Just can't keep sps anymore

[RedneckReefer68]

Started in 2007 with an aquapod 24. I used a 175w my over it and everything grew. In 2009 I lost it during a power outage due to ice storm. The power was out a little over a week. I quit the hobby till 2015 when my girlfriend encouraged me to get back in. I think she was tired of me just talking about it all the time. I set up another nano tank with all dry rock. Frags do good for a few months, then slowly go downhill. No polyp extension, stn ECT. I've changed equipment out trying to narrow it down to something but I just can't nail anything down causing it. I use the brs ro/di with 2 di canisters for supply water. I'm about to give in on sps this time around [emoji23][emoji23][emoji35][emoji35][emoji35][emoji23][emoji23]

My old tank

 

[erky]

maybe your tank is too clean, what are your peremators ?

 

[RedneckReefer68]

maybe your tank is too clean, what are your perpetrators?

I've always had problems with the Hannah reading little to no p04 but I had algea in frag plugs and rock. Nitrate is is near zero also according to redsea. I've dosed both with no success.

 

[erky]

I've always had problems with the Hannah reading little to no p04 but I had algea in frag plugs and rock. Nitrate is is near zero also according to redsea. I've dosed both with no success.

what are you dosing? give us your tank specs and other levels

 

[RedneckReefer68]

what are you dosing? give us your tank specs and other levels

I dosed seachem phosphorus and tree stump remover. Alk been stable at 7.5, calcium 410 and mag at 1320

 

[EmdeReef]

Started in 2007 with an aquapod 24. I used a 175w my over it and everything grew. In 2009 I lost it during a power outage due to ice storm. The power was out a little over a week. I quit the hobby till 2015 when my girlfriend encouraged me to get back in. I think she was tired of me just talking about it all the time. I set up another nano tank with all dry rock. Frags do good for a few months, then slowly go downhill. No polyp extension, stn ECT. I've changed equipment out trying to narrow it down to something but I just can't nail anything down causing it. I use the brs ro/di with 2 di canisters for supply water. I'm about to give in on sps this time around [emoji23][emoji23][emoji35][emoji35][emoji35][emoji23][emoji23]

My old tank

What are your parameters? Lights?

 

[29bonsaireef]

Always hear similar stories with people that setup with dry rock. I've personally never used dry rock so I'm not 100% on the effects. Just hear a lot of people talking about acros and sps not growing when they've used dry rock. In a healthy reef tank there should be a micro/macro ecosystem of life. Using dry rock you cut out a lot of the good bacteria.

 

[RedneckReefer68]

Always hear similar stories with people that setup with dry rock. I've personally never used dry rock so I'm not 100% on the effects. Just hear a lot of people talking about acros and sps not growing when they've used dry rock. In a healthy reef tank there should be a micro/macro ecosystem of life. Using dry rock you cut out a lot of the good bacteria.

That's the only thing I can think of after swapping equipment out and not getting better results..I thought maybe something was leaking voltage

 

[Tautog]

Your system seems stripped of all nutrients. I run a dirty, lazy, busy, when I get to it system. Since changing to T-5’s from LEDs, feeding less more often, and dosing 2- part, especially watching and testing for Alkalinity and Calcium increases. I do everything manually to be sure

 

[RedneckReefer68]

What are your parameters? Lights?

Parameters up above.. Lights t5 so bulbs.. Blue plus Coral plus

 

[RedneckReefer68]

I've even shut my skimmer off for a few months.. Still no effect on p04 and nitrate

 

[RedneckReefer68]

I'm thinking about doing a reboot with live rock... I've been searching for the best place to order it from

 

[XNavyDiver]

Started in 2007 with an aquapod 24. I used a 175w my over it and everything grew. In 2009 I lost it during a power outage due to ice storm. The power was out a little over a week. I quit the hobby till 2015 when my girlfriend encouraged me to get back in. I think she was tired of me just talking about it all the time. I set up another nano tank with all dry rock. Frags do good for a few months, then slowly go downhill. No polyp extension, stn ECT. I've changed equipment out trying to narrow it down to something but I just can't nail anything down causing it. I use the brs ro/di with 2 di canisters for supply water. I'm about to give in on sps this time around [emoji23][emoji23][emoji35][emoji35][emoji35][emoji23][emoji23]

My old tank

For what it's worth, I started my tank back in May of 17' with dry rock also. I struggled with sps, acros in particular, for a long time. The tank for the most part is now doing "ok" with acros now. Nothing spectacular. Dry rock is hard on sps for some reason as nutrients just aren't there for a while. I try and keep my alk on the lower end of the scale (8 dKH) and I feed the tank quite a bit. It wasn't until my no3 leveled out at around 8-10 for a few months in a row and the rock work got completely covered in coralline algae that sps corals started to do well in the tank.

 

[EmdeReef]

I'm thinking about doing a reboot with live rock... I've been searching for the best place to order it from

Have you tried feeding more?

I would have to respectfully disagree that new rocks cannot support corals even though I prefer LR and hate myself for jumping on the dry rock hype (thankfully I did keep some very old real Fiji LR), not only are there many examples on this forum and elsewhere but in lab settings SPS are grown in barebottom tanks without any rocks and many systems are no larger than 10g and not centrally fed from a large sump, lots of water changes, feeding, keeping stability and good lights.

 

[erk]

I've started all my tank with dry rock. The only issues I ever had with growing coral we're my own mistakes. On my latest tank, the SPS are growing very well. I don't think the problem is the dry rock. It sounds like there isn't much to feed the corals. Why don't you try spot feeding them? If you think it's lack of biodiversity, go to your LFS and buy some live rock to see the tank. No need to strip down the tank.

 

[ksfulk]

I cant say that Ive had the same experience. The last few tanks that Ive had have all been started with dry (marco or pukani) rock. Ive had SPS in the tanks as soon as Day 10 and never had issues with them that werent directly related to stability.

If you cannot point to any issues that are equipment related, have you had an ICP test run so you can rule out any heavy metals or other imbalance? Have you verified your test readings are accurate with your current test kits? Id agree that your parameters look ok, but there may be some kind of chemical imbalance at work here. Do you perform regular water changes? Which 2-part are you using for dosing? What kind of equipment are you changing/manipulating? More information might be helpful in attempting to diagnose what the issue is

 

[EmdeReef]

Parameters up above.. Lights t5 so bulbs.. Blue plus Coral plus

Just to be sure, how often do you change the bulbs? Checked PAR? You can try seeing if any local reefers would give you an older piece of LR from their well established system to seed your tank but I'd rule out a lot of things before blaming the rocks or rebooting with LR, especially if you've already had it running for 2+ yrs.

 

[erky]

id suggest dosing nitrates daily and or feeding more. you are starving these corals with a 0 ppm nitrate and 0 po4. turn off the skimmer and fuge if you have one till your dosing starts to show improvement.

dose the nitrates then test 10 minutes later, there are plenty of calculators out there to figure out how much.

 

[BigJim]

Parameters up above.. Lights t5 so bulbs.. Blue plus Coral plus

It might also help to know the dimensions of the tank and what T5 fixture you are using. You can have great success with T5 lighting, but you need to make sure you have enough par for sps to thrive.

 

[RedneckReefer68]

id suggest dosing nitrates daily and or feeding more. you are starving these corals with a 0 ppm nitrate and 0 po4. turn off the skimmer and fuge if you have one till your dosing starts to show improvement.

dose the nitrates then test 10 minutes later, there are plenty of calculators out there to figure out how much.

Please see above..I have been dosing keeping it pretty steady at 10