Need some help - Acro's not happy (GFO to blame?)

[AndyD]

Hi there. I'll try to make this a quick read:

Tank: 225
Sump: 125
Lighting - (3) Radion G4 set on AB+
Running Apex - all is stable
Triton Method (2) Apex DOS doing the dosing

Alk - 8.5
mag - 1390
calc - 460
PH - 8

Tank is about 2-3 months old - ran a couple months with just LR
I have about 40 frags in the tanks so far and they have all taken off and were growing well. Mostly SPS. A couple LPS.

I did a Triton ICP test and got the results back that Phosphates were high. This made sense b/c i was getting some brown hair algae in the tank...but the corals were doing great. Polyps were fully extended and good growth.

The brass tax -- Triton recommended I run GFO in my reactor. I ran "Xport-PO4" by Brightwell. I followed the instructions and rinsed it well in RODI water. But about after 1-2 days of running the media, most of my acro's are hardly extending their polyps. Some are looking a little bleached, and one is has STN'd a little.

I immediately concluded the PO4 media was to blame and pulled the media out of the reactor and added fresh carbon. I also did a 20% water change. This was a week ago. Nothing has really improved since. I did another 20% water change last night.

I have also noticed there is some brown residue in my skimmer chamber (main tube) that is brown...possibly from the GFO?

Also, the algae is getting under control (not that it was getting too crazy anyways).

My Assumption -- I drastically changed some of the chemistry in the tank (PO4) and shocked my sps corals. But I am wondering if the brand of P04 media I used is too strong or I used too much of it?

Any advice on this?

 

[Dmsick]

Following. I'm interested to learn more about this one.

 

[AndyD]

Some pics of the corals.

 

[TexasTodd]

That's a super young tank for acros. Also, you want slow change. If using GFO, start with about 25% of what directions say, then add another 25% maybe 1 week later. 10% water changes are good too. Make sure your RO/DI is at or close to zero.
PE isn't all that great of an indicator for SPS health.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Agreed ^. Also even with rinsing the GFO and tumbling at the correct rate, there will be “fines” coming off the media. It’s best to have the effluent from the reactor dump into a filter sock. You’ll be surprised on how much it catches.

 

[mtraylor]

Yes your tank is very young and its going to be cycling a bit. In review of your pictures of the corals, they look pretty good to me. The GFO you added probably stripped your phosphates fairly quickly. Did you take a reading of your phosphates after you added the GFO? This will tell you if you stripped them down too quickly. This is a no no and will kill sps and other corals.

Do you have a full set of test kits? If not, that should be your top priority. Start testing all parms on a regular basis. Leave the aquarium alone right now and let it stabilize. That will be your friend. In review of your pictures, you need a bigger clean up crew to get those rocks clean. Get yourself some more snails, I see one in the picture, but you will need allot more at this young of an aquarium with the SPS.

Keep things stable and hopefully you will keep your SPS in good order. Looking good so far. Get yourself a tooth brush as well. You can clean up some of the rock with that as needed around the corals.

 

[Michael43]

My tank started doing significantly better when I start carbon and gfo.

 

[mtraylor]

Oh yeah. Most people start with half the recommendation of GFO to ensure they don't strip them too fast.

 

[jda]

Do you have a Hannah Ultra Low Phosphorous checker? Without one, I would not chase phosphate.

A three month old tank can have things like this happen. The entire cycle is not yet complete - it can take up to a year for super stability, but anything before six months is suspect. Nobody with a young tank wants to hear this since they found one guy who was able to have awesome SPS at 3 months, but trying to be the exception is no way to make a living. When you have fresh coralline popping up all of the time that needs constantly scraped, then that indicated a more stable tank that supports calcification.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Sps corals tend to have a delayed reaction to stresses, today you see the stn/browning/bleaching/no pe from stress a few weeks ago. Your tank is new first off, looks like dry rock and algae issues from dry rock. Yes removing all po4 will make corals stress but it may not be the cause of your current issue. Imo adding carbon was also a bad idea, its another chemical media that strips the water. You want to do as little as possible right now and just let the corals recover. Frag any that has stn/rtn. Your tank needs to mature especially if you used dry rock. Add cuc, easy corals, fish, keep water quality and stability up, wait out and deal with the dry rock algae uglies. Keep this up and over time you will see coraline, pods, sponges, feather worms populating the rock. This may take up to and over a year but its good indicator to tank maturity. Adding those easy corals ect will populate the tank with all the life you need and would get with live rock.

 

[BigJohnny]

Hi there. I'll try to make this a quick read:

Tank: 225
Sump: 125
Lighting - (3) Radion G4 set on AB+
Running Apex - all is stable
Triton Method (2) Apex DOS doing the dosing

Alk - 8.5
mag - 1390
calc - 460
PH - 8

Tank is about 2-3 months old - ran a couple months with just LR
I have about 40 frags in the tanks so far and they have all taken off and were growing well. Mostly SPS. A couple LPS.

I did a Triton ICP test and got the results back that Phosphates were high. This made sense b/c i was getting some brown hair algae in the tank...but the corals were doing great. Polyps were fully extended and good growth.

The brass tax -- Triton recommended I run GFO in my reactor. I ran "Xport-PO4" by Brightwell. I followed the instructions and rinsed it well in RODI water. But about after 1-2 days of running the media, most of my acro's are hardly extending their polyps. Some are looking a little bleached, and one is has STN'd a little.

I immediately concluded the PO4 media was to blame and pulled the media out of the reactor and added fresh carbon. I also did a 20% water change. This was a week ago. Nothing has really improved since. I did another 20% water change last night.

I have also noticed there is some brown residue in my skimmer chamber (main tube) that is brown...possibly from the GFO?

Also, the algae is getting under control (not that it was getting too crazy anyways).

My Assumption -- I drastically changed some of the chemistry in the tank (PO4) and shocked my sps corals. But I am wondering if the brand of P04 media I used is too strong or I used too much of it?

Any advice on this?

Sounds right to me. I hate gfo. What did your po4 measure?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Gfo likely and light intensity. Daylight needed but not all day

 

[zack801]

Polyp extension looks good. Though as the guy said above not always the greatest indicator. Other than some algae what made you conclude phosphates were too high? I would definitely recommend a Hanna ULR checker if you don’t already have one. I’ve played the chasing phosphates numbers game and I promise that doing that almost always causes more harm than good. Keep things consistent and if you do find your phosphates are too high (generally with sps people shoot for > .10ppm) then bring them down super slowly so you don’t shock your coral.

 

[markalot]

You aren't stable, you dropped PO4 too much too quickly. Removing media is good, feeding might help. I've had rapid PO4 drops do almost as much harm as an Alk spike. PO4 browns acros ... maybe, reducing it too fast can kill them depending on how healthy they were to start with. I found success when I stopped testing PO4.

 

[zack801]

You aren't stable, you dropped PO4 too much too quickly. Removing media is good, feeding might help. I've had rapid PO4 drops do almost as much harm as an Alk spike. PO4 browns acros ... maybe, reducing it too fast can kill them depending on how healthy they were to start with. I found success when I stopped testing PO4.

Seriously I almost wish I never bought a checker because I never had issues when I didn’t even care to measure phosphates now I’m stuck on it and test it about as frequently as I do the big 3. thankfully on this tank it hasn’t been a struggle to keep it where I need even without adding gfo

 

[Denniswbliss]

Acros shouldn't be placed in a system untill at least a year old or until sponges start to grow.......

 

[WWIII]

Gfo can strip phosphates rather quickly. It can also lower alkalinity in my experience. Go slow with the gfo and let the corals tell you how you are doing with the amount. Hanna ulr phosphorus checker is a must!

 

[Michael Llabona]

Yeah you need to learn to not chase numbers and any change needs to be done slowly. From my experience doing 1 thing too quickly typically leads to multiple issues. GFO should have been implemented at 25% of recommended amount. The rock and tank need to mature longer than just a few months for SPS success. Not sure which rock was used for set up but if you got dead reef rock (pukaini,figi, etc..) then your rocks will likely leach phosphate which can lead to nasty algae outbreaks. I really wouldn't do much for the next few months. Let the tank do it's thing and do routine water changes. Best of luck. I hope everything pulls through and starts growing.