SPS problems

[CoryC]

So I'm attempting to expand my mixed reef into being more sps heavy, and to do that i started dosing alk. Been testing often, stabilized it at about 9.3dkh. i started with around 450 calc and it's slowly dropped to around 350. ill be picking up the dry supplement from a local to begin dosing calc. maybe stabilizing this will help everything? i have gone a few extra weeks without doing a wc, but it's not got any of my parameters out of wack.\. i have a rack of sps frags that arent doing to well, a few are, pearlberry, ora red planet, garf bonsai, tricolor valida. but others are starting to brown out, and over all i dont have great polyp extension. it's only been raised and stabilized over the last couple weeks. i dosed by hand to raise the alk from a low 7.4 to the 9.3 it is now and then dialed in the pump to maintain it. i have a couple starburst monti cap frags that look like they might die though. moved them throughout the tank thinking it was lighting but it wasnt. all my chalices and lps look fine. zoas look fine. no detectable nitrate or phosphate. im stumped here.

 

[always reefin]

most likely alk swing, need to try and keep as stable as possible

 

[Dowtish]

We need more info about your system please. Lighting, flow, full parameters, equipment etc

 

[CoryC]

72 gal rimless
light: 2 radions gen1, gen2. set to 18k for 10hrs and peaking at 65%
flow dual 550gph returns at 5ft of head. mp40 and mp10 with a tuned wave
DKH 9.3
Calc 350
Mag 1350
N03-0
po4-0

 

[always reefin]

calcium is low

 

[Coral Revolution]

I would do some wc, you might have some things dying that are contributing to toxins in the tank.

 

[CoryC]

i run rox carbon. all my sps frags are alive, just dont have good polyp extension and some dont have great color and have sort of browned out.

 

[Dowtish]

What kind of lighting were the corals under from where you got the frags? They might just be adjusting to the new intensity of the Radions

 

[Badfish83]

Do you run gfo, and if so do you test with a Hannah phosphate checker?

 

[CoryC]

yes i run gfo and test alk and phos w hannah checker. I've had the radions for a few months. before it was under an aquaticlife 2x150 wt mh and 4 bulb t5 fixture.

 

[watchguy123]

Well you know this already, brown frags with poor polyp extension are unhappy frags. Frags generally become unhappy because of some stress. Typically, water conditions are not consistent with ideal parameters ( which is always a range for acceptable) or an abrupt change from previous environment (shipping,moving from one tank to another, or rapidly changing parameters like an alk swing).

So you ultimately have to determine if your parameters were in an appropriate place to begin with and/or if you have made some abrupt change which could include all the possible parameters , alk, ca, nitrates, phosphates, lighting, flow, new carbon, new GFO, etc.

The downside is brown frags can take a long time to return to their previous glory

 

[CoryC]

alk was low, thats why i began dosing. i'll continue keeping consistent parameters and hoping they recover.

 

[watchguy123]

I believe sea water alkalinity is around 7.5. Goals for reef tank alkalinity were run in the 9-11 dKh range but in more recent years much lower range/ goal of 8-8.5 plus or minus 0.5 dKh. And there are lots of thoughts on the ideal range which very well may different from what i outlined. Once you determine your number , you want to zero in as close as possible and keep it there. But for some, 7.4 dKh is not very low

 

[jedidad]

How quickly did you raise your alk?

 

[nelson.jdautobody]

ive used red sea coral pro salt since start up and my alk never seems to drop below 10 (i have about 50 various corals varying in size and from soft to difficult sps). i noticed my sps were alot happier once i supplemented them with the t5 (i have 2 kessill a350tuna's, then added 2 actanic, 2actanic+ about 3 weeks ago and i already can see a significant difference in my sps coloring up and encrusting)

 

[CoryC]

over about 2 weeks. no more than .4 a day. some times only .2 a day.

 

[bct15]

What fish do you have? Have you checked for pests? No PE is a sign of nipping or pests. Are you getting PE when the lights are off? My sps gave rediculous PE when lights are out.

 

[CoryC]

yeah i do notice pe on some when lights out. and i have pe on a few when lights are on. i have a tomini tang, bartletts anthia trio, melanarus wrasse, picasso clown, and a purple reef chromis.

 

[bct15]

None of those fish are problematic towards sps, except tangs sometimes but I doubt it is the problem. If the fish are not the problem then the next thing I'd look for is pests. If you can remove a couple frags and examine them under a magnifying glass that would be ideal.

The symptoms you are describing bring two things to mind for me, red bugs and/or high phosphates. Both will cause acros to have little to no PE and to brown out, but not necessarily kill them.

 

[Badfish83]

You could possibly have too low of nutrients if your phosphate is running at .00