Angry SPS. Need your opinions!

[Chris Graham]

PH Fluctuation can generally be ignored. For me the most important are KH and PO4, others are less important as long as in range. Always avoid big swings in anything, but KH spikes or rapid PO4 drops can kill fast. My temp has fluctuated 4 to 5 degrees on some colder nights, apparently my heater is only good if the basement temp is > 65F. No damage, no noticeable issues, no loss in color. My PH is 7.9 at night, 8.4 durign the day. I haven't calibrated the PH meter in a long time so exact numbers unknown.

If everything is stable but nutrients are very low (newer tank or overuse of GFO) then look at your KH. It needs to be in the 6.7 to 7.5 range for SPS to do well, and you will want to feed a little each day to keep the SPS fed. If it's an older tank, like over a year, then the sponge growth and other good inhabitants are probably enough to keep food in the water most of the time, as long as you aren't stripping the water of nutrients. IMO and experience for my tank anyway. SPS have tiny mouths and do not do well when there's no food in the water column. Having ultra low nutrients appears to exacerbate the problem.

So I agree with you after some of the recent research I have done that people tend to be more successful with NO3 between 2-10ppm and PO4 in the .02-.05 range but some opinions vary a little bit of course. I have been running a ULN system with my NO3 around .5ppm and PO4 around .03 so maybe that is the problem but I have sponges growing(tons of pineapples), cope and amphi pods in the tank and sump, along with feeding the fish via Apex auto feeder 3 times a day. If the problem is low nutrients besides getting my NO3 and PO4 up a bit what other foods can I supplement to the corals. BRS among others all agree that corals get the majority of their nutrition from the zooxanthellae within their tissue so there shouldn't be a ton of need for supplemental feeding. In fact I have seen personally many tanks that don't feed anything and only dose 2 part and the corals are growing like wildfire! I am considering setting up a deep sand bed in my fuge to promote more of the planktonic natural food that may be possible to grow in a fuge. Thanks for the input markalot!

 

[markalot]

So I agree with you after some of the recent research I have done that people tend to be more successful with NO3 between 2-10ppm and PO4 in the .02-.05 range but some opinions vary a little bit of course. I have been running a ULN system with my NO3 around .5ppm and PO4 around .03 so maybe that is the problem but I have sponges growing(tons of pineapples), cope and amphi pods in the tank and sump, along with feeding the fish via Apex auto feeder 3 times a day. If the problem is low nutrients besides getting my NO3 and PO4 up a bit what other foods can I supplement to the corals. BRS among others all agree that corals get the majority of their nutrition from the zooxanthellae within their tissue so there shouldn't be a ton of need for supplemental feeding. In fact I have seen personally many tanks that don't feed anything and only dose 2 part and the corals are growing like wildfire! I am considering setting up a deep sand bed in my fuge to promote more of the planktonic natural food that may be possible to grow in a fuge. Thanks for the input markalot!

I'm afraid I don't know. I still use a PO4 remover, but via drops of Lanthanum not GFO, and I let my PO4 drift higher without worrying about it. I'm all drops now, because it controls my tendancy to overdo things.

My SPS looked Murrays after I replaced too many rocks (trying to get rid of Seafoam Pallys). Growth slowed, Alk spiked, and SPS looked bad / died for weeks and weeks. Acros sometimes don't show damage until a week or so after an accident. It's maddening.

BRS feeds their corals with BRS reef chili. While it may be true SPS gets most food from light feeding helps, but it depends on the tank, the bio filter, and the age.

All I know now is that my rocks are either covered in corals or turf algae, any unscraped wall is quickly covered in algae, and I have to scrape the glass every few days. My acros are very very happy, I'm happy. I am currently at 2 drops PhosphateRx and 5ml NOPOX daily. I was curious if adding NOPOX would do anything to improve colors but I go very slowly, 1ml a week, so in 5 weeks I'm now up to 5ml daily. That's how slow I do things. Skimmer is back to stinking really bad so the NOPOX is having an effect. I'm a year out from my bad crash and nearing 3.5 years since the tank was setup. It behaves very different from when it was just a year old.

Because we don't have all the answers the best course of action is to go very slowly, learn to observe coral health, and learn how your tank is behaving. Just because it worked for someone else does not mean the same thing will work for you. In addition, I like to think of corals as they are, animals, who are either healthy or unhealthy. When unhealthy the slightest mistake can kill them, when healthy they can tolerate a LOT more. So a KH spike in a new tank, or one that has had past issues, might be a killer for me, but an experienced reefer with super healthy corals might spike KH with only minor issues.

Clear as mud?

 

[gig 'em]

I'm afraid I don't know. I still use a PO4 remover, but via drops of Lanthanum not GFO, and I let my PO4 drift higher without worrying about it. I'm all drops now, because it controls my tendancy to overdo things.

My SPS looked Murrays after I replaced too many rocks (trying to get rid of Seafoam Pallys). Growth slowed, Alk spiked, and SPS looked bad / died for weeks and weeks. Acros sometimes don't show damage until a week or so after an accident. It's maddening.

BRS feeds their corals with BRS reef chili. While it may be true SPS gets most food from light feeding helps, but it depends on the tank, the bio filter, and the age.

All I know now is that my rocks are either covered in corals or turf algae, any unscraped wall is quickly covered in algae, and I have to scrape the glass every few days. My acros are very very happy, I'm happy. I am currently at 2 drops PhosphateRx and 5ml NOPOX daily. I was curious if adding NOPOX would do anything to improve colors but I go very slowly, 1ml a week, so in 5 weeks I'm now up to 5ml daily. That's how slow I do things. Skimmer is back to stinking really bad so the NOPOX is having an effect. I'm a year out from my bad crash and nearing 3.5 years since the tank was setup. It behaves very different from when it was just a year old.

Because we don't have all the answers the best course of action is to go very slowly, learn to observe coral health, and learn how your tank is behaving. Just because it worked for someone else does not mean the same thing will work for you. In addition, I like to think of corals as they are, animals, who are either healthy or unhealthy. When unhealthy the slightest mistake can kill them, when healthy they can tolerate a LOT more. So a KH spike in a new tank, or one that has had past issues, might be a killer for me, but an experienced reefer with super healthy corals might spike KH with only minor issues.

Clear as mud?

Well put! I agree, in my experience when acros are healthy they can handle unexpected swings in temp, Alk, etc and be just fine. It's important to get s healthy system established.