I'm out of sticks

[Sandroni]

I would just give the tank a few more months to mature. And then start with a birdsnest or monti. If they do well then start adding other sps.
I can always tell if something's up in my tank if the birdsnest is not happy.

I came to this conclusion a little while ago: waiting is key. lol patience is something I lack big time, but I've started to pump the brakes for it right now.

 

[Robink]

I totally understand.

 

[Heibel]

Do you have montis? If so how are they doing?

 

[Sandroni]

Do you have montis? If so how are they doing?

I have 2 months left my jedi mind trick and my red digi. They aren't doing so swell but I have an idea.

 

[Sandroni]

@Dana Riddle @Reef Pets I have an idea.... I have my 14 bio cube that has been up for a year, fully established thriving corals and coralline algae. I am running an AI Prime over there. Do you think if I put my good montis in there they would make it? It runs at 48 watts at most is that too low?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

@Randy Holmes-Farley @Reef Pets I have an idea.... I have my 14 bio cube that has been up for a year, fully established thriving corals and coralline algae. I am running an AI Prime over there. Do you think if I put my good montis in there they would make it? It runs at 48 watts at most is that too low?

Sorry, I don't have enough experience with such lights to know how much that means.

 

[aarbutina]

If it was me. I would drop them in the 14 gallon if things are going well in there. They will probably do much better in there than the would in the tank they are dying for sure in. Give it a try. Worst thing that can happen is you have to pull them out of they don’t start doing better. If that’s the case maybe a local reefer could temporarily House your pieces until things are figured out.

 

[Sandroni]

If it was me. I would drop them in the 14 gallon if things are going well in there. They will probably do much better in there than the would in the tank they are dying for sure in. Give it a try. Worst thing that can happen is you have to pull them out of they don’t start doing better. If that’s the case maybe a local reefer could temporarily House your pieces until things are figured out.

Yep, I am going to try it. I am rescaping my 14 tank to get a little higher to the surface for the most light and flow.

 

[aarbutina]

Yep, I am going to try it. I am rescaping my 14 tank to get a little higher to the surface for the most light and flow.

Good Luck.

 

[Sandroni]

Good Luck.

Thanks I'll post on here in a few days to give an update.

 

[mstockmaster]

Dry Rock

I think a lot of people, myself included, started dry rock or majority dry rock tanks within the past few years with the expectation of having a solid sps system. And over the past few months it seems that these types of threads have been very common. It seems that dry rock is the one common thread throughout many of these sps and acro struggles. It seems that there's just quite a bit more to growing sps, acros especially, than light, flow, and water parameter stability. From what I've worked out it all comes down to nutrients. In immature tanks algae and cyanobacteria out compete corals for available nutrients. Truly mature sps dominant tanks seemingly have almost zero issues with algae or cyanobacteria, and all those nutrients just get sucked up by the corals. My bet is that this is all based on some bacterial balance. But I'm only guessing, and I don't know how one arrives at this point quickly and consistently. My tank has been up for 9 months and I'm still struggling to get to a point where my acros are happy, let alone growing.

 

[Sandroni]

I think a lot of people, myself included, started dry rock or majority dry rock tanks within the past few years with the expectation of having a solid sps system. And over the past few months it seems that these types of threads have been very common. It seems that dry rock is the one common thread throughout many of these sps and acro struggles. It seems that there's just quite a bit more to growing sps, acros especially, than light, flow, and water parameter stability. From what I've worked out it all comes down to nutrients. In immature tanks algae and cyanobacteria out compete corals for available nutrients. Truly mature sps dominant tanks seemingly have almost zero issues with algae or cyanobacteria, and all those nutrients just get sucked up by the corals. My bet is that this is all based on some bacterial balance. But I'm only guessing, and I don't know how one arrives at this point quickly and consistently. My tank has been up for 9 months and I'm still struggling to get to a point where my acros are happy, let alone growing.

That's interesting.... I've seen this pattern recently that I am aware of. Dry rock is cheaper but in reality its not....

 

[Flux Capacitor]

What percentage do you run your lights at? I had similar problems with a frag tank I had set up running the 26hd. I found that anything over 40% on any channel would cause the corals to bleach out and die. Not sure that’s your problem, but maybe something to consider.

 

[rushbattle]

I think a lot of people, myself included, started dry rock or majority dry rock tanks within the past few years with the expectation of having a solid sps system. And over the past few months it seems that these types of threads have been very common. It seems that dry rock is the one common thread throughout many of these sps and acro struggles. It seems that there's just quite a bit more to growing sps, acros especially, than light, flow, and water parameter stability. From what I've worked out it all comes down to nutrients. In immature tanks algae and cyanobacteria out compete corals for available nutrients. Truly mature sps dominant tanks seemingly have almost zero issues with algae or cyanobacteria, and all those nutrients just get sucked up by the corals. My bet is that this is all based on some bacterial balance. But I'm only guessing, and I don't know how one arrives at this point quickly and consistently. My tank has been up for 9 months and I'm still struggling to get to a point where my acros are happy, let alone growing.

I’m finding that bacterial activity and nutrient availability are highly linked. I’ve been dosing lots of bacteria to drive algae growth lower and coral hrowth higher. It’s the only thing that’s worked with my dry rock started system. And adding live rubble.

 

[mstockmaster]

What bacteria source? Have you tried low level carbon dosing to help drive that bacterial growth?

 

[XNavyDiver]

I came to this conclusion a little while ago: waiting is key. lol patience is something I lack big time, but I've started to pump the brakes for it right now.

You and I are in the same boat, shipmate. Dry rock. I'm just a couple of months ahead of you. Just an FYI for your benefit (hopefully), I keep my alk at around 7.5, I don't even worry about no3 at the moment (last I checked is was in the 8-10ppm range). I keep my po4 at around .06 or so. Light intensity of the radions at about 50%, every two weeks, I bump the intensity up by 1% (slooooow). I've inoculated the tank twice with garf grunge and pods. It's just in the last month that this tank if finally supporting sps and now a handful of acro frags. I'm just about to the end of this tunnel, and I'm sure you get there soon also!

 

[rushbattle]

What bacteria source? Have you tried low level carbon dosing to help drive that bacterial growth?

Yeah, I had to cut out organic carbon dosing because my nitrates dropped too low. Corals need nutrients, and I think that they get them in our tanks via the inorganic forms (dissolved nitrate and phosphate, iron, etc.), while they mostly get them via organic compounds (DOM) in the wild. So measurable nitrate is important to me and my corals. Algae also like dissolved nutrients so Vibrant is an important part of driving coral growth.

I use a combination of the following, but not sure which combo I’ll keep using after I run out:
Vibrant
Chroma+
Microbacter7
Microbe-Lift

I suspect that I’ll use either the M7 or Microbe-Lift, not both in the future.

 

[Sandroni]

What percentage do you run your lights at? I had similar problems with a frag tank I had set up running the 26hd. I found that anything over 40% on any channel would cause the corals to bleach out and die. Not sure that’s your problem, but maybe something to consider.

Hmmm that is something to think about, I run my blues and purps.