SPS Help!! They’re Dying

[nickenayat]

What are you using for nutrient export in this system?

Filter floss and a boys protein skimmer pretty much. I put a bag of chemi pure blue and purigen as well. How should I add phosphate

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Filter floss and a boys protein skimmer pretty much. I put a bag of chemi pure blue and purigen as well. How should I add phosphate

I would start by getting rid of the purigen and the chemi pure and put your skimmer on a 12 hour on/off schedule.

 

[Coralreefer1]

Definitely looks like you have too little flow and elevated nitrates and phosphates which is not good when trying to maintain SPS, especially Acros!

 

[RandyC]

I don't believe flow is the issue. I only ran two mp40s in my reefer 250 at 45% and 40% for a long while and even lower before that. With the two additional jaebao, flow should be sufficient.

Nitrates of 4ppm is not elevated even for an SPS tank. Many run with levels higher than that. I aim for 2.5-5 and I have witnessed tanks that run 10-20 ppm with no problem with acros in the tank. As long as you're not having crazy swings and things are relatively stable, acros can tolerate a wide range.

Zero phosphates could potentially be an issue, but I suspect that is not your problem. Prolonged exposure to a lack of NO3 or PO4 is typically exhibited by slow loss of color and paling of acros. Not a rapid tissue necrosis.

What kind of RO/DI unit are you using? Does your water provider use chloramines? I still believe that this is something that you should eliminate as a possible problem.

 

[Rick.45cal]

Personally I would dose something like neophos. (You don’t need alot). You don’t have elevated nitrates, but you have imbalanced nutrients. Phosphate starvation is much more severe than nitrate starvation, permanent irreperable tissue damage is caused when you have nitrates and no phosphates. Not having nitrates and not having phosphates results in a loss of color and a slow decline of corals, this is not the case when you have ample nitrates and zero phosphates, the damage is rapid and permanent. There’s no bleaching events like nitrate starvation only permanent damage to the corals often times complete coral mortality. Even worse it can take weeks or months for the full extent of the damage to be realized. IMO this is the worst nutrient situation to be in.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

I feed a small bit of NLS pelets a couple times per week to add po4.

 

[kevlow]

Personally I would dose something like neophos. (You don’t need alot). You don’t have elevated nitrates, but you have imbalanced nutrients. Phosphate starvation is much more severe than nitrate starvation, permanent irreperable tissue damage is caused when you have nitrates and no phosphates. Not having nitrates and not having phosphates results in a loss of color and a slow decline of corals, this is not the case when you have ample nitrates and zero phosphates, the damage is rapid and permanent. There’s no bleaching events like nitrate starvation only permanent damage to the corals often times complete coral mortality. Even worse it can take weeks or months for the full extent of the damage to be realized. IMO this is the worst nutrient situation to be in.

This is great advice and information.
I have experienced this first hand. I still have some pieces that I am hoping recover, but probably never will. Tissue loss from the bottom center moving out and up is a symptom. I raised PO4 and the process began reversing itself. Only the damage was already done on many pieces.

 

[Rick.45cal]

This is great advice and information.
I have experienced this first hand. I still have some pieces that I am hoping recover, but probably never will. Tissue loss from the bottom center moving out and up is a symptom. I raised PO4 and the process began reversing itself. Only the damage was already done on many pieces.

I’ve still got some damage on some of my colonies from a recent event where I got lazy and let my phosphates drift down too far. It happens, without dosing phosphates recently, I probably would have had a tank crash. I learned my lesson from when I first started this tank and was running undetectable nutrients.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Water changes are essential. Some culprits that cause this:
Lack of water flow
Temperature too warm
High phosphate
Too much/ high white lighting
kalk or Mag too high
Lack of nutrients- feed 2-3x per week
Foreign bugs(red, flatworms,etc)

Heavyw blue and low whites seem to be the happy medium

 

[MARK M. DAVIS]

New tank syndrome.

 

[Stigigemla]

You said You have a grounding wire in the sump. What brand and material is it?
My general tip is: Dont do anything without knowing.
This time its about the Phosphate.

The circulation of the water around the stone corals normally should be around 2 - 6 inches per second. You can check that with a little flake food and look just at the place the corals should be.
The corals dont care about more or less pumps. Its the flow at them they need.