SPS blah... Question for the pros - HELP!

roblshan2000 · May 8, 2012

+1 - You shouldn't need to run GFO with Biopellets

-Logzor said:
Simply remove the GFO. This will make dramatic improvements.

Troylee · May 8, 2012

Brown Sps is common with LEDs.... Take it fwiw you need some t5 supps... Also what are the brown pieces??? Wild or maricultured acros??? Not uncommon to be brown also...
Edit...
I was going off your signature... I see in the original post you said you had blue + bulbs... Maybe to much blue ai sol blues, and blue t5's you might be missing something in the spectrum.... I see lots of blue in your lighting...

Stpatrick · Jun 1, 2012

Update. I have been following many of your suggestions. Here are my stats to remind everyone.

122 gallon - Running 1.5 cups of bio-pellets - removed the GFO - running 1 cup of rox carbon - 1 cup kalk in auto topoff reactor.

I have been doing about a 15% water change weekly for four weeks and here are my params

I dose AAs daily (4drops) KZ

ALK - 8.7
CA - 430
PO4 - .01 (hanna)
Nitrate - 5 ppm
PH 8.2
MAg - 1400
Salinity - 025

My colors are coming back on some corals and I am losing others. I cant seem to get my nitrates down below 5 and my PO4 to 0. I also added a new light. 3 rows of 9 3w cree leds each and 8 t5s. All are dimmable. I am acclimating everything very slowly as to not bleach anything out. Any thoughts guys and gals?

I love my new light by the way. My reds are returning. Could also be the changes I implemented also.
--

Stpatrick · Jun 2, 2012

Ace25 · Jun 2, 2012

My opinion, 1. Too much light is the main issue (on top of over thinking things with your dosing but sounds like you fixed that), it takes some time to get used to LEDs and figure out the correct intensity. I spent a good 8 months after I build my first LED light learning about proper intensity after browning/bleaching a few SPS corals. 2. Bio-pellets are the second. I tried them a couple times, always had major coral issues, even starting out 1/10th the normal amount. I disagree that .04 phosphates are bad, actually I would argue that .04 is good, and could actually go up just a touch and still be good, but no reason to raise it. I think the upper limit for SPS corals (and still be colorful and healthy looking) is .09.

New study documents increased growth of staghorn Acropora in higher phosphate levels

Ace25 · Jun 2, 2012

Oops, sorry, I missed the last part where you said you changed your lights out. I was thinking you were still running the AI sols, which is what my first suggestion was geared towards. If you swapped out the lights and are seeing an improvement it does sound like the AI Sols were set to high.

Stpatrick · Jun 2, 2012

Ace25 said:
My opinion, 1. Too much light is the main issue (on top of over thinking things with your dosing but sounds like you fixed that), it takes some time to get used to LEDs and figure out the correct intensity. I spent a good 8 months after I build my first LED light learning about proper intensity after browning/bleaching a few SPS corals. 2. Bio-pellets are the second. I tried them a couple times, always had major coral issues, even starting out 1/10th the normal amount. I disagree that .04 phosphates are bad, actually I would argue that .04 is good, and could actually go up just a touch and still be good, but no reason to raise it. I think the upper limit for SPS corals (and still be colorful and healthy looking) is .09.

New study documents increased growth of staghorn Acropora in higher phosphate levels

Great thoughts. Is nitrate of 5ppm to high?

Ace25 · Jun 2, 2012

IMO, not at all, 20 would be what I consider "high" for an SPS tank, I think 5-10 is ideal.

Stpatrick · Jun 2, 2012

Perfect. TY

Stpatrick · Jun 2, 2012

Here are a couple pics.

Stpatrick · Jun 2, 2012

Stpatrick · Jun 2, 2012

gmoney243 · Jun 2, 2012

Yea I was going to suggest the leds arw to high as well. I had a red planet that was brown also and soon as I turned leds down a bit lots of colors showed up on corals that was brown or bleached. Also po4 at. 04 is very low at one point I was running .30 -.50 and colors was fine. It wasn't till I turned my leds down even after getting phos dow to .05 that corals started coloring up. I'm 99% u had your leds to close or turned up to much.

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Big E · Jun 3, 2012

You'd probably be better off to just stop chasing the PO4 & N numbers & just watch your acros...........you''ll know when everything looks great. Once you get to that point, than test............that will be the sweet spot for "your" tank.

Try to give yourself 6-8 weeks for changes to show results...........lighting changes will happen faster but chemistry changes take longer to show up. If you're bleaching the corals with too much light, you should see them darken/color more in 2 weeks once it's toned down.

ColaAddict · Jun 3, 2012

I have no algae growth because I'm dosing vinegar and vitamin C. But when I test my phosphates, it's showing 0.4 and nitrates is close to 0. how acurate is my tester (hanna), if I have no algae growth, but my phosphate level is still measuring high. Do I bother testing phosphates, or just go with the "as long as there is no algae growth, you are good" saying.

Stpatrick · Jun 3, 2012

Big E said:
You'd probably be better off to just stop chasing the PO4 & N numbers & just watch your acros...........you''ll know when everything looks great. Once you get to that point, than test............that will be the sweet spot for "your" tank.

Try to give yourself 6-8 weeks for changes to show results...........lighting changes will happen faster but chemistry changes take longer to show up. If you're bleaching the corals with too much light, you should see them darken/color more in 2 weeks once it's toned down.

Makes great sense to me. My water chemistry seems to be spot on. I am getting color back in corals that had non. My TDF is responding well and starting to color. I did check the par on my new light yesterday and with everything at 100% I was at 450 par 6"bwl and 200 par at the bottom, 24" bwl. I have all channels dialed back until I get corals acclimated.

gmoney243 said:
Yea I was going to suggest the leds arw to high as well. I had a red planet that was brown also and soon as I turned leds down a bit lots of colors showed up on corals that was brown or bleached. Also po4 at. 04 is very low at one point I was running .30 -.50 and colors was fine. It wasn't till I turned my leds down even after getting phos dow to .05 that corals started coloring up. I'm 99% u had your leds to close or turned up to much.

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Hey gmoney. I agree about the AIs. I to got greed with them and bleached corals. When I backed them off everything responded well. I just took them down off my DT. I took one of them and hung it above my frag tank and the other is now up for grabs

ColaAddict said:
I have no algae growth because I'm dosing vinegar and vitamin C. But when I test my phosphates, it's showing 0.4 and nitrates is close to 0. how acurate is my tester (hanna), if I have no algae growth, but my phosphate level is still measuring high. Do I bother testing phosphates, or just go with the "as long as there is no algae growth, you are good" saying.

From what people are saying, a PO4 level of .04 is ok. Dono... Mine tested yesterday at .01. My nitrate is the one I struggle with. 5ppm