Coral not calcifying?

[ReefSlice]

I have a 40b that I have recently started adding sps to, and for some strange reason the coral are not using any alk or calcium at all. There are 12 sps frags in there now as well as 3 lps frags and alk has remained 9.8 for over 2 weeks. Other parameters are no3 - 5, po4 - 0.00 on Hanna ulr, calcium 430, mag 1400, sg is 1.025, temp 79. Only 2 clowns in the tank, and tank is barebottom. My suspicion is that my tank is phosphate limited, as the frags just slowly start lightening up and the edges begin receding, as if the coral is starving after a few weeks to a month. They don't die, just no growth, and reduced polpy extension. I also get no algae on my glass or rocks ever, I clean the glass maybe once a week. Anyone think I'm missing something else here? Can't figure it out after months of stable water. Ive tried feeding more LRS reef frenzy, but my tank consumes po4 at an alarming rate. Within a day it's back to .00 after a heavy feeding to the two clowns and reef roids to the coral.

 

[Guttersnipe]

I have a 40b that I have recently started adding sps to, and for some strange reason the coral are not using any alk or calcium at all. There are 12 sps frags in there now as well as 3 lps frags and alk has remained 9.8 for over 2 weeks. Other parameters are no3 - 5, po4 - 0.00 on Hanna ulr, calcium 430, mag 1400, sg is 1.025, temp 79. Only 2 clowns in the tank, and tank is barebottom. My suspicion is that my tank is phosphate limited, as the frags just slowly start lightening up and the edges begin receding, as if the coral is starving after a few weeks to a month. They don't die, just no growth, and reduced polpy extension. I also get no algae on my glass or rocks ever, I clean the glass maybe once a week. Anyone think I'm missing something else here? Can't figure it out after months of stable water. Ive tried feeding more LRS reef frenzy, but my tank consumes po4 at an alarming rate. Within a day it's back to .00 after a heavy feeding to the two clowns and reef roids to the coral.

How old is your tank? What kind of light do you have over your tank?

 

[ZaneTer]

@ReefSlice
Have you considered dosing something like trisodium phosphate?

 

[ReefSlice]

How old is your tank? What kind of light do you have over your tank?

Tank is about 2 years old, fish only for a year and then I began adding corals. Lighting provided by 2 kessil a350s set to 40% blue 30% white. I also get no coralline growth which I find very strange.
I actually dosed 1.3 ml of neophos yesterday to see what happens, will test po4 again today and see where I stand. Just wanted to know what everyone else thinks to see if I was missing something. I have been planning on lowering alk to 8 from 9.8 but the corals uptake none and I'm trying to hold off on water changes to keep nutrients up a bit.

 

[ReefSlice]

Bump. Anyone got any other suggestions? I've gotten my po4 up to .009 today using neophos, so we'll see if that helps or if I'm having a completely different problem.

 

[John3]

What do u have for lighting? How about flow?

 

[ReefSlice]

2 kessil a350w's at 40% blue 30% white, 1 jebao wp8 plus return, lots of flow, any more and I couldn't keep lps or softies. Barebottom with no detritus anywhere.

 

[Flippers4pups]

My experience with SPS is they can take months before they start to grow/encrust. In my current system, it took most of my frags six months to finally settle down and encrust/grow. Everyone system is different. Stability is key, then they will take off.

 

[ReefSlice]

I'd be fine if they were just not growing, which they do for a few weeks, but then after 2 or 3 weeks they begin to get pale and have less PE, some even look like the edges are slowly receding. And my LPS (candy canes, chalice and war coral) don't seem to want to open.

 

[Flippers4pups]

I'd be fine if they were just not growing, which they do for a few weeks, but then after 2 or 3 weeks they begin to get pale and have less PE, some even look like the edges are slowly receding. And my LPS (candy canes, chalice and war coral) don't seem to want to open.

What’s your water parameters?

 

[Dana Riddle]

with the limited info I have, I would think flow could be the issue. If the corals' polyps aren't behaving like a wheat field in strong wind... Flow is so under-rated. When I was taking light measurements in Hawaii (in a sheltered reef flat), the PAR sensors were attached to 5-pound dive weights, and the flow was so strong that these were tossed around (and this place - Kahaluu, Big Island of Hawaii, was called, among other things, "Childrens' Beach" because of 'safe' surf conditions.)

 

[ReefSlice]

I really have a good amount of flow, I've had multiple other tanks with much less flow and went with more on this tank to sway towards a more SPS dominant reef. The wave nearly splashes out of my tank and not a single thing settles on the bottom, sps polyps are all swaying in the current with a decent unpredictable flow, some violently. There are only a few choice places where I can put LPS and a few zoas. Parameters are above.

 

[Guttersnipe]

I really have a good amount of flow, I've had multiple other tanks with much less flow and went with more on this tank to sway towards a more SPS dominant reef. The wave nearly splashes out of my tank and not a single thing settles on the bottom, sps polyps are all swaying in the current with a decent unpredictable flow, some violently. There are only a few choice places where I can put LPS and a few zoas. Parameters are above.

It took my frags close to six months to get settled in and started growing. My light is a ati powermodule.
When I was still using kessil my lps thrived but none of my sps frags made it.

 

[ReefSlice]

@Randy Holmes-Farley I should have posted on your sub, do you have any thoughts here? Kind of scratching my head here as a month ago I was getting growth, then suddenly everything stopped fully opening and growth halted. Parameters were exactly the same a month ago, except nitrates are 5 instead of 3 now and po4 has been 0 for a few weeks. Reading .012 today after feeding LRS twice and dosing 1 ml neophos yesterday.

 

[ReefSlice]

Here's what I'm talking about, first pic is today, 2nd is a month ago when I got it. You can see the same thing on another frag behind it in the first picture. Also got an orange filter recently so colors are off on first picture, but you can tell it has lightened up a bit.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

@Randy Holmes-Farley I should have posted on your sub, do you have any thoughts here? Kind of scratching my head here as a month ago I was getting growth, then suddenly everything stopped fully opening and growth halted. Parameters were exactly the same a month ago, except nitrates are 5 instead of 3 now and po4 has been 0 for a few weeks. Reading .012 today after feeding LRS twice and dosing 1 ml neophos yesterday.

I'd keep up the phosphate dosing, but the tank might also be limited by a trace element. You might look into dosing some sort of element mixture.

 

[ReefSlice]

What level po4 should I be aiming for here? I dosed another 1 ml today after getting a .0125 reading, still no noticeable effect on corals, but I will keep at it. Did get the tiniest bit of film algae on the glass today (4 days since I cleaned it, but I haven't seen green on the glass in months). Also down to .5ml nopox for today, should I try and completely stop the nopox or keep it where it is now where I can keep a tiny bit of phosphate in the system?

 

[RedneckReefer68]

Why dose nopox if your trying to raise nutrients? I would stop dosing it all together. Get po4 up to .03-.05 and monitor your nitrates. Keep them 5-10 and you should be good.

 

[RedneckReefer68]

Also what kind of rock did you start the tank with?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

What level po4 should I be aiming for here? I dosed another 1 ml today after getting a .0125 reading, still no noticeable effect on corals, but I will keep at it. Did get the tiniest bit of film algae on the glass today (4 days since I cleaned it, but I haven't seen green on the glass in months). Also down to .5ml nopox for today, should I try and completely stop the nopox or keep it where it is now where I can keep a tiny bit of phosphate in the system?

Most people find that a phosphate concentration in the 0.02-0.03 ppm range is plenty.

There are reasons to carbon dose that go beyond nutrient reduction (bacteria as foods, for example) and so if nitrate is where you want it with organic dosing, I’d personally keep doing it.