sps problems

arashsheikhpoor · Jun 23, 2015

so over the last months I have had problems with my sps. Basically I dont get very good polyp extension. especially with my milleporas.

Through out this whole time, my alk has been at 8.5 Ca at 450 Mg at 1300 PH 8.3 Temp at 80.5 and salinity at 1.025 ( checked with hanna)

And have been using a pair of AI hydras (not 52) with whites at 60 and blues at 85.

Recently the colors have also been browning out too.

a month ago I tested my nitrates and phosphates and they were 15ppm and .30

Did a lot of water changes and reduced feeding to try and eliminate those problems.

Now fast forward to 1.5 weeks ago. I installed a gfo reactor to reduce the phosphates. Since then the phosphates are at .045

Since the browning started I have done the following:

Added a single t5 ati blue plus
added a chiller to stabalize temps
the phosphate reactor

And today I did this:

Changed the top off container from rubbermaid office trash can to my old 10 gallon glass tank.
Cleaned out my sump and took out all sand.

Does anyone have any suggestions of what i can do?

asandbox · Jun 23, 2015

Try the temp at 78, keep all levels stable, nitrate and nitrite results? Ammonia? How old is your tank?

Alan600 · Jun 23, 2015

Your no3 and po4 are to high. I had the same problme they turn brown on me .

arashsheikhpoor · Jun 23, 2015

Nitrite is 0 and nitrate last time I checked was almost completely gone with API test kit. Phosphate was at .045 but I am still working on that. What is unusual is that in the past the phosphates have been higher but didnt brown out as much.

ammonia is 0 and the tank is aloms 1.5 years old 75 gal with 20 gal sump.

Alan600 · Jun 23, 2015

How's your flow ?

Alan600 · Jun 23, 2015

I would invest in some better test kits . Api is for starters

arashsheikhpoor · Jun 23, 2015

I only use api for nitrates.. Have hanna testers for the other ones. Flow is good, I have rw8's and the master is on the left side and the two slaves are on the right along with the return.

Alan600 · Jun 23, 2015

How deep are your sps to your lights ? After lights go off how is your Poylp extension ?

kevinsmixed90 · Jun 23, 2015

you may have solved your problem by reducing nitrates and phosphates. they will not look perfect in a day but like Alan600 asked, how is the extension after lights out? you said over the last few months... was everything good before?

arashsheikhpoor · Jun 23, 2015

I would get polyp extension from some of the sps at night up until about 6 or 7 days ago. Didn't see any extension last night.

kevinsmixed90 · Jun 23, 2015

the browning out is a real concern. are you getting brown on your rock work or just the corals? wondering about diatoms smothering your corals. you also said you added a t5 to the system. were you trying to get more light to the level of your sps? if so you may not be getting enough light and is it the underside of the corals that are browning or all over?

arashsheikhpoor · Jun 23, 2015

The browning is to the corals. The rocks all look the same. The t5 I added just because I thought it would be beneficial. It was just a bonus. The browning is all of the sps.

kevinsmixed90 · Jun 23, 2015

well to the best of my knowledge browning sps is a sign of not enough light if all other parameters of the water are good. you might want to get them closer but over the next few days instead of instantly. hope this is helpful.

kevinsmixed90 · Jun 23, 2015

something else, are you target feeding these and with what? could you be blasting them with something that does not agree with them causing them to die off. just a thought. you might try taking a small powerhead and blowing off any uneaten foods that have accumulated on the corals. hope this helps.

arashsheikhpoor · Jun 23, 2015

i Usually feed coral frenzy every few days. I have 3 rw8's so most of the food does not stay on the coral once they turn on from feed mode.

kevinsmixed90 · Jun 23, 2015

O.K. worth a try

Diesel · Jun 23, 2015

IMO, you did everything you could do, now keep you # at bay.
SPS can be tricky and changes to your system can set them off.
When SPS brown out it's in most cases a water quality problem, cause you corrected the problems doesn't mean that your corals color up and have PE right away.
It takes some weeks sometimes months before full color is back and some SPS will get it faster than others.
Keep checking your # ALK and PO4 on a daily schedule and register your findings.
Show us some pics and you may want to reduce the 60% on your white lights to 50% or lower but do it over a couple of days.
Test your new saltwater mix too and let us know the #.
In order to not set off any changes when you do a WC you can do twice a week a 5% WC for a while too.

Something important that I left out............... get a AVATAR!!!!
Your Corals will thank you for it!!

Tahoe61 · Jun 23, 2015

I run my Hydra whites at 40%, and then is more than enough (but my tank is shallow) for my sps. Sps take a lot longer to recover from browning, weeks and months IME. They turn brown over night it seems.

Chris Adams · Jun 23, 2015

received 2 browned out mili couple months ago and just starting to see signs of color in new growth.
However this has not effected the polyp extension.
Possibility you have a couple things going on.
Any new adds to the tank prior to polyp extension issues?
Any chance you have some pests?

Irsug1 · Jun 23, 2015

I have 2 hydras over a 57g tank. I run them at 100 percent except for red. I checked with a par meter and I was getting lower readings than I expected. My lights are 10 inches off the water.