Am I missing something?

[leighton.bingham]

For some reason I cant keep LPS or SPS alive. I purchased a favia about a week ago and bleached while I was gone over the weekend. before I left my parameters were:

Salinity 1.027 (yes I know its. little high but stable)
dKH 9.2
Calc 460
Phosphates - .02
Nitrates - 4

When I returned 2 days later:
Salinity 1.027
dKH 8.6
Calc 440
Phosphates - .02
Nitrates - 4

Any idea what im doing wrong? Maybe lighting? I have 3 XR15 pro with RMS mounts on my 21.7" tall tank. at 80% I put it about mid of the tank.

 

[Jekyl]

Flow, lighting, acclimation, and age of tank all play a factor here. Parameters seem fine except for missing magnesium and Ph results.

 

[rtparty]

Up your N and P to start

 

[VintageReefer]

Those parameters wont kill a favia

How long have you had it?

how many gallons is the tank?

Do you have any idea of par in that spot?

Do you have any fish or inverts that could have irritated it?

 

[leighton.bingham]

Up your N and P to start

How far?

 

[leighton.bingham]

Those parameters wont kill a favia

How long have you had it?

how many gallons is the tank?

Do you have any idea of par in that spot?

Do you have any fish or inverts that could have irritated it?

No idea on par for that spot or any other. I just bought a par meter.

I have a water box 110.4 so the DT is 79 gallons and 2 mp40’s for flow. No inverts in my tank and all my fish are reef safe. I’m starting over after Dino’s.

I’ve had the coral for about a week. I picked up a galexea about 2 weeks ago and it was on the opposite end of the tank and still alive.

 

[Pistondog]

How far?

Target 0.1 ppm po4, 5 ppm for nitrate. We dose ammonium bicarb for nitrates.

 

[rtparty]

How far?

I like to see nitrates around 10 and phosphates around .1ppm. I achieve both of these by dosing early on. Ammonium bicarbonate for nitrates and trisodium phosphate for…well…phosphate lol

 

[VintageReefer]

Grew this favia out

Phosphate .02-.04

Nitrate 1-5

 

[jcmjoe]

What’s your temp? Bleaching is from water temp or lights way to bright.

 

[Lavey29]

All my favia sit mid tank in 200 par

 

[Gribbles]

All my favia sit mid tank in 200 par

Did you acclimate them to that? Curious about doing this with mine. What'd you start at and how fast did you take it?

 

[Lavey29]

Did you acclimate them to that? Curious about doing this with mine. What'd you start at and how fast did you take it?

Nope just have a mid tank mixed favia garden that has grown a lot but one of my torches recently wiped out a really nice big gold favia colony. The get moderate light and flow.

 

[VintageReefer]

My guess is lighting, flow, or third party irritant. Pest. Fish nipping. Crab biting.

Got any pithos crabs? File fish? Angels?

 

[leighton.bingham]

What’s your temp? Bleaching is from water temp or lights way to bright.

77.5. from reading these post in think I had it to high in the tank and to much flow

 

[VintageReefer]

77.5. from reading these post in think I had it to high in the tank and to much flow

If you look at the pics I posted of my dragon soul favia, I grew bay on sandbed, approx 100-125 par, and medium flow. I posted my parameters as well

 

[leighton.bingham]

If you look at the pics I posted of my dragon soul favia, I grew bay on sandbed, approx 100-125 par, and medium flow. I posted my parameters as well

I did see that and it's amazing! I have way more than medium flow. Here is mind I put the favia right in the middle of the tank.

 

[VintageReefer]

I did see that and it's amazing! I have way more than medium flow. Here is mind I put the favia right in the middle of the tank.

I would try these spots. And keep it off the sand. If you look at how mine started, it originally was on a plug with one polyp.

I trimmed the stem off the plug, and put that plug disk on a small rock with reef epoxy. It then grew over the plug, and onto the rock, and then covered the entire rock. I placed that rock on a second larger rock And it currently is encrusting the larger rock now

 

[Lavey29]

I did see that and it's amazing! I have way more than medium flow. Here is mind I put the favia right in the middle of the tank.

You ain't getting enough par with those lights at 80%. I have XR15 lights over a smaller 65g tank and have to run them at 100% intensity to barely get enough par for my mixed reef tank.

 

[Stevorino]

Didn’t you move your tank recently?

If so, that’s the problem:

Yes, your parameters are solid. But even if your live rock is an instacycle, you’ve still restarted the ecosystem.

Give it a month or two and then give it another go