Need an SPS Pep Talk

[justonwo]

I came into this hobby about 13 months ago when I inherited a 90 gallon reef tank from my cousin. Since then, I've been voraciously reading anything I can get my hands on, and I quickly became drawn to SPS - in particular acropora. I've cashed a few innocent frags along the way, but I've learned a ton and have actually to get some of my acros to grow. But most of the frags I purchased last fall have struggled along at a snails pace. They occasionally excite me with some growth and then I'll get some STN or bleaching out of nowhere and things will come to a standstill (it doesn't help that my tangs just trashed my growing and healthy blue lokani by accidentally running into it).

I've had decent luck with my valida and a free montipora digitata that I received, but most of my other acros/SPS just seem to tread water. I see some of the colonies here and my jaw drop. I'm sure I will discover the secret sauce at some point, but I'm definitely not there yet.

This "starry night" acro took off at one point but now part of the skeleton is exposed. Ugh. Here it is about a month ago.

This little "Dragon Queen" acro has grown at a glacial pace over the months, sometimes receding a bit, sometimes pulling ahead. Here it is a month ago after a big move.

My digitata seems pretty hearty and grows regardless of the conditions in the tank.

The valida on the left is the only one that is really growing at a fast pace. The "candlelight acro" on the right took off at one point but seems to have stalled now. And part of the skeleton is exposed on this one as well.

The blue tenuis on the right is one of my favorites, but it grows incredibly slowly. It also has some exposed skeleton right now.

This efflo came to me as a tiny frag. It has been pretty reliable at growing. It's one of the few I've been really successful at. It broke a little during the move so now I have two frags.

Acans are no problem at this point. And my stylophora grows like a weed!

Just feeling like a spend a huge amount of time trying to grow these guys and make them healthy, but nothing ever seems to get them to really take off.

 

[DLHDesign]

First off; those look great! All I have in my tank at the moment are a bunch of sticks that were frags last weekend, so just think back to those days when you feel disheartened. At least you've seen positive growth - even if it's not consistent and/or what you'd like.

I can certainly understand the frustrations of not seeing things grow - I've not had my tank up all that long and already I'm anxious to see some growth. If nothing else, this hobby teaches patience whether we like it or not. ;-)

I imagine these will be questions you'll be asked if you are looking for advice:

1. What water parameters are you maintaining?
2. Any idea what the PAR levels are around your tank (or at the coral locations, specifically)?
   
3. What lights are they under, and what schedule do you use?
4. What (if anything) are you dosing into the tank?

 

[hinovak]

Massive flow, more than you are comfortable with, constantly monitor alk.!!! Mag and cal second. And get a nice hungry bio load!

 

[Live Water]

I came into this hobby about 13 months ago when I inherited a 90 gallon reef tank from my cousin. Since then, I've been voraciously reading anything I can get my hands on, and I quickly became drawn to SPS - in particular acropora. I've cashed a few innocent frags along the way, but I've learned a ton and have actually to get some of my acros to grow. But most of the frags I purchased last fall have struggled along at a snails pace. They occasionally excite me with some growth and then I'll get some STN or bleaching out of nowhere and things will come to a standstill (it doesn't help that my tangs just trashed my growing and healthy blue lokani by accidentally running into it).

I've had decent luck with my valida and a free montipora digitata that I received, but most of my other acros/SPS just seem to tread water. I see some of the colonies here and my jaw drop. I'm sure I will discover the secret sauce at some point, but I'm definitely not there yet.

This "starry night" acro took off at one point but now part of the skeleton is exposed. Ugh. Here it is about a month ago.

This little "Dragon Queen" acro has grown at a glacial pace over the months, sometimes receding a bit, sometimes pulling ahead. Here it is a month ago after a big move.

My digitata seems pretty hearty and grows regardless of the conditions in the tank.

The valida on the left is the only one that is really growing at a fast pace. The "candlelight acro" on the right took off at one point but seems to have stalled now. And part of the skeleton is exposed on this one as well.

The blue tenuis on the right is one of my favorites, but it grows incredibly slowly. It also has some exposed skeleton right now.

This efflo came to me as a tiny frag. It has been pretty reliable at growing. It's one of the few I've been really successful at. It broke a little during the move so now I have two frags.

Acans are no problem at this point. And my stylophora grows like a weed!

Just feeling like a spend a huge amount of time trying to grow these guys and make them healthy, but nothing ever seems to get them to really take off.

Just get a calcium reactor and be done with it, it will super charge your system into an unstoppable machine of growth and stability.

 

[justonwo]

First off; those look great! All I have in my tank at the moment are a bunch of sticks that were frags last weekend, so just think back to those days when you feel disheartened. At least you've seen positive growth - even if it's not consistent and/or what you'd like.

I can certainly understand the frustrations of not seeing things grow - I've not had my tank up all that long and already I'm anxious to see some growth. If nothing else, this hobby teaches patience whether we like it or not. ;-)

I imagine these will be questions you'll be asked if you are looking for advice:

1. What water parameters are you maintaining?
2. Any idea what the PAR levels are around your tank (or at the coral locations, specifically)?
   
3. What lights are they under, and what schedule do you use?
4. What (if anything) are you dosing into the tank?

1. Water Parameters:

SG: 1.025
Alkalinity: 7.5-8.0
Calcium: 450 ppm
Magnesium: 1350 ppm
pH: 8.2
PO4: 0.04 ppm
Nitrate: 20 ppm (never can lower this, about to get a sulfur denitrator)
Water changes: 15% weekly

2. No idea what my PAR levels are

3. They are under Kessil LED lights, about 8 hours per day.

4. I dose Ca/Alk into the tank to maintain calcium and alkalinity. I also dose Acropower once per week.

 

[Jimbo]

Your tank is still young. IME Acro frags struggle a little bit in a newer tank. You'll get a few that start growing right off the bat like you have but others will start slow.

I think you'll notice color and growth improving as the tank matures.

 

[Live Water]

I haven't had much success with kessils and sps unless I run them 12 hours a day and at least 4 hours at 90% strength or above, metal halides also make the the growth jump in sps, it sounds like you don't have enough par to me, if you have room in your sump I would put a pond basket in it with some cheto in it and a small light above it, that will take care of nitrates and provide some live food.

 

[Live Water]

Your tank is still young. IME Acro frags struggle a little bit in a newer tank. You'll get a few that start growing right off the bat like you have but others will start slow.

I think you'll notice color and growth improving as the tank matures.

Second this as well!

 

[justonwo]

Your tank is still young. IME Acro frags struggle a little bit in a newer tank. You'll get a few that start growing right off the bat like you have but others will start slow.

I think you'll notice color and growth improving as the tank matures.

Well, it's young in the sense that it was just moved and some of the live rock was replaced. But it's a tank I inherited from my cousin that's probably 6 or 7 years old.

I haven't had much success with kessils and sps unless I run them 12 hours a day and at least 4 hours at 90% strength or above, metal halides also make the the growth jump in sps, it sounds like you don't have enough par to me, if you have room in your sump I would put a pond basket in it with some cheto in it and a small light above it, that will take care of nitrates and provide some live food.

I actually had the Kessils at 12 hours a day for most of the year but recently had a cyano problem (after the move) and brought it down to 8 hours per day. I'll go back to 12 now that the cyano is under control.

 

[Live Water]

Well, it's young in the sense that it was just moved and some of the live rock was replaced. But it's a tank I inherited from my cousin that's probably 6 or 7 years old.



I actually had the Kessils at 12 hours a day for most of the year but recently had a cyano problem (after the move) and brought it down to 8 hours per day. I'll go back to 12 now that the cyano is under control.

How deep is the tank?

 

[justonwo]

It's about 24" deep.

 

[justonwo]

Side question - does running carbon deplete some of the dissolved materials that the coral are supposed to eat? I've been thinking of adding carbon to my GFO reactor.

 

[Live Water]

Side question - does running carbon deplete some of the dissolved materials that the coral are supposed to eat? I've been thinking of adding carbon to my GFO reactor.

I've heard rumors of that I don't know how true it is, it does seem like a causes lateral line erosion, which is another hotly debated topic LOL. I have to run it though because my reef is mixed. Just make sure that you're running high quality carbon and I would just run it in a media bag I wouldn't put it into your gfo reactor, you typically want to change it out every month anyway and your GFO you shouldn't have to change out for 3 months, so it would add extra labor to get the carbon out.

 

[justonwo]

Would the media bag just go in my filter sock? If not, where should I run it?

 

[Live Water]

I like putting it next to the output of my protein skimmer because I run ozone as well which really helps polyp extension on sps, and improves water clarity but too much of it can be dangerous in the water so I use the flow from the protein skimmer to push water through the media bag

 

[Live Water]

I like putting it next to the output of my protein skimmer because I run ozone as well which really helps polyp extension on sps, and improves water clarity but too much of it can be dangerous in the water so I use the flow from the protein skimmer to push water through the media bag

It really doesn't matter where you put it just make sure you tie the bag up well or clamp the strings on to the side of your sump so that the carbon doesn't spill out into your sump and make it huge mess gets sucked into pumps ect.

 

[justonwo]

Do you have to rinse the carbon before use?

 

[Live Water]

Do you have to rinse the carbon before use?

Yeah even the super high-quality stuff should be rinsed are you running bio pellets?

 

[justonwo]

No bio pellets. I'm getting a sulfur denitrator to get rid of the 20 ppm nitrates. I've battled that problem for a year with multiple approaches. I'm ready to use the chemical method.

So you just run some RO water over the carbon for a few minutes while it's in the bag? Don't mean to be dense but I have used carbon much.

 

[Live Water]

No bio pellets. I'm getting a sulfur denitrator to get rid of the 20 ppm nitrates. I've battled that problem for a year with multiple approaches. I'm ready to use the chemical method.

So you just run some RO water over the carbon for a few minutes while it's in the bag? Don't mean to be dense but I have used carbon much.

Never a stupid question on Reef to Reef. Yeah you can just rinse it with RO water a lot of times I rinse it with tap water because carbon neutralizes chlorine anyway, I've never use this sulfur the method as a way to reduce nitrates keep me posted on how that works out I'm curious!