Should I switch to fish only?

[AC1211]

I am doing very well with fish and have a 100% sucess rate with fish and they are all fat and healthy. I have been keeping freshwater tanks for 5 years before this tank which has been up for a little over a year. I am a fish person and have not lost a fish that I didn't have for years and succeeded with since year 1 of freshwater with a single discus being the exception in year 3. In saltwater fish are the same at 100%. I did lose a cleaner shrimp however and I have 5 frags (frogspawn, torch, encrusting montipora, duncan, and candy cane) with no growth through about 230 days with the 4 lps and about 30 days with the montipora. I also have a rock flower that looks fine and maybe a bit bigger that I had for about 100 days. All in all the lack of growth is discouraging me. I am doing very well with fish and I know I could keep more fish if I pulled the coral but I want to succeed with coral.

Here are my parameters:
480 calc
9.2 alk
1500 mag
.02 I think hard to tell that low phos
Under 5 ppm nitrates
8.1 ph
Algae has been beaten back many times.
What should I do pull the corals or hold and wait?

 

[phatduckk]

Your params are slightly higher than mine but not insane & my LPS are growing quite well. For what its worth mine are:

• 420-ish CA
• 8.5 Alk
• 13xx for Mg
• point of sale 0.06
• Nitrate 5ish

The frogspawn seems to be stretching up in the video which folks tend to associate with not enough light. how's your PAR? what size tank & what lights?

 

[jguerin88]

yeah i’d dial that call/mag /all back some

 

[Dragon174]

You have good coraline going on in your tank which is good, but you also have a pretty good GHA problem, which I would suspect is keeping your NO3 in check and as low as it is. I'm a little surprised its even 5ppm.

Tell us more about your tank, size of tank, sump, no sump, what type of lights, light schedule, etc.

 

[fish farmer]

Without knowing PAR, I would put that candy cane and duncan part way up and see how they like it.

 

[Slawman]

To give you my thoughts on the answer to the question in your title - Maybe....

I love fish too and the reality is that for most fish species, you can keep them healthy with less focus on water parameters. This suits some people who just don't have the time or inclination to become "water keepers" and I get that. It just depends on what you want out of this hobby. I personally have switched between SPS dominant to LPS/Softies dominant biome for that reason. Just so I can enjoy the tank based on the amount of effort I am prepared to put in.

I liken it to an analogy with motor sport: SPS dominant is formula 1 - Sexy, but one twitch of the wheel either way and everyone dies; LPS/Softies are like Nascar - you get the thrill and its a "bit" more forgiving; Fish only is like driving down the highway in your car of choice - participation without much danger....

 

[AZMSGT]

If you want to keep LPS coral find out why you can’t. 2 things you don’t mention. Salinity and lighting PAR. Both can be a big deal no mater what you keep.

If you said it in the video... Yea, not going to watch a 6 minute video.

 

[AC1211]

Your params are slightly higher than mine but not insane & my LPS are growing quite well. For what its worth mine are:

• 420-ish CA
• 8.5 Alk
• 13xx for Mg
• point of sale 0.06
• Nitrate 5ish

The frogspawn seems to be stretching up in the video which folks tend to associate with not enough light. how's your PAR? what size tank & what lights?

Nuvo 60g gen 4 radions at 17% intensity.

 

[AC1211]

yeah i’d dial that call/mag /all back some

Will skip a day or two of dosing.

 

[AC1211]

If you want to keep LPS coral find out why you can’t. 2 things you don’t mention. Salinity and lighting PAR. Both can be a big deal no mater what you keep.

If you said it in the video... Yea, not going to watch a 6 minute video.

Salinity is 1.025. Lighting is a radion gen 4 intensity at 17%.

 

[AC1211]

The lighting spectrum is as shown above.

 

[Billldg]

First thing, only switch to fish if that is what you truly want, though it can be hard at times YOU can have a successful reef tank. Their have been some great suggestions from fellow reefers, but just remember not to do to much to quickly as that can make things worse. You can work on parameters, or lighting, but only do one thing at a time so you know how everything reacts to the changes. We all run our parameters at different levels, but they do have to balance with the N03 and P04 and lighting. You say you run G4 pros, which one, xr15 or xr30's. IMO, your Alk and Cal is a little high. I wouldn't worry about your mag, I run mine around 1500 with no issue and I know some very well respected members run theirs around 1500 as well.

 

[AC1211]

First thing, only switch to fish if that is what you truly want, though it can be hard at times YOU can have a successful reef tank. Their have been some great suggestions from fellow reefers, but just remember not to do to much to quickly as that can make things worse. You can work on parameters, or lighting, but only do one thing at a time so you know how everything reacts to the changes. We all run our parameters at different levels, but they do have to balance with the N03 and P04 and lighting. You say you run G4 pros, which one, xr15 or xr30's. IMO, your Alk and Cal is a little high. I wouldn't worry about your mag, I run mine around 1500 with no issue and I know some very well respected members run theirs around 1500 as well.

Xr30

I may attempt to skip a day of dosing every 3 days unti alk drops to 8 then everything else should also be lower accordingly.

 

[Billldg]

Xr30

I may attempt to skip a day of dosing every 3 days unti alk drops to 8 then everything else should also be lower accordingly.

Letting your Alk and Cal drop a little I feel will help. I have par readings on my xr15’s but not on xr30’s, I do know they are more powerful, but 17 percent seems a little low, but don’t change that yet. Have you thought about running the AB+ setting?

 

[W1ngz]

I'm not too familiar with those lights, but that doesn't look quite right to me. I'm sure someone will come along with more specific ideas, but I'd look at dropping the reds and greens to 5%, the whites to 15% and slowly increase the intensity a couple percent a day until you get to 35% or 40% and then hold it there for a few weeks to see. Slowly increase the intensity while slowly decreasing the levels down to more standard ranges.

If you can get a par meter in there, or a seneye it would help.

 

[AC1211]

Letting your Alk and Cal drop a little I feel will help. I have par readings on my xr15’s but not on xr30’s, I do know they are more powerful, but 17 percent seems a little low, but don’t change that yet. Have you thought about running the AB+ setting?

I have but I felt as though the reds and greens were too high on that setting.

 

[AC1211]

I'm not too familiar with those lights, but that doesn't look quite right to me. I'm sure someone will come along with more specific ideas, but I'd look at dropping the reds and greens to 5%, the whites to 15% and slowly increase the intensity a couple percent a day until you get to 35% or 40% and then hold it there for a few weeks to see. Slowly increase the intensity while slowly decreasing the levels down to more standard ranges.

If you can get a par meter in there, or a seneye it would help.

So I should run the lights more towards the blue spectrum.

 

[W1ngz]

So I should run the lights more towards the blue spectrum.

Yes, but you should follow the advice of someone who actually has these lights for anything more specific.

 

[AC1211]

Yes, but you should follow the advice of someone who actually has these lights for anything more specific.

Should I drop it a couple percent off of whites and red/green for a week or two while raising blue to see. I don't think I need as much white, red, or green because I don't keep surface level sps.

 

[JayLu]

I think you could rent a par meter from BRS, and watch some of their videos. You many need to add a little more power to your light. But you would need to get that GHA controlled first.