I have SPS now!

Madonia

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Sometimes I wish my coral and fish could just tell me what they need! :D
Weekly Water changes with RODI, good quality salt, daily testing of parameters, high quality food, filtration that MATCHES your food input, sufficient (but not overpowering) lighting, and randomized flow.
That’s all you need.
 
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Shawn_epicurious

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SPS don’t need > 300 PAR to survive. I always put my acro on my frag rack on the side of the tank where it got an average of 100 PAR. They start to encrust there and acclimate to the tank parameters/spectrum/flow/feeding regimen...then I fix them on the rock work weeks later.

the take away message from my experience with acro is that they do NOT require tremendous amounts of light to thrive (as mine grow on my weakly lit frag rack). There are guys that blast their corals with light (>500 PAR) who are looking for optimal coloration in certain high end SPS. But that’s not really your goal at the moment.
RODs food is great. I use it too. The amount of reef roids you used is appropriate. Keep it extremely minimal an infrequent right now. Your corals will get all the nutrition they need from the Rods food when you feed your fish. Hold off on the reef roids for right now while you are stabilizing your phosphate and learning how to control it.
I recommend acro power amino acids to help with general sps (and LPS) health. For a tank your size you can start dosing about 20ml/week.

another question is- do you have coralline algae growth? I would hold off on buying any more SPS until you have explosive coralline growth in your tank.
First, thank you.. awesome advice : )

I have had coraline growing for 5 months now. 3 months before my first SPS. (I was looking for it to grow as a sign of maturity)
 

Madonia

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Watch this: (actually, watch all of bulk reef supply’s videos lol. They are amazing)



Try lowering your lighting percentages and then retesting your PAR. Keep the upper level at around 300.
Keep the phosphates down (around 0.03
Nitrates at 5ppm
Keep alk, ca, mag stable. Test daily and adjust.
weekly water changes
increase your flow
Get a frag rack and put your acro on that first for a couple of weeks before moving to your rock

This should all help. Good luck!
 
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Shawn_epicurious

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Also I’m sure you are aware that your alk, calcium, and magnesium should be stable. What are your consistent numbers?
I started dosing manually for those at first... since, really, I need such a low amount & I wanted to learn how they moved with specific dosed amounts over time. I did all that before buying SPS. My Apex DOS reservoir had a bad intake fitting for awhile (Apex replaced it) it was sucking air and not dosing at all. My Alk was moving quite a bit during this. Ranging from 8.6 to 9.2. I have it fixed now. Alk is staying solid between 8.9 and 9.1 : )

Calcium ranges from 430 ish to 460 ish (it is going thu my APEX DOS system. Very stable. I dose Mag manually.. 1,325 to 1,360 range... (I am barely dosing Mag at all) most of that movement both up and down is natural.
 
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Shawn_epicurious

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Watch this: (actually, watch all of bulk reef supply’s videos lol. They are amazing)



Try lowering your lighting percentages and then retesting your PAR. Keep the upper level at around 300.
Keep the phosphates down (around 0.03
Nitrates at 5ppm
Keep alk, ca, mag stable. Test daily and adjust.
weekly water changes
increase your flow
Get a frag rack and put your acro on that first for a couple of weeks before moving to your rock

This should all help. Good luck!

Have not thought about a frag rack... good call
 

Madonia

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I started dosing manually for those at first... since, really, I need such a low amount & I wanted to learn how they moved with specific dosed amounts over time. I did all that before buying SPS. My Apex DOS reservoir had a bad intake fitting for awhile (Apex replaced it) it was sucking air and not dosing at all. My Alk was moving quite a bit during this. Ranging from 8.6 to 9.2. I have it fixed now. Alk is staying solid between 8.9 and 9.1 : )

Calcium ranges from 430 ish to 460 ish (it is going thu my APEX DOS system. Very stable. I dose Mag manually.. 1,325 to 1,360 range... (I am barely dosing Mag at all) most of that movement both up and down is natural.
Numbers look great. Keep them there!
 
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Shawn_epicurious

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Weekly Water changes with RODI, good quality salt, daily testing of parameters, high quality food, filtration that MATCHES your food input, sufficient (but not overpowering) lighting, and randomized flow.
That’s all you need.
Done on all counts... I may be over doing my lighting ( from earlier comments) My water changes are almost religious in nature. My equipment is all in my build thread)
 

Madonia

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I think it’s the lighting. I just went through your build thread and I can’t find a legitimate reason why you are failing with sps aside from poorly acclimating them to intense lighting.

You have a good system. Only other question is flow, what are you using?
 
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Shawn_epicurious

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I think it’s the lighting. I just went through your build thread and I can’t find a legitimate reason why you are failing with sps aside from poorly acclimating them to intense lighting.

You have a good system. Only other question is flow, what are you using?
I have 2 of what you see below... wave makers. I am running them on their full “variable” mode. I have 2 other smaller power heads I am using for top water agitation and my return pump, is split into two pipes... my pumps is pushing 1,260 GPH... I honestly thought I have flow right : )
8B84C825-E6A5-4FA4-BBC1-7D0D6836DC41.jpeg
 
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Shawn_epicurious

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Could very well be the phosphate too. Use some GFO and run it 24-7 until you have 0.01-0.03! Just bring it down slowly over a few days.
I have a reactor that can handle GFO... I swear, everyone keeps saying “be careful using GFO with SPS”. So much so, it has scared me off GFO.
 
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Shawn_epicurious

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I think it’s the lighting. I just went through your build thread and I can’t find a legitimate reason why you are failing with sps aside from poorly acclimating them to intense lighting.

You have a good system. Only other question is flow, what are you using?
Btw, thank you for doing that! : )
 

dohc97

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How about we start at the basics? How long has this system been up? You seem to be over analyzing your setup, patience and stability are key, all the constant tinkering does not help sps
 
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Shawn_epicurious

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How about we start at the basics? How long has this system been up? You seem to be over analyzing your setup, patience and stability are key, all the constant tinkering does not help sps
My tank in now 9 months old.

Tinkering huh? 6 weeks ago I started buying SPS corals. Without fail, everyone one them died within 2 weeks... I’ve put over $1,000 worth of corals in the trash since then. I am NOT tinkering... I am in full blown problem solving mode at this point. If you read everything above, you would see it is stability that I am driving for and my patience level has been impeccable!

I don’t know why, but you comment is bothering me... I am not being rude. Over-analyzing? I am a professional forensic accountant. Lol... yes, I have been known to over-analyze things. That’s fair lol.

Over-analyzing is not killing my SPS... it is just making me take more aspirin haha
 

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I think you've already done the right thing in getting the water tested. Personally (and especially if the SPS have all died, nothing to try to save) I would wait for those test results to come back and see if there's any possible culprits there. You may find something elevated. I'd let the tank run as you have been until you see those results; the worst thing that happens is it matures a little longer while you wait. No harm in that, ever.

This is NOT part of your SPS problem, I'm sure, but I would consider switching to Rod's fish-only blend when you repurchase. I used to use the original but felt a lot of the ingredients were wasted due to their small particle size. It's a great food, but when it's a mostly fish-dominant system I think a lot doesn't get eaten.
 
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