Corals deteriorating what am i missing?

[Nano sapiens]

How do you acclimate your new corals? With the high light intensity (for LEDs) that you currently have, they'd need to be started off in the lower PAR areas and slowly acclimated to the higher PAR.

As mentioned by a few here, lower PAR would be advisable in a mixed reef with LEDs (especially if those LEDs are running mostly violet/blue spectrum which provides a lot of PUR). For reference, in a small mixed reef with ~12k lighting, I keep SPS like Birdsnests at 160 - 200 PAR, Pavona 140 - 220, Zoas 140 - 220, Leptoseris 80 - 160, Acans 70 - 120 and Blastos 50 - 70. Corals can adapt to quite a spread, but having PUR too high is a common cause of coral distress, bleaching and possible death (much worse than lighting that is too low). You don't have to run these specific PAR ranges as even different color morphs of the same species can have different lighting requirements, but you can use them as a loose guide.

Additionally, running GAC provides clearer water by removing 'Gelbstoff' (yellowing substances), so corals receive more light than if it wasn't present. I don't use it since I do frequent water changes, but if you continue I'd suggest using just enough to keep the water clear, but not so much that you end up stripping too much of the organics out of the water (coral can feed on organics in the water, as well as photosynthetic byproducts, zooplankton and phytoplankton).

Your system obviously has the 'right' bacteria to keep nitrate in check. I'm a firm believer in adding true live rock, even if it's just a piece or two, to add a larger variety of bacteria/archaea species to the system. And give the system time as it's still a young'un

 

[Reeffragger]

Nutrients are too low. Get some nitrates and phosphates in there...

 

[Marc2952]

How do you acclimate your new corals? With the high light intensity (for LEDs) that you currently have, they'd need to be started off in the lower PAR areas and slowly acclimated to the higher PAR.

As mentioned by a few here, lower PAR would be advisable in a mixed reef with LEDs (especially if those LEDs are running mostly violet/blue spectrum which provides a lot of PUR). For reference, in a small mixed reef with ~12k lighting, I keep SPS like Birdsnests at 160 - 200 PAR, Pavona 140 - 220, Zoas 140 - 220, Leptoseris 80 - 160, Acans 70 - 120 and Blastos 50 - 70. Corals can adapt to quite a spread, but having PUR too high is a common cause of coral distress, bleaching and possible death (much worse than lighting that is too low). You don't have to run these specific PAR ranges as even different color morphs of the same species can have different lighting requirements, but you can use them as a loose guide.

Additionally, running GAC provides clearer water by removing 'Gelbstoff' (yellowing substances), so corals receive more light than if it wasn't present. I don't use it since I do frequent water changes, but if you continue I'd suggest using just enough to keep the water clear, but not so much that you end up stripping too much of the organics out of the water (coral can feed on organics in the water, as well as photosynthetic byproducts, zooplankton and phytoplankton).

Your system obviously has the 'right' bacteria to keep nitrate in check. I'm a firm believer in adding true live rock, even if it's just a piece or two, to add a larger variety of bacteria/archaea species to the system. And give the system time as it's still a young'un

Ahhhh i see so i guess ill drop them down to 50% intensity so it looks like this? Its just that i was always told that for sps i need 250-350 PAR but i guess less light is better then too much.

 

[Nano sapiens]

The short version is that your current PAR levels would be more appropriate if you were running just Metal Halide and/or T5s. LEDs tend to produce a lot of PUR (light waves that the coral uses for photosythesis), so less intensity (measured as PAR) is needed.

Corals are especially sensitive to lighting changes and need lots of time to comfortably adapt. Make all lighting changes slowly/incrementally over a couple weeks at least (especially important when increasing intensity and/or altering the light spectrum).

 

[Marc2952]

The short version is that your current PAR levels would be more appropriate if you were running just Metal Halide and/or T5s. LEDs tend to produce a lot of PUR (light waves that the coral uses for photosythesis), so less intensity (measured as PAR) is needed.

Corals are especially sensitive to lighting changes and need lots of time to comfortably adapt. Make all lighting changes slowly/incrementally over a couple weeks at least (especially important when increasing intensity and/or altering the light spectrum).

Ok thanks for the advice, so you suggest i just leave it at %50 for a while and see how they react?

 

[Nano sapiens]

Ok thanks for the advice, so you suggest i just leave it at %50 for a while and see how they react?

Considering your current quite high PAR and major coral distress/dying, dropping ~40/50% seems prudent. If the corals respond favorably, you should see some expansion from the LPS/Zoas as they relax. SPS are tougher to read and generally take longer to show signs of recovery, but generally some polyp extension along with a more deep/rich coloration would be favorable, IMO.

 

[Marc2952]

Considering your current quite high PAR and major coral distress/dying, dropping ~40/50% seems prudent. If the corals respond favorably, you should see some expansion from the LPS/Zoas as they relax. SPS are tougher to read and generally take longer to show signs of recovery, but generally some polyp extension along with a more deep/rich coloration would be favorable, IMO.

Alrighty thanks! I did lose all my sps and most of my lps so i guess ill leave it like this for now. The two hammers i had died and my last acan head that i had left did a polyp bailout yesterday so not much to lose now i guess.

 

[hometown9]

I had similar issues with your similar water parameters a few months back. SPS were dying (RTN), and others would lose tissue slowly (over a month or so). Honestly, I didn't do much other than wait it out. Seemed to be an equilibrium as my tank shifted from one set of stable parameters to another. I was told to feed heavily to try and combat the stress, which seemed to help though required more water changes. I added a T5 fixture to my LEDs but I'm not convinced that did anything. I will say 2x algae scrubbers seemed to help w/ the stabilization. Good luck!

 

[Nano sapiens]

Alrighty thanks! I did lose all my sps and most of my lps so i guess ill leave it like this for now. The two hammers i had died and my last acan head that i had left did a polyp bailout yesterday so not much to lose now i guess.

That is always heartbreaking, but don't let it stop you! This is a hobby with a steep learning curve and lots of conflicting (or incorrectly applied) information floating around on the Web. Sometimes it's just the little things that can trip up a system and so properly dialing in and maintaining all the parameters in order to promote stability is the challenge of reef keeping.

 

[Nano sapiens]

I had similar issues with your similar water parameters a few months back. SPS were dying (RTN), and others would lose tissue slowly (over a month or so). Honestly, I didn't do much other than wait it out. Seemed to be an equilibrium as my tank shifted from one set of stable parameters to another. I was told to feed heavily to try and combat the stress, which seemed to help though required more water changes. I added a T5 fixture to my LEDs but I'm not convinced that did anything. I will say 2x algae scrubbers seemed to help w/ the stabilization. Good luck!

What has been documented with the typical dry rock set up is that it takes a good while longer for the system to be able to support the more delicate/demanding corals (a year or more, generally) due to the slower establishment of a diverse microbial community (assuming the microbes are introduced to the system). Live rock setups already start with a diverse microbial community that rapidly populates the system, so they will typically support SPS like Acropora more quickly.

This is a good read and Mike Paletta's video):

https://www.tcmas.org/forums/threads/two-new-builds-two-headaches-what-are-we-doing-wrong.69274/

 

[Marc2952]

That is always heartbreaking, but don't let it stop you! This is a hobby with a steep learning curve and lots of conflicting (or incorrectly applied) information floating around on the Web. Sometimes it's just the little things that can trip up a system and so properly dialing in and maintaining all the parameters in order to promote stability is the challenge of reef keeping.

Indeed you live and learn, love this hobby. Also thanks for the help.

 

[Marc2952]

What has been documented with the typical dry rock set up is that it takes a good while longer for the system to be able to support the more delicate/demanding corals (a year or more, generally) due to the slower establishment of a diverse microbial community (assuming the microbes are introduced to the system). Live rock setups already start with a diverse microbial community that rapidly populates the system, so they will typically support SPS like Acropora more quickly.

This is a good read and Mike Paletta's video):

https://www.tcmas.org/forums/threads/two-new-builds-two-headaches-what-are-we-doing-wrong.69274/

Btw my sister recorded a video of th tank today, again tanks for you and everyone else, its just one day of me lowering the intensity at %50 and the torches are already opening up!! Crazy how the light was one of the issues.

 

[Nano sapiens]

Btw my sister recorded a video of th tank today, again tanks for you and everyone else, its just one day of me lowering the intensity at %50 and the torches are already opening up!! Crazy how the light was one of the issues.

Good to hear! Now just a matter of keeping everything stable and letting the coral adjust. Would suggest feeding the torch a small tidbit if it continues to open up in a few days and see if it accepts it.