I hate sps

[Balz3352]

I had a tank that was doing well growing sps then had a tank crash. That was about a year and a half ago. My calcium reactor was leaking causing my alk to go all sorts of crazy... Ever since then I cannot keep sps alive to save my life. I have stabalized the tank and all my perams are good. I waited about 8 months before trying sps again. I have a reefbot that I got because I thought it was perameter issues.

My alk is 9 to 9.2 daily
CA runs 460
Mag 1320
Phos is 0.02


Im tired of killing corals. Im very discouraged.

 

[smartwater101]

What are your nitrates at? Corals need some nutrients. For me .02 phosphate is uncomfortably low. I shoot for .06 -.1 with ~10-15 nitrates. (Edit: alk is ~9.5)

It can always be lighting and flow as well. Those are a little harder to dial in. Is there plenty of water movement? But judging from the whiter tips, my first thought is nutrients. Either bring them up or perhaps bring the Alk down a touch.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Looks like high alk and low po4. Are you artificially driven po4 down? What are your export methods? Tank size? Lighting?

 

[road_runner]

Slowly and do not panic.
Let's start by understanding your system exactly.
System age
System filtration both biological and mechanical
System equipments: skimmer, pump, power head, lights..etc
System paramaters you include but missing salinity, no3
System dosing.
Do you use activated carbon and gfo?
Do you carbon dose?

Picture of the dt and the filtration would be helpful.

Do not worry we will donoir best to help you

 

[bobby.w.hodges]

The monti looks pale and appears to be starving, the other corals are showing the same signs, i agree with previous post, low nutrients combined with higher alk is not a good balance. Nitrate levels should be tested and listed. Also, I'm assuming that you are using a lot of the same equipment that you had previously, is there a chance that there could be metal contamination? I.E. old propellers, hose clamps, etc.?

 

[Balz3352]

Slowly and do not panic.
Let's start by understanding your system exactly. 225 dt with a 100+ gallon sump and a 50 gallon frag tank
System age. About 3 years
System filtration both biological and mechanical. Diy roller at filter, skimmer, cheato (which does Meh) I do have a decent amount of hair algae in my frag tank that I manually pull out so I guess you can consider that filtration
And uv sterilizer
System equipments: skimmer, pump, power head, lights..etc. Old big reef octopus 250ext.
Return is a reeflo hammerhead
2 gyre 280s and 2 tunze 6095s
3 mh 250 watt Hamilton 20k bulb
2 t5 lights
Diy blue led stunner strips
System paramaters you include but missing salinity, no3
Salinity 1.026
I don't have a nitrate kit. Can't really imagine them being low I heavily feed b/c I have 6 tangs among other fish
Need to get one.
System dosing. Carx via masterflex system
Do you use activated carbon and gfo? None
Do you carbon dose? No

Picture of the dt and the filtration would be helpful.

Do not worry we will donoir best to help you

 

[Balz3352]

Pics

 

[Balz3352]

The monti looks pale and appears to be starving, the other corals are showing the same signs, i agree with previous post, low nutrients combined with higher alk is not a good balance. Nitrate levels should be tested and listed. Also, I'm assuming that you are using a lot of the same equipment that you had previously, is there a chance that there could be metal contamination? I.E. old propellers, hose clamps, etc.?

Hmm well wouldn't think my water would too clean on nitrate side. Seems to be a consusis
Mix of old and new. I've scowered looking for metal/rust and didn't find any most internal pumps are new or cleaned and checked... Did a poly pad and came back just dirty

 

[Balz3352]

Looks like high alk and low po4. Are you artificially driven po4 down? What are your export methods? Tank size? Lighting?

Thanks answer in another post

 

[road_runner]

Am gonna guess you no3 is high. Also your light is too low for sps

Before I put a write up for you,can you share pictures of the whole system.
I can help you with some guidance but you should be ok with couple rules

1- you do not try every openion you see out there. At least not at the same time
2- you follow the plan. We will do testing, might change some kits if we do not trust it, will seek data and react only based in data, not much guessing and short cuts
3- patience patience patience
4- finally you meed to over communicate so I understand your system progress. The progress will be as good ad yoi communicate your system.

If you up to it I can start helping you and invest in frequent write ups..

Your call.

 

[Nanoreefboi]

Try dosing amino acids like acropower. My montis colored up and exploded in growth.

 

[road_runner]

Try dosing amino acids like acropower. My montis colored up and exploded in growth.

Do not you want to know his nutrient levels before dosing amino acids?
Do not you want to know his actual po4 level?
What if his kit not reliable?
I see multiple gaps he need to fix first

Light
Filtration insufficient
Overfeeding
Checking his rodi source
...etc
Many things need to be understood before he should start dosing..no?

 

[Sailfinguy21]

Phospgates too low... you do realize thats living organisms need phosphates to live... atart feeding alot of flaked food.. get the phsophates and nitrates up... your alk and calcium is too high with no nutrients in the water.


Stop using gfo and crap like that make your tank dirty.. and watch the sps come back

 

[road_runner]

Phospgates too low... you do realize thats living organisms need phosphates to live... atart feeding alot of flaked food.. get the phsophates and nitrates up... your alk and calcium is too high with no nutrients in the water.


Stop using gfo and crap like that make your tank dirty.. and watch the sps come back

Am gonna go on a limb here and say his po4 is not really zero
No carbon
No gfo
No string filtration
Heavy feeding
Do you really expect such system to have po4 zero?

Data matter guys...

 

[Sailfinguy21]

0.02 is pretty much 0 man lol.

Mine is .50 fyi thats 25 times higher then his

 

[road_runner]

0.02 is pretty much 0 man lol.

Mine is .50 fyi thats 25 times higher then his

You missing my point mate..

 

[Sailfinguy21]

I think youre missing mine ? Not gonna argue.. i said my peace.. get the phosphates and nitrates up and people will maybe stop killing sps. Spec8ally when you have high calcium and alk...

 

[bluprntguy]

0.02 is pretty much 0 man lol.

Mine is .50 fyi thats 25 times higher then his

Most people keeping SPS shoot for .03 p04. That’s plenty for SPS.

 

[road_runner]

Most people keeping SPS shoot for .03 p04. That’s plenty for SPS.

Correct.
I keep mind between 0.08 to 0.16 depend on what am planning that month or 1 months..
I use po4 to minuplate frag growth some times.

 

[Sailfinguy21]

I hear you 100%.. im just sayin whats worked for me is all