Whats wrong with my SPS tank

[Sambo]

Couple things I would do. I would remove the carbon from the rx and just run it passively, especially with an already nutrient poor system.. this could cause recession. I would also check for stray voltage in the tank with a digital multimeter.

What salt and salinity?

 

[ReeferBen]

I use D-D Ocean Pro+ salt and keep it at 1.026 I did forget to mention that last week I found a powerhead, the one feeding my fuge was leaking some voltage. I have replaced it already.

 

[cee]

I would be interested in your history of use of GFO, quantity used, and frequency of change-out. If used improperly, it can cause STN.

 

[ReeferBen]

Well I used warner marine branded GFO, starting a few months in with about 1.5" in a magnavore reactor. I then decreased the amount to a few table spoons in the magnavore reactor. I recently moved my skimmer from the table it was on to the sump since I had it suddenly overflow, and I was getting ready to be out of town for a few days I didnt want to risk it happening again. SInce I put the skimmer in the sump I didnt have room for the magnavore reactor so decided to run the GFO in the same phosban reactor with my carbon. This was a few weeks ago.

 

[Pitcom]

I met Ben at our local shop over the weekend and I have alot of the same problems. I have some colonies of sps that grow amazingly well. For instance i bought a piece of the ora birdsnest, about a 1 inch frag and 6 months later its the size of a grapefruit. I have monti's, validas and chesterfieldensis that grow just as well. Yet, every time i buy small frags of corals, they do great for a month or two then they just develope white band. I'll frag them, they will re-grow and then get white band again. All the while my large colonies are doing fantastic. My tank is a very different setup than Ben's but like him my paramaters are really good. 1400 mag, 480 cal and 9.8 alk. It's very frustrating when you have many sps corals thrive in your system then have frags get white band for unseeable reasons.

 

[ReeferBen]

Figured I would update everyone...

FWIW, I solved all the issues I was having and am having much better growth and encrusting now. I think the main problem was that the tank was to sterile and over a period of time I was started feeding much more and noticed an increase of algae in the tank, at the same time the SPS started doing much better. I also changed my lighting from the halides to 8 x 39 watt T5s, I did this more for tempature then anything else. With the halides my chiller was working hard to hold a stable temp, once I changed over to T5s my chiller hardly had to run. I also think the tnak just hit a more stable sollid period where it was running more natural. I will update with a new pic of the coral that was base up receding soon.