Little worried about my first SPS. Advice?

[gunit]

First corals in my first reef tank...

Added about a week ago.

I'm a little worried about the browning on the Psammocora and the slightly lower than ideal pH. I'm thinking that I might try boosting the pH via adding some Alkalinity and lowering the Salinity a bit via removing some water and adding RODI with a bit of buffer. Thoughts on this plan?


Tank Parameters:

Salinity: 1.026
pH: 7.8
Alk: 8.5 dKH
Ca: 450
Mg: 1320
Temp: 76.6

Oh and the only other coral I've added to my tank is this Zoa which looks to be doing better.

 

[TriggerThis]

Any reason why your temp is not at 78?
Also it's not recommended to get sps soo soon in a newly set up tank.
That being said, obviously it's still alive so u must be doing something correctly so far.
Also don't chase ph numbers, they move around all day long. Keep the dkh and and temp rock solid and give it great light and you should be fine.
If it starts browning out it will prolly be from phosphates or poor lighting or poor flow.

 

[mtnrunner]

It's quite common for a coral to adjust color based upon conditions in its new home. The brown is not decay, but still living polyps so all looks good so far. Patience. Don't go changing a bunch of parms. Slow and steady.

 

[evan.lundberg4]

I wouldn't change anything right yet with your parameters. They're actually basically the same as my tank and my SPS are fine. Personally I've found that SPS are finicky and it doesn't take much for them to brown out. To simplify you need stability, good flow in your tank and plenty of light for SPS.

 

[Dog Boy Dave]

Only advise I would have for a newer reef keeper after this post is to : Stop chasing numbers. You would do more harm applying the fixes you listed than any minor parameter drift might cause. Understand that PH is chiefly influenced by system design and the conditions around the tank. IE CO2 levels in the ambient air. Without changing tank design or increasing ventilation there isn't much you can do to influence your pH for the long term . Constantly adjusting PH with chemical additives is probably the worse thing you can do.

 

[b_rad_G]

Only advise I would have for a newer reef keeper after this post is to : Stop chasing numbers. You would do more harm applying the fixes you listed than any minor parameter drift might cause. Understand that PH is chiefly influenced by system design and the conditions around the tank. IE CO2 levels in the ambient air. Without changing tank design or increasing ventilation there isn't much you can do to influence your pH for the long term . Constantly adjusting PH with chemical additives is probably the worse thing you can do.

+1

PH is more about co2 than dkh. Most people want to just raise the alkalinity and it will raise pH but it is very short lived usually. PH is really not important as a number as long as its over 7.7 and under something like 8.7. What is important is that pH doesn't swing wildly everyday. If you went from 7.8 to 8.4 every day I would say you need to change something. Alk can help with swings.

 

[gunit]

Thanks for the advice guys. Wasn't sure if the browning was it starting die or if it was just it adjusting. I'll keep an eye and just be patient. What would it look like if I needed to really start to worry?

 

[Braves Fan]

I have this Psammocora in my tank, its one of my favorites , it came from Stonecold, what a awesome coral, good luck with yours.

 

[gunit]

I have this Psammocora in my tank, its one of my favorites , it came from Stonecold, what a awesome coral, good luck with yours.

Thanks man same to you.