What am I missing?

[davito]

Hello again!
My 108 Fiji cube is about 6 months old. I've been trying since month 2 or 3 (after everything has cycled) to transfer over my corals from my well established biocube to break down to only one tank.

I pick frags from a mother colony of birdsnest in the biocube. They seem sorta okay at first and then slowly through the weeks the skeleton turns white, I can see through the polyps and eventually I'm left with nothing. Tissue seems to slowly rot away and I can't figure out why.

My temp is 79 F
Salinity 1.024 (trying to raise ever so slightly)
Alk is 8.5
Nitrate is 5-10 ppm
Phosphate rides around .03 maybe .05
Ph 8.2

Lights are reefi uno lights set to default sps setting.

My Kenya tree, mushroom, and cabbage coral all seem to be surviving maybe even thriving.

I'll attach pics of the one currently in the cube and the mother colony in the biocube

 

[davito]

I am also curious if maybe it's my flow? I have two mp40s that run anywhere from 1500 to 2800gph each. And a vectra m2 running full power

 

[Gumbies R Us]

#reefsquad

 

[Rocks reef]

Are you running carbon on the new tank that you are trying to establish the birds nest in? You mention all you have in there are soft corals/leather correct?

 

[davito]

Are you running carbon on the new tank that you are trying to establish the birds nest in? You mention all you have in there are soft corals/leather correct?

I was running cabon initially but haven't for about a month now. And yes only others are softies

 

[BryanM]

If you can see the polyps moving around due to flow, I would generally guess your flow is adequate.

Have you done an ICP test? There may be some other trace imbalance that might be affecting it.

 

[davito]

If you can see the polyps moving around due to flow, I would generally guess your flow is adequate.

Have you done an ICP test? There may be some other trace imbalance that might be affecting it.

I don't worry so much that I have inadequate flow, I'm curious maybe I have too much flow? I'm not blasting it directly by any means but total gph at times is probably 5-6k given the mp40s and return on a 108 display.

I haven't ran an icp no. I've considered it but haven't gotten there yet

 

[DSC reef]

Could be allelopathay from the soft corals causing issues

 

[REEFRIED!]

Your parameters seem fine. If you suspect flow then turn the flow down a bit. Are you positive that you have enough light in the new tank?

Did the new tank start with dry rock?

 

[Troylee]

What percentage are your lights on? Reefi is a par beast and can cook stuff cause the spread isn’t that great. Also what reflectors are you running?

 

[davito]

Your parameters seem fine. If you suspect flow then turn the flow down a bit. Are you positive that you have enough light in the new tank?

Did the new tank start with dry rock?

It was "dead live rock" that I allowed to cure and then I seeded with rock from my biocube and went from there.

I'm thinking the light is strong enough. I'll have to either purchase or rent a PAR meter to be certain but they for sure seem more powerful than my biocube stock lid

 

[davito]

What percentage are your lights on? Reefi is a par beast and can cook stuff cause the spread isn’t that great. Also what reflectors are you running?

I would have to check again to see the exact percentage. I do have it set though to default sps settings with a twinge of extra blues for tank viewing in the evening.

I actually don't think I have any reflectors on

 

[Troylee]

I would have to check again to see the exact percentage. I do have it set though to default sps settings with a twinge of extra blues for tank viewing in the evening.

I actually don't think I have any reflectors on

So most likely it the reflectors that come standard which are 90° that’s high par and low spread.

 

[Rocks reef]

Could be allelopathay from the soft corals causing issues

That is my thought as well

 

[Rocks reef]

I don't worry so much that I have inadequate flow, I'm curious maybe I have too much flow? I'm not blasting it directly by any means but total gph at times is probably 5-6k given the mp40s and return on a 108 display.

I haven't ran an icp no. I've considered it but haven't gotten there yet

Really don't think it's too much flow as you have soft corals in there that you stated are doing fine.
My euphyllia and softies get "sps" tank flow. Flow is just as important as light is, maybe even more so!

 

[Rocks reef]

So most likely it the reflectors that come standard which are 90° that’s high par and low spread.

Good point, most softies thrive in 500+ PAR as they come from shallow water. The birdsnest may be getting blasted and can't survive.

 

[Freenow54]

Hello again!
My 108 Fiji cube is about 6 months old. I've been trying since month 2 or 3 (after everything has cycled) to transfer over my corals from my well established biocube to break down to only one tank.

I pick frags from a mother colony of birdsnest in the biocube. They seem sorta okay at first and then slowly through the weeks the skeleton turns white, I can see through the polyps and eventually I'm left with nothing. Tissue seems to slowly rot away and I can't figure out why.

My temp is 79 F
Salinity 1.024 (trying to raise ever so slightly)
Alk is 8.5
Nitrate is 5-10 ppm
Phosphate rides around .03 maybe .05
Ph 8.2

Lights are reefi uno lights set to default sps setting.

My Kenya tree, mushroom, and cabbage coral all seem to be surviving maybe even thriving.

I'll attach pics of the one currently in the cube and the mother colony in the biocube

I have the exact same problem. Have tried dosing diffeent things nope > I am going to try adding another light to fill the middle hole . I want to see someone solve this really mentally breaking situation. Actually physical parts but cant say that here

 

[davito]

Good point, most softies thrive in 500+ PAR as they come from shallow water. The birdsnest may be getting blasted and can't survive.

To your other point above, if it's allelopathay how does one battle that?

As the par itself goes I can definitely look into other reflectors, or I could also try turning the light down as well.

 

[davito]

So most likely it the reflectors that come standard which are 90° that’s high par and low spread.

Looks like from what I can see they no longer make a reflector with greater spread for the older model. I'm assuming best bet then would be to dim the lights?

 

[Troylee]

Looks like from what I can see they no longer make a reflector with greater spread for the older model. I'm assuming best bet then would be to dim the lights?

Any idea what you par is? Are these 2.0 or 2.1?