I still can’t keep acros apparently. Getting really frustrated.

Charlie’s Frags

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50 gallon cube
3 frozen cubes, nori, zoo and phyto per day
Skimmer
Chaeto in the sump
No activated carbon or carbon dosing
No gfo
25 no3
0.20 po4
Alk 7.5-9.5

79D90EAB-B764-49D5-9564-E96EED805265.png


Y’all are all trying too hard
Keep it simple ______
 

PapaDragon

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Causes loads of problems. Limited feedings, oversized skimmer and stripping the water chasing low nutrients with carbon dosing and probably gfo (just a hunch). Not enough nutrition to keep up with the higher alk. I bet the frags look good for a week, then the polyps retract, then the tissue starts looking “dried out” but the average hobbyists thinks “it’s darker, so the that means the nutrients must be too high” WRONG. But they probably start bumping up the carbon dosing and gfo right as the tissue starts peeling or stn/rtn (yes, there’s a difference). Too many sps death threads on here and the majority involve chasing or having low nutrients with elevated alk (anything above 8.3). Now I’m not saying an experienced hobbyist can’t grow sps with the same parameters, but I would be willing to bet that they have much larger bioload and feeding regiment. Call TopShelf, WWC, Cherry corals, LivingReef Orlando, Reefraftusa, JF etc and ask them if they carbon dose or use gfo and they’ll all tell you “no, we don’t use any of those methods”
Just so I make sure I understand. Higher Alk causes the coral to try and grow faster which requires more "food" (nutrients). So your hypothesis is that they are starving. I’ve watched just about every TSA and WWC YouTube video and they feed a ton, but is that true for their farms too?
 

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Just so I make sure I understand. Higher Alk causes the coral to try and grow faster which requires more "food" (nutrients). So your hypothesis is that they are starving. I’ve watched just about every TSA and WWC YouTube video and they feed a ton, but is that true for their farms too?
Yes
Y’all’s acros need and want fish/crab/snail etc poop? But all that leads to higher no3 and po4 that fuels algae. So the trick is too feed heavy in and heavy export. You’ll starve the sps if you’re not heavy in first. It’s pretty simple.
 

PapaDragon

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Yes
Y’all’s acros need and want fish/crab/snail etc poop? But all that leads to higher no3 and po4 that fuels algae. So the trick is too feed heavy in and heavy export. You’ll starve the sps if you’re not heavy in first. It’s pretty simple.
I don’t run Carbon or GFO but my chaeto keeps my po4 undetectable.
 
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Kaludar

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Causes loads of problems. Limited feedings, oversized skimmer and stripping the water chasing low nutrients with carbon dosing and probably gfo (just a hunch). Not enough nutrition to keep up with the higher alk. I bet the frags look good for a week, then the polyps retract, then the tissue starts looking “dried out” but the average hobbyists thinks “it’s darker, so the that means the nutrients must be too high” WRONG. But they probably start bumping up the carbon dosing and gfo right as the tissue starts peeling or stn/rtn (yes, there’s a difference). Too many sps death threads on here and the majority involve chasing or having low nutrients with elevated alk (anything above 8.3). Now I’m not saying an experienced hobbyist can’t grow sps with the same parameters, but I would be willing to bet that they have much larger bioload and feeding regiment. Call TopShelf, WWC, Cherry corals, LivingReef Orlando, Reefraftusa, JF etc and ask them if they carbon dose or use gfo and they’ll all tell you “no, we don’t use any of those methods”
I definitely did all of those things, carbon dosing and gfo almost immediately after cycling my tank. I don’t use either now and have been dosing beneficial bacteria. Interestingly enough I had my alk stable around 8.3 and after I started dosing microbacter it started to climb up, I even took my dose pump completely offline. I’m trying to get it back down to low 8s. My phosphates have always been low.
 

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I definitely did all of those things, carbon dosing and gfo almost immediately after cycling my tank. I don’t use either now and have been dosing beneficial bacteria. Interestingly enough I had my alk stable around 8.3 and after I started dosing microbacter it started to climb up, I even took my dose pump completely offline. I’m trying to get it back down to low 8s. My phosphates have always been low.
Sorry if you already answered this but how big is the tank, how many fish do you have and how much do you feed?
 
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Kaludar

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50 gallon cube
3 frozen cubes, nori, zoo and phyto per day
Skimmer
Chaeto in the sump
No activated carbon or carbon dosing
No gfo
25 no3
0.20 po4
Alk 7.5-9.5

79D90EAB-B764-49D5-9564-E96EED805265.png


Y’all are all trying too hard
Keep it simple ______

Jesus man I am feeding 1 cube of mysis a day in my tank and I am 65 gal. Am I starving my tank?

I currently have:
Flame angel
Midas blenny
3 chrimis
2 clown fish
Firefish
Royal gramma


part of what makes this so confusing is I have people telling me my nitrates are sky high and to get my nutrients down ASAP and then others saying to feed heavy and I’m starving my tank.
 

Charlie’s Frags

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Jesus man I am feeding 1 cube of mysis a day in my tank and I am 65 gal. Am I starving my tank?

I currently have:
Flame angel
Midas blenny
3 chrimis
2 clown fish
Firefish
Royal gramma


part of what makes this so confusing is I have people telling me my nitrates are sky high and to get my nutrients down ASAP and then others saying to feed heavy and I’m starving my tank.
I’ll do a no3 test post a pic but last time I checked it was between 25 and 50. Shane Backer Corals, farmerty, and wwc all keep their no3 about 25. It doesn’t kill sps, but stripping the tank from 25 to 10 over a couple days will.
 
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Kaludar

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I’ll do a no3 test post a pic but last time I checked it was between 25 and 50. Shane Backer Corals, farmerty, and wwc all keep their no3 about 25. It doesn’t kill sps, but stripping the tank from 25 to 10 over a couple days will.
So basically I need to just get a refugium going and feed heavy and stop worrying so much about nutrient levels?
 

Charlie’s Frags

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37A9470E-B6F8-40D9-A607-BB3EE643542D.jpeg

Actually a little lower than I expected bc I’ve already fed nori, 2 of the 3 Frozen cubes and reef energy ab+. My skimmer is off from noon to midnight while the DT lights are on btw. Now the 2018 Chaswood79 would see this and freak out. Add more nopox and change out the gfo reactor (threw it in the trash btw)
even if the corals looked ok and then would of been shocked why they died a week later when the no3/po4 was “ideal” again.
 
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Kaludar

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37A9470E-B6F8-40D9-A607-BB3EE643542D.jpeg

Actually a little lower than I expected bc I’ve already fed nori, 2 of the 3 Frozen cubes and reef energy ab+. My skimmer is off from noon to midnight while the DT lights are on btw. Now the 2018 Chaswood79 would see this and freak out. Add more nopox and change out the gfo reactor (threw it in the trash btw)
even if the corals looked ok and then would of been shocked why they died a week later when the no3/po4 was “ideal” again.
Why do you turn the skimmer off while the lights are on?
 

Charlie’s Frags

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Why do you turn the skimmer off while the lights are on?
A couple reasons
1) Allows access to as much nutrition (fish poop and bacteria) as possible while they are being baked at 350-500 par (Learned this from @Dana Riddle)
2) Skimmer off during the day on at night minimizes pH swings
 

Ricky_Reef

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Dry rock. Two Vortech mp40s, on a reefer 250 which is probably overkill. I run them on nutrient transport mode at about 25%
I would run these like WWC does, put one on Reefcrest and the other on constant and alternate both of them every 2 to 6 hours. Your tank is still pretty young for SPS, I would just let it run and stop tinkering... Stability is the main ingredient to success with SPS.
 

kevin_e

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Do u start with all dry rock or live rock? If u start with all dry rock and go through regular nitrogen cycle then your tank is like a fowlr. Years ago we have real live rock from the ocean which has plenty of beneficial bacteria and microorganisms which benefits and regulate the reef tank biology. Now most reefer start with all dry rock and still think it will act like before. U can read the thread below

Plenty of successful SPS tanks started from dry rock.
 

Dsantamaria29

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Plenty of successful SPS tanks started from dry rock.

I want to second that I dont think that dry rock alone is the issue. I started my 180 with 90+ lbs of TB saltwater live rock and 90 of dry rock and still have the same SPS issues OP is experiencing.
 
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