Radion killing sps help!!!!

[RFred77]

Hey yall
I have a radion pro with wide angle tier lenses on. I'm running them at 60 percent. I have a 70 gallon tank that I want to make SPS dominant. Every time I get a SPS piece, it keeps its color for 2 weeks then the tips begin to die and get brown. Later the whole coral becomes brown. I don't know what is wrong, are the radions too strong? Too weak? Any help will be awesome! Here are some pics of my sps

My parameters:

Cal - 450 (salifert)
Mag - 1355 (salifert)
Alk- 8.7 (salifert)
Nitrate - 4 (salifert)
Phosphate - 0 (Hanna checker)

 

[Aandrew235]

What percentage are you running the radions at?

 

[-Logzor]

Says 60% power in the first post. Are you running multiple Radions on your 70g?

Might want to cut the intensity in half and see if that helps. New SPS need to be acclimated to the high light.

What are you water parameters, including alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium?

 

[reefaboo]

What made you think its just the lighting ?

what are you other parameters ? nitrate and phos ?

 

[RFred77]

What percentage are you running the radions at?

I'm running them at 60 percent. Their tips get brown then die and later the coral turns brown then dies. Is there not enough light or too much light? I'm running the radiant color mode.

 

[Bugger]

I run mine at 100% tir lens and they are spaced out 1 foot per tank volume. Im thing its something in the water. When did you last change your carbon blocks in your Ro? which blocks do you use? what is your city using as disenfectant

 

[RFred77]

I run mine at 100% tir lens and they are spaced out 1 foot per tank volume. Im thing its something in the water. When did you last change your carbon blocks in your Ro? which blocks do you use? what is your city using as disenfectant

I get my water at my local fish store and they are reading 0 TDS. I have been keeping my lights at 50-55 intensity for about a month but recently I bumped to 60 percent and the corals are still loosing their tips and color. My lights are about a foot and a half off the water and my SPS are towards the bottom of the tank because I thought I was giving them too much light. Do you think I should increase my intensity of my radion?

 

[Bugger]

Yeah sure but I don't think its the lights. I work at a bunch of local fish stores and the water they sold was all bad. They hardly ever changed the filters. Try using more light. If is just a lighting issue it will take months for the corals to bounce back. I don't know if zero tds means no chlorine is getting threw I will ask Randy. Radions are fairly small so I used 4 units in a 90 gallon tank to prevent shadows. Corals will go brown from not enough light

 

[RFred77]

Yeah sure but I don't think its the lights. I work at a bunch of local fish stores and the water they sold was all bad. They hardly ever changed the filters. Try using more light. If is just a lighting issue it will take months for the corals to bounce back. I don't know if zero tds means no chlorine is getting threw I will ask Randy. Radions are fairly small so I used 4 units in a 90 gallon tank to prevent shadows. Corals will go brown from not enough light

Ok I will increase the lighting. I'm at 60 now, what percent should I increase it to? How long of the acclimation mode should I do?

 

[RFred77]

Says 60% power in the first post. Are you running multiple Radions on your 70g?

Might want to cut the intensity in half and see if that helps. New SPS need to be acclimated to the high light.

What are you water parameters, including alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium?

My parameters:

Cal - 450 (salifert)
Mag - 1355 (salifert)
Alk- 8.7 (salifert)
Nitrate - 4 (salifert)
Phosphate - 0 (Hanna checker)

No parameters are jumpy because I have a doser.

 

[jolt]

I've found that alk jumps quite a bit even with dosers. If you are not already doing it I recommend you measure alk daily or every other day for a while and be certain you get it really stable.

 

[Bugger]

How long have you had them at 50%? Corals are pretty resiliant. I had and have a piece that went brown I counted it for dead so I put it off to the side of the tank. It got even worse. It was praticlly dead. I finally got the money for the forth radion light at the time and put it under full blast light. It went from no light to 100% and can back. Take them up to 90% they will be fine.
Why is your nitrate so high.
I would add a zeovit reactor and dose amino acids
Are the corals directly under the light showing the same symptoms as the other coral. or is the coral on the outsides only effected

 

[RFred77]

How long have you had them at 50%? Corals are pretty resiliant. I had and have a piece that went brown I counted it for dead so I put it off to the side of the tank. It got even worse. It was praticlly dead. I finally got the money for the forth radion light at the time and put it under full blast light. It went from no light to 100% and can back. Take them up to 90% they will be fine.
Why is your nitrate so high.
I would add a zeovit reactor and dose amino acids
Are the corals directly under the light showing the same symptoms as the other coral. or is the coral on the outsides only effected

I had them at 50% for about 3 weeks. I was told 5 nitrates is ok, would 0 nitrates be better? I use Red Sea reef energy for amino acids. I don't have any corals directly under because I thought I was burning them, they are all on the bottom sides of the tank.

 

[Bugger]

Give me a break bro mine are under like 600 par and they have been growing for years directly under the light at 100% . Amino acids are good for tanks with ULNS I would look into this because its better for coloration. high nitrates tend to brown out corals. Are you still getting polyp extension on the corals. Or do they look dead?
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=101746
go threw this and see my tank

 

[RFred77]

Give me a break bro mine are under like 600 par and they have been growing for years directly under the light at 100% . Amino acids are good for tanks with ULNS I would look into this because its better for coloration. high nitrates tend to brown out corals. Are you still getting polyp extension on the corals. Or do they look dead?
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=101746
go threw this and see my tank

Ah ok man. I have no polyp extension on my corals but at night they barely have polyps showing. I'll try and raise the intensity to 90%, should I put an acclimation timer on it?

 

[rlman41299]

IME high nitrates will make your sps brown out. I just went through it myself, tank is usually at 5ppm (api) but accidentally bumped it to 40ppm due to lack of maintenance and my biopellet got clogged. 120g tank with 4 gen 3 radion pro's running at 90% for 7 hrs a day. Now my nitrates are back to 5ppm and have started to color up again.

 

[Bugger]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tds-and-chlorine.203469/#post-2327267

 

[sawdonkey]

Give me a break bro mine are under like 600 par and they have been growing for years directly under the light at 100% . Amino acids are good for tanks with ULNS I would look into this because its better for coloration. high nitrates tend to brown out corals. Are you still getting polyp extension on the corals. Or do they look dead?
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=101746
go threw this and see my tank

Isn't this advice a little conflicting since you're giving advice on how to operate a UNLS and also advice on high nitrates at the same time? If he's got high nitrates (and I wouldn't consider 4 high) he probably doesn't have a UNLS, and therefore probably has plenty of nutrients, and therefore probably doesn't need aminos?

Are the tips fading to brown, or are they turning white and just getting brown with algae?

 

[Bugger]

He already is adding them to his system my friend

 

[EuroGti]

How long have you had them at 50%? Corals are pretty resiliant. I had and have a piece that went brown I counted it for dead so I put it off to the side of the tank. It got even worse. It was praticlly dead. I finally got the money for the forth radion light at the time and put it under full blast light. It went from no light to 100% and can back. Take them up to 90% they will be fine.
Why is your nitrate so high.
I would add a zeovit reactor and dose amino acids
Are the corals directly under the light showing the same symptoms as the other coral. or is the coral on the outsides only effected

Telling OP to add a Zeovit reactor is pretty bad advice. It seems he is newer to the hobby, and zeovit is not a easy system to run. His nitrates are not even high IMO.

OP...its prob not the lights. I had a 50 gallon growout tank that ran a radion at 45% and grew coral just fine. I would start from the beginning. Start making your own water and mixing your own salt. Do you run carbon or gfo? Any algae in the tank? How do non sps corals look?