I need help with my water chemistry for the sake of my mostly stagnant SPS.

[evan127]

I also forgot to mention that I switched my bulb combination from 2 coral+, 2 blue+, 2 actinics back to my original combination of 4 blue+, 1 coral+, 1 purple+. Total light for 8 hours, 6 hours full

 

[zachxlutz]

I was dosing BRS two part and my tank was pretty stagnant, growth was slow and colors were pale. Even the coralline algae was a pale pink. I decided to switch to Tropic Marin Balling salts with the NaCL free sea salt third part. I've never experienced such a rapid change in growth and color in my tank. All of my corralline turned purple and started covering everything (I have a very high light tank, and always attributed the poor coralline coloration/growth of the intensity of the light). Within on a couple of days it had changed to a much darker pink and purple color. My frags have equally started taking off. My alkalinity consumption has doubled in the last month. I thought people who touted the original balling salts as the best stuff as just blowing smoke. I guess I am one of them now.

Hey Rick. Do you have a link for info?

Yes! I'd love to see some more info on this. I've just been searching around to try and find some calcium and alkalinity ppm daily uptake numbers to compare my tank with and stumbled across this thread. OP and I have similar concerns. How much PPM did you see your calcium uptake go up?

 

[Rick.45cal]

Hey Rick. Do you have a link for info?

These are what I started using: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...a9NlQJVj58yDeBAG13b-V_tZCqf_WGOcWsaAvG48P8HAQ

My evidence is purely anecdotal, but I can tell you it only took several days after start using it for all of my coralline to completely change to dark pink, it also is now covering all the high light areas in my tank. You and I have shared similar hypothesis in regards to coralline coloration/high light environments. Mine has changed now I now think that the pale coralline color is actually an elemental deficiency of some sort. My frags have really started to take off too!

I decided to try it because it's supposedly Dr. Ballings recipe. All my evidence is purely anecdotal and based off of my observations but I'll tell you what... I just ordered more!

 

[Macdaddynick1]

So, I have run out of patience and need some advice on how to get my mostly stagnant SPS to grow again. My SPS are stagnant. Some are colorful, but most are slightly dull. Dull meaning either brown or too pale. My growth, when there is some present, is base growth. It's rarely any vertical growth. For example my stags are not growing vertically whatsoever. Before I go into feeding habits, chemistry values, husbandry regiments and food/coral additives, I will list out my general specs of my system first.

Tank: 120
Sump: Trigger 36
Skimmer: Vertex Omega 150
Return: Vectra M1 (almost at 75/80%)
Lighting: ATI 6 bulb, 2 actinic, 2 coral+, 2 blue+ (10hrs actinic, 8hrs full)
Flow: 2 MP40QD (almost exclusively in Reef Crest 100%)

Chemistry targets:
dKH - 8
Ca - 420
Mg - 1300
PO4 - 0.03
NO3 - 2
Temp - 76
Salinity - 35
Salt: HWMarine
All of my testing results can be seen on Aquatic Log for a better understanding of how the reef fluctuates.

Now, I will write a little more detail on the matter. This reef has been set up since October of 2016. Most of the rock, excluding the addition of two larger than a football dry size pieces, came from my old 48 gallon. To compensate for my minimal aquascape I have a Marine Pure block in my sump with more live rock.

Lighting:
When I set up the 120 I moved from LEDs back to T5s. As you can see above, my photoperiod is 10 hours total with 8 hours of full spectrum. The fixture itself is maybe 6 inches above the water line, but my aquascape is very low. I would guess the fixture is about 18 inches above coral.

Feeding:
I feed my coral more than I feed the few fish I have. I had been feeding Reef Chili (maybe 1/16th of a teaspoon) every night after the lights go off with the return shut off for 1 hour. I would also add 5 drops of Pohls Coral Vitalizer and amino acids during the nightly feeding. Fish get fed a mix and variation of Reef Frenzy, flakes, pellets, nori, etc. etc.

Husbandry:
I try to test for alkalinity every few days, calcium and magnesium weekly. Lately as things have been looking sad I am testing more frequently. Again, you can check my results on Aquatic Log. I was doing water changes of 10 gallons per week, but was seeing little improvement by doing them. Nitrogen was the same and phosphorus was nonexistent. I use two filter socks and change them out every third day. The skimmer is emptied daily and the neck is cleaned every week.

Dosing:
I use BRS two part on the BRS dosers. I am currently dosing 20ml of both alkalinity and calcium every hour but each part is separated by half an hour. Alkalinity is dosed on the hour and calcium is dosed on the half hour. I dose amino acids, Pohl's Coral Vitalizer as well as vodka and vinegar. Vinegar is 20ml and vodka is about 1/8th of that, so 2.5ml daily. I dose 5ml of Pohls Xtra Special Concentrate, 1ml of Flatworm Stop and 1ml of Coral Booster.

Flow:
I have my MP40s cranked up to 100% in anti sync in Reef Crest mode. I'll sometimes switch to Lagoonal or Tidal Swell to keep detritus aloft more. They are positioned about 4 inches below the water surface. There is lots of surface agitation and sometimes when the Vortech hits 100% it might suck a little air. Lots of gas exchange happening in my opinion.

I can't think of anything else to elaborate on in this initial post. But I am hoping to get some good advice and learn more. Any contribute would help me greatly and make me happy again to get my reef back in the right direction.

Evan

Ok I will have a few things to calrify, you might have answered these things later in the thread but I want to ask before I lose my train of thought.

1) how is your RO/DI- when was it changed last?
2) this might sound unpopular, BUT less is more. I've been in your shoes trying to force my corals to grow , did too much and saw nothing.
3) How many bulbs do you have? How is your par ? I have some sps at 600 par doing great, as soon as they are moved lower they brown out.
4) the corals encrust more because of your insane flow, be patient on that one.
5) feeding -Stop feeding corals for now or ever, feed fish more. It is one easier variable to control.
6) how is your ph at night? Because feeding at night can lower the ph, it does in my tank, hence stressing out the corals.
7) stop dosing vinegar vodka etc etc. reason for this is you try to feed corals, because it makes you feel like you're doing something then you try to remove nutrients by dosing vodka, then you drop the nutrients, then you try to feed again, Then you'll end up skyrocketing your phosphates and then use a tons of gfo, lowering your phosphates again. It's kind of a vicious cycle. Been there done that. With SPS your main concern is 1 ) RO/DI 2) RO\DI 3) Stable Alkalinity, 4) Light (don't mess with it) (move the coral not the intensity) 5) calcium 6) NO3 have some, try to keep it low the way I do it is skimming and seachem matrix) my no3 is undetectable but I sometimes dose just a little bit 7) po4 yours looks perfect, to keep mine down I dose nitrates. I do not use GFO 8) Flow ( you got that covered) 9) slow down on the water changes . 10) reef tank and specifically an SPS tank is like an ocean liner , you can't force your sps to grow, every little swing will show and it will be there for another month. So expect a month worth of wait for any thing you do different. Feeding , swing, waterchange siwng , dosing nopox lowering no3 swing , dosing food again - swing. Etc etc.
If you want to see any growth your goal is to stabilize the main elements and do nothing. If you are impatient like me , your goal is to buy a new frag every other day.
Last question, flatworm whatever, why are you dosing that ? If you have flatworms that answers all of your questions. If you don't stop dosing that too.

 

[Rick.45cal]

Yes! I'd love to see some more info on this. I've just been searching around to try and find some calcium and alkalinity ppm daily uptake numbers to compare my tank with and stumbled across this thread. OP and I have similar concerns. How much PPM did you see your calcium uptake go up?

When I first started dosing I was dosing 58.7 ml of all three parts to keep up with demand. (It's less concentrated than the BRS 2 part).
Since using the KHG, and dosing all three parts (about 2 months later) I just had to bump it up a bit tonight. I'm dosing 97.5ml a day of all three parts. (Truth be told I am probably 7.5ml still behind where I need to be, based off of the KHG's addition today)

 

[bif24701]

Try brining your NO3 to >5ppm, change nothing else. Observe for a month.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Just to make this clear to everyone. Balling (at least in the original Dr Balling recipe) does not boost trace elements. It keeps them exactly where they were before dosing. In theory it can do this perfectly well, just as a perfect two part can. But it does not boost trace elements against loses to organism tissue (such as iron into algae, etc.).

The claim is that dosing just sodium carbonate and calcium chloride raises sodium chloride (correct) and then if you readjust the salinity back to normal, everything except sodium, chloride, calcium, and alkalinity will decline a bit, and the addition of the sodium free salt corrects all of the ions in solution back to the starting point (also true, if they make it correctly).

So just be careful to not think of it as a trace element "supplement".