Finally SPS growth!! What do you guys think?

ps2cho · Jul 4, 2015

For the past year I made a number of threads trying to figure out why my SPS kept RTN'ing and STN'ing.

Well after slowing down the water changes, removing a few rocks that I had used Gorilla Glue on, and stabilized the Alk + Ca....NO ISSUES!!!

I wanted to post some pics of the SPS. Does everything look pretty happy to you?

Last picture shows 3 months growth on that blue/purple tipped SPS. I think thats pretty good!
Also my Styloporia (sp?) is turning into a fricken tree trunk!!

This SPS went from almost nothing left from the STN...

Tahoe61 · Jul 4, 2015

That is a good turn around. It's really difficult for me to turn sps around once they start to decline. It's hard to make the right decisions or even if you should intervene, is it a trend or just one coral....so much goes into trouble shooting sps issues.

Good job.

spspirate · Jul 4, 2015

Your on the right track! Keep it up! What food are you feeding?

ps2cho · Jul 5, 2015

None really...i lost a kole tang recently which might have been helping out by pooping so much so i might do a light feeding weekly now to help.

JerSaint · Jul 5, 2015

Nice growth! Keep it up!

ps2cho · Jul 5, 2015

Now that I'm not having issues what about increasing my reefbreeders light percentage? Or does everything look ok and leave it alone?

FL_Reefer · Jul 5, 2015

If everything is growing good and you have all your par in check, I wouldn't change anything or you may be ''starting all over again'' Ya know what I mean

ps2cho · Jul 5, 2015

The only thing that isn't growing is my toadstool which is odd

FL_Reefer · Jul 5, 2015

Toadstools can be weird, I know mine goes trough stages, it grows then stops, then grows again. Mine likes good flow

bkostuch · Jul 6, 2015

I'm running into the same rtn / Stn issue. How many and what size fish are in the tank? Oh and what size tank, great growth

BPiers · Jul 6, 2015

What was the problem you were having with the Gorilla Glue (assuming you mean the gel superglue here)....I use that exclusively and its been my absolute favorite glue hands down!

hart24601 · Jul 6, 2015

FWIW I use gorilla gel superglue exclusively. No joke I have gone through over 3 dozen of them in the past year with no apparent issues.

Lonelyreef · Jul 6, 2015

I'm intrested to hear this well because I've been having some weird issues as well

ps2cho · Jul 7, 2015

It was the wood/foaming version not the gel. I thought I read online someone said it was OK but after my constant issues I decided to dump any rocks that I used it on.

The tank is 60gal.

I have 2 cleaner shrimp 2 clowns and a royal gramma.

I had a kole tang and a yellow tang but I lost them both. The yellow tang had an internal infection and she wouldn't eat and my kole tang mysteriously died a month later for still unknown reason...she was eating fine and didn't display any signs but who knows.

So does that growth look OK?

I keep nitrates at about 5 to 10ppm and po4 at 0.1 to 0.15.

I used to test every few days but now that I got the dosing correct I test every 2 to 4 weeks. I should probably test more but everything looks happy and each time I test it comes back OK. It dropped a little recently in calcium probably due to growth now so I bumped the doser

ps2cho · Aug 16, 2015

Here's some more photos 5 weeks later

More growth! I think I've nailed it now. What do you guys think about the colors?
My tank stats as of today:

1.025
79F
Nitrates: 10
Phosphates: 0.16
Calcium: 400
Alk: 8.5
Magnesium: 1400

Russ265 · Aug 17, 2015

looking real good. i'd bump calcium to 425 if your alk is usually 8.5.
keep an eye on the phosphate levels.

overall, great job.

ps2cho · Aug 17, 2015

Post #1 really shows a pretty good growth versus the last post on the Blue Tipped Acro whatever it is.

Also that policipora is a fricken tree trunk! Is it going to start growing outwards soon?

ReefBum · Aug 21, 2015

Nice work to get things to turn around. I would try and get your nitrates down a bit. IMO, your Ca is fine....Alk is the really important parameter so I would keep it right where you have it and not let it swing. Stable Alk is very important!