Thoughts on my birds nest?

[Rscott]

Seriatopora species might be trickier than Acropora some times IMO.
From tanks I've run, Seriatopora usually don't thrive long term in high nutrient water.

Yea , so last week I installed a fuge from the ATO box on the tank

Im
Hoping that helps along with the Auto water change

 

[Rscott]

Got a few better pics today

Also added a before and after of my green slimmer
I have a few corals that look ok and a few that look bad


The blue Oregon tort look ok and the stylo
All these pics are from today


This is a Red planet so it’s naturally pinkish
The unknown acro is slightly purple


This was the slimmer when I first got it

 

[Skibum]

Yeah, looks too new, Especially with dead rock. You don't have the tank maturity as others have mentioned. Water changes aren't going to fix this problem, your problem is not water imo. if your frags die, I would get a few caps (free community frags) in a couple of months just to see how they do. I wouldn't buy any other sps for the time being. jm2c

-Tom

 

[Graffiti Spot]

They don’t look that bad really, I don’t see anything pale looking. And the birdsnest looks like it looks better now and should recover hopefully.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Seriatopora species might be trickier than Acropora some times IMO.
From tanks I've run, Seriatopora usually don't thrive long term in high nutrient water.

Yea I have noticed the same thing. A lot of friends cry about them being hard to keep and they all run high nutrients. I think I saw them go in their tanks when alk fluctuated or spiked. I have always viewed them as weeds and always kept close to nsw levels. Only time I would have issues or die off was when nutrients spiked.
Worst part about them is once the inside gets pest algae on the skeleton they are hard to keep going without it taking over from the inside out.

 

[Rscott]

Yeah, looks too new, Especially with dead rock. You don't have the tank maturity as others have mentioned. Water changes aren't going to fix this problem, your problem is not water imo. if your frags die, I would get a few caps (free community frags) in a couple of months just to see how they do. I wouldn't buy any other sps for the time being. jm2c

-Tom

I disagree
I appreciate your comments but disagree
WWC loads an entire tank to them brim at 3-4 months. They have several videos on it

Not to suggest that I posses the same skill as those guys lol but it is possible
The tank is stable according to my trident

And I am so far over feeding there is plenty in the water

 

[Lawpoke87]

I disagree
I appreciate your comments but disagree
WWC loads an entire tank to them brim at 3-4 months. They have several videos on it

Not to suggest that I posses the same skill as those guys lol but it is possible
The tank is stable according to my trident

And I am so far over feeding there is plenty in the water

Every tank is different but when experienced aquarist like Mike Paletta discusses his struggles with dead rock and acros I tend to believe there’s some validity to the argument. There are obviously examples where it’s been done successfully as well.

 

[Sallstrom]

I disagree
I appreciate your comments but disagree
WWC loads an entire tank to them brim at 3-4 months. They have several videos on it

Not to suggest that I posses the same skill as those guys lol but it is possible
The tank is stable according to my trident

And I am so far over feeding there is plenty in the water

Why do you "over feed"?

And I agree that sometimes it takes a while before corals like Seriatopora and some Acropora species survives in a newly started tank. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Experience and luck increases the chances of survival IMO But I don't think you could just follow a start up manual and expect it to work.

Yes, in low nutrient systems Seriatopora corals seems to grow really well. Even at low light levels. So in that case they could be very easy, almost immortals

 

[Skibum]

I disagree
I appreciate your comments but disagree
WWC loads an entire tank to them brim at 3-4 months. They have several videos on it

Not to suggest that I posses the same skill as those guys lol but it is possible
The tank is stable according to my trident

And I am so far over feeding there is plenty in the water

No worries, I've personally never had luck with any SPS until my tank "matures". On the other hand I'm sure WWC walks on water with their coral husbandry skills. I'm also equally sure that I could never replicate what they do with their tanks. To each his own... good luck!

-Tom

 

[Rscott]

No worries, I've personally never had luck with any SPS until my tank "matures". On the other hand I'm sure WWC walks on water with their coral husbandry skills. I'm also equally sure that I could never replicate what they do with their tanks. To each his own... good luck!

-Tom

I agree, maybe I’m thinking I’m better then I am just because WWC says they can do it lol

Looking at the tank today things look ok......
I am over feeding because I have a special fish that would behove me to keep fed. He is really my pride and joy and to keep him healthy I just left him eat whatever he wants because I’m lucky he is even eating most say.

He gobbles down loads of algae sheets everyday
Also tested nitrates again a minute ago. Pretty solid at 10. Because of my feeding for my buddy, it’s been seemingly impossible to get under 10 nitrate

Please keep the comments coming I appreciate every point of view. That’s part of the fun of this hobby

 

[Skibum]

My No3 readings are about 10, but then again my PO4 was around .34 last reading too ;-). I have torts and a. auspera that are growing like crazy right now. I've never been sold on high nutrients retarding growth. I run a pretty dirty tank, I also haven't changed the water in two years either ;-). I've recently switched to flake food instead of feeding large hunks of frozen 2x daily.

 

[Rscott]

My No3 readings are about 10, but then again my PO4 was around .34 last reading too ;-). I have torts and a. auspera that are growing like crazy right now. I've never been sold on high nutrients retarding growth. I run a pretty dirty tank, I also haven't changed the water in two years either ;-). I've recently switched to flake food instead of feeding large hunks of frozen 2x daily.

Good to know!

 

[bluprntguy]

I’d normally suggest working on getting your phosphate and nitrate under control. However, with numbers that high, I’m surprised you aren’t seeing a spike in hair algae. I’d guess either your numbers are wrong or your lights are too low based mostly on the lack of nuisance algae. How are you testing your nitrate and phosphate?

 

[Rscott]

I’d normally suggest working on getting your phosphate and nitrate under control. However, with numbers that high, I’m surprised you aren’t seeing a spike in hair algae. I’d guess either your numbers are wrong or your lights are too low based mostly on the lack of nuisance algae. How are you testing your nitrate and phosphate?

Well, that’s a good question on the Algae
I always wondered why my tank never ever got an
Ugly stage! Now I attribute that to the Red Sea reef mature kit. I cycled my tank with reef mature kit. It doses nopox as part of the kit and I think that is mostly why

I check my nitrates with a Salifert kit and I check my phosphates with two different Hanna checkers

One is ulr phosphorous and the other is ULR phosphate.

That’s about all i test by hand. Trident/apex is doing the rest. Spared no expense on this easily have $12k into this tank

I really need to finish my build thread because the gear heads would love all my goodies lol

 

[Rscott]

Well checked my po4 today. Yesterday was .18. Now .34
If there is truth to sps browning out with high nutrients then it’s safe to safe i am screwed.
Maybe it’s time for a GFO reactor
Was hoping my new fuge was going to take care of this. I guess not

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

You gotta give the fuge some time to settle in. How new is it?

 

[Rscott]

You gotta give the fuge some time to settle in. How new is it?

Just a week

 

[bluprntguy]

Well checked my po4 today. Yesterday was .18. Now .34
If there is truth to sps browning out with high nutrients then it’s safe to safe i am screwed.
Maybe it’s time for a GFO reactor
Was hoping my new fuge was going to take care of this. I guess not

Are you still dosing nopox? I’d start that since both your nitrates and phosphates are high. Running GFO will reduce your phosphates, but won’t help with your nitrates.

 

[Rscott]

I just do t get how my nitrates are 10 and po4 at .3 with a fuge and daily water changes

How important is it to get detritus out and clean the sand bed?
I have a diamond watchman gooby turning the sand so I have not done much with the sand

 

[bluprntguy]

I just do t get how my nitrates are 10 and po4 at .3 with a fuge and daily water changes

How important is it to get detritus out and clean the sand bed?
I have a diamond watchman gooby turning the sand so I have not done much with the sand

A fuge is going to take a while to start working and then even longer to bring everything down. NOPOX will take a few weeks too, but it will help bring phosphates and nitrates down together.