Help-Sps not liking my tank.
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MaiReef
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I had the same problem when my tank was that age. Lost my monti and birds nest, so I am following to see if there is a fix. My horn made it, but it is still limping a bit. My Pavona is doing much better with better lights, so the kessils may be it.
luke33
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Your rock could be leaching phosphate as dry rock does this for quite some time. That could be causing the issue's as it generally kills your sps pretty slow. Your lps and softies can tolerate it more. The only real way to check your phos is to use a hanna checker. Flake food is high in phos so thats not a good alternative.
If your seeing more hair algae it could be an indicator of phos issue's. But i think you just need to give your tank time to mature and let it balance itself out.
james983
Active Member
My experience is, the dry rock is leaching PO4, I don't however believe that is causing your issue. High PO4 usually causes SPS to brown out.
JaimeAdams
2500 Club Member
I have to assume that when you say that your calcium was low that your alkalinity was also off. When you say "Now the alk is pretty stable" that means that you were having issues with your alkalinity? Is that correct? If you were having alkalinity problems my assumption is that is what caused your tissue recession. I know that when I had my alk drop some of my acros looked very similar to your picture.
You really should be checking your phosphate as everyone else suggests as well. A bit elevated won't kill sps, but it certainly stresses them out and when already messed up it could certainly add much more stress.
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Jackcarp
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Well, I increased my feeding and have had an outbreak of GHA that I'm not comfortable with. I checked my Phosphates and they are 0. Nitrates hover around 1-2. I have lost my Interstellar Acro and some of the montipora seem to be fading. my tank looked a lot better when I was dosing Vodka/Vinegar but I was worried about the corals not having enough nutrients. How do you keep the nitrates up enough so the corals thrive but not get the algae outbreaks???
remove as much of the algae as possible. consider No3 po4 dosing also consider a better test kit. Also bump up the amount of snails.
Personally Id bump the cuc, do some big water changes. algaes I believe also remove trace elements. Forget nutrient chasing for a bit, just keep an eye on the corals, and perhaps lower your lighting temporality.
Check your alkalinity as well, and make sure it matches you nutrient levels. If you tank is running as a ULNS, go that way with alk and light.
Here a nice discussion with some amazing heavyweight SPS guys, comes form both sides, high and low nutrints. A really good read.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sps-high-nutrients-myth.283442/#post-3449471
fragit
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Jack I had/have the same issue. I was running ULN with AF. Got 12 sticks after Christmas and have lost 3 so far and the remaining 9 are clinging to life. They are a mix of Acros and montis. I am doing just as saltyfilmfolks has suggested and turned my lighting down. I've been dosing Spectraside Stump remover to boost nitrates. Trying to be in the 5-10ppm range with a phosphate level of 0.02ppm. Corals don't look worse after a little over a week, but they don't look better either. Check out that thread salty pointed you too. Also check out the low par thread that is very interesting. Watch the video that's the best part! Sorry your dealing with this it sucks! We got your back my friend!
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Jackcarp
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Thanks Jesse! I definitely don't want to lose my corals but I'm afraid if I raise my nitrates it will just make the algae problem go nuts. I don't have a par meter to see what my light readings but if they were too low I wouldn't have enough money right now to get new ones. Would dosing H2N2 provide any type of temporary fix so I can raise my nutrients without getting choked out by GHA?
choke it out first. Snails. tooth brush.
lux meter, and a forum with good dudes to help figure out how to use it.
fragit
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It is potassium nitrate. It dissolves in RO/DI and makes the two elements available for uptake. twilliard has a great recipe for it. There are a couple threads here about using it. If you can get rid of the GHA in your display I wouldn't worry about algae in there anymore. Good cuc and a Tang or two you should be good to go!
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Jackcarp
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Yup - saltpeter-its one of the main ingredients in gunpowder and fireworks. Melt it over a stove with sugar and you get one heck of a smokebomb. Anyways, I guess I need to order more snails. I do have a yellow tang and a hippo tang but they don't seem to touch the stuff. Maybe I should quit feeding them nori all the time. I'll look at adding some potassium nitrate. Still Leary about the amount of GHA in my DT tho.
