Hi All,
I added a thread about this a while back but it was long and had a stupid title so it got no attention.
I have my display (60x24x28) and I have a 2 foot cube (frag tank) on the same system with a large sump.
The crux of the problem is this; The frags in my frag tank are thriving with great growth and really awesome polyp extension. Its easily the most successful tank I've owned and I need to start selling my SPS frags because i'm running out of room. This doesn't seem like a problem until you look in my display tank, easily 2 thirds of the coral in there (not just my SPS but some euphyllia too) are kinda surviving only. Theres very little polyp extension at all.
I spent a lot of time reproducing the environment in my display to match the frag tank but nothing seems to work.
Frag tank has;
2 x maroon clowns
1 x Coral banded shrimp
a bunch of peppermints
BTA
Some Xenia and rhodactis (both unwanted and regularly pruned)
Heaps (like millions) of tiny bristle worms and brittle stars.
2 x Jebao wave makers giving non aggressive flow to the whole tank.
1 x Gen 1 Radion (most frags get 200 - 350 par).
Display has
3 x Gen 2 Pro Radions (had a 4th but removed because I thought it'd be too much. (most SPS get 200 - 400 par)
A lot of fish, mostly 100% reef safe.
I think the only questionable fish is a coral beauty or maybe copper band butterfly but I've never seen them nip.
2 x MP40's and some Jebao wave makers. The tank has no dead spots in the flow and the SPS gets quite aggressive random flow. I've tried winding this back also.
Note that all the things I change I leave for several weeks to detect any change.
All I can think of is that there are pests or something in the display. I've dipped some SPS to check but never get anything off them. Some SPS is still covered in polyps but others are bare. The bare corals have awesome frags in the other tank.
Water is ok I guess considering the frag tank but;
Salinity 1.027
pH ~8.1 - 8.2
Temp 26 (78f)
Alk 8 (stable)
calcium (400 - this has been dropping and i keep increasing the dose. Lots of coraline and SPS frags to blame I guess)
Mg ~1450
Nitrate 3
Phosphates 0.4 (and dropping thanks to increased macro).
Please help me out. This is doing my head in, its been years that I've been battling with something unknown in the display.
Thanks in advance, Christian.
I added a thread about this a while back but it was long and had a stupid title so it got no attention.
I have my display (60x24x28) and I have a 2 foot cube (frag tank) on the same system with a large sump.
The crux of the problem is this; The frags in my frag tank are thriving with great growth and really awesome polyp extension. Its easily the most successful tank I've owned and I need to start selling my SPS frags because i'm running out of room. This doesn't seem like a problem until you look in my display tank, easily 2 thirds of the coral in there (not just my SPS but some euphyllia too) are kinda surviving only. Theres very little polyp extension at all.
I spent a lot of time reproducing the environment in my display to match the frag tank but nothing seems to work.
Frag tank has;
2 x maroon clowns
1 x Coral banded shrimp
a bunch of peppermints
BTA
Some Xenia and rhodactis (both unwanted and regularly pruned)
Heaps (like millions) of tiny bristle worms and brittle stars.
2 x Jebao wave makers giving non aggressive flow to the whole tank.
1 x Gen 1 Radion (most frags get 200 - 350 par).
Display has
3 x Gen 2 Pro Radions (had a 4th but removed because I thought it'd be too much. (most SPS get 200 - 400 par)
A lot of fish, mostly 100% reef safe.
I think the only questionable fish is a coral beauty or maybe copper band butterfly but I've never seen them nip.
2 x MP40's and some Jebao wave makers. The tank has no dead spots in the flow and the SPS gets quite aggressive random flow. I've tried winding this back also.
Note that all the things I change I leave for several weeks to detect any change.
All I can think of is that there are pests or something in the display. I've dipped some SPS to check but never get anything off them. Some SPS is still covered in polyps but others are bare. The bare corals have awesome frags in the other tank.
Water is ok I guess considering the frag tank but;
Salinity 1.027
pH ~8.1 - 8.2
Temp 26 (78f)
Alk 8 (stable)
calcium (400 - this has been dropping and i keep increasing the dose. Lots of coraline and SPS frags to blame I guess)
Mg ~1450
Nitrate 3
Phosphates 0.4 (and dropping thanks to increased macro).
Please help me out. This is doing my head in, its been years that I've been battling with something unknown in the display.
Thanks in advance, Christian.
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