SERIOUSLY!? CANT KEEP SPS

[Shawn.B]

What specific types of sps are your trying to keep?

I would remove the bi0-pellets and see if you notice a difference over the course of weeks. You should not have to change out the charcoal monthly every other month or longer since you only have 3 fish in a volume of 30 gallons and are feeding every other day.

What is your water source?

im trying to keep valida tricolor, SSC, red planet & a few other acros. the only piece ive seen new growth on is my Lemonade Acro but it still looks pale

my water source is municipal I run it through 1 & 5 micron sediment 5micron & 0.6micron carbon, dual membrane, then dual DI. my salt was reef crystals, I am now using red sea pro but I have to be careful with high ALK... I really don't do water changed too often maybe once a month

 

[Shawn.B]

If your LPS are doing fine than I would look elsewhere. Lighting is for photosynthesis now if your LPS are lacking then I would consider spectrum/par values.

this is what I was also thinking. my LPS are doing quite well and the colors are developing nice, every now and then they deflate and look like hell but that may be my clowns getting pushy

 

[twilliard]

this is what I was also thinking. my LPS are doing quite well and the colors are developing nice

This is why I did not question your lighting.

 

[Shawn.B]

can I see a pic of the tank? and how high are the led?
yea thats an odd one.

one anomaly I ran into was the JBJ 28 cube:mad:, regardless of the food and varied intensity, It would not grow stuff. they would live and be fine but thats it. no browning no bleaching just bleh.....
but knowing a close number on HOW much light your giving the is most important. Lux or Par info would be handy.

I will say that my led now grow all of it. , or rather I can get good color and bleach AND brown.

my gut would say balance the tank to the sps, but also what sps are we talking about? acros?.

I can get pictures but they may not be all that useful... I just have my iPhone which takes terrible photos.

 

[Flippers4pups]

I would question light intensity and distance from the water. I'm running three mars units over my 125 and I'm getting great color and growth with my LPS and SPS, mostly SPS. 12" off water and 10% white and 20% blues.

 

[Shawn.B]

I would question light intensity and distance from the water. I'm running three mars units over my 125 and I'm getting great color and growth with my LPS and SPS, mostly SPS. 12" off water and 10% white and 20% blues.

really! that's surprisingly low. my lights are about 16" from the surface.. this being said your tank is much deeper than mine

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

thats why lux and par readings are important, not distance and %.
each light has diferent lenses, leds etc.
you can just guess or estimate rather like many do with nutrients, but one a question comes up it's best to test.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Yes, after the first two weeks I upped the intensity to 20-30 and within a week they started to get pale, still good polyp extension thought. Went back down to 10-20 and it took two weeks for the color to come back. I also feed heavy with rods food, watching my water parameters closely.

 

[Shawn.B]

A bump for the after dinner crowd still trying to come up with a plan

 

[lou dog420]

I am just a beginner but recent experience with across were the same as you described. Brown out, then die from the base up. My tank is only 5 months old and I had been tweaking lights for months trying to get growth instead of just surviving. Ended up cranking the leds all the way up and now slowly lowering them closer to the water surface. Starting to get color in an acro now that has been brown for months, and half white from the base up.

 

[Akersta]

I'm sure most on here would disagree with me (as would I up until a few months ago) but I would remove all carbon and GFO. Also, I would start feeding amino acids, phyto, and other live foods fairly heavily while wet skimming. I'd slowly raise your alkalinity to 10-11 dkh and magnesium over 1500 ppm. You can start to increase your light intensity further once things start growing again.

I would stop checking your nitrate and phosphate while only occasionally checking your calcium and alk. Also, do small water changes once a week as opposed to larger changes less frequently. My nitrates are around 25ppm and phosphates are over 0.6 ppm and things have never looked better. I could barely keep SPS alive in my tank let alone get any color and growth with low nutrients despite feelingly heavily. Once I removed my ARID reactor and nutrients increased, my SPS started growing along with zoas and LPS.

I wouldn't try this unless your tank is a year or two old. The picture below is of my fox flame colony. It was on a small 1.25" square plug with very light color and no yellow tips for over a year in my tank. It has now almost overgrown the 3" frag disk it's on over the last few months. Only thing I changed was nutrients.

 

[Shawn.B]

well tonight I came home from work and things have taken a turn for the worse, my red planet is no longer.
it seems my other Acros have very low amounts of zooxanthellae between polyps, I've turned my lights way down to reduce any stress.

 

[Akersta]

Have you double checked your salanity with a freshly calibrated refractometer?

 

[nosmok]

Also in my tank I use GSP's to monitor my water. They are great indicators

Can you expand on that? I've never heard that before

 

[Shawn.B]

Have you double checked your salanity with a freshly calibrated refractometer?

Yes I generally check/ calibrate my refracoto every time I acclimate a new piece- which is about once a month

 

[Shawn.B]

Can you expand on that? I've never heard that before

I used to have them in my old tank! They are a great visual indicator of anything out of balance and quite quick to respond

 

[Shawn.B]

So the plan for now

• Continue running carbon occasionally
• GFO gone
• Biopellet remain
• Continue over feeding
• Lower light intensity (for now)
• Once my test kit arrives I'm going to get my nitrates to 10ish
• Let po4 creep up around 0.5

 

[Tench1]

Hi Shawn;
U might want to share the details of the following;
- carbon? Brand and amount etc
- waves makers, how many and what model?

 

[Shawn.B]

Hi Shawn;
U might want to share the details of the following;
- carbon? Brand and amount etc
- waves makers, how many and what model?

For carbon I don't use anything fancy just the stuff from petsmart, I think it's marineland? I normally use about 1/4cup

For flow I have 2x MP10 running about 25% on reefcrest mode

 

[Luke Schnabel]

I'm in the same boat. I have amazing LPS, Zoa Gardens and very nice pocillopora and birdsnest...but when it comes to my Acros they are all losing color.
My tank:
125g display
Cal: 430 Alk: 8dkh Mg: 1360 No3: 5-10ppm PO4: .02 Temp. 78.2-78.5 Salinity: 1.025
4 Ecotech Radion G2 and two ATI blue plus T5 Bulbs
2 MP40 Ecotech wavemakers and Vectra M1 pump.

I have a PAR meter and most of my Acros are around 180-220 PAR... I honestly can't think of what I'm doing wrong. Thinking of maybe switching to T5 only