SPS Growth Problems

[clowndude]

Hello Fellow R2R Members-

I have an interesting problem that has been bothering me for several months now. It seems like I'm just not getting any growth out of my sps. The color seems to be there, just not the growth.

Current tank config:

65 Rimless Tank
400 Watt 20K Radium MH run from 7PM to 2AM
JBJ Chiller keeps tank stable around 78-79 degrees
Bubble Magnus Seaside CS1 Skimmer
Nextreef media reactor running BRS GFO HC and ROX Carbon changed monthly
UV Sterlizer
ATO system run by aqualifter and jbj system. Add Brightwell Kalk +2 one teaspoon per gallon of make up water and mix for a day
3-MP10s for water movement

Tank Parimeters:
Cal: Stable at 420 Red Sea Test Kit
Alk: Stable at 8.4 Red Sea Test Kit
Mag: 1400 Red Sea Test Kit
Phosphates: .02 with hanna checker
Nitrates: 10-15 PPM with API

Water changes are done weekly at 15% tank volume using Salinity Salt

RO/DI unit always maintained at 0 TDS

Feed fish once a day 4-5 cubes

Only things I can think of are too much light which I didn't think was possible or the photoperiod may be to long.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I have been scratching my head for some time.

 

[PolandSpring]

Sps r slow...if everything is stable. Leave ur frags alone once they encrust they will take off.

 

[NanoNathan]

nitrates 10-15 .. im not a sps guy but arnt most sps tanks closer to 0 nitrates ??

 

[gmoney243]

Why don't you think you can give them to much light? You can definately give them to much light and photo inhibit them or bleach and kill. 400w is a bit extreme for a 65g. How close is it?

Sent from my Vortex using Tapatalk 2

 

[fishes2889]

Things i can point out are only a 7 hour photoperiod, and the uv sterilizer because it eliminates too many essentials in the water column for reef aquaria.

 

[gmoney243]

7 hr of 400w MH might b to much. Many if not most sps keepers with MH keep it down to about 4-6 hour of MH and couple.hours of T5 giving about 7-8 hours total. Lack of growth is probly comming from to much light and nitrates. But depends on how close.ur light is. At 16"+ it should be ok. It could also be a lack of phos but feeding 4-5 cubes/day in a 65g there should be plenty available nutrients. I'm suprised ur po4 and nitrates aren't much higher.
Add some chaeto if you can or bio pellets to help with nitrates. Also you could probably feed less I'm not sure how many fish you have but in a 65g that seems like a lot of food.
Sent from my Vortex using Tapatalk 2

 

[clowndude]

Why don't you think you can give them to much light? You can definately give them to much light and photo inhibit them or bleach and kill. 400w is a bit extreme for a 65g. How close is it?

Sent from my Vortex using Tapatalk 2

The light is about 18 inches off the water. I would think that no matter what light we put on our tanks that it isn't going to be more powerful than the sun.

 

[clowndude]

7 hr of 400w MH might b to much. Many if not most sps keepers with MH keep it down to about 4-6 hour of MH and couple.hours of T5 giving about 7-8 hours total. Lack of growth is probly comming from to much light and nitrates. But depends on how close.ur light is. At 16"+ it should be ok. It could also be a lack of phos but feeding 4-5 cubes/day in a 65g there should be plenty available nutrients. I'm suprised ur po4 and nitrates aren't much higher.
Add some chaeto if you can or bio pellets to help with nitrates. Also you could probably feed less I'm not sure how many fish you have but in a 65g that seems like a lot of food.
Sent from my Vortex using Tapatalk 2

I have quite a few fish in the tank, only reason I'm feeding that much food. I've been considering running my biopellet reactor again. Just always afraid of the extreme opposite they can do. In the feeding I would think the phosphates would rise, but I guess the GFO HC keeps up with them. I test the phosphates with the hanna so I know it should be right on the number. I've tested the tap water and it def shows phosphates so I know the tester itself is working. I will try adding back the biopellets and give it sometime to see if it helps. In some part I do believe the nitrates were part of the issue as mentioned.

 

[Young Frankenstein]

SPS wont grow with out perfect parameters, the lighting is ok, do water changes and leve them alone, stop moving them and they will start growing, it takes about 3 months for them to start, after you will start to see some great growth with that light.

 

[kuyatwo]

i would also lower your nitrates, also if they have been like that for a while you can nip the tips and mount them to make frags..i have noticed if phosphates or nitrates are out of whack for awhile the coral kind of goes into a hibernation state. i have nip the ends of my sps and my experience is that it jumpstarts the coral to repair and grow again

 

[Troylee]

Nutrients are your problem!!!! 4 to 5 cubes a day of frozen food is way over kill and causing a nitrate and phosphate problem... Try a single cube every other day... Or switch out to pellets and only use a little bit daily.... Hth

 

[duke62]

Try feeding small portions through the day and do not use 4 to 5 cubes a day. also if you want to use the uv maybe use it on a timer for no more then 2 hours per day. the uv kills alot of beneficial bacteria that are vital to sps

 

[TheWeaz]

Are uv sterilizer really that harmful?

 

[bct15]

Are uv sterilizer really that harmful?

I use a uv 24/7 and have no sps growth or color problems...Mine grow great and have great color

 

[clowndude]

Thanks everybody for the friendly adivse. I have since cut my feeding way back. I've also employeed cheato in my refug, running very little bio-pellets and I mean very little because I know what they can do. I've also been doing some bigger water changes to get the nitrates down. So far my nitrates have come down to 25. I actually found out my nitrates were around 50ppm. Yes I know, dumb mistake. Hopefully I can keep getting the nitrates down over the next few weeks. Any other tricks to get the nitrates down would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Troylee]

Vodka/mb7 dosing....

 

[Montrosereef]

I dip them in coralRX and they start to take off. If they showed no growth for a few months, they have some health issues. Dip them to save them.

 

[SPSkeeper]

Nutrients are your problem!!!! 4 to 5 cubes a day of frozen food is way over kill and causing a nitrate and phosphate problem... Try a single cube every other day... Or switch out to pellets and only use a little bit daily.... Hth

Agree 100%. You are overfeeding like a madman lol. SPS's like much cleaner, well stabilized water params with .02ish trates(everything needs some food in the water column, don't starve them like they do on zeovit). Just remember, SPS = Stability Promotes Success.

Vodka/mb7 dosing....

Sorry Toylee, you are very knowledgeable and well respected in the community but I would not recommend this if you don't know what you are doing. Never needed to dose vodka but have heard horror stories about someone trying it to fix a situation and not knowing what they were getting into and had die offs due to params being wacked out from doing stuff they weren't supposed to. Go slow and watch it grow, do water changes with a good salt and run fresh activated carbon regularly. Can you get a pic? It would help to see what they look like and where they are placed in the tank/how big they are and what species they are.

 

[clowndude]

Agree 100%. You are overfeeding like a madman lol. SPS's like much cleaner, well stabilized water params with .02ish trates(everything needs some food in the water column, don't starve them like they do on zeovit). Just remember, SPS = Stability Promotes Success.



Sorry Toylee, you are very knowledgeable and well respected in the community but I would not recommend this if you don't know what you are doing. Never needed to dose vodka but have heard horror stories about someone trying it to fix a situation and not knowing what they were getting into and had die offs due to params being wacked out from doing stuff they weren't supposed to. Go slow and watch it grow, do water changes with a good salt and run fresh activated carbon regularly. Can you get a pic? It would help to see what they look like and where they are placed in the tank/how big they are and what species they are.

I will take a current picture tomorrow night when the lights come on. I've noticed my blue mill has taken it the worst. It's supposed to be a blue, but is a brownish color. All sps growth have seem to cease through ever since the nitrates have gone up. I'm hopefully better feeding habits, weekly water changes, cheato in sump and a very small amount of biopellets will help resolve the issue. I know biopellts can over stripe a tank so that is why I'm not running much in the reactor. I've also been thinking about getting a better protein skimmer. Currently have a Nac7. What are the thoughts on this?

 

[spscrazy]

some of the things mentioned didn't work for me altho I don't overfeed I still had problems with nitrates & phosphate chaeto didn't work I think because I had a large hang on refugium and the space didn't allow for it to tumble properly so it got alot of junk in it & it was hard to clean without taking it out & losing the pods etc. bio pellet didn't do enough nitrates & phos were still too high bio pellets were a pain vodka dosing didn't seem to be doing anything all these things would probably have worked right if I could have found "the sweet spot" so to speak I got tired of looking at brown corals & the endless search to figure out what the heck my tank really wanted.
more than once a day I would walk by my tank & ask it "WHAT DO YOU WANT" just to be ignored lps were doing great so I decided 1 more try and then I'm giving up the sps. I looked around & saw red sea no3po4-x cheap enough good reviews so here goes on the last try. fast forward a couple of months my bad algae is 75% gone, rocks are so bright & clean, cleaning the front glass maybe every 10 days instead of daily, sps are getting more color every day and getting growth my tank wanted alcohol and vinegar I could probably work out the amount of both & diy it cheaper but since red sea figured it all out & all I have to do is follow direction I'm gonna stick with it I think every tank is different so what works for 1 might not work for another so if what you have planned doesn't give you the desired results you might want to give this a try or the vodka/vinegar if you are better than me at figuring out the math good luck I know how frustrating it is to see others corals so bright they take your breath away & then you look at yours & see "swamp mud"