Sps not doing well

[Kenfishy]

Hello all,

I am new to reef 2 reef but have been in the hobby for 15 years. I used to have a 180 with 3x250 single ended metal halides and grew sps like crazy and only dosed manually. I switched to a 210 and fried all of my sps due to the water being too clean (didn't save enough of old water) and the mh being too close to the water line. Decided to go to fowlr for a few years. I wasn't paying attention to my nitrates but a couple years ago I decided to get back into corals again. I installed AI 26s and started growing coral again. Because I had hair algae I brought my nitrates down too. My new corals were thriving. Then I decided to mess things up and add t5s for supplements. Most of my sps have bleached out or stned but Lps seem to be doing fine. I have my lights 7 inches above water and on for approximately 12 hours with 3 hours on each end ramp up. T5s are blue plus for 12 hours. Ais max at 75 blues and 25 white.

I suspect two things, low nutrients and too high of light.

Less than .05 phosphates and less than 1 ppm nitrates. (Elos). I'm trying to feed reefroids and rotiferfeast daily but to no avail


Alk. 7.5-8.0
Calcium 420
Managed by calcium reactor so no alk swings.

I'm going to try turning off the t5s for awhile and see if that helps. Would you suggest turning off the skimmer on a timer to try to bring then nutrients back up? I also run a fuge with chaeto and calerpa on a reverse daylight cycle and some gfo. If I don't run gfo, my po4 jumps to .2.

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Coronus]

How many fish total in the 210? Sounds like a good assessment. Too much light and too low nutrients.
This is where I would be careful. Too much of one will cause major problems. Raise up the lights a little and drop time off the schedule. I would drop 2 hrs off. Start here. Only change 1 thing at a time. Or you could start feeding more. I personally would skip broadcast feedingthe reefroids ect. This causes algae IME. Instead feed your fish. Fish poop and that feeds the corals. I am curious on your bioload though. Might need to add fish. Go slow with these changes. Bad results always come quickly. Good takes time.

 

[Coronus]

12 hrs is heavy for lighting. I run t5s all sps tank. Blues run 10 hrs day lights 6 hrs and my colors pop.

 

[Kenfishy]

I have 1 large vlamingi, large blue, large yellow, six med anthias, 2 clownfish, large blenny, mandarin

 

[Kenfishy]

12 hrs is heavy for lighting. I run t5s all sps tank. Blues run 10 hrs day lights 6 hrs and my colors pop.

I will bring the photo period down. What about the skimmer?

 

[Coronus]

Sounds like a good bioload. I would not turn the skimmer off.
In my system, My no3 and po4 are zero. But the tank is still nutrient rich. I feed the fish 2x a day and do 20 gallon water change every 2 weeks. I run a 1/2 cup of gfo and a big skimmer. The nutrients are their, they just dont break down into no3 or po4. In and out, in and out. Thats how it works for me.

 

[Kenfishy]

Sounds like a good bioload. I would not turn the skimmer off.
In my system, My no3 and po4 are zero. But the tank is still nutrient rich. I feed the fish 2x a day and do 20 gallon water change every 2 weeks. I run a 1/2 cup of gfo and a big skimmer. The nutrients are their, they just dont break down into no3 or po4. In and out, in and out. Thats how it works for me.

Ok. Will not turn off skimmer. I'm going to try photoperiod first.

 

[Coronus]

The tank is a 125 and I just run a small amount of gfo. 1/2 cups. Its barely anything, but keep the po4 down and does not pale my colors.

 

[Kenfishy]

I think I ran too much gfo. Had about two cups. I also do not have any algae to speak of in the display tank. My cuc and the lawnmower Blennie seem to do a good job. I don't know what he eats because his stomach is quite big.

 

[Coronus]

Lol

 

[botheboss]

12 hrs is heavy for lighting. I run t5s all sps tank. Blues run 10 hrs day lights 6 hrs and my colors pop.

Nice shortcake

 

[Coronus]

Its the Flame Tip Microclados

 

[botheboss]

Its the Flame Tip Microclados

Still nice lol

 

[Coronus]

Yes it is. Crazy pink polpys

 

[BlennyKravitz]

Your SPS are starving. I run an ULNS with almost zero phosphates using GFO, biopellets, frequent water changes and a refugium!

Try feeding the tank in the AM with Red Sea Reef Energy. I feed my sticks every morning 20mL of A and B and turn off the return and skimmer for 45 minutes. Then I let it skim it clean throughout the day. I feed again heavy right as lights are about to go out with mysis, Reef chili/Roids and a squirt of Oyster Feast.

I don't feed my RBT or scolymia more than once every couple weeks. Other than target feeding my acans, that's it for feeding coral.

Phosphates are always .01 or 0 on a Hanna checker.

 

[Kenfishy]

Your SPS are starving. I run an ULNS with almost zero phosphates using GFO, biopellets, frequent water changes and a refugium!

Try feeding the tank in the AM with Red Sea Reef Energy. I feed my sticks every morning 20mL of A and B and turn off the return and skimmer for 45 minutes. Then I let it skim it clean throughout the day. I feed again heavy right as lights are about to go out with mysis, Reef chili/Roids and a squirt of Oyster Feast.

I don't feed my RBT or scolymia more than once every couple weeks. Other than target feeding my acans, that's it for feeding coral.

Phosphates are always .01 or 0 on a Hanna checker.

Thanks. It sounds like I need to feed more. Very nice pictures. But my question would be why are my chalices and other lps growing and doing well?

 

[BlennyKravitz]

Thanks. It sounds like I need to feed more. Very nice pictures. But my question would be why are my chalices and other lps growing and doing well?

I think LPS are more resilient and they can eat larger food in your column that your fish don't eat. I've noticed a couple of my scolymia are receding. I need to feed them now or I fear they are starving too.

 

[Kenfishy]

I think LPS are more resilient and they can eat larger food in your column that your fish don't eat. I've noticed a couple of my scolymia are receding. I need to feed them now or I fear they are starving too.

That makes sense since I feed mysis nightly.