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The solution to this is to get what would normally be on real live rock, i.e. biodiversity. I strongly recommend looking into wondermud and live sand activator from IPSF.com They are in Hawaii so you are getting organisms from a Pacific reef area. I started my entire coral farm using dry rock. You can view my build threads or website to see the results...i have 5 builds under my belt 4 if which were with true live rock. this one 100% dry. i have never had this many issues getting a tank off the ground
You can do that or you can put it in the tank. I have a shallow sand bed so just added to that.@SawCJack00 do you just put this mud and activator into the fuge? i just cleaned my sump spotless lol
Vibrant tends to cause NO3 and PO4 to bottom out very quickly. If you keep a close eye on them and dose if needed you can probably avoid issues, but it's a fine line to walk, and is unnecessary IMHO.Having sps issues as well. Can someone clue me in on why Vibrant is bad?
I also say stop the GFO/GAC and quadruple check your salinity to make sure it is correct. That is what ended up being my sps issue with my current tank. Bad refractometer calibration solution so my salinity was way lower than I thought. Which means my trace elements were also low, etc.Thread says it all. I've been reefing since 2000. I have kept sps in the past but it seems like that was a whole different hobby. I put frags in and they fade away. Weirdly, I have a couple of Monte in there, a purple stylo that are doing great. Reverse superman is ehh.. pastelly. But just put some new frags in set at top of tank put lights to a 20d acclimation and the just seem to "blanch" out and fade. no PE on new frags.
Reefer 450 - Build 2.5 years old 100% reef saver rock.
Trigger platinum sump (rollermat)
Regal 150 int skimmer
3x Red sea 90 LED
2 WAV (mavericks @ 60% most of the day)
Currently running CO2 scrubber, GFO/GAC in 1:2 ratio
tmp - 77.4-79.1
pH - 8.18-8.29
alk ~8 (trident)
Ca ~430 (trident)
Mg ~1260
PO4 ~.00 - .04 (hanna)
NO3 ~5 (Nyos)
1 gallon /day AWC via DOS
Raising his alkalinity with no Phosphate will kill everything he's managed to keep alive at this point.Have you tried raising your alkalinity to about 9 and mag to 1325? When my mag gets that low my SPS fade and to PE.