Stylo woes

[Squirrel_reefer]

So about a month ago I picked up a nice green stylo

Everything was fine for about a week or so then it started to pale slightly. At the time I was dosing Purple Tech to raise calcium, ignorant to the fact that it was jacking my Alk through the roof. while it was paling my params where as follows

SG- 1.024
Ammon- 0
Nitrate- 0
Phos- 0
Calc- 400
alk- 12

My light is an OR Arctic T247 LED fixture 300w, I run 80% blue 50% white, and I know that flow is not an issue in the tank, and the frag was on a rack directly in the flow of the main power head. I understand that nitrates were too low in the system and I believe that's what caused the paling. I did a massive water change and switched from purple tech to turbo calc for dosing and got my water under control. I also switched foods from frozen mysis to rods food and reef roids broadcast every day.

My water spent a week at these params

SG-1.024
Amm- 0
Nitrate- 5
Phos- 0
calc- 420
alk- 10 ( I know still not desirable)

this is what I got as a result

Paled, sad, and flesh peeling. I have accepted the loss on this guy

However I picked up a Digi Monti and he seems to be happy with the tank. Here is a pic of him on the sand getting used to my lighting

this picture was 6 days ago and I dont want to lose this guy, can anyone see something I am doing wrong here? I have seen what I believe is new growth on the Digi and all other corals are happy, but I feel like I am missing something here :mad:

 

[james983]

The Montie looks happy and the Stylo is not a lost cause. Keep your levels stable and you should be OK. Do you have coraline growing? If you do, that is a good sign.

 

[Squirrel_reefer]

The Montie looks happy and the Stylo is not a lost cause. Keep your levels stable and you should be OK. Do you have coraline growing? If you do, that is a good sign.

The stylo is in even worse shape than in the photo above to be quite honest, I just didnt snap a pic of him within the last day or so. The flesh is peeling off him, I saw some stringy stuff on him and realized it was the flesh with polyps still on it. white skeleton was showing.

The only place I have purple coraline growing is in my fuge, all other live rocks in the DT are the green color that comes before the purple

 

[james983]

How old is your tank? Your frag rack looks brand new.

 

[Squirrel_reefer]

tank's been running for 9 months, the rack was a new addition about 2 months ago

live sand and ~10lbs of LR taken from system running over a year

 

[james983]

I wouldn't add any more corals for a bit. Get you Alk down slowly and when you see coraline growing try a frag or two.
Good luck.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Im guessing you are running pretty high light in the tank. SO not having coralline in the dt is no surprise. I only have it in the shade and fuge as well. IMO, it doesnt like high light.
Lux meter Par meter? we can tell for sure.
The nutrints would be my concern. esp at that high light level. yea the cal/alk need to get stable. are you dosing a balanced method, im not familiar with those products.
more than likely the stylo took a hit from the nutrient and alk thing and the rest will be fine. itll prob recover as well, the only luck ive had w birdsnest and stn is to clip a healthy piece to save the colony. or set it on the sand in lowerlight.

 

[Squirrel_reefer]

Im guessing you are running pretty high light in the tank. SO not having coralline in the dt is no surprise. I only have it in the shade and fuge as well. IMO, it doesnt like high light.
Lux meter Par meter? we can tell for sure.
The nutrints would be my concern. esp at that high light level. yea the cal/alk need to get stable. are you dosing a balanced method, im not familiar with those products.
more than likely the stylo took a hit from the nutrient and alk thing and the rest will be fine. itll prob recover as well, the only luck ive had w birdsnest and stn is to clip a healthy piece to save the colony. or set it on the sand in lowerlight.

purple tech is calcium, alk and trace elements all in one. I switched from that to turbo calc which is same company just calcium only, no trace elements or anything else, basically the calcium part of a 2-part dose.

the params are stable, saying I need to get them stable doesn't really quantify whats going on, alk is high but it's not fluctuating, neither is calcium I just needed to raise it to a suitable level. stability isn't the issue its levels really. I used to be in the school of thought that 0 NO3/PO4 was good thing so I did everything possible to export them, now I think Im going to have to dose.

As far as PAR and LUX I would place my self in the same category as 99% of reefers.... no clue. just guesstimates. FTS for refrence

 

[RamsReef]

Coralline gets burned by high light.
High ALK is fine but you need lower par.
High Par is fine but you need lower alk

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

me Im lazy, id skip water changes and feed more rather than dose No Po. or as I understand ULNS, feed hard skim hard. the food stays in long enough to feed the polyps but not long enough to rot and increase the numbers. that's a though.

and stable I did mean corrected.
and honestly Ive had stylo grow pretty well(ok amazing and it should not have) in low alk and cal just fine with only water changes. lazy ones at that. in fact I figured out in the past the Mrs wasn't keeping up with manual dosing & WC because my bigger colonies broke and the skeleton was soft. a monti is notorious for this. Itll keep growing but if you touch it, its mush not stone.

Coralline gets burned by high light.
High ALK is fine but you need lower par.
High Par is fine but you need lower alk

I think you need higher nutrients in higher par.

 

[Squirrel_reefer]

me Im lazy, id skip water changes and feed more rather than dose No Po. or as I understand ULNS, feed hard skim hard. the food stays in long enough to feed the polyps but not long enough to rot and increase the numbers. that's a though.

and stable I did mean corrected.
and honestly Ive had stylo grow pretty well(ok amazing and it should not have) in low alk and cal just fine with only water changes. lazy ones at that. in fact I figured out in the past the Mrs wasn't keeping up with manual dosing & WC because my bigger colonies broke and the skeleton was soft. a monti is notorious for this. Itll keep growing but if you touch it, its mush not stone.


I think you need higher nutrients in higher par.

so what I'm taking away from this is to maybe do a WC to get alk straight and then take it from there? while not changing feeding or lighting

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

so what I'm taking away from this is to maybe do a WC to get alk straight and then take it from there? while not changing feeding or lighting

IMO pretty much. Or just not poke it at all. the cal and alk should go down naturally. If you have an acclimation mode you could hit it for a week to get the stylo back and let it rest.
A wc depending on size and brand could bring the cal alk back up.

 

[Squirrel_reefer]

ok so I didnt think of this before but I have a Haitian Condy as well that stays closed during the day but opens at night, could this be any indication of the light intensity?

I've had one in the past that did that exact opposite (as expected). this guy has had since dec 17 to acclimate to the light and he found his home pretty quickly

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

possible yes. not a NEMspert.

https://www.amazon.com/Trendbox-Lux...TF8&qid=1483038822&sr=8-10&keywords=lux+meter
https://www.amazon.com/Docooler-Dig...TF8&qid=1483038822&sr=8-13&keywords=lux+meter
I have the second one. same meter it appears.

#reefsquad Too much light on a nem? only comes out at night after a month?

I do know many that have nems under a LOT of light though. and the ones at the beach well...

 

[twilliard]

Too much light? No way IMO

 

[Squirrel_reefer]

@saltyfilmfolks

those don't seem to be submersible?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

@saltyfilmfolks

those don't seem to be submersible?

no. youll find little difference in the light IMO. The submersibles cost a bit more. Milwaukee makes a submersible for $75 I believe.
and if you have lets say 60,000 lux at the top thats 1000 par. 12 to 18 in later you prob still have a lot. AND you can test dry by holding the light the same distance from the meter as the bottom of the tank. Budget choice really.
https://www.amazon.com/Milwaukee-MW...r=8-1&keywords=milwaukee+lux+meter+waterproof

 

[Squirrel_reefer]

Budget choice really.

Sounds like the right choice for me. Maybe when payday hits

Too much light? No way IMO

I've never seen any sort of NEM act this way

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Sounds like the right choice for me. Maybe when payday hits



I've never seen any sort of NEM act this way

NEMS ARE WEIRD.
Lets see if the squad has more nem insights.

 

[twilliard]

NEMS ARE WEIRD.
Lets see if the squad has more nem insights.

This is so true. They have a mind of their own.