Cannot keep SPS no matter what I do! Please help.

[1Clown]

Right so my tank is 1 years old now, it's a 2ft cube. I've tried to keep SPS almost 8 months ago to pretty much no avail and thought I'd get a few more frags now since my system has matured some more. However the latest frags I've got have either completely bleached, lost colour and either lost all or most of the polyp extension. I tried to acclimate them to the light as well by starting off low and moving them up slowly to no avail.

I do have 1 purple montipora digitata which is the only frag I've got thus far which has survived albeit not the best polyp extension and growth. I have never seen any of my fish or inverts going after my sps either during the day or night so I don't think that is the cause.

Although my water parameters are good I don't underfeed my tank at all, I even feed my lps 3 or more times per week.

Latest water parameters are as follows:

Ammonia NH4: <0.25
Nitrate NO3: 0ppm
Nitrite NO2: 0ppm
Phosphate: 0.03ppm
pH: 8.0
Specific Gravity: 1.025
KH: 8.6
Calcium: 450
Magnesium: 1380

Lighting is 2 X Kessil A360WE about 10" from the water with the following schedule:

Colour Intensity

11:00 0% 5%
13:00 10% 35%
14:00 55% 65%
19:00 45% 65%
20:00 30% 35%
22:00 0% 0%

Any advice/help will be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

[ReeferBen]

How are you light acclimating the new frags? You made need to do more or less of this depending on where they came from (online, LFS, and what the lighting was where they were grown.)

IME SPS can be real sensitive to Alk swings and temp swings. How stable are these parameters?

Love the rock scape!

 

[1Clown]

How are you light acclimating the new frags? You made need to do more or less of this depending on where they came from (online, LFS, and what the lighting was where they were grown.)

IME SPS can be real sensitive to Alk swings and temp swings. How stable are these parameters?

Love the rock scape!

Got them from a LFS which uses LED's, either Radions or Kessils. I acclimate new corals by floating the bag for 15-20 minutes for them to adjust to the tank temperature. I then drip acclimate them for around 30 minutes and also use Coral RX to remove any pests.

My parameters are stable as I use a doser to keep alk, cal and mag in check and consistent.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Your angel fish is most likely nipping at them.

 

[Newb_reefer1]

Dude ! Amazing rock work, definitely lots of space for some sps so let me start off by saying you are in the right place to receive help with sps.

The folks around here helped me ten fold on grasping concepts of dosing and supplementation when being applied to the tests I was taking & subsequently the results I was receiving ( Red Sea Pro ).

You're parameters seem to be in a solid range although I don't think you should have any reading of ammonia in an aquarium with corals. Alk, Cal, & Mag all seem to be in the desirable areas only thing I could think of at this point is maybe a swing in alkalinity that's too much for the frags ? at some point would cause STN or even RTN if it's too much of a drop in a short period of time.

You're corals look outstanding though so it's hard to determine a true cause but judging by those clams health and extension you should be able to keep sps in there no problem the euphillia also look really nice aswell as acans down below

 

[jsker]

You need some nitrates,

 

[reeferfoxx]

You need some nitrates,

I would remove the flame angel and dose amino acids like AcroPower or stump remover.

 

[1Clown]

Your angel fish is most likely nipping at them.

Even before I got both of my angels I was having the same issue with keeping sps. I've observed the angels for hours and hours and at most I've seen the flame angel nip at the purple montipora digitata with no signs of it actually trying to make a meal of it or anything.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Even before I got both of my angels I was having the same issue with keeping sps. I've observed the angels for hours and hours and at most I've seen the flame angel nip at the purple montipora digitata with no signs of it actually trying to make a meal of it or anything.

Well, when going down a check list of what could be the issue, adding things that could contribute isn't going to help. They are known to nip at lps and sps. We don't always see what happens at night either.

 

[jsker]

Feed the tank, the nitrates will go up and the fish will not be hungry and nipped no at the corals. With feeding heavy you will have to run GFO , of even a reactor

 

[azbigjohn]

Your tank is truly beautiful!

One issue I found (and I still kill 80% of SPS I try to grow) is the Kessils are a LOT more powerful than you think! I saw your intensity settings, but are you mixing up the blend of blue/white, too?

I agree you have a great start going!

 

[Reefpro]

Can you explain a few things, how do you keep everything stable as far as parameters and what happens to your corals. You say you cannot keep the. Do they turn white, brown or what happens. Without a few more details I will give you my best educated guess. I think you are right, the angel is not doing it, but as others have said, he is not helping. You should have zero amonnia, what kind of filtration do you have. And lastly it appears you may be stripping your corals with zero nutrients. You should try to have a little phosphate and nitrates. Hope this helps

 

[1Clown]

Feed the tank, the nitrates will go up and the fish will not be hungry and nipped no at the corals. With feeding heavy you will have to run GFO , of even a reactor

I feed the tank flakes, pellets and 2 frozen cubes a day with the addition of nori and/or h20cean reef paste every other day. I also feed my lps 3 or more times per week so I'm certain my tank is not clean in the sense of a little going in but I'm also exporting the nutrients out well too. High nutrient in and out is what I think I have if you know what I mean.

 

[Reefpro]

What equipment are younusing

 

[1Clown]

Your tank is truly beautiful!

One issue I found (and I still kill 80% of SPS I try to grow) is the Kessils are a LOT more powerful than you think! I saw your intensity settings, but are you mixing up the blend of blue/white, too?

I agree you have a great start going!

Hi, with the Kessils the 'Colour' setting means 0% = blue, 100% white so you can say I don't go whiter than 55%.

 

[reeferfoxx]

To my understanding it's more common to add 'risky fish' once SPS and LPS colonies have been established. Meaning, if your SPS colony is large it will be more resilient to fish nipping. Not saying the fish is bad, but at this stage, when you're having issues, might be best to remove him temporarily. Just my $.02

 

[1Clown]

Can you explain a few things, how do you keep everything stable as far as parameters and what happens to your corals. You say you cannot keep the. Do they turn white, brown or what happens. Without a few more details I will give you my best educated guess. I think you are right, the angel is not doing it, but as others have said, he is not helping. You should have zero amonnia, what kind of filtration do you have. And lastly it appears you may be stripping your corals with zero nutrients. You should try to have a little phosphate and nitrates. Hope this helps

I keep parameters stable by using the Kamoer 3 channel dosing pump. My latest SPS frags have either turned white, none to little polyp extension or gone brown. I believe my ammonia is 0, it's just the test kit doesn't say 0 on it and lowest it reads is <0.25.

My filtration is in the following order: 2 X 4" filter socks, Deltec SC1351 skimmer, chaeto grown by Kessil a160we Tuna Sun, filter floss.

 

[1Clown]

To my understanding it's more common to add 'risky fish' once SPS and LPS colonies have been established. Meaning, if your SPS colony is large it will be more resilient to fish nipping. Not saying the fish is bad, but at this stage, when you're having issues, might be best to remove him temporarily. Just my $.02

I believe you're right and I wouldn't think twice about removing the 2 angels but I had this same exact issue prior to getting them both.

 

[Dreadnaught]

Acro requires turbulent flow to feed and get polyp extension. I'm talking the type of flow that would rip apart your euphyllia in a tank of that size. (My 250G has 40x/h that in flow. (~10000 Gallons)

Low nitrates will result in slow growth but not death. When they die are then browning, bleaching or RTN/STN?

 

[pdt7361]

Browning is caused by too little light or too little nutrients...so I'd have to go with the 0 nitrates as your primary issue for SPS growth and coloring.