Newbie help please!

Steven9194 · May 29, 2024

Hello!

I’ve had my tank running for about 7 months now. Numbers have been pretty stable for the last 3 months. I’ve tried adding a couple pieces of SPS (green/pink birdsnest), which both have died on me. Not exactly sure the reason, but I would love to be able to have some SPS in my system. Running 3 ReeFi Unos and attached my PAR layout as well. I started them around the bottom and slowly moved them up to around the 160-200 PAR range, prior to attaching them to the rock work.

The Nitrate/Phosphate numbers from today are a little higher then normal, as I tried to off an extra feeding over pellets recently, to see how it affected the tank. Typically Nitrates sit around 20 and PO4 is around .30 or so. I plan to start dropping the numbers back down tonight.

I would greatly appreciate any advice!

Dburr1014 · May 29, 2024

How is your tank started? Dry Rock, live rock, something in between?

Mr. Mojo Rising · May 29, 2024

How slow/fast are they dying? IMO sps will do better in 200+ par and alk at 8.5ish

Steven9194 · May 29, 2024

Dburr1014 said:
How is your tank started? Dry Rock, live rock, something in between?

I started it with dry rock and live sand. Dosed ammonia and cycled. Then added clowns. Have dosed microbacter7 and a ton of pods.

Steven9194 · May 29, 2024

Mr. Mojo Rising said:
How slow/fast are they dying? IMO sps will do better in 200+ par and alk at 8.5ish

I would say over a 4-6 weeks they’re gone

Dburr1014 · May 29, 2024

Steven9194 said:
I started it with dry rock and live sand. Dosed ammonia and cycled. Then added clowns. Have dosed microbacter7 and a ton of pods.

Can you buy a couple small pieces of live rock from a LFS?
This will speed up your maturity.

Reef Psychology · May 30, 2024

Steven9194 said:
Hello!

I’ve had my tank running for about 7 months now. Numbers have been pretty stable for the last 3 months. I’ve tried adding a couple pieces of SPS (green/pink birdsnest), which both have died on me. Not exactly sure the reason, but I would love to be able to have some SPS in my system. Running 3 ReeFi Unos and attached my PAR layout as well. I started them around the bottom and slowly moved them up to around the 160-200 PAR range, prior to attaching them to the rock work.

The Nitrate/Phosphate numbers from today are a little higher then normal, as I tried to off an extra feeding over pellets recently, to see how it affected the tank. Typically Nitrates sit around 20 and PO4 is around .30 or so. I plan to start dropping the numbers back down tonight.

I would greatly appreciate any advice!

200 PAR would keep the easiest SPS like birds nest alive if the tank environment was good and stable. Probably would grow too, if a bit slowly. With phosphate at .5 I’d be very concerned in a tank as young as yours. In older well established tanks that wouldn’t be as much of an issue. It tells me that you may not have good enough nutrient export. What kind of water are you using? RODI is a minimum when you want to keep SPS. Might want to use dual DI canisters too. In my area my second canister is still turning brown even though water is coming out at 0 TDS from the first DI stage, so something is still getting through. Get that PO4 under control - naturally if possible and use very clean water and I’ll bet your problems will go away.

Steven9194 · Jun 2, 2024

Reef Psychology said:
200 PAR would keep the easiest SPS like birds nest alive if the tank environment was good and stable. Probably would grow too, if a bit slowly. With phosphate at .5 I’d be very concerned in a tank as young as yours. In older well established tanks that wouldn’t be as much of an issue. It tells me that you may not have good enough nutrient export. What kind of water are you using? RODI is a minimum when you want to keep SPS. Might want to use dual DI canisters too. In my area my second canister is still turning brown even though water is coming out at 0 TDS from the first DI stage, so something is still getting through. Get that PO4 under control - naturally if possible and use very clean water and I’ll bet your problems will go away.

I have a 7 stage RODI filter. I think the numbers just got so high because I wasn’t testing as much. I also stopped changing the filter floss out so frequently. Was changing every 2-3 days, then turned into once a week.