SPS possibly starving?

Squamosa · Aug 22, 2013

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum, so here goes. My 50g has been set up for a year and I have been trying my hand at keeping acropora it would seem that I am "starving" them...let me explain, for about 2 months now my colonies have slowly begun to lighten up and it looks like once the polyps start to recede the flesh slowly gets thinner until just the skeleton remains underneath, no RTN or anything just slowly getting thinner and thinner. Running a +3 skimmer, biopellets, gfo, carbon and water flow is at least 50x. No nitrates, no PO4, dKH=10, Ca=430, Mg=1300, SG=1.025, adding kalk too, these parameters remain steady via dosing pumps, pH 8.3-8.4. Do you think the water is too "clean" and the corals need supplemental feeding. My radions are dialed down to 30% also. I was also thinking of trying some of the Zeovit products to boost my acro health, but could just be barking up the wrong expensive tree. :cry:

trido · Aug 22, 2013

In one rare case I have seen SPS pale out due to lack of "dirty water". Do you feed any fish? If so, what and how often.

Reefnjunkie · Aug 22, 2013

IMO I would lean towards the water being to clean. Unless you have a heavy bio load and your skimmer is under rated for your tank, I can't see the reason for using the bio pellets.
I used to use BP when my NO3 was around 25 and they got that way due to my pump on my skimmer breaking. They climbed to the point I couldn't get ahead of the climb. I added BP and slowly over 6-8 months got them down to .5 which is where they are presently. I removed the BP becuase the were not helping with the PO4 enough to where I could just run BP, I still had to run GFO. I removed the BP and the skimmer is holding its own.

You may want to try to add some oyster feast or phyto feats or both.

As important you mentioned this started about 2 months ago...was there a change you made to the tank around that time frame, say 3 months or so?

revhtree · Aug 22, 2013

Hello and welcome to R2R!

We appreciate your membership!

Thanks for joining and please make sure and post often!

Squamosa · Aug 22, 2013

trido said:
In one rare case I have seen SPS pale out due to lack of "dirty water". Do you feed any fish? If so, what and how often.

I only have three fish, two tomato clowns and a small purple tang. They get fed once a day with enough spectrum pellets that they can eat in 5 minutes and get one block of mysis and artemia every 3rd day, with the tang getting a piece of nori every 2nd day.

Reefnjunkie said:
IMO I would lean towards the water being to clean. Unless you have a heavy bio load and your skimmer is under rated for your tank, I can't see the reason for using the bio pellets.
I used to use BP when my NO3 was around 25 and they got that way due to my pump on my skimmer breaking. They climbed to the point I couldn't get ahead of the climb. I added BP and slowly over 6-8 months got them down to .5 which is where they are presently. I removed the BP becuase the were not helping with the PO4 enough to where I could just run BP, I still had to run GFO. I removed the BP and the skimmer is holding its own.

You may want to try to add some oyster feast or phyto feats or both.

As important you mentioned this started about 2 months ago...was there a change you made to the tank around that time frame, say 3 months or so?

I used to dose VSV but switched to BP about 6 months ago and never had the same results,although my NO3 disappeared, like you said, still have to use GFO :frusty:

I forgot to mention that when I first started using GFO around 6 months ago that I had some acros RTN on me so I took the reactor offline until they recovered and then started using it again, but very slowly for the last 4 months, I'm wondering if the Rowa is "too effective" at removing even trace elements.
My NO3 never got past 15, but that was almost a year ago and my skimmer is rated for a tank 5x larger. I'm just worried that if I remove the BP then I will have a crash!
I have been really trying to get my params rock solid for the last 6 months by having the dosing pumps and using the red sea range of powder additives for KH, Mg and Ca.

Thanks for all your help, much appreciated

Curtis Scott · Aug 23, 2013

I've experienced this before. I was having the same issues you mentioned in your first post.

Pale SPS with little to no growth and non existent polyp extension. I finally came to the realization that my tank most be nutrient deprived. I was starving my tank and more importantly my corals. I started using Pohl's Coral Vitalizer and Xtra and went back to spot feeding them every 3-4 days and within a few weeks I have already seen a huge improvement.

Long version:

My tank is a 75g display tank with a 30g sump. In Sept of last year after over feeding and horrible husbandry, my tank experienced very bad cyanobacteria and bubble algae that would not go away. This prompted me to be over vigilant in making sure I got kept pristine water conditions.

Over some time, here is what I was doing and what I think contributed to it:

Upgraded skimmer, now rated for up to 300g instead of the 100g one I was running.
Added BRS Bio Pellets reactor
Added Chemi Pure Elite (1 unit) - really helped get rid of the algae
Added Carbon every month for 1 week only
Added Purigen reactor
Added Rowaphos reactor
Added Cheato and grow light - really helped also

... a 'little' overkill, I know.

Finally after only feeding fish for long time and basically focusing on water quality, Phos (hanna) and Nitrate (salifert) tests read 0 for both. I was never able to get a reading other than 0.00 from the hanna checker. Calcium/Alkalinity/Mag were all within optimal parameters.

Around this same time I switched from metal halides to LED (back in March of this year) and my corals faded some then adjusted back. However a couple months after they colored back up I noticed they were all getting paler and no longer had polyp extension. I spoke with a few people who keep SPS and they suggested I feed my corals/tank more because I was starving them.

I took the carbon, purigen and bio pellets offline and started to feed again heavily at first while I monitored my parameters and did water changes, then scaled back.

I also found out my potassium was very depleted after testing it with a salifert test, so I started dosing that as well with the Brightwell supplement.

It's been just over a month of dosing potassium and spot feeding my corals. They are growing like crazy with awesome polyp extension and the colors continue to get better. I still monitor the phos and nitrates every week just to make sure. The phos is now usually between .02 and .05 and nitrates are just barely noticeable on the salifert test.

Hope this helps!

Squamosa · Aug 23, 2013

Curtis Scott said:
I've experienced this before. I was having the same issues you mentioned in your first post. 
 
Pale SPS with little to no growth and non existent polyp extension. I finally came to the realization that my tank most be nutrient deprived. I was starving my tank and more importantly my corals. I started using Pohl's Coral Vitalizer and Xtra and went back to spot feeding them every 3-4 days and within a few weeks I have already seen a huge improvement. 
 
Long version: 
 
My tank is a 75g display tank with a 30g sump. In Sept of last year after over feeding and horrible husbandry, my tank experienced very bad cyanobacteria and bubble algae that would not go away. This prompted me to be over vigilant in making sure I got kept pristine water conditions. 
 
Over some time, here is what I was doing and what I think contributed to it: 
 
Upgraded skimmer, now rated for up to 300g instead of the 100g one I was running. 
Added BRS Bio Pellets reactor 
Added Chemi Pure Elite (1 unit) - really helped get rid of the algae 
Added Carbon every month for 1 week only 
Added Purigen reactor 
Added Rowaphos reactor 
Added Cheato and grow light - really helped also 
 
... a 'little' overkill, I know. 
 
Finally after only feeding fish for long time and basically focusing on water quality, Phos (hanna) and Nitrate (salifert) tests read 0 for both. I was never able to get a reading other than 0.00 from the hanna checker. Calcium/Alkalinity/Mag were all within optimal parameters. 
 
Around this same time I switched from metal halides to LED (back in March of this year) and my corals faded some then adjusted back. However a couple months after they colored back up I noticed they were all getting paler and no longer had polyp extension. I spoke with a few people who keep SPS and they suggested I feed my corals/tank more because I was starving them. 
 
I took the carbon, purigen and bio pellets offline and started to feed again heavily at first while I monitored my parameters and did water changes, then scaled back. 
 
I also found out my potassium was very depleted after testing it with a salifert test, so I started dosing that as well with the Brightwell supplement. 
 
It's been just over a month of dosing potassium and spot feeding my corals. They are growing like crazy with awesome polyp extension and the colors continue to get better. I still monitor the phos and nitrates every week just to make sure. The phos is now usually between .02 and .05 and nitrates are just barely noticeable on the salifert test. 
 
Hope this helps!

Thanks Curtis, the problems you had sounds like it's what I've got. The carbon, GFO and BP together with a skimmer rated for a 500g tank (my tank is 50g) is taking everything including trace elements out of my system. I have ordered coral vitalizer, sponge power and Poh'ls Xtra and will start spot feeding and feeding my fish more. I also started with the redsea potassium supplement as my levels were very low. I am slowly removing the BP and GFO and will continue with VSV or move into full Zeovit as I had so much success with liquid carbon dosing when I first started. My SPS start off well with good color, growth and polyp extension then gradually fade away (like an anorexia sufferer), it's sad to watch. Thanks for your valuable contribution :bigsmile:

Squamosa · Aug 25, 2013

Just out of curiosity Curtis, what are you spot feeding with?

Curtis Scott · Aug 25, 2013

I'm using a mix of Polyp Lab Reef-Roids and ESV Dry Marine Plankton. I also broadcast dose with Brightwell Amino before I spot feed, this really gets the corals' polyp extension going and they are ready to feed. I dose the amino while the power heads are on but the return pump is off. Let the amino circulate in the water for about 10min. Spot feed corals the food mixture slowly, let corals feed for about 10min, then turn the power heads back on for about 10-15min before I turn the return pump back on.