SPS not looking great!

[Charlie’s Frags]

That spectrum color looked awful on my tank. Do yourself and your corals a favor and switch to this spectrum.
I would do a 3 week acclimation period. Set it and forget it. I respect the you know what out of the insight that @jda has to say. I’ve learned a lot reading his input, but with all do respect, @jda hasn’t had any recent experience, that I know of anyway, of starving acros on a small tank using nopox with hydras. I do. More than I wish I had.

 

[Dan Kyle]

That spectrum color looked awful on my tank. Do yourself and your corals a favor and switch to this spectrum.
I would do a 3 week acclimation period. Set it and forget it. I respect the you know what out of the insight that @jda has to say. I’ve learned a lot reading his input, but with all do respect, @jda hasn’t had any recent experience, that I know of anyway, of starving acros on a small tank using nopox with hydras. I do. More than I wish I had.

Thank you! I really appreciate it. I’ll start to use this schedule with the acclimation. Would you agree with me on taking the Chaeto offline and stop dosing NOPOX too?

 

[gar732]

I’d try droppiyour alk down to about 7.5 and see if that helps. 8.6doesnt seem high but with the nopox it just might be. I was trying to get keep my alk at 8.5 just recently and was getting burnt tips on my acros and a porcillapora I have also wasn’t looking well. I backed it down to 7.5 and everything is happier for it.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Thank you! I really appreciate it. I’ll start to use this schedule with the acclimation. Would you agree with me on taking the Chaeto offline and stop dosing NOPOX too?

I would recommend leaving the chaeto, stop your nopox and turn your skimmer off a week or so. Honestly I think those sps are goners. They might recover but I doubt it. But they need some nutrition. Fish poop and more light.
And bring your alk down to 7.5

 

[Dan Kyle]

I’d try droppiyour alk down to about 7.5 and see if that helps. 8.6doesnt seem high but with the nopox it just might be. I was trying to get keep my alk at 8.5 just recently and was getting burnt tips on my acros and a porcillapora I have also wasn’t looking well. I backed it down to 7.5 and everything is happier for it.

Noted I will let it drop naturally and back off on the dosing 2 part.

 

[Dan Kyle]

I would recommend leaving the chaeto, stop your nopox and turn your skimmer off a week or so. Honestly I think those sps are goners. They might recover but I doubt it. But they need some nutrition. Fish poop and more light.
And bring your alk down to 7.5

I really didn’t want to hear they are goners. I’ll do as you suggest though and hopefully within time things will improve.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

25-30% acclimation

 

[jda]

It is true. I don't have any small tanks. I don't use any LED. I learned 15 years ago about the ills and unintended consequences of using Organic Carbon in a reef, especially young reefs.

Let your tank finish cycling... it usually takes about a year, but you probably interrupted this a bit with the additives. Your tank should stabilize on it's own in time. You will know when this happens because coralline pops up all over the place and stuff starts to thrive.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I really didn’t want to hear they are goners. I’ll do as you suggest though and hopefully within time things will improve.

I hope I’m wrong about that. Hard to say for sure from the pics. I just wanted to prepare you. If they cross over to the afterlife, that doesn’t mean the changes did it, it means they were to far gone from the start. But your current recipe isn’t working, and mine is. Give it a try. My moni’s are receiving 250-500 par for 6 hours with 3 hours ramps and are growing like crazy. They can handle a lot if your not stripping the water.

 

[Dan Kyle]

It is true. I don't have any small tanks. I don't use any LED. I learned 15 years ago about the ills and unintended consequences of using Organic Carbon in a reef, especially young reefs.

Let your tank finish cycling... it usually takes about a year, but you probably interrupted this a bit with the additives. Your tank should stabilize on it's own in time. You will know when this happens because coralline pops up all over the place and stuff starts to thrive.

I fully understand what you are saying and I can’t help but thinking taking the Chaeto offline for a while will help too? If my nitrates are 0.75 I think this is too low. I think I’m guilty of stripping my water column from too much nutrients.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

How old is the tank? I didn’t see any details on that.

 

[Dan Kyle]

How old is the tank? I didn’t see any details on that.

6-7 months.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

It is true. I don't have any small tanks. I don't use any LED. I learned 15 years ago about the ills and unintended consequences of using Organic Carbon in a reef, especially young reefs.

Let your tank finish cycling... it usually takes about a year, but you probably interrupted this a bit with the additives. Your tank should stabilize on it's own in time. You will know when this happens because coralline pops up all over the place and stuff starts to thrive.

I hope you know I wasn’t trying to offend or disrespect. I’ve seen your tank pics , incredible by the way, and I know you don’t like led, especially hydras. I learned the hard way doing exactly what the OP did. I was adding this and that chasing numbers all the while thinking my lights were too bright and burning my Sps. But I learned they weren’t bright enough and chasing “perfect” numbers starved them.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

6-7 months.

Yep, @jda is spot on there. Bring your alk down, stop the nopox, and turn your skimmer off for a while, give them some more light. Light causes photosynthesis which produce the sugars from the zoox, which is their main source of energy.

 

[Dan Kyle]

I feel lost from here on in though because I have some new SPS corals arriving on Tuesday from an online store and I don’t feel enthusiastic at all.

I’ve shut down my skimmer and I’m not dosing carbon anymore but I have left on my Chaeto reactor.

How can one not chase numbers when there are optimal levels for an SPS tank. I mean people say you must keep your nitrates <5. Some people say <10 so we do our upmost to get within target and when we do that we fail miserably. It’s just a bit, whatever...

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I feel lost from here on in though because I have some new SPS corals arriving on Tuesday from an online store and I don’t feel enthusiastic at all.

I’ve shut down my skimmer and I’m not dosing carbon anymore but I have left on my Chaeto reactor.

How can one not chase numbers when there are optimal levels for an SPS tank. I mean people say you must keep your nitrates <5. Some people say <10 so we do our upmost to get within target and when we do that we fail miserably. It’s just a bit, whatever...

I understand. I believe most “ideal” numbers have the objective of providing enough building blocks for corals to thrive both in growth and color all while keeping unwanted algae away.
I think we over skim and over dose too early. Like @jda stated, your tank is relatively new. You haven’t established all the ideal bacteria and microfauna, in fact the skimmer and carbon dosing is stripping and preventing a lot of that process. I’m not totally sold on the no skimmer just yet, although my sps have looked better than ever since I removed it, but I don’t like gfo and carbon dosing especially on newer and smaller tanks.
I can tell you that with my tank the nutrients did rise a little the first couple weeks after I got rid of the gfo and nopox, but I didn’t freak the &&@? Out because my corals looked happy. Guess what happens when your corals are happy? They absorb those building blocks and produce those ideal numbers. They are filter feeders after all. So let them filter the water for you.

 

[Dan Kyle]

I understand. I believe most “ideal” numbers have the objective of providing enough building blocks for corals to thrive both in growth and color all while keeping unwanted algae away.
I think we over skim and over dose too early. Like @jda stated, your tank is relatively new. You haven’t established all the ideal bacteria and microfauna, in fact the skimmer and carbon dosing is stripping and preventing a lot of that process. I’m not totally sold on the no skimmer just yet, although my sps have looked better than ever since I removed it, but I don’t like gfo and carbon dosing especially on newer and smaller tanks.
I can tell you that with my tank the nutrients did rise a little the first couple weeks after I got rid of the gfo and nopox, but I didn’t freak the &&@? Out because my corals looked happy. Guess what happens when your corals are happy? They absorb those building blocks and produce those ideal numbers. They are filter feeders after all. So let them filter the water for you.

Yeah it does make a lot of sense. I guess I just find it all too frustrating and I know I’m not alone on that. I like a challenge but this is something else lol. I just hope my new stock doesn’t go south. I won’t go skimmerless anytime soon. I’ve seen the crap that gets pulled out and if I stopped skimming I can only imagine all that crap is just sitting around in your tank. I will stop chasing numbers though however difficult it is. Contradictory but now I have to chase a lower number for alkalinity. This just seems impossible. Ideal KH to me was anywhere between 8-12. I wonder why I need to drop mine into the sevens? I remember my KH going back a long time now but it dropped into sevens and my PH couldn’t go any higher than 7.6. When my alk is in the eights I get a better PH.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Yeah it does make a lot of sense. I guess I just find it all too frustrating and I know I’m not alone on that. I like a challenge but this is something else lol. I just hope my new stock doesn’t go south. I won’t go skimmerless anytime soon. I’ve seen the crap that gets pulled out and if I stopped skimming I can only imagine all that crap is just sitting around in your tank. I will stop chasing numbers though however difficult it is. Contradictory but now I have to chase a lower number for alkalinity. This just seems impossible.

That “crap” is coral food and good bacteria. Even BRS did a nutrition video last week concluding that fish poop is the ideal food source. There is a balance though. The trick is to feed your fish just enough that they consume it all and then the crap can get absorbed by the corals and microfauna leaving very little to none that can fuel algae growth. BRS has also recommendeded “under” sizing our skimmers because they can over skim.
I’m not saying throw your skimmer in the garbage. I went to a 12 hour skimming period before I pulled mine out. I just remember the last time I cleaned the cup I thought, how can 4 cubes of frozen mysis (1 cube per day) produce this much skimmate.
Last Sunday my Hanna ultra low phosphorus checker read 3. So I removed the skimmer and today a week later, it read 1.

 

[Dan Kyle]

Last Sunday my Hanna ultra low phosphorus checker read 3. So I removed the skimmer and today a week later, it read 1.

That's insane! I would have thought removing the skimmer you would actually see an increase in PO4 but to see a decline... now you even have me convinced.

 

[MadTownFess]

Thank you. So you are another that has success with the one unit on an SPS reef? I remember using the David Saxbys schedule before and I’m sure there was something I didn’t like about it. Does it stay on blue all night or too blue throughout the day?

No its actually almost too white. I actually turned down the white a little bit towards the end of the night.