I have SPS now!

sawdonkey

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 8, 2014
Messages
2,165
Reaction score
3,287
Location
Chicago
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I picked up a new frag today! A little Cherry Bomb Arco : )

926FD3AA-1B2A-4CBD-8297-F128328F32CD.jpeg

You’re already a pro....blue light saturated photos! Just kidding. Nice piece!

Okay so... not everything is a success story. I have now put a full $grand... in the trash. I killed them. Both of the first two Maricultured ones... And 2 others. This has been a disheartening start... although not completely unexpected ( look at my tag line down there...)

I found two problems I was not aware of before. I had my “cool whites” way too high on my LEDs.. going up to 49% at max. I dropped that to a max of 5% across the day now. And, a problem with something I thought I had solved. Flow...

I bought great equipKent : ) 2 power heads, 2 wave-makers and a nice strong return pump coming out of two pipes. Mathematically, my flow was right.... yeah, you gotta point that crap in the right direction lol 2 of the corals that died were in areas with very low flow. (I did fix that)

Why is learning always so expensive? : p

I think you’re being to precise with your diagnosis. I don’t think excess cool white is going to kill your acros quickly. Lighting problems might kill your acros, but they will get irritated over time and die slowly.

Flow is the same thing. It’s not precise. Unless you’re blowing the skin of them, flow is not going to cause RTN and probably not even STN. I keep frags in the first chamber of my sump and there is literally no flow besides the bubbles from the return pipe. The frags that have been in there for months look great.

Keep your head up, keep everything in a reasonable range, to try to overthink things, and buy some CHEAP acros until your success rate goes up.....and it will.
 
OP
OP
Shawn_epicurious

Shawn_epicurious

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 1, 2020
Messages
1,707
Reaction score
2,981
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
You’re already a pro....blue light saturated photos! Just kidding. Nice piece!



I think you’re being to precise with your diagnosis. I don’t think excess cool white is going to kill your acros quickly. Lighting problems might kill your acros, but they will get irritated over time and die slowly.

Flow is the same thing. It’s not precise. Unless you’re blowing the skin of them, flow is not going to cause RTN and probably not even STN. I keep frags in the first chamber of my sump and there is literally no flow besides the bubbles from the return pipe. The frags that have been in there for months look great.

Keep your head up, keep everything in a reasonable range, to try to overthink things, and buy some CHEAP acros until your success rate goes up.....and it will.
You rock! Thank you : )
 
OP
OP
Shawn_epicurious

Shawn_epicurious

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 1, 2020
Messages
1,707
Reaction score
2,981
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
My Phosphates have been running high... .13 - .18 ....was way higher a month ago.... (before SPS) My Nitrates were also running high. > 5ppm, but < 10 ppm. ( I am not good with color change tests) Old eyes... lol definitely less than 10 ppm... I like to feed my fish : ) I am successfully bringing both down now using Phosephate-E and Nopox (NO3:pO4-X)
 

sawdonkey

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 8, 2014
Messages
2,165
Reaction score
3,287
Location
Chicago
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
My Phosphates have been running high... .13 - .18 ....was way higher a month ago.... (before SPS) My Nitrates were also running high. > 5ppm, but < 10 ppm. ( I am not good with color change tests) Old eyes... lol definitely less than 10 ppm... I like to feed my fish : ) I am successfully bringing both down now using Phosephate-E and Nopox (NO3:pO4-X)

I don’t like my PO4 that high, but it’s not crazy high. Plenty of people run successful tanks with that amount of PO4.

Unless your NO3 exceeds 30-40, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Yeah I’d Bering it down, but if your at 10 or so...I wouldn’t even try to address it. Again, my advice is to not try to be so precise.
 
OP
OP
Shawn_epicurious

Shawn_epicurious

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 1, 2020
Messages
1,707
Reaction score
2,981
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I don’t like my PO4 that high, but it’s not crazy high. Plenty of people run successful tanks with that amount of PO4.

Unless your NO3 exceeds 30-40, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Yeah I’d Bering it down, but if your at 10 or so...I wouldn’t even try to address it. Again, my advice is to not try to be so precise.
My PO4 was higher. It was up around .5.

I am not really trying to be “too precise”. I am just in problem solving mode.
 

driftin

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 12, 2020
Messages
287
Reaction score
405
Location
Chicago
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Sounds like some pieces were lost but others are still ok? Which pieces are still in the tank?

Asking because you may have lost the really challenging pieces, and perhaps the others will thrive without tweaks to lighting, flow, parameters - just stability.
 
OP
OP
Shawn_epicurious

Shawn_epicurious

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 1, 2020
Messages
1,707
Reaction score
2,981
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Sounds like some pieces were lost but others are still ok? Which pieces are still in the tank?

Asking because you may have lost the really challenging pieces, and perhaps the others will thrive without tweaks to lighting, flow, parameters - just stability.
I still have the the PC Rainbow, Purple Stylophora and a Green Hydropora in there and the Cherry Bomb Acropora. ...plus one more (the pic below) I cannot remember his name.

7BC58C72-876C-44CB-8960-A8229E168A42.jpeg
 

schuby

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jun 24, 2019
Messages
1,011
Reaction score
838
Location
Orange County, CA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Please slow down on changes to your tank. Changing lighting channel from 48% down to 5% in one day is too fast. Stability keeps SPS alive. Large, quick changes to PO4 & NO3 also very stressful.
 
OP
OP
Shawn_epicurious

Shawn_epicurious

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 1, 2020
Messages
1,707
Reaction score
2,981
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Please slow down on changes to your tank. Changing lighting channel from 48% down to 5% in one day is too fast. Stability keeps SPS alive. Large, quick changes to PO4 & NO3 also very stressful.
The PO4 & NO3 changes were very slow. I brought those both down slowly, in measured amounts over 6 weeks. Yeah, the lighting change was all in one day. I should have phased that down slowly too, but didn’t. I have been focused on stability... Until you wrote your response above, I didn’t think about that being a big change on the lighting.

Its funny. All the advice I have gotten on caring for SPS has been wrapped around a single word... stability. bit you guys all meant... STABILITY! Thank you for that comment. It was hard to hear at first. I wanted to get mad when I first read it. I do have everything dialed in now... no more changes!
 

SPS2020

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jun 24, 2020
Messages
2,250
Reaction score
4,937
Location
NC
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
Now that I know to ask about the whole “Maricultured” thing... I have been able to stay away from them with my LFS.

I have begun to understand why so many reefers buy online... it is kind of the only way to get the exact species and such that you want. I have a really nice LFS now, but their SPS stock is still very limited.
The maricultured thing got me as well last week. Never really thought about it until RTN occurred overnight on an Acropora and I remembered reading this thread. Lesson learned and aquacultured for me moving forward. ;-)
 
OP
OP
Shawn_epicurious

Shawn_epicurious

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 1, 2020
Messages
1,707
Reaction score
2,981
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Okay so... back to the drawing board. I am not adding anymore SPS for a few months. I am going to let my tank mature all the way up to a year.... and give me more practices at maintaining stability.

....another one is dying : (
 

Daddy-o

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 7, 2017
Messages
2,685
Reaction score
3,900
Location
Redwood City, Ca. 94062 (San Francisco Bay Area)
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Maybe start with some easier SPS?
Okay so... back to the drawing board. I am not adding anymore SPS for a few months. I am going to let my tank mature all the way up to a year.... and give me more practices at maintaining stability.

....another one is dying : (
Darn!!! While I know it can be frustrating and you have just tossed a grip of cash.
I AM NOT GOING TO SIT HERE AND LET YOU QUIT!!!!
You seem to be really good with the details so you CAN do this. Maybe instead of getting the pricey eye candy, we could point you in some easier to grow SPS. Trust me, I is no rocket scientist and I can do it. We all have issues with some acros. For some it is maricultured, for me, huge frags/mini colonies have been an issue. Dipping and acclimation can also be issues. Maybe find a frag of something like Purple Bonsai? Easy/fast to grow, pretty and you can find a small frag for cheap.
Cheers! Mark
 
OP
OP
Shawn_epicurious

Shawn_epicurious

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 1, 2020
Messages
1,707
Reaction score
2,981
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Maybe start with some easier SPS?

Darn!!! While I know it can be frustrating and you have just tossed a grip of cash.
I AM NOT GOING TO SIT HERE AND LET YOU QUIT!!!!
You seem to be really good with the details so you CAN do this. Maybe instead of getting the pricey eye candy, we could point you in some easier to grow SPS. Trust me, I is no rocket scientist and I can do it. We all have issues with some acros. For some it is maricultured, for me, huge frags/mini colonies have been an issue. Dipping and acclimation can also be issues. Maybe find a frag of something like Purple Bonsai? Easy/fast to grow, pretty and you can find a small frag for cheap.
Cheers! Mark
Oh, I am not quitting on SPS! ... call it refining...? My equipment is right where it needs to be... now I gotta get me where I need to be. That’s why I am going to focus on stability. I obviously need more practice : )

I do still have 3 SPS corals in there right now. They are supposed to be “easier...”
 
OP
OP
Shawn_epicurious

Shawn_epicurious

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 1, 2020
Messages
1,707
Reaction score
2,981
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
A quick update.... yeah.... these last three are not going to make it... everything I bought, without fail, looked great for a week, the color even improved. Then RTN on everyone of them. I just sent off a water sample... Triton Labs. I need to rule out things I am not measuring. I am going to list out my normal ranges on my water parameters... I can provide pics of most of them with my Apex... I really am searching for the stability required for SPS. Is there anything below swinging too much?

Salinity: target is a constant 35 ppm. My normal swing is between 35.2 & 34.9
PH target is 8.3: ...8.3 is tough for me (my water) I swing between 8.0 & 8.3... I rarely make it all the way to 8.3... I never drop below 8.0.
Temperature target is 77.5: I am running a chiller that is set to come on at 77... my temperature is never outside of 77.0 - 78.0 anymore.
I 2 part dose (which is really 3 part right? )
Mag target is1,350.... it stays between 1325 and 1375. I dose this manually
Calcium and Alk are being dosed on an automated basis using an Apex DOS dosing system. It keep these two super stable.
Alk target is 9.0: it swings between 8.9 & 9.2
Calcium target is 450: it swings between 425 and 460
Nitrates stay very steady between 3 - 6 ppm

Phosphates have been a problem. They were as high as .58 ppm... I started bringing it down over a 6 week period, a little at a time... this one still swings the most. But I am keeping it right around .09 It swings between .03 and .1

Can I rule out water parameters or does something here need tighter control?
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 71 53.0%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 68 50.7%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 34 25.4%
  • None.

    Votes: 30 22.4%
  • Other.

    Votes: 9 6.7%
Back
Top