REACHING OUT TO EXPERIENCED SPS REEFERS

DereksReef77

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Ok so a little about my tank.
125 gallon w 55 gallon sump
Reef octopus skimmer ran 24/7
1 yellow tang, 4 clowns, and 2 bartlet anthias. Snails and 1 crab lol.
Salt Instant Ocean
ATI 8 bulb powermodule (old unit no leds)
Actinic
Blue+
Blue+
Coral+
Coral+
Blue+
Purple+
Actinic
Light schedule is 9 hours a day starting with 2 1/2 hours with all bulbs except the coral+ then 4 hours all bulbs then 2 1/2 hours all bulbs except the coral+. Entire light schedule is run at 100% intensity.
Parameters are:
1.026
Mag 1400
Alk 8.75
Cal 440
Nitrate 5
Phos .03-.1
Temp 79
All testing done with salifert test kits.
I use brs dosers for alk and cal (brs 2 part) and dose each for 30 min 4 times a day. Dosers were installed like 2-3 months ago. Tank has been running for at least 3 years since entry into the hobby. First saltwater I set up. Everything that has been in the tank has been doing great and I never did anything besides maybe a 10-15 gallon water change every couple of weeks and feed the fish. So since all my sps were growing and doing great I figured what the heck nows the time to get some high end frags so thats what I did. When I got them I did the Bayer dip and all that and got them in the tank and I will say I babied them and didn't have them in enough par so I moved the frag racks to the center of the tank. They started to look much better and measured par with my par meter and was getting like 200-250 par. I will state that the bulbs were very old like 2 years old so I thought I should change some and ended swapping out 2 blue+,purple+,and a coral+. Corals seemed fine with the change and actually looked a lot nicer. So I started researching more here on r2r and almost everyone is saying 350par+ for acros so I started moving frag racks higher up to get into the higher par numbers but I started to notice less polyp extension which doesn't happen in my tank. Polyp extension is always huge in my tank 24/7. Also noticed that they started to get pale colors so I moved them back down to200-280 par. Alot of them look pretty good to me now but I also started testing strontium and potassium as my research indicated and I got potassium of 350 and strontium of 0-3 with salifert test kits. Made a batch of sw last night so I can do a water change later tonight. Im going to test for those 2 elements in the new sw to see where the numbers ar at for IO salt. Anyways I bought brightwell aquatics and dosed both last night. I will include pics of my frags so maybe I can get some input as to what you guys think. Thanks
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Thats half of them lol.
 
I see some cyano maybe in a couple pics? But other then that, coral and water parameters look good.
 
I see some cyano maybe in a couple pics? But other then that, coral and water parameters look good.

Not really any cyano on the frag racks or plugs. A little bit on some rockwork but not much. What about my strontium and potassium readings? Do alot of people test and supplement those?
 
Last edited:
Have you checked for Red Bugs?

Most of the acropora pictured look healthy. Unfortunately it's near impossible to get all acropora in a system to show PE to the same degree in unison, some acropora just do not show a lot of PE.

Acropora also can take their time responding to lighting changes, noticeable changes in coloration can occur slowly. If you show good coloration and PE at the 200-280 par, decided to experiment and increase par and changed out some older bulbs and then saw color loss and decreased PE I would be inclined to think it was the change in lighting not related to potassium or strontium but your levels are low so you can not rule it out until you bring those levels up slightly.

With regard to IO, I have had good results.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/potassium-level.255657/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sps-acros-best-coloration-what-elements-do-you-add.254944/


(self proclaimed acropora lover, not expert by any means.)
 
Not reall any cyano on the frag racks or plugs. A little bit on some rockwork but not much. What about my strontium and potassium readings? Do alot of people test and supplement those?
No?
20170126_215214-jpg.467392

Those two elements I have never tested for. Values not worth chasing in this hobby IMO.
 
Have you checked for Red Bugs?

Most of the acropora pictured look healthy. Unfortunately it's near impossible to get all acropora in a system to show PE to the same degree in unison, some acropora just do not show a lot of PE.

Acropora also can take their time responding to lighting changes, noticeable changes in coloration can occur slowly. If you show good coloration and PE at the 200-280 par, decided to experiment and increase par and changed out some older bulbs and then saw color loss and decreased PE I would be inclined to think it was the change in lighting not related to potassium or strontium but your levels are low so you can not rule it out until you bring those levels up slightly.

With regard to IO, I have had good results.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/potassium-level.255657/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sps-acros-best-coloration-what-elements-do-you-add.254944/


(self proclaimed acropora lover, not expert by any means.)

No there are no red bugs. I am just thinking that I may have shocked them when I swapped out the 4 bulbs. The 12th and 17th frag came in dead and I brought them both back to life so far. I don't know how people claim to have 400+ par on sps without killing them. Maybe they are just guessing. Since I have lowered the frag racks polyp extension came back already. I'm just not sure about the potassium and strontium. I had the par on them at 300-400 thats when they started loosing color.
 
First of all I will consider the family of that acros lot of them as from pics are deep water so different condition of lights and flow
 
Sorry what do you mean RR
I saw different tenuis some caroliniana, and cardus
Also last pic that is very clear you will se acro is burn and shadow side be well
 
Most likely you shocked the acros by moving them around. The best advice I can give in this hobby is do not chase numbers! What works for one person might not work for you, figure out what works best for you.
 
Sorry I don't know reef raft and the name they give
Anyway generally I recognize the family of an acro
Much of them need a low acclimatization to lights
That's not a problem of strontium or other elements as from your values all is correct
That's a macro problem due to lights and acclimatization of the acros
 
Tagging along to see what advice you get. It does look like they just got a bit too much light.
 
Tagging along to see what advice you get. It does look like they just got a bit too much light.

Thanks for the reply. Thats what I'm thinking that they were shocked by too much par initially. All of them are looking better as time goes by. I'm sure they will all be fine. Just wanted to get opinions from experienced sps keepers.
 
Forget about absolute numbers for now, watch the corals. Is the flesh plump and healthy looking? Are they showing a feeding reaction when you feed the tank? Are they growing?Etc.. Don't get caught up with chasing numbers. I have seen acros grown successfully in many different type tanks. Checking numbers is fine but don't chase if the corals look healthy then let it coast. You can tweak colors SLOWLY by changing nutrients, lighting and trace elements but go SLOW. Most will grow fine at 250 PAR. Yes they can be blasted with light if you get there slowly. I just try and keep them happy and healthy first, chase colors second.
 

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