Lights down for new SPS? danged if you do, danged if you don't.

[pseudorand]

All my SPS died. Wait, don't go. It's not just another thread asking why. I think I already know.

I got a dozen or so SPS, which all seemed to do great in QT for 45 days. I dumped them in DT about a month ago and turned down the lights like I'm supposed to. They seemed to do well for few weeks and then slowly all died over another few weeks. (LPS and softies introduced at the same time seem to still be OK).

I've neglected water tests since two days after adding the new frags, but today I found nitrate at 12ppm and phosphate at 0.15ppm. Nitrate had been steady at 3-5 ppm for nearly a year. Phosphate had been at ~0.7ppm and falling for months with regular use of phosguard. I've only done one 15% water change since adding the frags a month ago (I usually do them every week and a half), but I've skipped water changes before without a nitrate spike. And there's no tell-tale GHA issues that I've had before when skipping water changes.

In fact, other than the bleached SPS, the tank is looking great. Then it hit me, it's the other way around. Lack of algae caused my nitrate/phosphate spike. With the lights down, the algae is starving and not using as much nitrate/phosphate.

That's all just a guess. Does it sound right to anyone else?

What do I do now? My SPS are all dead, so I guess I can turn my lights back up. Presumably nitrate and phosphate will fall, but I'll be back to scraping rocks to control GHA. But if I try SPS again, what do I do with those lights? Keep 'em low and plan to up my water change game to control nitrates? Or does a nitrate spike mean I likely turned them down too low?

 

[Alexopora]

Hmmm, how about just leaving the lights on but place the newbies on the sandbed and gradually bring them higher as they adjust to the display tank. I suggest having a few small frag racks (made out of egg crates) and have them in varying heights. Then once the sps have adjusted to a particular height that you like, you can stick them to the rockwork.

 

[homer1475]

I run T5's so no way of "turning my lights down" to acclimate. Never been an issue.

This was never an issue before LED's came out. Now that more LED's are being used in the hobby, you see more and more posts like this.

Quit playing with your lights, set them and leave them be(this I think is the biggest issue with LED's. Way to many things to change. Remember, corals do not like change, they like things to be very consistent).

I have a couple frag racks. I just move them up and down according to what the coral tells me. Start the racks on the low side, move them up an inch or so every couple days. Never been an issue acclimating this way.

 

[Tamberav]

All my SPS died. Wait, don't go. It's not just another thread asking why. I think I already know.

I got a dozen or so SPS, which all seemed to do great in QT for 45 days. I dumped them in DT about a month ago and turned down the lights like I'm supposed to. They seemed to do well for few weeks and then slowly all died over another few weeks. (LPS and softies introduced at the same time seem to still be OK).

I've neglected water tests since two days after adding the new frags, but today I found nitrate at 12ppm and phosphate at 0.15ppm. Nitrate had been steady at 3-5 ppm for nearly a year. Phosphate had been at ~0.7ppm and falling for months with regular use of phosguard. I've only done one 15% water change since adding the frags a month ago (I usually do them every week and a half), but I've skipped water changes before without a nitrate spike. And there's no tell-tale GHA issues that I've had before when skipping water changes.

In fact, other than the bleached SPS, the tank is looking great. Then it hit me, it's the other way around. Lack of algae caused my nitrate/phosphate spike. With the lights down, the algae is starving and not using as much nitrate/phosphate.

That's all just a guess. Does it sound right to anyone else?

What do I do now? My SPS are all dead, so I guess I can turn my lights back up. Presumably nitrate and phosphate will fall, but I'll be back to scraping rocks to control GHA. But if I try SPS again, what do I do with those lights? Keep 'em low and plan to up my water change game to control nitrates? Or does a nitrate spike mean I likely turned them down too low?

I don’t mess with lights for new corals. I put them on a rack on the bottom in a corner then move them over time.

 

[Opes]

If you think there wasn't enough light for algae to survive, then there is not near enough light for SPS.

Did the corals just bleach, or have they lost tissue?

 

[Opes]

Your phosphates seem high too.

 

[Deep]

All my SPS died. Wait, don't go. It's not just another thread asking why. I think I already know.

I got a dozen or so SPS, which all seemed to do great in QT for 45 days. I dumped them in DT about a month ago and turned down the lights like I'm supposed to. They seemed to do well for few weeks and then slowly all died over another few weeks. (LPS and softies introduced at the same time seem to still be OK).

I've neglected water tests since two days after adding the new frags, but today I found nitrate at 12ppm and phosphate at 0.15ppm. Nitrate had been steady at 3-5 ppm for nearly a year. Phosphate had been at ~0.7ppm and falling for months with regular use of phosguard. I've only done one 15% water change since adding the frags a month ago (I usually do them every week and a half), but I've skipped water changes before without a nitrate spike. And there's no tell-tale GHA issues that I've had before when skipping water changes.

In fact, other than the bleached SPS, the tank is looking great. Then it hit me, it's the other way around. Lack of algae caused my nitrate/phosphate spike. With the lights down, the algae is starving and not using as much nitrate/phosphate.

That's all just a guess. Does it sound right to anyone else?

What do I do now? My SPS are all dead, so I guess I can turn my lights back up. Presumably nitrate and phosphate will fall, but I'll be back to scraping rocks to control GHA. But if I try SPS again, what do I do with those lights? Keep 'em low and plan to up my water change game to control nitrates? Or does a nitrate spike mean I likely turned them down too low?

I find it hard to believe that you lost corals because of those levels of nitrates/phospates. Should make no different. There must be something else. Most probably lights ( or not enough of it).

 

[Hydrored]

I agree with nitrates and phosphates not being an issue, I find the best growth once I let my phosphates climb to the .11-.15 range. I keep a frag rack on the back wall that’s 220 Par. After dipping and placing on new plugs I put them there for a few days and make sure all is well then they go right to there permanent home.

 

[pseudorand]

If you think there wasn't enough light for algae to survive, then there is not near enough light for SPS.

Did the corals just bleach, or have they lost tissue?

How do I tell?

They went white. Most white-ish, but a green slimer acro is bleach white except for the very base, and a stylo also went bleach white starting at the base and going up. Most of the rest were monties that went off-white all over. An idaho grape montie still has some color but is clearly fading to off-white.

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

How old is the tank. I find it very hard to believe that the lights were a problem at all unless you had them turned completely off. Seems like there's more of a water chemistry issue here. Also NO3 and PO$ are fine. I run my farm systems at 10-25 NO# and .08-.15 PO4. Many successful SPS keeper run theirs even higher than I do.

​

 

[Alexopora]

How old is the tank. I find it very hard to believe that the lights were a problem at all unless you had them turned completely off. Seems like there's more of a water chemistry issue here. Also NO3 and PO$ are fine. I run my farm systems at 10-25 NO# and .08-.15 PO4. Many successful SPS keeper run theirs even higher than I do.

​

Building on this, since bleaching is a stress response could it be a combination of factors, water params, lighting and perhaps health of the frags that led to corals bleaching?

 

[pseudorand]

The tank is 1 year old.

I was thinking it was the increase in nitrate and phosphate rather than the absolute values that my SPS didn't like.

I have no par meter, but QT had only cheapo non-reef LEDs and DT has 4x Lumia 5.2 (100 cree LEDs total), which I turned down from 35% max to 15% max (I have a daily dimming cycle) before adding the frags. I then turned them down to only 10% max on the SPS side of the tank when they started bleaching because the conventional wisdom seems to be that bleaching is too much light and browning is not enough.

 

[Alexopora]

The tank is 1 year old.

I was thinking it was the increase in nitrate and phosphate rather than the absolute values that my SPS didn't like.

I have no par meter, but QT had only cheapo non-reef LEDs and DT has 4x Lumia 5.2 (100 cree LEDs total), which I turned down from 35% max to 15% max (I have a daily dimming cycle) before adding the frags. I then turned them down to only 10% max on the SPS side of the tank when they started bleaching because the conventional wisdom seems to be that bleaching is too much light and browning is not enough.

Bleaching in itself is a stress response to multiple factors; it can be light intensity, water params and also temperature. I noticed that temperature was not considered so far. What was the temperature difference between your QT and your DT? I’m just considering this factor since one of the major factor in mass bleaching of our coral reefs is rising sea temperatures. SPS are real sensitive to temperature changes too. So we could consider that.

 

[pseudorand]

Temp is steady at 78-79. I have an inkbird in DT, which is 120g. QT was 20g. And they did fine for The first two weeks or so. So I don't think temperature is it.

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

The tank is 1 year old.

I was thinking it was the increase in nitrate and phosphate rather than the absolute values that my SPS didn't like.

I have no par meter, but QT had only cheapo non-reef LEDs and DT has 4x Lumia 5.2 (100 cree LEDs total), which I turned down from 35% max to 15% max (I have a daily dimming cycle) before adding the frags. I then turned them down to only 10% max on the SPS side of the tank when they started bleaching because the conventional wisdom seems to be that bleaching is too much light and browning is not enough.

You'll defintely want to either rent, borrow, or purchase a PAR meter. without knowing the values it's just guessing. Regarding the NO3 and PO4, those changes are not that much. Honestly I would rule that out. Of course stability is best, but NO3 and PO4 changing to those levels will not kill corals outright in such a short time period (or at all IMHO).

 

[pseudorand]

Are there SPS-eating nudibranchs or other pests that could have survived with no SPS for a whole year? I have LPS and softies too that seem to be fine, so it would be something that would leave those alone.

 

[Alexopora]

Are there SPS-eating nudibranchs or other pests that could have survived with no SPS for a whole year? I have LPS and softies too that seem to be fine, so it would be something that would leave those alone.

Highly doubt it. How did your sps go downhill? Was it like a fading to bleach, or stn/rtn from the bottom up, or do you see patches disappearing akin to bites?

 

[PicassoClown04]

Hi! I have never adjusted anything in the tank to get ready for new frags. Just start your new sps frags near the sand bed and have them work their way up to higher par (easiest way is a magnetic frag rack). Adjusting your tank lights likely upset a balance (like you said) so I think next time you should definitely leave everything alone. Maybe you could use the same lights on your qt system as your regular system so they cant be shocked by a change in par?

 

[T-J]

The tank is 1 year old.

I was thinking it was the increase in nitrate and phosphate rather than the absolute values that my SPS didn't like.

I have no par meter, but QT had only cheapo non-reef LEDs and DT has 4x Lumia 5.2 (100 cree LEDs total), which I turned down from 35% max to 15% max (I have a daily dimming cycle) before adding the frags. I then turned them down to only 10% max on the SPS side of the tank when they started bleaching because the conventional wisdom seems to be that bleaching is too much light and browning is not enough.

This could be your issue as well. You had them in QT for weeks with crap light, then you moved them into DT where they were getting more light.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

All my SPS died. Wait, don't go. It's not just another thread asking why. I think I already know.

I got a dozen or so SPS, which all seemed to do great in QT for 45 days. I dumped them in DT about a month ago and turned down the lights like I'm supposed to. They seemed to do well for few weeks and then slowly all died over another few weeks. (LPS and softies introduced at the same time seem to still be OK).

I've neglected water tests since two days after adding the new frags, but today I found nitrate at 12ppm and phosphate at 0.15ppm. Nitrate had been steady at 3-5 ppm for nearly a year. Phosphate had been at ~0.7ppm and falling for months with regular use of phosguard. I've only done one 15% water change since adding the frags a month ago (I usually do them every week and a half), but I've skipped water changes before without a nitrate spike. And there's no tell-tale GHA issues that I've had before when skipping water changes.

In fact, other than the bleached SPS, the tank is looking great. Then it hit me, it's the other way around. Lack of algae caused my nitrate/phosphate spike. With the lights down, the algae is starving and not using as much nitrate/phosphate.

That's all just a guess. Does it sound right to anyone else?

What do I do now? My SPS are all dead, so I guess I can turn my lights back up. Presumably nitrate and phosphate will fall, but I'll be back to scraping rocks to control GHA. But if I try SPS again, what do I do with those lights? Keep 'em low and plan to up my water change game to control nitrates? Or does a nitrate spike mean I likely turned them down too low?

Did you recently change out your phosguard?