Problems keeping SPS -lights? Parameters?

[Bfragale]

I purchased an existing fish only saltwater aquarium (was 3 years old but bad husbandry) and started upgrading to be able to keep corals. I purchased in early October 2019. Added equipment and got everything stable over the next month.

Added 4 x ai prime,
Eshops R100 sump and refugium
X2 mp40’s (one eco smart and one quiet drive)
Gyre
Eshops s120 skimmer
Ehiem heater and finex heater controller
Dc return pump
GFO reactor
Eshops refugium light
Chiller
Ato

Running filter socks. I do not dose- seems water changes are enough at this point to keep parameters in check.

I have not had success with most sps. But all softies, nems, lps and fish seem to be doing great.

Here’s my parameters as of a few min ago:
Alk 9.6 dKH (due for water change. Usually it’s about 10dkh)
Cal: 470
Mag 1390
Ph 8.1. (Has been steady 8.2 for last 3 months. Today tested 8.1)
Nitrate, nitrite and ammonia all are undetectable.
Specific gravity 1.025 (been stable at 1.026 but today tested 1.025)
Temp 79 ( I keep. At 79-80)
Phosphates .51

Been trying to get phosphates down. Reduced feeding and running refugium longer. So far no change. May dose brightwell phosphate x to get it down a bit.

I do 10-15% water change every 10 days or so. Change socks every 2-3 days, clean sponge in over flow and sump every 2-3 days as well. Test weekly.

Other then phosphates being high it’s been consistent and stable since mid November 2019.

But it seems any sps I put in bleached and dies. So I’m Scared to try any more.

I got a seneye to test par. Arrived and tested today: 8” under surface it’s 200, 14” down it’s about 150 and bottom is about 90. These are the averages.

Could it be not enough par for sps? If I max out the lights these numbers go up by about 50 par at each level.

If it’s the lights, and recommendations? Maybe supplement with t5? Or am I missing something? Is it really this difficult to keep sps?

Any thoughts?

 

[AJsReef]

How stable do you keep your Alk? If PO4 truly is .5 I would work at reducing. Lanthanum Chloride will fix the issue quickest/cheapest but be careful to not over do it. Target .03-.08.

 

[Marc2952]

Your phosphates are too high and your nitrates are too low, the alk also seems too high compared to the nutrients being unbalanced from what it seems but i am no expert.

 

[phillygeeks]

Your phosphates are too high and your nitrates are too low, the alk also seems too high compared to the nutrients being unbalanced from what it seems but i am no expert.

This is where I would start. Some sps may like a higher PAR but others would certainly be happy in the 200 range

 

[Bfragale]

How stable do you keep your Alk? If PO4 truly is .5 I would work at reducing. Lanthanum Chloride will fix the issue quickest/cheapest but be careful to not over do it. Target .03-.08.

It’s been consistently 9.9-10dkh. I’m about 15 days since last water change. Will be doing water change tomorrow. I’m building ro/di mixing station. Waiting for the tanks, I was trying to hold off until then so I didn’t have to haul water upstairs lol. But I see things and dropping a bit so will get water tomorrow. So I’m about 5 days over due. Today is first time I’ve seen it at 9.6.

 

[Bfragale]

Your phosphates are too high and your nitrates are too low, the alk also seems too high compared to the nutrients being unbalanced from what it seems but i am no expert.

The alk/cal/mag i have not been able to change much. I think the salt is a bit high. My lfs uses tropic Marin salt. I think it mixes: 465cal, 1390 mag and 12 dKH. Should I switch salts?

 

[phillygeeks]

It’s been consistently 9.9-10dkh. I’m about 15 days since last water change. Will be doing water change tomorrow. I’m building ro/di mixing station. Waiting for the tanks, I was trying to hold off until then so I didn’t have to haul water upstairs lol. But I see things and dropping a bit so will get water tomorrow. So I’m about 5 days over due. Today is first time I’ve seen it at 9.6.

With low nitrates you may do better with an alk around 8 dKH. Phos is too high compared to nitrates

 

[Bfragale]

Your phosphates are too high and your nitrates are too low, the alk also seems too high compared to the nutrients being unbalanced from what it seems but i am no expert.

Hanna checker (PPB) so yeah they are really .51. Too high. They were at .14 and have been creeping up over the last few months.

Should I dose nitrate? My Salifert test shows 0 or undetectable.

 

[Bfragale]

With low nitrates you may do better with an alk around 8 dKH. Phos is too high compared to nitrates

So most likely I should switch salts with a lower dKH?

 

[phillygeeks]

The alk/cal/mag i have not been able to change much. I think the salt is a bit high. My lfs uses tropic Marin salt. I think it mixes: 465cal, 1390 mag and 12 dKH. Should I switch salts?

If you can fix your nutrients you may be fine. I had much better success with my alk sitting around 8 and I think this is due to never having high nutrients

 

[Bfragale]

If you can fix your nutrients you may be fine. I had much better success with my alk sitting around 8 and I think this is due to never having high nutrients

I have a lot of rock and sand in DT and a lot of ceramic (?) balls and plates in the sump. Could I have too much surface and too much Beneficial bacteria ? Maybe this is keeping nitrate too low?

I’m a bit lost at this point.

 

[phillygeeks]

Hanna checker (PPB) so yeah they are really .51. Too high. They were at .14 and have been creeping up over the last few months.

Should I dose nitrate? My Salifert test shows 0 or undetectable.

My first thought would be to find out where all the excess phos is coming from and treat that problem. Initial thoughts are rock leaching phos or a food crazy high in phos. Slowly sequester the phos. I had more success raising nitrates with higher fish load and making sure they were fat and happy with food. Dosing nitrates was just another thing to tweak and I find when you tweak too much, things don't go well

 

[Daddy-o]

Is your GFO reactor online/fresh? Start adding some amino acids or more fish

 

[Bfragale]

Most of the rock came with the tank. He said it was in there for 3 years +. But I have no clue what he dosed tank with etc. could it be likely phos is leaching from rocks?

 

[Marc2952]

Hanna checker (PPB) so yeah they are really .51. Too high. They were at .14 and have been creeping up over the last few months.

Should I dose nitrate? My Salifert test shows 0 or undetectable.

Thats what i had to do to keep my nitrates readable, becareful to not keep nutrients at 0 (specially phosphates) as you risk getting dinos which will make you want to pull your hair out lol

 

[Bfragale]

Is your GFO reactor online/fresh? Start adding some amino acids or more fish

I change GFO every 30 days. But maybe it’s being exhausted faster then I’m changing? I test weekly and it always seems to be up a bit. Last GFO I added a little more then before. But seems no improvement with pho’s. I also reduced feeding a good amount and reduced reef roids to once a week. Still they creep back up.

 

[Bfragale]

So far, it seems most think it’s p04. I’ll work on reducing phosphates. And maybe alk a bit. I would like to see stable parameters for 30-60 days before I try again with sps.

I really need to find out where phosphates are coming from. I don’t think it’s food. If it’s the rocks? Will this ever stop? How would one deal with rocks leaching phosphate? Replace all rock seems too drastic. I’m not sure how to pinpoint phosphate source.

 

[Daddy-o]

In my opinion dont reduce feeding!!! With 0 nitrates you could be setting yourself up for a nasty wake up call. Keep up on GFO and measure phos. from reactor discharge. Feed well and add Aminos to get the nitrates up asap!

 

[Daddy-o]

My Phosphates were at .5 and it took a year of GFO (small quantities) til my rocks stopped leaching.

 

[Reefnjunkie]

Take all the info you’re getting and look for what the majority of people are saying and then do some googling/searching to see if those recommendations seem to be what’s best. I say that because I’ve seen two posts that I’d disagree with whole heartedly-

Finding the source/reason behind your PO4 jumping that high (from .14 to .51) would be priority 1 if that’s possible just because it’s odd

Adding a GFO reactor to combat elevated PO4 number 2

Increase NO3 (or lower Alk to 8-8.5)

Personally for acros I’m targeting NO3 around 2-5 and PO4 .12-.15 amd Alk is steady at 10.5

In the past Alk 8-8.5
NO3 and PO4 undetectable- this requires a little more work dosing things

PS stay away from Lanthium Chloride unless your very experienced with what your doing- many other “safer” ways to lower PO4

Low Alk lower nutes, higher Alk have to have higher nutes or you’ll fry your acros

Another way to increase NO3 is dosing, I’ve used the stump remover but have opted to now dose food grade potassium nitrate-