Sps skin falling off

[wdavid]

This tort looked fine last night

Parameters haven't changed much, calc 435, alk 141ppm, mag 1350, nitrate .25, phosphate .08, temp 79.

I have 6 other frags I got from the same guys tank which looks completely fine and has great PE (probably due to zeovit) but this one died overnight. I think maybe the frogspawn sent out a sweeper? What do you guys think went wrong?

 

[wdavid]

Im running t5/LED hybrid and it came from another hybrid tank, with higher Par levels. I had them on the sandbed for a bit over a week before the tort died.

 

[kevin_e]

If everything else is fine, I would concur that the frogspawn may have nuked it.

 

[wdavid]

If everything else is fine, I would concur that the frogspawn may have nuked it.

I have never seen corals fight myself so I wasn't sure if this looked like that or not. Thanks for the input

 

[MLSReefer]

I have never seen corals fight myself so I wasn't sure if this looked like that or not. Thanks for the input

I would agree with the frogspawn. Mine has done nuked a few of my corals

 

[wdavid]

I would agree with the frogspawn. Mine has done nuked a few of my corals

Aw man now I'm sad that I killed a coral myself by something as simple as placement after struggling to keep them forever. You live and learn I guess.

 

[kevin_e]

I have never seen corals fight myself so I wasn't sure if this looked like that or not. Thanks for the input

Yep. We've all been there. Now you know. Always learning in this hobby. That's part of the fun.

 

[rhastareefer]

This is more so for my own knowledge, but isn't .25 no3 to .08 po4 not ideal for corals (especially acros)? I've read no3 needs to be MUCH higher in relation to po4 ideally?

 

[wdavid]

This is more so for my own knowledge, but isn't .25 no3 to .08 po4 not ideal for corals (especially acros)? I've read no3 needs to be MUCH higher in relation to po4 ideally?

I'm doing zeovit so can't really help the nitrate being low, and phosphates going down steadily as well. As for the ratio, I'm interested to hear what others say but I'm not an expert so I'm not sure

 

[rhastareefer]

I'm doing zeovit so can't really help the nitrate being low, and phosphates going down steadily as well. As for the ratio, I'm interested to hear what others say but I'm not an expert so I'm not sure

Ah I missed the zeo part. They've got a solid system on their hands, I'm sure if you're going by their model things will be fine. Not used to seeing alk in ppm - had to find a calculator lol

 

[wdavid]

Yeah I just bought a ppm alk checker by accident lol. And for record keeping my Apex converts it for me so I haven't bothered buying the dkh

 

[kevin_e]

This is more so for my own knowledge, but isn't .25 no3 to .08 po4 not ideal for corals (especially acros)? I've read no3 needs to be MUCH higher in relation to po4 ideally?

So little is understood about nutrient levels and coral health. I think there is generally an acceptable range, but you find successful examples on either side. Ranges probably stem from NSW measurements and or effectiveness of reducing algae growth.

 

[OriginalUserName]

Aw man now I'm sad that I killed a coral myself by something as simple as placement after struggling to keep them forever. You live and learn I guess.

It happens. I lost a trumpet head recently to a chalice. Little bugger never stood a chance.

 

[jda]

I would just chalk this up to "everybody loses one every once in a while." If you see a trend, then that is different. I would not think about this any more unless you see more death.

.24n and .08p is hardly an issue. I run .1n and .005 to .01p and everything thrives. Throughput of nutrients is more important than an absolute number on a test kit. Also, how they are managed matters - most natural methods can never drive them to true-zero and cause issues, but media and organic carbon can if you are not careful.

 

[wdavid]

I would just chalk this up to "everybody loses one every once in a while." If you see a trend, then that is different. I would not think about this any more unless you see more death.

.24n and .08p is hardly an issue. I run .1n and .005 to .01p and everything thrives. Throughput of nutrients is more important than an absolute number on a test kit. Also, how they are managed matters - most natural methods can never drive them to true-zero and cause issues, but media and organic carbon can if you are not careful.

Yeah the phosphate was as high as .28 when I started zeo but it's been hovering around .15 for a month before coming down to less than .1 about 2 weeks ago. Hopefully it stablizes soon

 

[Seminoles76]

What JDA said. Just chalk it up to a coral that moved systems and didn’t like the change. Could be lighting, nutrient levels, etc. that caused the loss. Torts can be finicky on parameter shifts etc.

 

[Seminoles76]

I'm doing zeovit so can't really help the nitrate being low, and phosphates going down steadily as well. As for the ratio, I'm interested to hear what others say but I'm not an expert so I'm not sure

Not sure what blue bottles your dosing but IME with Zeo, both Vitalizer and Xtra were high up on the priority list. I started to notice a decline in coral health rather quickly when I would run out of Xtra.

 

[Seminoles76]

I'm doing zeovit so can't really help the nitrate being low, and phosphates going down steadily as well. As for the ratio, I'm interested to hear what others say but I'm not an expert so I'm not sure

You can still run full Zeo system and keep some nitrate and phosphate in the system. You can do a number of things like lowering the zeolite quantity, slowing flow to the zeolites, lowering the zebak/zeostart dosage. If your worried about running to low on 3 and 4, and they become completely undetectable, I recommend slowly doing one of the things I mentioned. The other smart play is ensure you are dosing sponge power, vitalizer, and Xtra.

 

[wdavid]

You can still run full Zeo system and keep some nitrate and phosphate in the system. You can do a number of things like lowering the zeolite quantity, slowing flow to the zeolites, lowering the zebak/zeostart dosage. If your worried about running to low on 3 and 4, and they become completely undetectable, I recommend slowly doing one of the things I mentioned. The other smart play is ensure you are dosing sponge power, vitalizer, and Xtra.

Right but if I did that to increase nitrates so would phosphates right? It's tied from what I understand. The issue isn't that nitrate is too low, he just thought that I had too low of nitrates vs phosphates.

And I am dosing a bit of sponge power, coral vitalizer and amino. Not dosing xtra right now

 

[Seminoles76]

I see where he posted now. I think your levels are fine at where they are with both N and P.

I only mentioned going slow with Zeo because you lost the coral and I kind of meant it as if you lose anything else I would look to slow ZEO down a bit. I have run Zeo a couple of times. If you run full Zeo and you run it with their recommendations you have to be dedicated as hell to the tank or else you will lose corals from driving things too low. I always felt like I had to be too attached to everything....not too say that you are not. When I ran Zeo at half dosages like # of Zeolites and only 1/4 of the dosage of zeostart things were way easier as I was maintaining a decent amount of N and P in the system vs always seeing zeros when I ran the full system. It also allowed some leeway for any missed dosages, etc.

N and P are not tied. They may rise and fall together or they may not. A lot depends on what you feed, sand beds, what and how you are exporting, etc. N can rise really high an P can be zero on the test kit or vice versa. That is what I have seen in the tanks I have ran. They are tied with redfield if that is what you are referring too where C = 106, N = 16 and P= 1 (I believe that is the ratio's but I could be wrong).