SPS help needed...(Classic title) :)

[themcnertney]

Increase your lighting I'd say.
Beautiful tank.

 

[yevgenb]

How big is your tank?

Red sea reefer 170 - 34 gal display

 

[E's gone SPS mad]

"I run a standart setup with a small skimmer, a reactor with a bit or AF zeolit and rox 0.8 carbon...."

not sure about AF zeolites but in Zeovit... flow through your reactor is VERY important. Any more than recommended flow would darken, bleach, stn, rtn, burt tips... you name it. Just a thought.....

 

[JohnnyTabasco]

Increase your lighting I'd say.
Beautiful tank.

Thanks. I'm a little reluctant to do that. I think it's counter intuitive when the corals are bleaching. And I'll wait till I got a par meter on hand.

 

[themcnertney]

Thanks. I'm a little reluctant to do that. I think it's counter intuitive when the corals are bleaching. And I'll wait till I got a par meter on hand.

I think a PAR meter will help with dialing in your lights, but I still think that you are running them too low. I have (3) hydra 52's over my tank and you can see in the screen shot below how what my settings are. Also check out this link... http://www.corallore.com/coral-bleaching/. As you can see too little light can cause bleaching events.

 

[madweazl]

I typically associate bleaching with a more rapid loss of color (around a week) when caused by too much lighting. Paling out from too little light usually occurs much slower (a couple of weeks to a month).

With too much lighting, you typically see polpys retracted and with too little, they typical expand beyond "normal" in an attempt to reach out to the light. Tough to see with SPS though.

 

[JohnnyTabasco]

Ok, so I got a seneye now. What par numbers should I aim for?

 

[Luno]

Ok, so I got a seneye now. What par numbers should I aim for?

As a general rule 300-500 but a lot of species are different.

 

[madweazl]

Ok, so I got a seneye now. What par numbers should I aim for?

Going 300-500 after not knowing where you were before is a recipe for disaster. Nothing is going to die at 125 PAR so start low and go from there.

 

[Velcro]

Going 300-500 after not knowing where you were before is a recipe for disaster. Nothing is going to die at 125 PAR so start low and go from there.

What he said

 

[Salty1962]

Is your ALK steady? Swings cause problems with what looks like bleaching. I would bumped up the light, SLOWLY, intensity with it being that high up.;)
Awesome tank, GLW finding your problem!

 

[Luno]

Going 300-500 after not knowing where you were before is a recipe for disaster. Nothing is going to die at 125 PAR so start low and go from there.

Definitley but when he asked what to aim for that's a good ball park figure to get to

 

[madweazl]

@Dana Riddle had posted this a while back (I cant seem to find the original post right now); has some good info (as usual).

I tried to make it a bit easier to read but the values are unchanged.

Host -- Compensation -- Saturation -- Photoinhibition -- Depth
Acropora cervicornis ------ n/a --281 -- n/a -- 17m
Acropora cervicornis ------ n/a --331 -- n/a -- 17m
Acropora digitifera -------- 82 ---387 --n/a -- 1m
Acropora divaricata --- --- 10 ---77 ----n/a ---40m
Acropora formosa ---------170 --340 --n/a ---1m
Acropora gemmifera ------ 270 - 340 --n/a -- 1m
Acropora granulosa ------- 53 ---102 -- n/a --40m
Acropora microphthalma - n/a - 300 --n/a --n/a
Acropora millepora -------- n/a - 190 -- n/a - <2m
Acropora millepora -------- n/a --230 --n/a - <2m
Acropora nobilis ------------n/a --310 -- n/a - <2m
Acropora nobilis ------------n/a --180 -- n/a - <2m
Anthopleura elegantissima -73 ---n/a ---n/a --n/a
Montipora capitata --------- n/a --135 ---250 - n/a
* Montipora danae ---------- n/a --200 -- n/a - n/a
Montipora tuberculosa ---- n/a --180 -- n/a - <2m
Montipora tuberculosa ---- n/a --300 --n/a --<2m
Pavona varians -------------n/a -- 110 --350 -- n/a
* Pavona/Leptastrea -------n/a-- n/a-- 500 -- n/a
Pocillopora damicornis ----n/a -- 225 --n/a -- <2m
Pocillopora eydouxi --------n/a -- 323 --n/a -- n/a
Porites cylindrica ---------- n/a -- 200 - n/a -- n/a
Porites lobata ---------------n/a -- 250 - 350 -- n/a
Porites lutea ---------------- n/a -- 400 - 750 -- 1.5m
Sinularia densa ------------ n/a -~207 --n/a -- n/a
Stylophora pistillata ------- 40 ----200 - n/a -- n/a
Stylophora pistillata ------- n/a ---300 - 600 --n/a
Tridacna maxima -----------n/a- >600 >1,900 n/a

* Monti danae "Superman"
* Pevona/Leptastrea "Jack-O-Lantern"

 

[JohnnyTabasco]

Is your ALK steady? Swings cause problems with what looks like bleaching. I would bumped up the light, SLOWLY, intensity with it being that high up.;)
Awesome tank, GLW finding your problem!

Thanks. The alk is steady:) how slow is SLOWLY?

 

[Salty1962]

Thanks. The alk is steady:) how slow is SLOWLY?

Over 2-3 weeks.

 

[madweazl]

I typically make changes of about 5% and then wait a week to see how everything reacts.

 

[JohnnyTabasco]

Just a quick followup for those interested.
I got the suspicion that the tank was missing some trace elements like iodine.
So I removed the activated carbon and started adding a complete mix of trace elements and "voila" - SPS are growing in my tank. It took me a year to figure that one out :)

 

[dieselkeeper]

That's great news. What trace elements are you dosing?

 

[happyhourhero]

Just a quick followup for those interested.
I got the suspicion that the tank was missing some trace elements like iodine.
So I removed the activated carbon and started adding a complete mix of trace elements and "voila" - SPS are growing in my tank. It took me a year to figure that one out :)

What trace elements?

 

[jalmanza]

Yes, share. [emoji4]