Ph swing from 7.75 to 7.98 daily

[James Mikell]

Gotcha. That sounds like a good plan with the micro7. Couple other thoughts.
1. Sometimes SPS and softies don’t get along. Depending on what type of softies you have.
2. I would look at flow of the tank.

And then you always see tanks where no matter what, SPS just don’t like the first year and decide to give the owner of the tank fits.

The only softie i have that ive read can give sps issues is a japanese green toadstool but i run carbon to prevent the coral warfare ive read about.

 

[mattzang]

what kind of flow are you rolling with?

 

[James Mikell]

what kind of flow are you rolling with?

I have my jebao return pump at about half power and I'm running 2 ow40 wave makers set about 65 percent i would say my flow is good especially considering some of the movement of the polyps on the sps frags when they first go in.

 

[Seminoles76]

How big is the tank?

 

[James Mikell]

How big is the tank?

36x20x21

 

[Seminoles76]

Those two OW 40s are probably adequate for the three foot tank. For comparison purposes only for flow, I run this on a four foot tank with SPS:
2 SOW 15 ( equivalent to OW40) 100%
2 Neptune Wav at 75%. Total of 8k gph
1500 gph via two return pumps.

I can tell you the Jebao pumps are rated the same as the Neptune Wav but there is no way in the world they are pushing the same as the Wavs. Definitely over rated IMO on gph.

Give it a little time and hopefully tho ya start working out.

 

[Seminoles76]

Things. Dang auto correct.

 

[James Mikell]

Those two OW 40s are probably adequate for the three foot tank. For comparison purposes only for flow, I run this on a four foot tank with SPS:
2 SOW 15 ( equivalent to OW40) 100%
2 Neptune Wav at 75%. Total of 8k gph
1500 gph via two return pumps.

I can tell you the Jebao pumps are rated the same as the Neptune Wav but there is no way in the world they are pushing the same as the Wavs. Definitely over rated IMO on gph.

Give it a little time and hopefully tho ya start working out.

Yeah i can't push the wave makers much harder without ticking off my torches hammers and elegance coral.

 

[jsak1976]

If you started with all dry rock the I would seriously consider looking into dosing some Form of bacteria. I’ve started many tanks with live rock and had SPS flourish at the three month mark. First dry rock start and I was struggling with everything at the 9 month mark.

I agree lighting is not optimum. However i wouldn’t think it would lead to STN and death of coral. The height of your light may have some negative impact depending g on height.

Bottom line. Your parameters are good if stable. Bring in a little white, red and green like posted already. I wouldn’t make changes to the tank that attempts to avoid algae growth unless your parameters are way out of whack which they r not. Typically those changes can lead to upsetting g SPS.

How can you say his parameters are good when he doesn’t know what his phosphates are at?

 

[jsak1976]

Is this swing acceptable for a mixed reef? I am still having quite a bit of trouble keeping the few sps in my tank alive. All the softies and lps including things like chalice corals are doing well. The sps just seen to slowly fade away.
Calcium - 450
Alk 8.7 - 8.9
Mag 1450
No3 is 5-10
Po4 is somewhere below .03
Below is my lighting schedule. Im at my whits end as i would like to keep a few nice sps corals.

I would also try to get the PH up if that is an accurate reading it is on the low side, try to keep it above 8

 

[Seminoles76]

How can you say his parameters are good when he doesn’t know what his phosphates are at?

Because he said so in his first post. Somewhere below .03. And the fact that he said he’s getting algae. I’m taking a wild guess and thinking if PO4 was his issue then his softies and LPS wouldn’t be doing good either as he stated.

 

[Seminoles76]

I would also try to get the PH up if that is an accurate reading it is on the low side, try to keep it above 8

Why do you say 8 is on the low side when it’s well within acceptable PH range?

 

[jsak1976]

Because he said so in his first post. Somewhere below .03. And the fact that he said he’s getting algae. I’m taking a wild guess and thinking if PO4 was his issue then his softies and LPS wouldn’t be doing good either as he stated.

Oh ok your taking a wild guess that makes sense. If it’s reading less than .03 than that would be 0 on his test kit. That’s why I’d start by getting a test kit that will be reading in the range he’s keeping it in.

 

[jsak1976]

Why do you say 8 is on the low side when it’s well within acceptable PH range?

I didn’t say 8 was low, his is under 8 and I said to try to keep it above 8. 8 should be the low end of the ph swing not the high end.

 

[jsak1976]

Is this swing acceptable for a mixed reef? I am still having quite a bit of trouble keeping the few sps in my tank alive. All the softies and lps including things like chalice corals are doing well. The sps just seen to slowly fade away.
Calcium - 450
Alk 8.7 - 8.9
Mag 1450
No3 is 5-10
Po4 is somewhere below .03
Below is my lighting schedule. Im at my whits end as i would like to keep a few nice sps corals.

Try these setting on the hydra 26’s it will give you the closest light spectrum to the Radion ab+ for SPS’s

 

[James Mikell]

Try these setting on the hydra 26’s it will give you the closest light spectrum to the Radion ab+ for SPS’s

Thanks ill give this a try

 

[Seminoles76]

Oh ok your taking a wild guess that makes sense. If it’s reading less than .03 than that would be 0 on his test kit. That’s why I’d start by getting a test kit that will be reading in the range he’s keeping it in.

So we agree that PO4 is not the limiting factor if all his LPS and softies are doing well and he turned his white light off in order to stop algae growth? These are the reasons why I said his parameters are good which you questioned.

 

[Seminoles76]

Ok. His median is 7.9. Can we also agree that this is also not the cause of his SPS dying off? If that were the case and SPS died at a range of 7.75-7.98 there would be a lot of people with amazing SPS reefs that would be pretty bummed out. If he was asking about growth I would agree with you that raising PH may help a bit.

 

[Seminoles76]

Yeah i can't push the wave makers much harder without ******* off my torches hammers and elegance coral.

Yeah. That’s the challenge is getting flow right with your style tank. I’ve dropped a LPS or two in my tank because the wife likes wavy stuff. It lasts about a day and then I take it out because it’s getting blown over.
I would just give it some time and keep your parameters where they are. Change the lighting slowly and hopefully you will have some luck or maybe someone can give you some good insight.

 

[Lukas75]

With the easily testable parameters in line and barring any husbandry issues (putting them right in front of the powerhead, not acclimating them to the lights, etc.). I would start looking at the not so easy to test for. Have you sent in an ICP test lately? If not you might want to and it might not hurt to take a look around for anything corroding in or above the tank.