SPS Newbie

djbetterly · May 29, 2015

So I've just started getting into SPS. My two pieces were a red and green monti-cap, they are growing like wild fire..very happy! Second piece is a cats paw, seems to be happy, its always fuzzy and has good color. Third piece is a tri-color acro....which is were I'm starting to wonder about a few things. First off, the coral hasn't browned out or bleached which is good. Polyp extension is my question. I only seem to get it in the morning and evening and from what I've read I should always have it. Any thoughts on this?

Parameters:
Salinity - 1.026
Alk- 8.5
Calc - 500
PO4 - .03
Nitrates - < 1 ppm

I'm running a triton system and my light is an AI Hydra 52.

Aandrew235 · May 30, 2015

Usually corals are going to let out polyps at night when they feed the most.

Tahoe61 · May 30, 2015

What intensity is your Hydra. Mine is at 50% I get decent PE.

djbetterly · May 30, 2015

I have them at 80%

ycnibrc · May 31, 2015

some sps will extend their polyps more than others. If you like polyps extension then buy millepora and check out to see if your fish nip at the coral causing it to retract. In the wild there are no polyps extension in the day time only at night.

djbetterly · May 31, 2015

Good to know! Any suggestions on figuring out correct lighting intensities without a PAR meter?

ycnibrc · May 31, 2015

nope par is a little tricky. If you look at T5 fixture compare to halide or LED they look dimmer but not necessary less par. With lighting is trial and error experiment you need to observe your coral how they react and adjust from there.

djbetterly · Jun 1, 2015

I'm going to get my PAR measured this week, a gentleman close to me has a meter. I have two MP10's in reef crest mode set at 100% in the tank, the display is 48 gallons, so I would presume I have more than enough flow.

Tahoe61 · Jun 1, 2015

Try to lower the intensity a little. My lights are about 16 inches above the tank.

Keeping large carpet anemone and sps with various lps shaded under 50%. If I turned mine up anymore my corals would bleach and my anemone would move.

djbetterly · Jun 1, 2015

@Tahoe61 - What kind of lights do you have?

Tahoe61 · Jun 1, 2015

Hydra 52.

djbetterly · Jun 1, 2015

You have pics of your tank online? How deep is it? Would you mind sharing a photo of your hydra 52 setup graph? Am I a pain yet?

Tahoe61 · Jun 1, 2015

I do not have the director so I can not graph but my light settings are listed.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tahoes-rimless-nano.189368/page-2

Mine tank is shallow, only 9 inches deep. I keep some of my sps right under the fixture and they do great at 50%. With a 48 gallon and only one fixture you might have to keep the intensity higher, but seems like 80% is pretty high, might consider acclimating.

Are you only running one light?

djbetterly · Jun 1, 2015

Yeah, just one light. Regarding the acclimation, I guess I never understood the purpose of it.

Tahoe61 · Jun 1, 2015

How is your fixture mounted on the tank? How far away?

Your chemistry looks fine. I have a few pieces that show extreme PE and some that show very little like my ORA Plum Crazy, but the ORA Borealis shows crazy PE. It may just be that coral.

If your Stylophora and Montipora are doing well I would not be too concerned. How old is the tank?

Make sure you do not have Red Bugs.

djbetterly · Jun 1, 2015

Tank is young, just over a year. I know that's a huge part of it as well.

Light is mounted with the AI EXT hardware 14in above the waterline. I have it high so that it covers the tank better from side to side.

I just want to make sure I don't kill anything. Also, I cut back on my feeding as I had a spike of GHA. I got married in Mexico, was out of town for two weeks and while I was gone the temp in the apartment spiked and the tank temp hit 84. I came back to a lot of GHA so I've cut back on feeding. I'll probably go back to twice a day now and try and get my PO4 and NO3 back up a bit higher.