Need some help, SPS won't thrive

[Charlie’s Frags]

What purpose/benefit does this provide? I've never heard of this before.

It aids in nutrition for the corals while they are photosynthesizing and helps stabilize ph while the lights are off

 

[Dana Riddle]

What purpose/benefit does this provide? I've never heard of this before.

I don't run a skimmer during the day since I add green water to feed the corals and pods & don't want it removed.

 

[HM3105]

Led only 200-350 par is all you need.
I try to keep my alk 7.5-8.0
I’ll see what I can find. It’s been awhile since I researched it.

200 par with blue for 10 hours, the whites are bumping it to 375 for 3 hours during the 10 total photo period.

@Chaswood79 You've got some really nice colonies. Since others are focusing on water quality, let us look at lighting. What wattage is the Viparspectra? Does it contain many red LEDs? How old is the fixture?

Their "165w" but actual is around 105w. They have two red specific diodes (660nm) and 24 whites of mixed 6500k and 12000k.

Fixtures were installed in March 2020 so relatively new.

Ill work on a picture, anything in particular y'all are wanting to see ?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I don't run a skimmer during the day since I add green water to feed the corals and pods & don't want it removed.

And this too

 

[Dana Riddle]

200 par with blue for 10 hours, the whites are bumping it to 375 for 3 hours during the 10 total photo period.



Their "165w" but actual is around 105w. They have two red specific diodes (660nm) and 24 whites of mixed 6500k and 12000k.

Fixtures were installed in March 2020 so relatively new.

Ill work on a picture, anything in particular y'all are wanting to see ?

How long has the lighting schedule been in place? Since March?

 

[HM3105]

How long has the lighting schedule been in place? Since March?

Yes correct, I haven't made any adjustments.

 

[Dana Riddle]

Yes correct, I haven't made any adjustments.

Let me make sure I understand. Lights replaced other lights in March? What did they replace? I noticed you mentioned PAR numbers? Any of those to share?

 

[HM3105]

Let me make sure I understand. Lights replaced other lights in March? What did they replace? I noticed you mentioned PAR numbers? Any of those to share?

They replaced SB reef 16, they're substantially the same light with the vipar maybe having a little more output.

Par runs around 200 with just the blue channel and 350-375 with the white channel on. I only run the white channel for about 3 hours.

 

[HM3105]

I've dosed potassium nitrate pretty regularly, any chance this might be causing the issues I'm seeing? Particularly, the higher potassium? I haven't dosed this system in about a month while but you can from the ICP that the potassium is pretty high even after it's been consumed.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I've dosed potassium nitrate pretty regularly, any chance this might be causing the issues I'm seeing? Particularly, the higher potassium? I haven't dosed this system in about a month while but you can from the ICP that the potassium is pretty high even after it's been consumed.

I was going to mention that your potassium looked a bit high but don’t know if that would cause coral stress. I just don’t know how high is too high for potassium

 

[ScottB]

I've dosed potassium nitrate pretty regularly, any chance this might be causing the issues I'm seeing? Particularly, the higher potassium? I haven't dosed this system in about a month while but you can from the ICP that the potassium is pretty high even after it's been consumed.

I was once cautioned (by a reefsquad member) about the potential effects to fish and inverts from high potassium. No mention though about corals.

Perhaps you should switch to sodium nitrate instead. This stuff mixes well and stays in solution forever.