SPS problems

[Nothing But Frags]

I'm having SPS problems. Most of my frags are turning white from one point then a few days later it's all white. I was wondering if too much flow affect? I have a MP10 on reef crest mode at 50% and then one return nozzle pointing at the general area where the SPS are. Am I overdoing it? Is it too much flow? I was also thinking the frags might be receiving too much light, I have 1 kessil a150w covering that general area. From the light to the to the closest frag it's about a 10" gap. Is that too close? I also believe it was my Ca level, I checked it last week and I was only at 340ppm it has since change and I'm currently at 440ppm. My Alk is at 9.

In your opinion do you think the main factor of the SPS frags dying was the simple fact of my Ca level being low or a combination of all three that I mentioned? Please help, thanks.

 

[nova65ss]

I'm no pro but it is hard to have too much flow for sps...my guess would be the light. My led lit tank has a vega 24" from the bottom at 40% blues 15% whites, the closest coral is about 12" from the light. Are they turning white and losing flesh or just fading?

I also say this under the assumption all of your other parameters are in check.

 

[o2manyfish]

If it was a flow issue you would see the tissue tearing off the coral on the side that it faces the pump outlet. And I have placed many corals in that position and in a healthy tank they lose only the tissue in the way of the pump flow and the rest of the coral is fine.

How mature is your tank?

Dave B

 

[rworegon]

I've had similar issues. If your Calcium is fluctuating then probably so is your Mag and KH. SPS dont like Alk swings. I was told that keeping the Mag steady and at aprox 1350 will help to keep CA steady and in turn keep alk steady. Low Mag will definately encourage alk swings. Just a thought.

 

[Nothing But Frags]

It starts off with a spot turning white and within two days the entire frag is dead. Some of the frags are faded, but didn't think the led fixture was too low to bleach the sps

 

[jservedio]

It isn't too much flow at all. I have my MP10 around 85% on Short Pulse in a 20g tank and I also have another 500 GPH coming from my return pump and a small Koralia Nano 240. I doubt it is too little light since I am having no problem keeping my acros with a 4 bulb T5HO (though I am upgrading to LED this week).

My biggest problem was keeping parameters stable. I had STN on a lot of my fisrt attempts at acropora - keeping Alk completely stable as well as pH are very important. Keeping pH stable without a pinpoint meter or at least a very accurate titration test is going to be very hard. Also you don't mention nitrates or phosphates - they should be flat at 0 or at least nitrates as close to 0 as possible. If you had Ca at 340 and jacked it up to 440ppm that is quite the opposite of stable.

The most important thing for your acropora is stability. Even with the best flow and best lighting, if you don't have rock steady parameters, they are all going to STN.

 

[TopNotchCorals]

How quickly did you raise your ca from 340-440? Stability is key and if they were sitting in 340 and raised to 440 too fast that could be your problem.

 

[Nothing But Frags]

As soon as I found out that my Ca was low I started to dose more because I found out I was under dosing with my 2 part. I was only dosing for the amount in the display tank and not the total amount of the display tank plus the sump. So STN could be the biggest problem for me? When I had an AIO tank I had no problem with my SPS. When I upgraded to a bigger tank that's when I started to have problems.

My Phos is at 0 and my Nitrates is at 5 last I checked.

 

[Nothing But Frags]

How quickly did you raise your ca from 340-440? Stability is key and if they were sitting in 340 and raised to 440 too fast that could be your problem.

Before I raised the Ca level, the SPS were already to turn white on one spot then all white in a few days. That's when I checked my Ca level and found it to be too low.

 

[nova65ss]

Lighting usually fades, tissue loss seems to be parameters like alk swings.

 

[Nothing But Frags]

Lighting usually fades, tissue loss seems to be parameters like alk swings.

Am I over doing the dosing because I dose everyday with the two part. Should I cut it like every other day? Reason why I dose every day is to keep my levels up. My tank is a mix of LPS, SPS and NPS

 

[Nothing But Frags]

So this is what I dose everyday, 20ml each of part 1 and part 2 of B Ionic. I have a total of about 80 gallons all together, 60g display and 20g for my sump. Says 1 ml per 4 gallons. Am I messing up somewhere? I recently started dosing 20ml before I was only dosing for the 60g portion and never took in account the 20g for the sump, so I was only dosing 15 ml of each.

 

[nova65ss]

It is not so much the frequency as it is the necessity. I have a doser that adds 35ml total a day several times throughout the day. Before I got the doser I added it all every evening. I recently was told the bionic does not have magnesium and I was having a hard time keeping my cal and alk consistent? Not sure how true this is though.

 

[Nothing But Frags]

It is not so much the frequency as it is the necessity. I have a doser that adds 35ml total a day several times throughout the day. Before I got the doser I added it all every evening. I recently was told the bionic does not have magnesium and I was having a hard time keeping my cal and alk consistent? Not sure how true this is though.

What other two part would you recommend? I would love a dosage pump, but have no room underneath my stand. So I have to pour it in manually every day

 

[nova65ss]

I did it by hand everyday for years it works fine. How often do you check your alk and calcium? I was having the same problem until I started checking my alk daily which helped me with my dosing amounts. After about a month I knew exactly what I needed to dose. I still check my alk almost every other day just because I worry about it haha

 

[jservedio]

To figure out how much you need to dose, you need to use your test kits to figure out exactly how much Alkalinity, Calcium, and Magnesium your aquarium uses daily. Test your parameters, don't dose anything or change your SW, then test again exactly 24 hours later and note the difference in Alk, Ca, and Mg.

Calculate the difference between start/end parameters and using the specification for your 2-part figure out exactly how much you have to dose per gallon. Simply multiply that out by your total system volume and you have your dosage for the day.

You can do it all at once (make sure you separate Ca and Alk dosings by at LEAST 5 minutes so you don't turn your sump into a Calcium Carbonate snow storm...) but it is best to spread it out throughout the day - this way you have less swing of parameters throughout the day.

You shouldn't just be dosing "10ml a day" or whatever you dose because that is what the instructions on your 2-part say. That could work for a softie tank where the Alkalinity isn't as crucial, but for SPS you need to know EXACTLY how much you use and it only takes 2 tests to figure this out.

You should do this every few weeks and recalculate because as your corals grow, they are going to use more and more and more Ca, Alk, and Mg.

 

[nova65ss]

So this is what I dose everyday, 20ml each of part 1 and part 2 of B Ionic. I have a total of about 80 gallons all together, 60g display and 20g for my sump. Says 1 ml per 4 gallons. Am I messing up somewhere? I recently started dosing 20ml before I was only dosing for the 60g portion and never took in account the 20g for the sump, so I was only dosing 15 ml of each.

Don't dose based on water volume base it upon your testing. Test every day and dose accordingly. At least until you get it figured out.

 

[Nothing But Frags]

I did it by hand everyday for years it works fine. How often do you check your alk and calcium? I was having the same problem until I started checking my alk daily which helped me with my dosing amounts. After about a month I knew exactly what I needed to dose. I still check my alk almost every other day just because I worry about it haha

I'm due to buy a new two part dose, any recommendation? I've only been checking my levels once a week, but I'll start doing it daily

 

[Chameleon]

Don't dose based on water volume base it upon your testing. Test every day and dose accordingly. At least until you get it figured out.

+1 dont dose off water volume dose off consumption. with low consumption you can get away testing at the beginning of the week and then a week later with no dosing and then calculate your usage from there. this calculator will come in handy:
Reef Chemistry Calculator

I'm due to buy a new two part dose, any recommendation? I've only been checking my levels once a week, but I'll start doing it daily

probably no need to test daily as your demand isn't there yet, but do yourself a favor and stop dosing until you determine how much to dose. as far as which two part, they are all about the same for the most part. I use bulk reef supply as its cheap in bulk. you can also just use baking soda and dowflake. some use monohydrate calcium chloride and some use dihydrate. Also some use sodium bicarbonate and others use sodium carbonate.
read:
Calcium and Alkalinity by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
An Improved Do-it-Yourself Two-Part Calcium and Alkalinity Supplement System by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

[Nothing But Frags]

All this could cause RTN?