SPS Issue

tankreefer · Mar 31, 2016

I have a 5 gallon mixed reef of SPS acros and LPS chalices. I do routine water changes and the tank has been established for about a year. My water parameters are near perfect, I test with salifert and try and limit my feeding. I use a prime led and keep the blues at 80% and CW at 25%. My CB chalices are thriving and showing a lot of growth but my SPS acros are bleaching out and dying. What's going on? I have tried adding amino's and different light settings. The prime is about 8-10" off the water and I can't figure out how to stop the bleaching. Help?

mcarroll · Mar 31, 2016

Can you get a [HASHTAG]#lux[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#meter[/HASHTAG] and tell me how bright it says your lights are?
(You can start with a $free lux meter app for your smartphone's camera, but I'd order at least a $15 (delivered) handheld lux meter for later. Much better, and safer to use around saltwater!

Post your results!)

When did the corals go in?

How "off" are calcium alkalinity and magnesium when you test and make a correction? (Can you post the last round of tests/corrections you made?) Alkalinity has the least tolerance for swings IME.

Could still be a lot of other things - especially combinations of things, but...

My guess is that it's flow. It's gotta be tough to flow a 5g....how are you doing it?

tankreefer · Mar 31, 2016

Corals have been in for about 3 months now. Alk and calcium are in the normal range and I have a hang on 5 stage filter that's rated up to 30 gallons.

tankreefer · Mar 31, 2016

All the corals were doing well until I added these "fully cured" coral plugs made out if sand. They changed to a weird red color and I think that's when I started to see the bleaching.

Salt Creep · Mar 31, 2016

I don't think it is the frag plugs. Can you post your water's parameters? You say you try to limit your feeding... do you have algae? I believe in high feeding/high export. How old is your tank? How do you keep your parameters stable?

hybridazn · Mar 31, 2016

So the filter is your only waterflow? Sps require a good amount of flow, and how do the sps look when you first put them in? Are they healthy and just slowly fade away?

mcarroll · Apr 1, 2016

tankreefer said:
Corals have been in for about 3 months now. Alk and calcium are in the normal range and I have a hang on 5 stage filter that's rated up to 30 gallons.

Does the hang-on filter have a "gph" rating?

Do you dose alkalinity manually or with an automatic doser of some kind?

(Try out one of the free lux meters for your smart phone next time you get a chance to be near the tank with the lights on. And post your results!

)

tankreefer said:
All the corals were doing well until I added these "fully cured" coral plugs made out if sand. They changed to a weird red color and I think that's when I started to see the bleaching.

A tank pic would help a lot.

(follow me on this...)
You could be describing them getting overgrown with coraline red algae....which would be consistent with the growth you saw in your chalices....it also implies usage of lots of calcium, alkalinity and magnesium...which is the leading edge of a parameter swing that can cause bleaching and other stress-related problems.

Like I said in my original post, a combination of things is likely.

Light is still a question mark.
Flow is still a question mark.
I suspect you are dosing manually. That's is OK, but it needs to be done with some extra care to make the tank stable enough for more sensitive animals (e.g. Acros). A doser, at least for alkalinity, is highly recommended.