SPS on Frag Rack

[Trenton Henderson]

That’s pretty low. With the plus or minus deviation of digital phosphate checkers that could be zero phosphate in reality. I had issues with acros when my phosphate would ever drop below like 0.03.

Mine had been near 0.05 ppm, but I fertilized my Chaeto and within two days it had dropped. At least I know my chaeto just needed some trace elements lol. I backed off my refugium lighting schedule by a good bit, reduced skimming, and dosed phosphates and nitrates…I may need to leave the auto feeder running to keep up the nutrients.

 

[Trenton Henderson]

Personally when I had dinos it took a few weeks for them to settle in when it was reading zero nitrate and phosphate. I didn’t have sps at the time but If that happened now they would definitely suffer if not die if I bottomed our nutrients for that low.

Believe me, I went through my dinos phase! Filtered mechanically, dosed Microbacter 7, dosed nitrates and phosphates; within three weeks they were almost completely gone. My nutrients have been in a good place, I’m just trying to determine if the swing from 0.04 ish to 0.01 ish would have caused the issue. It was only like that for a day….

 

[Trenton Henderson]

I’ve noticed a few things, starting from dry rock to being able to grow SPS and acros. Firstly I feel that your lighting and flow needs to match, high light and high flow. Also your nutrients should be relative to your Alk. What that means is if you’re having trouble keeping your nutrients consistent but you’re running a higher alkalinity, acros will tend to grow skeleton faster than they can create tissue which will lead to burnt tips potentially and then subsequent algae growth, for example. What helped me get over the hump was correct placement in the tank, managing my Alk level to achieve great stability, boosting my pH from 7.8 to 8.3, and then lastly, I began dosing Brightwell Microbacter 7 daily, along with phytoplankton. Yes, acros do better in a mature system, but that’s usually because of a couple things: stability and bacteria. The bacterial strains that are present in successful, stable reef tanks are much different than new tanks. If you can seed some of those bacterial species into your tank and then maintain good, stable water chemistry, there’s no reason you can’t keep acros with proper lighting and flow.

I feel as though there is just a few stability issues remaining. Coralline is growing, I know I have a solid biofilm. My tank breaks down every really fast. Lighting is improving, flow is there, but I’m really only trying to have like 15-20% SPS at the very top of the tank. It may just be a few more months.

 

[Dburr1014]

220 par for 6 hours is not enough to sustain SPS

 

[Trenton Henderson]

220 par for 6 hours is not enough to sustain SPS

That’s why I’m working it up. I just don’t want to too fast!

 

[Dburr1014]

That’s why I’m working it up. I just don’t want to too fast!

Do you have the ability to ramp sunset/sundown?
Do 2 hours on the front end/back end now to your 6 hours. That will give you 10 immediately. Then add 1/2 hour weekly to the 6 hours full par. In a month your at 12.
Then boost par if your able. Go up to 350 if possible.

 

[christwendt]

Believe me, I went through my dinos phase! Filtered mechanically, dosed Microbacter 7, dosed nitrates and phosphates; within three weeks they were almost completely gone. My nutrients have been in a good place, I’m just trying to determine if the swing from 0.04 ish to 0.01 ish would have caused the issue. It was only like that for a day….

Only like that for one day I would find that highly unlikely to cause an issue.

 

[christwendt]

Mine had been near 0.05 ppm, but I fertilized my Chaeto and within two days it had dropped. At least I know my chaeto just needed some trace elements lol. I backed off my refugium lighting schedule by a good bit, reduced skimming, and dosed phosphates and nitrates…I may need to leave the auto feeder running to keep up the nutrients.

Sounds like all good plans to prevent bottoming out nutrients again.

 

[Trenton Henderson]

Do you have the ability to ramp sunset/sundown?
Do 2 hours on the front end/back end now to your 6 hours. That will give you 10 immediately. Then add 1/2 hour weekly to the 6 hours full par. In a month your at 12.
Then boost par if your able. Go up to 350 if possible.

My lights are on for a total (including ramp up and down) of 14 hours, with the first and last hour being quite dim and mostly for coral glow. The middle 6 hours are 94% intensity. I’m extending the full intensity portion about 30 minutes per week.

 

[Dburr1014]

My lights are on for a total (including ramp up and down) of 14 hours, with the first and last hour being quite dim and mostly for coral glow. The middle 6 hours are 94% intensity. I’m extending the full intensity portion about 30 minutes per week.

So it's not just 6 hours?
What is dim? Dim for coral "glow" is still hitting the florescents. Have you measured the par?

Coral Pigments and the Light Wavelengths That Stimulate Them

Coral reefs are some of the most beautiful sights in the world, and one of the least understood. We can show you how the sun's rays turn coral into a wonderland of color.

acrooptics.com

 

[Trenton Henderson]

So it's not just 6 hours?
What is dim? Dim for coral "glow" is still hitting the florescents. Have you measured the par?

Coral Pigments and the Light Wavelengths That Stimulate Them

Coral reefs are some of the most beautiful sights in the world, and one of the least understood. We can show you how the sun's rays turn coral into a wonderland of color.

acrooptics.com

PAR at the peak 6 hours is about 220-280 PAR where I intend the SPS to be. The intensity of the lights is not high enough to contribute to their photosynthesis much during the beginning and end of the day, which is when they are on heavy blues is what I meant.

 

[Dburr1014]

PAR at the peak 6 hours is about 220-280 PAR where I intend the SPS to be. The intensity of the lights is not high enough to contribute to their photosynthesis much during the beginning and end of the day, which is when they are on heavy blues is what I meant.

Gottcha, keep extending the photo period and the time at max par. You may not be able to support very high light sps but the rest should be fine.

 

[Trenton Henderson]

Gottcha, keep extending the photo period and the time at max par. You may not be able to support very high light sps but the rest should be fine.

Yeah, I wasn’t planning on doing any crazy high light acros, especially since this is my first go at them. I may add some AI blades or something in the future if I wanted to.

 

[Acros]

Adding a couple of AI Blades will take care of all lighting issues.

 

[Trenton Henderson]

Adding a couple of AI Blades will take care of all lighting issues.

Now…if they would just come out with their other mounting options lol. I’d love one that could incorporate the Kessils!

 

[Acros]

How is the frag doing now?

Can you post some pics of the frag and the tank?

 

[Trenton Henderson]

How is the frag doing now?

Can you post some pics of the frag and the tank?

Fairly empty tank still for 9 months. I’m a graduate student, so my schedule makes it hard to add things very quickly. Also, some of my early alkalinity instabilities prevented me from adding anything stony. Also, the white rock was added a few weeks ago, and thus why it has no coralline yet.

 

[Acros]

Hey! I am a graduate student too! Hopefully, I will be done by the end of this year.

The first year of the tank was rough, even tho I started with live rock from the ocean. Your tank needs a little bit more time. It looks way too young/not mature from the pics.

If you want to accelerate this process, get a 10-lb live rock pack from gulfliverock.com and add it to the tank. You can even add it to the sump. It will come with some hitchhikers, but it is worth it for the bio-diversity, stability, and maturity it will bring to your tank. If you don't want to bother with it, get some live rock from your LFS. In my case, buying from gulfliverock.com was cheaper than my LFS.

 

[Trenton Henderson]

Hey! I am a graduate student too! Hopefully, I will be done by the end of this year.

The first year of the tank was rough, even tho I started with live rock from the ocean. Your tank needs a little bit more time. It looks way too young/not mature from the pics.

If you want to accelerate this process, get a 10-lb live rock pack from gulfliverock.com and add it to the tank. You can even add it to the sump. It will come with some hitchhikers, but it is worth it for the bio-diversity, stability, and maturity it will bring to your tank. If you don't want to bother with it, get some live rock from your LFS. In my case, buying from gulfliverock.com was cheaper than my LFS.

Nice!

I can tell it’s a little immature as well because I have a million pineapple sponges in the overhangs of my rocks and all over my sump. My old 55 gallon was started with live rock and those were gone in months.

As for the acro, bleached, but the polyps are still happy it seems!