Ventures into SPS and why I’m going to take a step back

[Ferrell]

Took me a while to decide on my topic but I’m interested to hear everyone’s thoughts.
Background for those that I don’t talk to regularly or see my build thread.
Started 75/20 in November 17 after 6 month build.
In April 18 Had built up CUC and 7 fish. Last fish came in with velvet, no qt and destroyed the happy little group in 2 days. Lesson learned. QT ALWAYS.
Have about 25 thriving lps corals with limited losses (can’t keep cyphaestrea for nothing, high low left right nothing). When I say thriving I mean obvious growth. So I bought a monti cap, it’s growing, pocillapora it stn’d in about two weeks, got a birds nest from WWC it is in the process of stn’ing but managed to frag a small piece, another monti from Vivid supposed to be easier sps it stn’d. So I’m stepping back for these reasons.
Tank has been fallow for almost ten weeks, only feeding roids ones a week, feel that fish are a vital portion of keeping a reef healthy by providing some sort of fish poop super food. So for now I’ll keep rotating my fish through qt (3 almost ready, 2 more weeks) and once I get some swimmers in the tank then maybe try some easy sps again. Until then patience and stability and adding fish
Stock of corals:
4 Chalice
6 acans
Blasto
One zoa colony
Duncan colony
Two hammers
Plating monti
Hynophora
Pavona
Lepta
Gsp wife’s choice not mine
Psammi
2 Favia
4 cyphaestrea that are mmeh still alive but....

just looking for opinions, comments and questions.

Which corals do y’all have the most trouble with?
What do you do for the high light areas when sps won’t live? Wait til the tank is more mature?

 

[yepreef]

did u try triton test to see if there are problems?

 

[bhuyett]

Started 75/20 in November 17 after 6 month build. In April 18 Had built up CUC and 7 fish.

Sorry to hear about your loss with Velvet. I went through the same thing when I first started up my small 29 gallon tank.

I'm a bit confused, Not sure I understand what you mean by the first set of numbers. Can you help a slow guy out. LOL It looks like from Nov to June which is roughly 8 months. Not sure if that November date is when you set up the tank or the November date was 6 months after the tank had been running.

If you experienced STN with a pocillapora you clearly have a couple things we need to figure out. These are one of the more hardy SPS, that I like to call Weeds. Once you get them growing, they will spawn in your tank and it is like cancer. Very hard to get rid of it.

Care to share with us your Water Parameters?
Alk-
Cal-
PO4-
NO3-
Mag-

Then what type of lights are you using? If LED share with us your schedule and intensity.

Thanks,

 

[ZoWhat]

Acros are the work of the Devil.

They look beautiful....grow out beautiful branches for months and months....only to break your heart when they die from the bottom up in 3 days.

I've swore off all Acros after watching a beautiful 2yr old super large deep purple Acros die right before my eyes in 3 days. I almost walked away from reefing totally when that loss turned into 4-5 acro colonies all dying like patiences in hospice.

Once Acros start dying....game over no matter what you do

Acros....the work of the Devil. Lol

 

[Bob Weigant]

Kinda weird as my tank is as basic as you can get , only run a protein skimmer and water changes and I grow sps rather well. No reactors , no gfo nothing.

 

[vegamedic]

+1 on the ICP/triton testing. Also confirm your water temp with a legit probe and water params with second set of test kits (if you don't go for the ICP). light and flow parameters are also crucial (brand, intensity, spectrum, duration; brand/model, intensity, placement)

 

[HB AL]

Slowing down is never a bad thing. Maybe get a red monti cap and have that as your only sps for a while and see how it goes, then maybe a few months later if the cap is growing buy some hardy cheap acro and do the same.

 

[Ferrell]

@bhuyett Tank has been up and running since November ‘17, 8 months so not real mature

I do have a monti that is doing well pic attached. The other monti and the pocillapora were at about the same area with regards to light and flow

Have not done triton test

Parameters:
34 ppm salinity @ 78 degrees
8.5-9.0 Alk only using Kalk
PH 7.9-8.1
420 Ca
1500 Mg (salt mixes high)
0 Nitrate
0 phosphate
10 gallon water change bi weekly
I have been struggling keeping nitrates and phosphates up since fish expired. That’s one reason I’m stepping back.
Had another issue with the Alk dosing, couldn’t keep Alk up and found it was precipitating in DT. User error. So I went back to where it was good, back to kalk and got everything as stable as possible. Still get the .5 Alk swing depending on evaporation. Have dosing pumps but not using at moment.
Run my varios4 return at about 65%, two opposing antisync MP10s on reef crest mode at about 90%, have ati 4 bulb t5, channel 1=1 actinic/1B+, channel 2=1B+/1C+. (Do not have par measurements but seneye on my wish list). Run channel 1 from 11:30-19:30, channel 2 from 12:00-18-30. Settled on this after hair algae bloom a month or so back, so cut back photo period.
Run a Skimz SN167 but mostly for O2 until have fish, doesn’t have much skimmate production if any. Have it set low.
Clean glasses once a week for light algae film. Have some coralline algae growth on MP10s, back glass and spotty on rocks.
If you see anything abbynormal please let me know but like everyone says patience, and I’m trying to practice it.

 

[Dilan Patel]

The one change I found that allowed me to grow sps instead of kill it was...WATER FLOW. I blast the crap out of my corals. I run a 180 which is 6ft long. I run two xf250's both on 100% that is what some may say insane flow but I found it works perfectly. Maybe give us some details on your flow?

 

[happyhourhero]

If you mix a bit of kalk in your top off water and drip it throughout the day(assuming no ato), you should be able to keep your alk dead steady and not need to dose 2 part for a loooooong time.

Just ghost feed the tank to keep your nitrates and phosphates up.

Fix those two issues and you should be fine.

 

[Ferrell]

@Dilan Patel : I run 2 MP10s on left and right sides. Reef crest anti sync at 90% max. Had them lower for the euphyllia but got bad cyano, turned up and no cyano and hammers are fine. Learning curve.

@happyhourhero: I feed a good amount of reef roids once a week, don’t change socks as often. I tried feeding more but only had an algae outbreak. So I guess I had nutrients but the algae ate it all up.
I’m planning on dosing a shot of dr Tim’s when I reintroduce fish to ensure an adequate bacteria.

Forgot to mention I have a darn healthy population of pods, snails (which are growing and making new shells), and a pep shrimp

 

[Dilan Patel]

Do you do waterchanges. If you do maybe stop them. This will hopefully allow your nutrients to creep up.

 

[jda]

It can be hard for some tanks to be good at SPS until they are a year or more old, even the easier ones. You might do nothing and all of sudden have success later this year, or early next year for no reason other than time. Some people with young tanks have no problems at all with death and the SPS even grow some, but they do not start to thrive until later.

Once you have coralline EVERYWHERE and it is new to pop up on the glass if you do not scrape for a week, then that it is a good sign that your tank is ready for SPS.

High light for SPS? How high are we talking? Also, what kind of lights. All of this matters? I cannot harm SPS with 750 PAR from a Metal Halide, but some will melt and die with even 350 PAR from some LEDs. Mine get a mix from 300 to about 700, but most are in the 350 to 600 range and they all thrive.

 

[jda]

If you have enough nutrients to grow algae, then you have enough to grow coral. I know that it is all the rage to add nitrate and phosphate, but you can do a lot of long-term damage chasing nutrients. Aragonite will only hold so much phosphate before it tank level starts to creep up - and it is hard to get back out... most of what people dose goes straight here and not to corals or algae.

 

[Ferrell]

@Dilan Patel Yes I do water changes 10% every two weeks. So maybe I go to 3 or 4 until fish get in.

@jda i agree with chasing the Nitrate phosphate numbers as a matter of purpose I’m trying not to do any of the chemical “fixes” that are on the market.
With regards to light, like I said I’m saving for a seneye to get exact par but when I said high light I meant higher in the water column/closer to the top. My mistake.

Thanks for all your input and I’m just gonna chill with it for a few more months, get some time in, heed y’all’s advice and sometime later in summer maybe give it another whirl.

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

Took me a while to decide on my topic but I’m interested to hear everyone’s thoughts.
Background for those that I don’t talk to regularly or see my build thread.
Started 75/20 in November 17 after 6 month build.
In April 18 Had built up CUC and 7 fish. Last fish came in with velvet, no qt and destroyed the happy little group in 2 days. Lesson learned. QT ALWAYS.
Have about 25 thriving lps corals with limited losses (can’t keep cyphaestrea for nothing, high low left right nothing). When I say thriving I mean obvious growth. So I bought a monti cap, it’s growing, pocillapora it stn’d in about two weeks, got a birds nest from WWC it is in the process of stn’ing but managed to frag a small piece, another monti from Vivid supposed to be easier sps it stn’d. So I’m stepping back for these reasons.
Tank has been fallow for almost ten weeks, only feeding roids ones a week, feel that fish are a vital portion of keeping a reef healthy by providing some sort of fish poop super food. So for now I’ll keep rotating my fish through qt (3 almost ready, 2 more weeks) and once I get some swimmers in the tank then maybe try some easy sps again. Until then patience and stability and adding fish
Stock of corals:
4 Chalice
6 acans
Blasto
One zoa colony
Duncan colony
Two hammers
Plating monti
Hynophora
Pavona
Lepta
Gsp wife’s choice not mine
Psammi
2 Favia
4 cyphaestrea that are mmeh still alive but....

just looking for opinions, comments and questions.

Which corals do y’all have the most trouble with?
What do you do for the high light areas when sps won’t live? Wait til the tank is more mature?

I have the same deal with cypastria they always brown out on me

 

[BoomCorals]

Acros are the work of the Devil.

They look beautiful....grow out beautiful branches for months and months....only to break your heart when they die from the bottom up in 3 days.

I've swore off all Acros after watching a beautiful 2yr old super large deep purple Acros die right before my eyes in 3 days. I almost walked away from reefing totally when that loss turned into 4-5 acro colonies all dying like patiences in hospice.

Once Acros start dying....game over no matter what you do

Acros....the work of the Devil. Lol

It’s funny because it’s true.

 

[andrewkw]

Your tank is still relatively new. Did you start with dry rock or live rock?

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

Most acros can thrive with anything from 250-350 I know some guys keep there’s at 200 and get really deep dark colors and some can change colors such as red dragon can form a greenish base in lower light

 

[Ferrell]

Dry rock and Fiji pink sand. And there’s one another one of those issues I didn’t calculate