Needs more light

[ReefHunter006]

Do you think you have enough nutrients in the tank?

Something looks just a little off in your FTS with whites on. It’s a 3 year old tank, but looks a little more like a 3 month old tank.

I bet with a few tweaks, you can turn it around pretty quickly.

Aside from the urchins eatting coraline on the rock, what stands out as a young tank?

The majority of the rock is actually older than the tank as it came from my other systems.

Use to be bright purple before i put urchins in.

That was it roughly 1.5-2 years ago when I made my first introductions.

Po4 is .1 and no3 is 15

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

I believe it’s pathogen related between my tanks. They tested positive for SCTLD and have never been the same.

In general…and this is very much an ‘in general’ statement…pathogens in reef tanks are secondary features rather than primary.

Whether it’s fish parasites, coral bacterial infections, or whatever, there is usually an initial stressor that weakens the organism, and then the pathogens can get a foothold. If you go out on a wild reef, you will see very few (if any) 100% completely healthy from top-to-bottom corals…or any other animal for that matter. Most have had go-rounds with whatever, but in a healthy system, they can typically come out on top. But there is usually evidence of something with just about everything you see. Just like with us…if we’re healthy, eating well, getting rest, etc, we can still get sick, but typically breeze through it. Don’t manage those stressors, though? Buckle up.

If there is SCTLD happening in your tank, I would bet it is a secondary response to some other stress factor on the animal. Figure out what that is and correct it, you’ll probably be good to go.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Aside from the urchins eatting coraline on the rock, what stands out as a young tank?

The majority of the rock is actually older than the tank as it came from my other systems.

Use to be bright purple before i put urchins in.

That was it roughly 1.5-2 years ago when I made my first introductions.

Po4 is .1 and no3 is 15

This shot is a little better. Might have just been the exposure with the other pic.

Yeah, I mean 0.1 and 15 are pretty good overall. You could get picky and nudge the PO4 down a little, but 0.1 is definitely not a value thats going to create problems.

It very well could be too much light. Or, more specifically, too much of the type of light. My feelings on LEDs pretty much tracks with my 1st marriage. So pretty and just seemed so good at the first, but over time, ugliness and flaw crept in.

I’ve talked about it on here before, but the amount of care typically required to acclimate corals to LEDs is ridiculous. That was pretty much never a thing before LEDs. You could pretty much just add a coral to a tank and you were off and running. Now it’s like, you dang near have to keep new corals in a shadow for the first week and then gradually nudge them out into your lowest PAR areas so they don’t bleach.

Meanwhile, I will add SPS frags into tanks in my classroom and have them getting full sun with a PAR that’s probably way above what the LEDs kick out from Day 1, and they’re happy as can be. That stuff makes you think.