some possible triggers of infection are:
- Alkalinity spike
- Temperature spike
- Salinity spike
- Low dissolved oxygen
- Poor water quality related with phosphate levels up to 5 ppm
- Change in water flow
- Additions of sand
- Changes in brand of salt
- Bad test kits giving faulty results
- Levels of minor elements such as Iodine, Potassium, Strontium
- Light intensity
- - Changes in water flow
- Addition of new corals
- - Pesticides
- Airborne Contaminants or sprays

 

[Perry]

Ok,
For shi*s and giggles, how often are you brushing the glass? If everyday or every other day, then good. This is and has always been my barometer for P04. I get nervous when my glass goes more than a few days without needed a good cleaning, just a personal opinion.

 

[branbray07]

Hello my old friend!
Yes still at it
AF rock is pre-seeded with bacteria, from my understanding. It appears that your tank may in fact be processing nutrients too quickly. For starters, up the feeding to fish. Are you using a carbon source? As stated, I think I saw that different bacteria are being added. Getting P04 up, like around .08- .12ppm would be a starting point. In that range, keeping N03 at 10-20ppm would be a good holding point. I would strive for elevated levels, ensuring the corals get a chance at available food sources. Just my 2 cents

Aside from low phosphate the elemight be my only low level concern. Everything looks pretty good so we defer to flow and lights now. Do you have par numbers?

Don't certain ceramic medias leach aluminum? Thought I heard that moons ago... Only siporax here, pumice next

Hey Perry . Welll actually the rock was dry not love or seeded. I actually started feeding reef roids to increase nutrients. As far feeding the fish, i feed very heavy Rods and pellets. Yea Randy mentioned to me the possibility for aluminum leaking from media, but he also said it was very low to cause any issues. I will redo my icp month since im removing media this weekend

 

[branbray07]

Aside from low phosphate the elevated aluminum might be my only low level concern. Everything looks pretty good so we defer to flow and lights now. Do you have par numbers?

No i have not tested par. But its a shallow tank with 2 radeons and t5 hybrid. If anything ill bake stuff.