First tank thread

Kyle Paul · Jul 28, 2017

Here is my 40gal reef. Been goin for about 6+ months but had a 20gal that I transfered after about 3months so roughly 9+ months I'd say ‍

Lately my biggest struggle is with sps. For some reason my sps frags keep dying on me. I have the same lights as my LFS has and roughly the same par for where I'm placing these frags nitrates are as close to zero without being zero and no phosphates either. Been keeping my cal around 400-420 and my alk right around 9. Any help on that would be awesome.

Kyle Paul · Jul 28, 2017

Not sure if I did this right. Pretty new to forums

Jayp5117 · Jul 28, 2017

What lights are you running? Where are you placing the frags? And personally I'd stay away from sps until you master softies and LPS. What are you running for powerheads and filtration?

prsnlty · Jul 28, 2017

Welcome to Reef 2 Reef Kyle!

Do you have enough poopers? Yep, I'm serious [emoji12] Do you have a picture of your tank? You might not be acclimating them properly. Are you also placing them on the sand bed when you first get them? You may have the same lights but your distance from lamp to sand bed may be different or intensity could be as well. Your chemistry and your system is probably different than there's also. Your tank is also pretty young and needs to mature more for most SPS unless it's montipora.

Kyle Paul · Jul 28, 2017

Jayp5117 said:
What lights are you running? Where are you placing the frags? And personally I'd stay away from sps until you master softies and LPS. What are you running for powerheads and filtration?

My lights are hydra AI 26s. The par I have been placing the sps is about 650-700 so higher up in the tank. A buddy and myself help out at our LFS for store credit and he doesn't know either after bringing in my water for him to test just to make sure I didn't fudge anything up. Filtration I have going through a 25micron filter pad (changing it every day) then refugium with chateo and skimmer. I have the maxspect gyre xf-230 on like 20%.

Kyle Paul · Jul 28, 2017

prsnlty · Jul 28, 2017

Kyle Paul said:

How many fish do you have in there? It only looks like 2. Honestly I agree with the gentleman above that you need to master the other corals first before heading into acropora. They're a finicky animal that even the smallest of changes can affect.

Kyle Paul · Jul 28, 2017

prsnlty said:
Welcome to Reef 2 Reef Kyle!

Do you have enough poopers? Yep, I'm serious [emoji12] Do you have a picture of your tank? You might not be a committing them properly. Are you also placing them on the sand bed when you first get them? You may have the same lights but your distance from lamp to sand bed may be different or intensity could be as well. Your chemistry and your system is probably different than there's also. Your tank is also pretty young and needs to mature more for most SPS unless it's montipora.

I used a par meter at the LFS and also in my tank. Wouldn't that be the same thing for lighting? And I have made my parameters as close as I can get to the LFS to avoid acclimating coral since I usually buy just from them. (With the exception of fish). Yea possibly just a young tank. Frustrations my buddy with a 120 is growing sps successfully and we have had our tanks same amount of time

Lol

prsnlty · Jul 28, 2017

Smaller systems are less forgiving them bigger systems.

Jayp5117 · Jul 28, 2017

Personally I wouldn't change the filter pad daily, it's unnecessary to change it that often unless you are getting a lot of un eaten food drawn in to the sponge. I have a 7 year old tank set up now and I'm still not messing with sps in that tank because the difficulty of it and the greater chance of loss. I do agree your tank is still to young to try sps since it isn't fully matured. Less is more sometimes start with softies and see if they are growing and happy and maybe a lps or 2. Plus it will give your tank time to age and build up it's natural filtration. For now your best bet is to stay away from sps and master one thing at a time.

Jayp5117 · Jul 28, 2017

Kyle Paul said:

Tank looks good, but that anemone is very close to your ZOAs

Kyle Paul · Jul 28, 2017

prsnlty said:
How many fish do you have in there? It only looks like 2. Honestly I agree with the gentleman above that you need to master the other corals first before heading into acropora. They're a finicky animal that even the smallest of changes can affect.

I have..
2 black ice clowns
3 lyre tail anthias
1 diamond goby
1 lawn mower blenny
1 green mandarin
2 banggai cardinals ( gf wanted them )

But I want sps now!!!! Lol

prsnlty · Jul 28, 2017

That's plenty of fish then. I realize you want SPS and if you do start with montipora. But I would not go with the acros, remember these are real live animals. Every time everyone has to go through these steps especially in a smaller system. One thing in reefing that we all have to learn or we fail in a big way somehow sooner or later is patience.

Kyle Paul · Jul 28, 2017

prsnlty said:
That's plenty of fish then. I realize you want SPS and if you do start with montipora. But I would not go with the akros remember these are real live animals. Every time everyone has to go through these steps especially in a smaller system. One thing in reefing that we all have to learn or we fail in a big way somehow sooner or later is patience.

It's a 25 micron pad that drips into my sump and it isn't very big. It's very dirty everyday. Trying to make my water quality as good as I can make it. I've had a lot of stuff die due to poor filtration

Kyle Paul · Jul 28, 2017

Jayp5117 said:
Tank looks good, but that anemone is very close to your ZOAs

Yea I don't know where else to move it. It wouldn't be very hard since the nem is on a separate smaller rock

prsnlty · Jul 28, 2017

Kyle Paul said:
It's a 25 micron pad that drips into my sump and it isn't very big. It's very dirty everyday. Trying to make my water quality as good as I can make it. I've had a lot of stuff die due to poor filtration

Well then you need to concern yourself with getting your filtration good before putting any more Corals in there. If you don't get your filtration where it needs to be then this problem is just going to persist if not get worse....

Kyle Paul · Jul 28, 2017

prsnlty said:
Well then you need to concern yourself with getting your filtration good before putting any more Corals in there. If you don't get your filtration where it needs to be then this problem is just going to persist if not get worse....

25 micron is very good. I just change them everyday because they get dirty fast. Basically the same setup as my LFS with my filtration. So I highly doubt that is my issue. I have try some cheap sps. They last for about 2-4 weeks then start losing polyps