I have had a Cali tort, strawberry shortcake and birds nest coral for about a month now. They do seem to be slowly growing but only the Cali tort has any color and it’s just the tip. The birds nest has some color but very light. My parameters are dkh 8.4, phosphates .02 ppm, nitrates 1 to 2 ppm, calcium 470, magnesium 1600, and salinity is 1.024. I have also dosed potassium to the right amount which I think is 400. You I have looked into Red Sea reef energy. Is this a good next step to try?
Sps Questions
- Thread starter Jdubs
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bobby.w.hodges
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Your nitrates are a little low for vibrant color. What lights are you using? Do you have sufficient flow? Do you feed the corals? How old is the tank?
All of these things can be part of the equation.
All of these things can be part of the equation.
I’ve been dosing to try to get nitrates and phos up. I have an mp10 and gyre pump i think there’s enough flow. I have a radion gen4 pro led which I did par readings and they were around 350 to 400 where I mounted them. The tank is only about 6 months old. The tort has polyps extended but the other acro doesn’t.
And tank size? How many fish? Feeding amount? Export methods/reactors/carbon dosing?
Reefer 250 so 64 gallons including sump. 5 fish. Yellow tang, 2 clowns, divided wrasse and a potters angel. I run a Nyos skimmer, carbon reactor. I feed frozen food once a day and pellets once a day. And nori for the tang and angel. I also have tons of these in my sump and some in my display.
I dose
I dose esv 2 part and Red Sea neo nitro and neophos.Reefer 250 so 64 gallons including sump. 5 fish. Yellow tang, 2 clowns, divided wrasse and a potters angel. I run a Nyos skimmer, carbon reactor. I feed frozen food once a day and pellets once a day. And nori for the tang and angel. I also have tons of these in my sump and some in my display.
Your nutrients are too low. Your skimmer is stripping the water. Frags do much better with no3 in 5-25 and po4 in the 0.08-0.20 range. Turn your skimmer down or off for 12 hours/day. More fish equals more fish poop. My tank is smaller with 3 times more fish. I keep my no3 in the 10-25 and po4 0.10-0.30 range. I get great color and growth.
I will try turning my skimmer off. I also have chaeto in my fuge so I’m sure that’s not helping either. My nitrates dropped to 0 a few weeks ago when I had the kessil h80 on the chaeto wide open so I turned it down and it’s started rising slowly. Thank you for the help and I will get my nitrates up. I had a Dino outbreak before I got the chaeto so I decided to try to outcompete it with the chaeto and it has worked in getting rid of the Dino’s. Thank you for the help. I also have 2 more fish coming next week so that should help also. Great looking corals btw.
Tanks seems pretty new. It might just need to mature a bit. If the tank is super-mature and stable, then look to lighting.
I would get the salinity up to 1.026, but this is not likely your issue. Keep the testable parameters near these in the article. This is a smart guy:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.htm
Here is Cali tort with .005-.01 P and .1 N. Your N and P are not too low. This is just under 14k with no blues or photo editing... just legit color. The Cali is the right of the Halide glare just below the Green one:
I would get the salinity up to 1.026, but this is not likely your issue. Keep the testable parameters near these in the article. This is a smart guy:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.htm
Here is Cali tort with .005-.01 P and .1 N. Your N and P are not too low. This is just under 14k with no blues or photo editing... just legit color. The Cali is the right of the Halide glare just below the Green one:
PatW
2500 Club Member
Mg is a little high and salinity is a little low.
For SPS, stability is really, really important.
Another thing that I have observed is that sometimes you can put SPS frags in your tank and they will take off... good growth and good color right off.
More often, frags get shocked a bit in a new system and sit and after some time they take off. I bought a really small frag and it sat and sat and sat and then it suddenly woke up and grew pretty quickly into a small colony.
And other times, I have had colonies be dull but grow well but oddly enough frags from the mother colony color up very well and in the same tank.
Another thing to try is some easier stuff like montipora, birds nests, pocillipora and so on. If you can get good with the easy SPS, you stand a better chance with acropora. Also try to find easy acropora.
But with luck, all that is amiss is time for the frags to adjust to their new circumstances.
For SPS, stability is really, really important.
Another thing that I have observed is that sometimes you can put SPS frags in your tank and they will take off... good growth and good color right off.
More often, frags get shocked a bit in a new system and sit and after some time they take off. I bought a really small frag and it sat and sat and sat and then it suddenly woke up and grew pretty quickly into a small colony.
And other times, I have had colonies be dull but grow well but oddly enough frags from the mother colony color up very well and in the same tank.
Another thing to try is some easier stuff like montipora, birds nests, pocillipora and so on. If you can get good with the easy SPS, you stand a better chance with acropora. Also try to find easy acropora.
But with luck, all that is amiss is time for the frags to adjust to their new circumstances.
They are too low for a young tank with new frags and very little bio load that the majority of it is being exported. All of my tanks are led only as well. My tank proves that elevated (I’m not suggesting crazy high) nutrient levels do not limit growth or color. In fact I had 7.0-7.5 dKH, 0.25-1.0 no3 and 0-10 phosphorus for months with almost zero growth. As soon as I raised my alk to 8.3-8.5 and po4 above 0.1 the growth exploded.
My pics are not edited either. I wouldn’t know how to do that even if I wanted to. 20k Spectrum iPhone 6 with a truvu macro clip on lens to filter out the ambient blue scatter.
My pics are not edited either. I wouldn’t know how to do that even if I wanted to. 20k Spectrum iPhone 6 with a truvu macro clip on lens to filter out the ambient blue scatter.
If you are willing to give a fish away (for free) to a better home as it grows, then I don't have any issue with people keeping desirable fish while the are small. If you are talking like Titan trigger or something that is nearly impossible to give away, then that is different and those should probably be left in the ocean or to people with permanent homes. Also, if money is more important than the well being of the fish, then that is an issue for me too.
You should probably figure out how to keep the salinity up. Are you skimming too wet? How is it getting lowered? Are you using a refractometer?
You should probably figure out how to keep the salinity up. Are you skimming too wet? How is it getting lowered? Are you using a refractometer?
The skim is coffee color so it’s not a wet skim. I’m trying to get it up with water changes. Every water change I mix it a little strong. So I’m hoping I’ll get there and keep it there eventually. I’m using a Hanna salinity checker. The white one with a blue cap.
Just dump some salt down into the overflow... a 1/2 to 1 cup or so a day until it is back where you want it.
I lose salinity pretty much only out of the skimmer and I have to add a few cups every few months. I just dump it in the overflow and let it mix in the sump.
You can also use saltwater for topoff for a few days.
I lose salinity pretty much only out of the skimmer and I have to add a few cups every few months. I just dump it in the overflow and let it mix in the sump.
You can also use saltwater for topoff for a few days.
