SPS & the missing link?

dave57 · Apr 3, 2018

Smite said:
Isn't ESV more concentrated though? Seems BRS was pretty diluted. I know a few sps keepers with stellar results who swear by ESV. I think you are struggling with consistency, nutrients then lighting. Pick a spectrum that is visually appealing with ample par and leave it be. Consider that maybe you ramp time is too long and essentially not stable, its constantly changing for 25% of your lighting schedule. Get your nitrates to 10ppm or under and maintain a steady value. Focus on ALK stability, temp and salinity with calcium and magnesium being in a acceptable range. My sps responded as well to oyster feast as any of the pohls products. I feed at night, seem to get a better response. I mix mine with reef roids but I dont have much of an algae issue. Read up on the relationship between light, alk and nitrate values. Higher nitrates seem to do better with a higher alk and par level.

Yes I have tried brs two part and it certainly is more diluted I was dosing about 100 ml with brs now with esv I’m dosing 50-55 at the moment maintaining alk at 7.7, I do believe lighting and nutrients have been unstable for quite some time as I was trying to figure out the whole nutrient algae issue. I will try to stabilize those main components. I don’t want to change too many variables like two part dosing solutions as this will most likely create more set backs and possible losses of corals

RobM · Apr 7, 2018

I had/still have some similar issues to what you're describing. Drove me crazy, killed so many SPS and couldn't figure out why because all params tested within range. I've finally got to the point where my SPS are starting to color a bit.. still a long way to go but things are finally looking up after battling for 3 years.

I attribute this to a few things (in order of importance):
- Stability. People would tell me this and I got frustrated because I felt like I was stable. I went through a few periods of frustration and kinda ignored my tank. To my surprise when I stopped messing with things, I saw a slight improvement. This lead me to make very meaningful small changes and wait weeks between. Super hard because of how much I want to fix stuff and I felt like I could always improve. This must have just stressed out the SPS.
- Testing alk every 2-3 days and all other params monthly. I think dialing alk in and keeping it +/- 0.3 (or better) is important. I tried alk every where between 6 to 10 and have settled around 7.5 now, but stability here is important.
- Apex controller for automation - being lazy in reefing can have its benefits if done right. In my experience, the less I mess with the tank the better. To assist with this, the apex controller has been invaluable. Being able to watch/log/control everything and zoom out to see the big picture over months. having one place to keep all my information also helps and makes it more likely for me to be engaged and notice problems before they become disasters.
- dosing micro elements. I used to just dose 2 part and do 10% water changes every other week. I feel like after 2-3 years of doing this, you lose some of the micro elements. I started using aquaforest balling method to supplement this. this also lead to me doing less water changes (more stability). I watched the triton videos from BRS on youtube and this seems to reaffirm my feelings. however, I'm sending in ICP test to see where I'm at.

dave57 · Apr 7, 2018

RobM said:
I had/still have some similar issues to what you're describing. Drove me crazy, killed so many SPS and couldn't figure out why because all params tested within range. I've finally got to the point where my SPS are starting to color a bit.. still a long way to go but things are finally looking up after battling for 3 years.

I attribute this to a few things (in order of importance):
- Stability. People would tell me this and I got frustrated because I felt like I was stable. I went through a few periods of frustration and kinda ignored my tank. To my surprise when I stopped messing with things, I saw a slight improvement. This lead me to make very meaningful small changes and wait weeks between. Super hard because of how much I want to fix stuff and I felt like I could always improve. This must have just stressed out the SPS.
- Testing alk every 2-3 days and all other params monthly. I think dialing alk in and keeping it +/- 0.3 (or better) is important. I tried alk every where between 6 to 10 and have settled around 7.5 now, but stability here is important.
- Apex controller for automation - being lazy in reefing can have its benefits if done right. In my experience, the less I mess with the tank the better. To assist with this, the apex controller has been invaluable. Being able to watch/log/control everything and zoom out to see the big picture over months. having one place to keep all my information also helps and makes it more likely for me to be engaged and notice problems before they become disasters.
- dosing micro elements. I used to just dose 2 part and do 10% water changes every other week. I feel like after 2-3 years of doing this, you lose some of the micro elements. I started using aquaforest balling method to supplement this. this also lead to me doing less water changes (more stability). I watched the triton videos from BRS on youtube and this seems to reaffirm my feelings. however, I'm sending in ICP test to see where I'm at.

Great info and I feel like that’s where I’m at, I always feel like things can be a little bit better and I tend to adjust, tweak things which I believe is the culprit of making things lag.. for example I just lowered my lights because my corals still looked pale so my acros are sitting at around 240 par.. they seem happier.. but I did notice growth slowed way down.. now I’m thinking of increasing by 5 percent on my leds and continue to monitor. Many of these little adjustments are probably setting me back but idk why I get that constant urge to try making things better. Thanks for the tips, I’m gonna try to stop these micro changes and see what happens. I did however begin to dose trace elements as well as amino acids. I did note more polyp extension which made me happy. But honestly don’t you think the acros would be better at 300 par? Lol..