Trace elements and sps

[Heres_doe_]

Ok so I have a mixed reef. Everytime I put sps in my tank within a week they go downhill. Par is 200-350 on these parts. I can put anywhere and it'll be the same outcome. I have my flow and everything else good. Lps doing great and all. I think it's something hidden so I'm going to do ICP test. My last test for my last tank I did see I had low to none iodine and I had the same issue in my last tank even with all parameters and flow being good. Will this be a issue for sps. They start to lose flesh and don't do well within days like I said this is only a sps issue nothing else. This goes from the hardier Montis to everything else even birds nest.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

How is your skimming? SPS tend to be sensitive to dirtier water and do not do well in high DOC situations. Softies and LPS on the other hand do fine in these conditions, and can setup the scenario that you are experiencing. LPS/Soft = happy, SPS = unhappy

 

[IKD]

Can you list these parameters to maybe help out with what may be happening?

lack of iodine would not cause SPS to die in days

Alkalinity (would be great if you had a number of readings over time so we can see stability)
Calcium
Phosphate
Nitrate
Salinity
Temperature
Magnesium (if you have it)

what lighting (and settings) and pumps do you use?

 

[Heres_doe_]

How is your skimming? SPS tend to be sensitive to dirtier water and do not do well in high DOC situations. Softies and LPS on the other hand do fine in these conditions, and can setup the scenario that you are experiencing. LPS/Soft = happy, SPS = unhappy

Nitrates 7-10
Phosphates under .06

 

[Reefer Matt]

I think your par is too high for new additions. I suggest cutting it at least in half for a couple weeks and slowly raising it back up. Or you could par map the tank, and find a spot around 100 to start them.

 

[alindell]

I've had similar issues. Do you dip your corals? Do your parameters fluctuate?(SPS are particular to fluctuation). Do you run a carbon reactor or use carbon? Ive noticed running carbon can help clean the water and rid toxins in the water that SPS are sensitive too.

I can tell you my parameters are not where they need to be and that is why growth is slow, but they are relatively stable. The SPS grow slow, but are mainly pretty colorful and healthy. Stability is key and having clean water with SPS is important.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ok so I have a mixed reef. Everytime I put sps in my tank within a week they go downhill. Par is 200-350 on these parts. I can put anywhere and it'll be the same outcome. I have my flow and everything else good. Lps doing great and all. I think it's something hidden so I'm going to do ICP test. My last test for my last tank I did see I had low to none iodine and I had the same issue in my last tank even with all parameters and flow being good. Will this be a issue for sps. They start to lose flesh and don't do well within days like I said this is only a sps issue nothing else. This goes from the hardier Montis to everything else even birds nest.

While iodine needed, not an issue unless overdosed. There are many factors that cause tissue loss and can be as simple as high water temperature, but some other factors can be:
Often siphoning dead tissue and brown gel will reverse the process.
Some possible triggers of infection are:
- Alkalinity spike
- Temperature spike
- Salinity spike
- Low dissolved oxygen
- Poor water quality related with phosphate levels up to 5 ppm
- Change in water flow
- Additions of sand
- Changes in brand of salt
- Bad test kits giving faulty results
- Levels of minor elements such as Iodine, Potassium, Strontium
- Light intensity
- - Changes in water flow
- Addition of new corals
- - Pesticides
- Airborne Contaminants or sprays

 

[Heres_doe_]

Can you list these parameters to maybe help out with what may be happening?

lack of iodine would not cause SPS to die in days

Alkalinity (would be great if you had a number of readings over time so we can see stability)
Calcium
Phosphate
Nitrate
Salinity
Temperature
Magnesium (if you have it)

what lighting (and settings) and pumps do you use?

They don't die in days but they go downhill so quick after going into the tank. They'll hold on for dear life for weeks but never get better.
Phosphates under .06
Nitrates 7-10
Salinity 35
Had viparspectra lights just switched over to orphek Atlantik icon running 75% peak for 4 hours. Cranks up slowly before peaking and cranks down before night.
3 Nero 5
Fritz 2 part
Fritz blue box
And before anything alk is usually 8-8.3 I opened a window and ph went up a nice amount and that's why I had that little drop and I don't have swings in a day over .5 so I should be good. Even with stable parameters I can't seem to have them do fine.

 

[javisaman]

Even with SPS frags that have come from high light systems I always start them low in the tank now. I've had far more success not throwing them into the 250+ par range but instead starting as low as 125. I'll leave them there for a couple of months, then bring them up gradually.

We need the measurements for the essential parameters.

 

[Heres_doe_]

Even with SPS frags that have come from high light systems I always start them low in the tank now. I've had far more success not throwing them into the 250+ par range but instead starting as low as 125. I'll leave them there for a couple of months, then bring them up gradually.

We need the measurements for the essential parameters.

Noted because I put them about 250 once in the tank. You think that could be the issue?

 

[ninjamyst]

Light is often NOT the issue why new SPS frags die quickly unless you putting them in 500+ PAR at the beginning. 250 PAR is fine. SPS frags die usually due to water parameters. My bet is on your low nutrients. When you say less than 0.06 PO4, what exactly is that? How are you testing that?

 

[IKD]

They don't die in days but they go downhill so quick after going into the tank. They'll hold on for dear life for weeks but never get better.
Phosphates under .06
Nitrates 7-10
Salinity 35
Had viparspectra lights just switched over to orphek Atlantik icon running 75% peak for 4 hours. Cranks up slowly before peaking and cranks down before night.
3 Nero 5
Fritz 2 part
Fritz blue box
And before anything alk is usually 8-8.3 I opened a window and ph went up a nice amount and that's why I had that little drop and I don't have swings in a day over .5 so I should be good. Even with stable parameters I can't seem to have them do fine.

How many hours are you lights running total?

 

[Heres_doe_]

I've had similar issues. Do you dip your corals? Do your parameters fluctuate?(SPS are particular to fluctuation). Do you run a carbon reactor or use carbon? Ive noticed running carbon can help clean the water and rid toxins in the water that SPS are sensitive too.

I can tell you my parameters are not where they need to be and that is why growth is slow, but they are relatively stable. The SPS grow slow, but are mainly pretty colorful and healthy. Stability is key and having clean water with SPS is important.

I don't run carbon maybe I should

 

[Heres_doe_]

How many hours are you lights running total?

12

 

[Heres_doe_]

Light is often NOT the issue why new SPS frags die quickly unless you putting them in 500+ PAR at the beginning. 250 PAR is fine. SPS frags die usually due to water parameters. My bet is on your low nutrients. When you say less than 0.06 PO4, what exactly is that? How are you testing that?

So I range from .02-.06 I heard keep phosphates under .1 and I'm testing with Hanna checker ulr phosphates

 

[alindell]

I don't run carbon maybe I should

Maybe give it a try. It's pretty simple to run. I use a reactor, but you don't need to. You can always get a mesh bag and measure the right amount out for your tank size and add some to a high flow area. I use the brs ROX.08 carbon, change it out every 2-3 weeks. I've used it for years and I've noticed that it definitely has an effect. There are lots of contaminants in water that we don't even think about, that somehow get in there.
I'm not saying this will fix your problem as it may be a chemistry issue, but running some carbon won't hurt and it might clean out whatever toxins could be hurting your SPS. You gotta think these corals come from reefs where any toxins/ contaminants are easily dispersed or cleaned out in the mass of the ocean. In our confined reef tanks these contaminants are left to stay without something removing them

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

So I range from .02-.06 I heard keep phosphates under .1 and I'm testing with Hanna checker ulr phosphates

That might be too low. Mine ranges between 50 and 70 ppb phosphorus (0.15 - 0.2 ppm phosphate). I didn't start having luck with SPS until I kept both the nitrates and phosphates up.

 

[Heres_doe_]

That might be too low. Mine ranges between 50 and 70 ppb phosphorus (0.15 - 0.2 ppm phosphate). I didn't start having luck with SPS until I kept both the nitrates and phosphates up.

What's nitrates at

 

[Chris Spaulding]

Running an ICP test is a good place to start. To get a better understanding on Trace elements look at Reefmoonshiners Method . Read the FREE handbook it is a quick and easy read. If you do do an ICP test do ATI or Ocean or Trident . Look over the dosing calculator it is free as well. If anything it should help with some understanding . Also check out the Facebook page and there is a lot of solid help and information there and very often Andre will answer personaly

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

What's nitrates at

Now between 2.5 and 5. I believe the consensus is that corals need to absorb more phosphate than nitrate from the water. So as long as you have a few PPM of NO3, you're likely fine.

Take this for what it's worth: at the height of neglecting my tank, my nitrates and phoshpates both maxed out my checkers. The nitrate checker maxes out at 50 ppm, while the phosphate checker maxes out at 200 ppb phosphorus, or 0.613 (!) ppm. I keep all SPS with a few ricordea. Never lost a single coral.

It's my belief and experience that nutrients being too low is much worse for corals than too high.