The SPS Q&A Thread.

[SunnyX]

Hello, you should be ok. But, be sure to check the Alk and ph once more.

Thanks,

Sonny

 

[Russter]

Hello, you should be ok. But, be sure to check the Alk and ph once more.

Thanks,

Sonny

Will do...thanks!!
-Russ

 

[Russter]

Just wanted to give an update. Birdsnest's have pulled through and are back to normal.

 

[osteopth]

Polyp extension?

A. Total water volume ( Please include sump, etc.)
240 gal display, 300 gal total
B. What are your parameters? ( CA, ALK, PO4,Salinity, etc.)
CA 460
ALK 10.5
PO4 0.16
N03 0
Salinity 1.026
pH 8.2-8.3
Temp 78
MAG 1280
C. Type of lighting. Please include age, watts, and bulb/ballast name.
2 x 400 watt Radiums for 6 hrs daily, 2 x 54w t5 actinics
D. Filtration method (Skimmer, GFO, DSB, etc.)
Algae scrubber with remote DSB, GFO in reactor, carbon in sock, refugium
E. What types of corals do you keep other than SPS?
2 acans, frogspawn, hammer
F. How long has the tank been running?
2 years
G. What are you dosing? Dosing schedule?
Kalk in RO/DI ATO, Two-part 120ml/day, mag, strontium
H. Which brand of salt are you using?
Red sea for rare water changes
I. What brand of test kits are you employing?
Hanna checkers for PO4, Salifert for MG, API for N03...
J. What are you using for CA/ALK supplementation?
Kalk, BRS Two-part
K. What are you using for flow? (Pump names, how many, placement, etc.)
Vortech MP40w ES (2 on left wall, 1 on right wall) Vortech MP10w ES (2 on back wall), Reeflo Dart return.

I recently got rid of my softies and most of my LPS, and started with SPS. I set up a reefkeeper elite to keek my temp stable and adjusted my light schedule so my pH varies about 0.5. I use dosing pumps for C, A, M and S. I lost a few early colonies when I raised my Alk too quickly(and two colonies from that time have slowly withered from the base up despite fragging some of the good branches. ). Now I have about 20 frags that came from a stable tank. I lost one because it was in a hole where one of my old aggressive corals grew back around it. The corals almost all have darkened to nice deep colors in my tank and are slowly encrusting. (I recently added the GFO after getting my Hanna checker that showed PO4 of 0.63)

My bird nests have great polyp extension, but I have almost no PE from my acros. I have read that happy corals don't always have PE, but I'd like to see those pretty polyps.

Should I lengthen my light time because my corals are dark? Or should I shorten it to make the corals hungrier?

Do you think the polyps will come out more if I get my PO4 down below 0.04?

Would iodine help? What type? How much?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance, Tim.

 

[Pierre]

Hi, would appreciate any feedback, I am new to R2R and welcome any and all advice that will better my water conditions for my tank and its inhabitants, had a Nano for 1 and a half years and then went onto my current 4 foot (120cm x 60 cm x 60 cm) in December 2010, my tank info is as follows:
Growth, I dont know if it is good or bad. SPS only been in the tank for about 7 months, so I am a beginer when it comes to sps.
I have GHA in my coast to coast overflow, nothing in the DT or sump, nothing on my rocks.
Colour could be better, not bad and not brown, my sps have colour.
NO3 and PO4 are my main concern.
Detritus build up on both side rock structures.

A. Total water volume ( Please include sump, etc.)
540lt or +/- 140 gallons

B. What are your parameters? ( CA, ALK, PO4,Salinity, etc.)
All tested 20/11/2011
Alk - 8,3dKH (target 7-8)
CA - 440ppm (target 400 - 430)
MG - 1350ppm (target 1300ppm)
NO3 - 50ppm (target < 5)
PO4 - 0,1ppm Salifert and 0,86ppm hanna (target < 0,05)
SG - 1,026
Temp - 25 degrees

C. Type of lighting. Please include age, watts, and bulb/ballast name.
Reef Inmates T5 light unit.
DD Giesemann 6 x 54w
Front to back
Actinic + (6 months old)
Actinic + (6 months old)
Midday 6000k (6 months old)
Aquablu + (6 months old)
Pure Actinic (6 months old)
Actinic + (6 months old)
It is a high end light unit.

D. Filtration method (Skimmer, GFO, DSB, etc.)
I think that I am mixing too many forms of filtration.
Reef octopus 100 ORCA internal skimmer, cleaned every 2 - 3 days, try to skim wet.
DSB less than half the size of DT +/- 40cm x 40cm x 40cm, 15cm deep with 6 variaties of fine sand, aragonite, play sand etc. Only additional flow in there is the outlet from the NP reactor which flows into the skimmer chamber. Need to add the additional powerhead for the DSB.
NP pellets, 400 grams in a TLF 100 phos reactor running for 5 months.
100 grams of carbon in a bag in sump mixed with 50 grams seachem phosguard, changed every month.
Use prodibio digest every 2 weeks after water change - bacteria dose
Have in the past two weekends added 2ml lanthium chloride to skimmer, but have noticed a bad reaction with my pokerman monti, it think it is caused by the lanthium chloride, so I will stop this if advised to do so.
Added 5 ml vodka once to my tank to try get NO3 down from 10ppm to < 5 ppm. Done last week. Did not work. Maybe I should add another 5ml, not sure.
Also add prodibio bioptim, only started this again recently as I run NP pellets, so thought it was a bit of a overkill on the bacteria food side.
Filter sock changed every 2 days.

E. What types of corals do you keep other than SPS?
Mixed reef, zoas, rics, candy cane, sps, leathers, tourch, list is very long, alot of coral.

F. How long has the tank been running?
Started December 2010, added stock 1 March 2011 after 3 month cycle.

G. What are you dosing? Dosing schedule?
Morning
1 gram reef builder (Seachem - Alk suppliment) in 100ml RO every 2nd day, only starting this today as I have noticed alk consumption is increasing slightly - morning
5 ml Aquavitro ions (Mg suppliment) - morning
Evening
2.5 grams Tropic Marin Bio Calcium - evening
10 drops lugols solution (10ml lugols to 250ml RO) - evening
Alternate days, 2-3ml of Aquavitro Fuel / 2-3ml Red Sea D (trace elements) - evening
Use 10ml Purple up once a week to give Ca a boost - evening (Wednesday)
Kalk, dose 2 teaspoons (10mg) into kalk reactor, this is changed out every 2 weeks, it is linked to my RO top off unit.

H. Which brand of salt are you using?
Use NSW, change between 10-20% every 2 weeks, but will be cutting this down to 10% every 2 weeks. (NSW phos reading is 0,05ppm hanna)

I. What brand of test kits are you employing?
Salifert, test every 2 weeks. Ocationally I will test more often. Occationally PO4 tested with hanna.

J. What are you using for CA/ALK supplementation?
CA - Tropic Marine Bio Calcium, however it is a balanced additive and also suppliments Alk, Mg, trace etc, my only problem with this product is that it is a balanced additive, what happens if Alk consumption is higher than CA and vice versa etc.
Also use Brightwells Calcion if CA levels are low and need a boost, but this is done very seldom.
Alk - Seachem reef builder, only starting this today as a method to suppliment Alk, Tropic Maring Bio Calcium also suppliments this.

K. What are you using for flow? (Pump names, how many, placement, etc.)
2 x Tunze 6105's on 7096 controller set to pulse for 2.5 seconds, storm mode is on.
Both placed on opposite side of the DT.
One on left hand side is about 40cm from the bottom (top to bottom of side glass is 60cm), and in the centre of the glass, flow is slightly towards the back right of the tank, but almost straight across.
One on the right is about 35cm from the bottom (top to bottom of side glass is 60cm), it is about 10cm from the front main display glass, it faces back towards the left back corner of the tank.

Is it true that in a system using probiotics that I should not run a phos remover?
Not sure what to do about No3 and Po4, do I start vodka?
Any suggestions are very welcome.

 

[prsnlty]

A. Total water volume ( Please include sump, etc.)
120g

B. What are your parameters? ( CA, ALK, PO4,Salinity, etc.)
Salinity 1025
CA 460-470
ALK 9dkh
No3 0
PO4 .04
Mag 1350

C. Type of lighting. Please include age, watts, and bulb/ballast name.
2 AI Sol Blue and Retro Comp. Flor. - 24" T5 inbetween them. (ballast came with) Bulbs 6 mo. 65W Sunpak bulbs 10,000K and 6,700K Daylight and 460nm Atinic x2.
LEDS on timers replicating sun up-down from 8am- 9pm stongest light at 11am-3pm, T5s on at 10:30am-6pm

D. Filtration method (Skimmer, GFO, DSB, etc.)
Reef Oct 150nw Skimmer, 30g sump, 2 Phosban reactors (1 with phosban and 1 runningBW biopellets and MB7).I had 3 but one kicked the bucket. The one that died was GAC. which I am using a HOB Penguin 400 at the moment.
3" SB, 100lbs LR

E. What types of corals do you keep other than SPS?
LPS: 5 head Frogspawn, Waving Hands Xenia, Green Star Polyp, now 8 head Candy Canes, Pulsating Xenia, 2head Torch, 13 head branching Duncan, Spiny Gorgonian, ricordia floridas, Leather, 20 head fire and ice zoas, 10 head purple death palys, unknown zoo lg polyp, tenya tree(about 6")

F. How long has the tank been running?
8 1/2 months but sand and starting sw, rocks and some LPS from previous 150g tank

G. What are you dosing? Dosing schedule? 2ml iodide a week and 5 ml strontinum every other week. 12-15g wc week. Cleaning sump 1 per mo. Also Coral amino 20 drops a week.

H. Which brand of salt are you using?
Reef Crystals

I. What brand of test kits are you employing?
Red Sea/ API

J. What are you using for CA/ALK supplementation?
Haven't needed

K. What are you using for flow? (Pump names, how many, placement, etc.)
4 MJ1200 w/ 2100 upgrade kits. Mag 9.5 return. I have an peninsula so there is one on the far end opposite of the overflow, one low (about mid level) below the overflow and one each side on 45* angles. I want to change my PH tax time to Sicce 3200 with their wave controller. I like these PH a lot. They won't beat my corals up but give good all around flow for a peninsula I believe.

-----

I have 2 monti cap frags (1 green and 1 red) and growing well. I had a beautiful 5" clam that died (coral beauty maybe? but someone ate him) I just added a red monti digi and blue monster acro. Both look good, nice extension but the blue monster looks more green and some brown. They are both frags.

My question is; How much growth should I be seeing in a certain amount of time for the acro (it's 1 3/4") and how can I tell (being this small) if it is in fact growing? and on a poor person's budget these days... is there anything I should be doing that I am not?

 

[prsnlty]

doesn't anyone read this thread anymore?

125g mixed reef

 

[gobeach]

This thread seems to be perfect for my question.

I've been trying to add some SPS corals to my tank and have not yet had one survive beyond a month or so.

I'll put my water parameters below and maintenance schedule also. But will explain what happens first.

I've put 2 birdsnest in the tank, the last one, I dipped with CoralRX per directions and the polyp extension when I added it to the tank was great. Over time, the extension disappeared and now there appear to be algae growing on parts of the coral. I looked with a magnifying glass last night and did not see any critters.

I also put in a small frag candy cane in, now it appears that the tissue (?) is receding.

These are my latest attempts, the previous ones I won't go into too much detail as my water was not in good shape so I'm not surprised things didn't go we'll.

I have some LPS that are doing very well, frogspawn, torches, octopus, bubble. All of my softies are thriving.

Livestock: Blue tang and Yellow tang, 4 clowns, sm 6-stripe wrasse, 2-spot goby, tiger goby, neon cleaner goby, 2 cleaner shrimp, sand sifting star, 3 nasarius (sp?) snails

System and water parameters
Tank: 48 x 24 x 20 (100g) rimless
Salinity: 1.025
Cal: 400(API)
Nitrate: 3 (Red Sea)
Phosphate: 0.04 (Halifert)
d/Kh: 9.2 (Red Sea), 7 (API)
Mg: 1480 (Red Sea)
ph: 7.82 - 8.05 (Apex - calibrated 12/8/12)

- LEDs, Sunbrite F00015 series, running max 40%
- ATO- tunze osmilator w/1tsp Kalk per gal in ATO reservoir
- CAD Lights skimmer
- 2 vortex MP 40 on the ends, w/3 small rios on the back wall
- BRS double canister w/carbon and GFO. Change carbon bi-weekly and GFO monthly
- bio pellets, up to 300ml, added 100ml at a time and allowed a month in between adding the next round of pellets. Using two little fishes NPX pellets with output close to input of skimmer.

Started with 70lbs live rock and 100lbs of live sand. I've dealt with some hit hikers (mantis shrimp) and there's at least 1 crab I see ever once in awhile but he doesn't seem to be doing any damage.

I'm going to see if I can put some photos of the birdsnest and candy cane here. (Will follow up w/photos, tapatalk doesn't have access to my photo lib and I don't want to lose this text...)

Thanks in advance for the help.
Cheryl





Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[gobeach]

Some photos

Candy cane, before and now. The before photo shows some recession on the side already. You can also see some of the birdsnest in the before photo.

The birdsnest before and now.

.

 

[joeyhatch11]

Currently have a 33l with 20l sump. I just started my SPS adventure and after a month or so I'm running into my first issue. I found my strawberry shortcake bleached 100% the other morning. So I quickly tested. I found my Alk at 6, calcium at 480, and Mag at 1280. So I'm sure its the Alk swing that did this. I'm just affraid some other pieces might start showing the small effects. I started dosing Alk at 7.5ml a day. But my main concern is, if I bring the Mag back up to 1400 will my alk and calcium fall back into place? Or will one spike too high? Mag was always around 1350-1400 and calcium was 440-460. Everytime I measured Alk it always came back at 8 so I never bothered dosing it. I do weekly 10g WC's and use Red Sea Coral Pro salt mixed at 1.025. In the sump I just run some PhosGuard in a CPR Tumbler set real low for a good flow and not a crazy tumble. Also have a carbon reactor and my skimmer. All other water parameters come back 0 and phosphates are reading 0 with API test kit. No algea issue at all either. Thoughts? Just a simple but painful Alk swing issue?

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[joeyhatch11]

Bump

 

[joeyhatch11]

Re-tested. Alk-8, Calcium-460, Mag.-1280, pH-8 Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates-0, Phospahtes-0 All per API test kit except for Mag, that I use a Red Sea kit. So far I had my Strawberry Shortcake bleach out and now I think my Ora Hawkins has too. Last night it looked like it was shedding a skin and this morning it's looking super white. I dont know if SPS can bounce back when they are that bad, so please feel free to comment. My Pink Birds nest isn't looking too good at the base either. But everything else seems "ok". My Birds of Paradise, Blue Cali, Green Slimer, Green Milli, and Pink Lemonade are doing ok. The only ones that really open are the Blue Cali (at night) and the BOP during the day. The Pink Lemonade hasn't lost any color but the polyps dont come out much at all. I know if may take some time for everything to get on track but I just dont want to loose anything else.

 

[ColaAddict]

Anybody use Red Sea's NoPoX for carbon dosing in their SPS tank? My colors seem to have faded from using it. I'm going to try not using it to compare colors. The product keeps my Nitrates and Phosphates very low, but I wonder if its stripping other stuff from the water.

 

[joeyhatch11]

I guess this thread is dead

 

[watty89]

i have been keeping aquariums for years got into reef keeping about three years ago been keeping softies and lps fine i have a 40gal breeder reef tank(dont have room for a big in my apt) with a 30 gal sump using a mag7 for return pump and 2 maxi jet 400 powerheads a cpr cs 100 overflow an odyssea light it has 4 24" t5's there coralife 460nm and a 250watt hqi metal halide 20k its the factory one my salinity is 1.026 magnesium is at 1320ppm currently 370ppm and alkalinty is at 9.2 dkh my lfs owner is a marine bioligst and he is the one that told me that these are most basic trace element needs for my reef tank i trust his opinion but i am wanting to get into sps corals and want some advice on growing sps corals and are they as hard people make it out to be

 

[joeyhatch11]

I started about 2 months ago with a few pieces and all was well. Then I had a alk drop and 3 died. Now even with my parameters back in order I'm still have tissue loss. I can't figure out why when EVERYTHING is good. All other corals, aside from one acan lord, are great and opening everyday. SPS is turning into a huge PITA! Might call it quites for a while if they don't bounce back. Mag is 1320, kh-8, sg 1.025 and calcium is 460. I'm slowly raising my mag to 1400 and still my pink birds nest and one other sps are having STN

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[creefer]

I started about 2 months ago with a few pieces and all was well. Then I had a alk drop and 3 died. Now even with my parameters back in order I'm still have tissue loss. I can't figure out why when EVERYTHING is good. All other corals, aside from one acan lord, are great and opening everyday. SPS is turning into a huge PITA! Might call it quites for a while if they don't bounce back. Mag is 1320, kh-8, sg 1.025 and calcium is 460. I'm slowly raising my mag to 1400 and still my pink birds nest and one other sps are having STN

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I had a similar issue a few months ago. Sometimes it takes some time for things to return to normal. I had to frag some sps to keep the STN at bay and since all has stabilized, they're all basing down really nice and starting to color up again. Give it time and maintain stability and try not to make any additional changes.

 

[spacetime]

Carbon Dosing and Red Sea Coral Pro salt... will this create a coralpoclapyse or should I just keep an eye out for burnt ends?

Second, how fast can I raise my K level from 365 to approx 400.

Third, I just tested iron and the RSCP test kit states I have ZERO. Going to raise this very slowly.

 

[nanojosh]

Pectinia... Sps or LPS my buddy at my LFS said it an acro but I just read an Advanced Aquarist article and pictiniid is a genus in the chalice family so I'm gonna go with the Advanced Aquarist and say LPS. It has mouths and u can't just frag any part of it like an acro. Thanks for reading maybe this will help somebody, or if I'm wrong somebody will clear it up for me.


55 gal mixed reef 10 gal SPS Dom.
10 gal nem tank 2 maxi minis 2 rock flower and one sunburst RBTA

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[Isoprene]

I have switched my 55 to a 75 and gone dominate sps in the whole tank other than some zoas. I am experiencing amazing stability in parameters and they are all in perfect range, have been for the four months or three months I switched over. I'm positive this is not the problem.

I have experienced better growth, faster, than I ever have in any tank or any coral in all my sps. They are going nuts! The problem is I feel like the color on most is more washed out then it was in my 55. It's just not as deep or vibrant as it used to be. I understand growth means good haha but I don't like the look of it necessarily.

The biggest change from the 55 to the 75 is that I have added 4x 58w T5 ho bulbs retrofitted with two pucks of 12 Cree LEDs for a total of 4 t5 bulbs and 24 Cree 3w chips. My rock work I'm worried is too high up, it's about 75% up the tank and the lights only sit 6 inches above the water level. Should I lower the seascape or is the coloration just due to lots of new growth? I'm running t5's for 5 hours, half the LEDs the white and blue for 5 hours, and the blue LEDs, for nine hours. Any ideas guys? Again everything healthy everything growing like freaking crazy! Just a little washed out. Color is there just not as deep as before :(

Here is the best photo I have.