SPS starting to brown out.

[patedship]

My sps is starting to randomly brown out. I have several large colonies that have simply turned brown or lost a lot of there color? I have a calcium reactor and my CA is a little higher than the recommended. Today I did about a 15% water change with hopes that, that will help. The fish get feed 2x a day via an auto feeder that only dispenses enough food that fish eat it all. The tank is being skimmed about 50% right between super wet and very dry skimmate. I cant really figure out what the problem is. I do believe I have a little bit of stray current running thru the tank but I cannot pin point it. So the next time i go to the LFS I am going to purchase a grounding probe to take care of that. Do you guys think that it is more than likely the stray current that is turning them brown?

 

[fade2black]

How do the rest of your water parameters look? Alk, pH, Mg, salinity, etc?

 

[J. Montgomery]

When you say you have stray current, how much? A couple of the locals here recently measured the current in our tanks and mine was ~6V, with the lowest being ~2V.

How long have you had the Ca reactor? Are you keeping track of your pH. The CO2 can drop your pH if you're not monitoring the tank pH.

 

[patedship]

SP 1.025
Mag 360 ppm
pH 8.1

I am not sure how many volts are in the tank but it is enough to feel it if I am not wearing shoes and put my fingers into the tank.

 

[Russellaqua]

What is your lighting system? Many SPS brown out if they aren't under 15000K or 20000K MH lighting. Also, are they wild or cultured. Wild corals often lose their color in captivity?

 

[patedship]

I have had these colonies for a long while and they are under 2 175w SE 14k's and 2 48" VHO pure actinics.

 

[JuniorMC8704]

grab a volt meter and take a measurement, then one by one turn off your hardware, and it should be problem narrowing it down...90% its your heater if i had to guess.

Regardless if its the cause of the brown out, you need to adress that issue first. However do not use a grounding probe. When you do, all you are doing is allowing your tank to get fried, and youll never know it. A lot of horror stories from people with grounding probes out there. I recently did a ton of research regarding the same issue. i had a small cut, and when it hit the water it felt like someone lit my hand on fire. Didnt even know i had a cut until then.

 

[JuniorMC8704]

also not to ignore the obvious, but how old are your bulbs?

 

[reefermadness]

I had some charge coming from a T-5 that sat over my refugium....It was like the feeling you get when you put your tongue on a 9V all through my body....

Thats weird, because you keep some very high end LPS.

The 175W good be getting old, or not sufficient now.

 

[JuniorMC8704]

Well i dont know how anything is growing in your tank if your mag is only at 360. Im hoping you meant 1360. If not, get that MAG way up. Without mag, youre calcium reactor is basically useless.

 

[patedship]

also not to ignore the obvious, but how old are your bulbs?

The MH are brand new but I need to snag some new VHO's I think.

 

[patedship]

Well i dont know how anything is growing in your tank if your mag is only at 360. Im hoping you meant 1360. If not, get that MAG way up. Without mag, youre calcium reactor is basically useless.

LOL my bad that is what I meant. It is in very good range. It might be 1450, I know it is a little high, I just had it tested at Preuss last week.

 

[patedship]

Thats weird, because you keep some very high end LPS. QUOTE]


Yeah my lps is thriving! But the sps with exception of my montis arent doing to hot.

 

[KEEPERZ]

What do you test your phosphates with and what are they-lps can live good with some phos but the sps only like a little or they will lose color

 

[Poseidon]

Here is another thing, chemical warfare from the LPS. My SPS really took off after I removed all/most of the LPS and softies from the tank.

 

[Christel Mei]

It is entirely possible to keep LPS, SPS, and softies together in one tank. Im doing it right now in several.

 

[revhtree]

What do you test your phosphates with and what are they-lps can live good with some phos but the sps only like a little or they will lose color

Yes you need to find this out. This is big factor when this happens normally.

It is entirely possible to keep LPS, SPS, and softies together in one tank. Im doing it right now in several.

Agreed!!

 

[patedship]

I have a phosphate reactor which binds up the PO4 so I have really never had a reading that was bad. I have my LFS test my water they are the best around for sure and test for everything. I would be surprised if my PO4 was high, I think I might do a large water change and see if that helps? But all in all I think it may be the stray current which I will be taking care of Saturday.

 

[Poseidon]

It is entirely possible to keep LPS, SPS, and softies together in one tank. Im doing it right now in several.

Of course it is, my experience has been increased SPS growth and color, once I removed the majority of my LPS and softies. I used to keep a mixed reef, but this has been better for me.

 

[Dejavu]

A PO4 read will really help alot. Are your SPS turning a dark or lighter brown? Darker brown are usally due to high nurtient, which can be detected with a PO4 test. If you can try to get a reading with hanna.