SPS problems....need advice
- Thread starter Reefpro
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I'm also going through the exact scenario right now and dosing stump remover. I've lost 90% of my sps over that last couple months as well and my lps have had polyp bailout. Last night I stopped dosing everything and unplugged a bunch of equipment so that I'm back to the basics. I was also considering a triton test, but by the results on here maybe I'll hold out for now.
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Reefpro
Well-Known Member
Im pretty certsin of a coyoke things. I was starvibg my corals from lacknof nutrients. I have a deltec skimmer run lots of Cheato and also running GFO. Secondly my TDS 4 coming out of RO/DI for too long
Do you think it could have been from phosphates dropping to quickly due to adding nitrates or too much at once? Lots of people have success with stump remover so I have a hard time beliving it alone is the reason for corals dying even though I still second guess it.
When I started dosing my tank with stump remover i was carbon dosing, had lots of algae due to neglect and Sps were slowing dying. I figured i had too much of a buildup of nutrients, so I pulled out my sandbed and started dosing stump remover to the point I maintained nitrates at 5. Algae completely dissappeared within a couple weeks and skimmer pulled out a ton of gunk. At this time corals started dying fast so all I can think of is nutrient shock.
2 weeks ago I stopped dosing stump remover and carbon dosing. Things somewhat started to recover or at least the bleaching stopped. Algae started to build up quickly on the glass again so I reintroduced the stump remover and algae was a lot less but the corals started to bleach again.
Now is it the stump remover or the nutrients shock? Might have to dose a very small amount and bump it up weekly to check.
No offense but it sounds like you guys are trying to move too quickly. I've let nitrates naturally fall from 90 and no problems. I run nitrate 10-20. There's no issue with these levels. It's more about stability, allowing weeks for things to adjust to what that stable environment is, and then giving them time to recover/heal/grow. This takes at least several weeks if not months with sick sps that are in a healthy system. Some may take longer. If the system has never had a good longish term run of success it could take even longer still.
Patience. Your TDS is good, stop worrying about your nitrates and just keep them somewhere. I wouldn't go below 10. LEE phosphate up more, feed flake along with frozen if you need to for keeping phosphate up or dose it. I run around .1 ppm.
It's about stability. I did a 5 days lights out for dino and my corals continued to have impressive growth without light.
My alk has been a steady 8.6 dkh for at least 6 months. For lighting I use led for 10 hours per day. I've had lots of success for years growing sps with my parameters. Things just started to go bad when I got busy with work and neglected the tank. I just haven't been able to turn things around. I'm temped to do a massive water change to "reset" but in a 400 gallon system thats a lot of salt so I'm just going to try a few adjustments first.
I hear you. That's a lot of water, honesty I'd be more of a slowly being it back in line approach. I only quoted you since you mentioned taking the sand out. That alone is a was to quickly offset a tank.
FWIW it's just an opinion. Not saying you don't know what you're doing.
All good bud. I pulled out my sand over the course of a couple weeks so i woulnt cause too much of a shock but ive also had my fair share of losing corals earlier in my reefing years. Many lessons learned by making simple mistakes lol
I had a lack of PO4 and NO3 for a long time. Didn't kill and acros but they were very pale. Started adding stump remover and brought up my NO3 to ~5ppm. Things really improved. Then I noticed it wasn't. PO4 was 0.00 with Hanna ULR. Started Seachem phosphorus and just made sure it was better than 0.00. From there things have been smooth.
When I started this hobby I really didn't do well with acros. I didn't want to spend the money for an APEX, dosers, ATO, etc ...
I saved, bought and Full APEX, ATO for Kalk and doser pumps . Man! It's made all the difference. Why?
STABILITY!!!!
With out that equipment I could mot maintain perfectly stable ALK/Cal/PH/salinity. It's so vital!
Stability, NO3 5-10ppm, PO4 ~.05-.1, and ALK 10dKH.
When I started this hobby I really didn't do well with acros. I didn't want to spend the money for an APEX, dosers, ATO, etc ...
I saved, bought and Full APEX, ATO for Kalk and doser pumps . Man! It's made all the difference. Why?
STABILITY!!!!
With out that equipment I could mot maintain perfectly stable ALK/Cal/PH/salinity. It's so vital!
Stability, NO3 5-10ppm, PO4 ~.05-.1, and ALK 10dKH.
Sorry to tell you but having all the fancy equipment doesn't make you a good reefer. Many people including myself have had full sps tanks on a basic setup. It just means more work on your end.
My current system does have have the fancy equipment as well to make my life easier and the major parameters Alk, cal,mag,k,sg,temp have all been rock solid so it's not like it's been a yoyo of a system. When I started tinkering nitrates were 0 and po4 was 0.07 and those are the only numbers that have changed. People can say "stability" all they want, but reality is, those numbers had to change to better my reef.
"fancy" equipment is not the point.
The point is STABILITY. The "Fancy" equipment just made it possible, easier, and more consistent for me.
Doesn't matter the numbers specifically as long as they are in range and stable!
I don't disagree with you, I also had to change my PO4 and NO3 profile to better support acro color, growth, and overall health.
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Reefpro
Well-Known Member
From the OP As we all know these posts tend to get sidetrackeed a bit but my plan at this point is to not add anything new rather let the system settle down and work on stability while I sliwly adjusted nitates and po4
