Why can’t I be a stickhead

[dannyd_]

Hello everyone! I need help as I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I have a 10g nano that I have had setup for about a year and a half now and throughout it I have tried periodically to keep sps and they all end up bleaching. I tried one at the 6 month mark, year mark, and now (18 months) and the one I have now I think is going to bleach. It has an area turning white, I have had it for a week. The acro I have is the jason fox fox flame acro, I have one in higher lighting close to the top of the water, and the other about halfway down the tank to expirement. They both get pretty decent flow, definitely not in any dead zones.

Tank params:
Alk: 8.5 (consistently via doser)
Calcium: 450 (also consistently via doser)
Nitrate: 10+
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0
Mg: 1330

Light: radion g5 on ab+ schedule 30%

Change carbon every two weeks, 10% water change every week, feeding once a day frozen food. Please let me know if there is any information I am missing that can clue in why this is going wrong. Any pointers from people who successfully keep sps would be greatly appreciated!

 

[exnisstech]

The foxflame has been a tough one for me when others are doing well. . My friend that works at the lfs and is a stickhead said he hasn't had luck with them either. What were the others you tried? I've had good luck with some of the older tried and true SPS tho not acros. Miyago tort, green slimer, garf bonzai come to mind. I'm newer to SPS and have some acros as well but only have frags and not colonies.

 

[dannyd_]

The foxflame has been a tough one for me when others are doing well. . My friend that works at the lfs and is a stickhead said he hasn't had luck with them either. What were the others you tried? I've had good luck with some of the older tried and true SPS tho not acros. Miyago tort, green slimer, garf bonzai come to mind. I'm newer to SPS and have some acros as well but only have frags and not colonies.

When I first tried i had a poscillipora, just to try a general sps and it did fine but started bleaching and didn't recover, so I guess not fine. I later on tried a deepwater acro, I can't remember the name now but it was a dark green.

 

[Tamberav]

I wouldn't be trying smooth skins (deepwater) as a first one, probably wouldn't do a fox flame either.

Try some old school SPS like green slimer, red planet, garf, cali tort, etc... most ORA corals tbh...

A par meter for your lighting may be worth it.

 

[MischiefReef]

How long did the SPS survive for at the 6mo mark and 1 year mark?
Have you done any par readings
in your tank?
For SPS RTN In stable systems where parameters are in check, lighting would be the next item I examine.
As others have mentioned there are also easier old school strains that are near bulletproof (as far as SPS can be).

 

[Stoney]

My guess is not enough flow. Acans/micros shouldn't be that inflated in flow thats sufficient for acropora.

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

Generally speaking Fox Flame is a fairly hardy Acro. What is your PO4 at? Also you NO3 says 10+ does that mean around 10 or over 10 but you're not sure how much over 10? Your other numbers look good...

 

[MischiefReef]

My guess is not enough flow. Acans/micros shouldn't be that inflated in flow thats sufficient for acropora.

Would have suggested this too, but thought it might not be as critical on such a small branch frag.

 

[MischiefReef]

Generally speaking Fox Flame is a fairly hardy Acro. What is your PO4 at? Also you NO3 says 10+ does that mean around 10 or over 10 but you're not sure how much over 10? Your other numbers look good...

I’ve heard stories on both ends of the spectrum, some find it to be impossible! As a result of what Ive heard I’ve never attempted to keep it myself.

 

[Acros]

Not enough light. 30% on the xr15 is too low to grow acros even on the very top.

 

[MischiefReef]

Not enough light. 30% on the xr15 is too low to grow acros even on the very top.

+1 this, it seemed low to me too! However if you’re dialing up the lights, make sure to do so slowly, over the course of a few days! Otherwise, you’ll just bleach the coral and finish it off on this state.

 

[Reef-_-Noob]

You have it on the left side and wave maker is on the right with live rock between. I would say flow. Your tank has very little algae and very clean. Also Acan looks hungry. This looks like a tuff mixed reef to get flow right

 

[exnisstech]

Not enough light. 30% on the xr15 is too low to grow acros even on the very top.

Ah I missed that. I have two xr15 gen 4 at 80% mounted in a 24 inch hybrid with two B+ and two C+ bulbs over a 24"x20"x20" tank.
EDIT: Off topic a bit but a par meter is the best investment I made in this hobby. I tried keeping clams unsuccessfully in the past and now I know why

 

[dannyd_]

I wouldn't be trying smooth skins (deepwater) as a first one, probably wouldn't do a fox flame either.

Try some old school SPS like green slimer, red planet, garf, cali tort, etc... most ORA corals tbh...

A par meter for your lighting may be worth it.

If I were to look into borrowing one, what kind of numbers should I be seeing minimum to support a starter level acro?

 

[dannyd_]

How long did the SPS survive for at the 6mo mark and 1 year mark?
Have you done any par readings
in your tank?
For SPS RTN In stable systems where parameters are in check, lighting would be the next item I examine.
As others have mentioned there are also easier old school strains that are near bulletproof (as far as SPS can be).

they survived about two weeks. I haven't done any par readings but I will look into that.

 

[dannyd_]

My guess is not enough flow. Acans/micros shouldn't be that inflated in flow thats sufficient for acropora.

One of the frags is almost in direct flow becuase I wanted to rule out flow as a factor, but both frags that are in different spots are showing equal signs of distress, I honestly don't know if its the flow becuase its pretty high in my tank.

 

[dannyd_]

Generally speaking Fox Flame is a fairly hardy Acro. What is your PO4 at? Also you NO3 says 10+ does that mean around 10 or over 10 but you're not sure how much over 10? Your other numbers look good...

I say 10+ meaning its around 10-15 normally. PO4 I don't have a test kit for, but I will go ahead and do that since I am planning on trying to keep sps going forward.

 

[dannyd_]

Not enough light. 30% on the xr15 is too low to grow acros even on the very top.

I am actually suprised to hear this. I was worried this light would be too intense on my tank overall. Do you think I could bump it up to 40 and see some improvement?

 

[dannyd_]

You have it on the left side and wave maker is on the right with live rock between. I would say flow. Your tank has very little algae and very clean. Also Acan looks hungry. This looks like a tuff mixed reef to get flow right

The acan is like my clownfish I think I can feed it endlessly. Also the mixed reef flow ratio is definitely a huge thing to point out. The flow right now is actually quite high, becuase I start to go higher and things start closing up. This may just not be the tank for acros.

 

[Acros]

I am actually suprised to hear this. I was worried this light would be too intense on my tank overall. Do you think I could bump it up to 40 and see some improvement?

Try if you could rent a PAR meter from one of the local stores.

It is going to be challenging as your tank has some low light corals too. My guess is that you will settle around 60%, if the acro frags are only ~1-2” below the water line. I had to crank it up to 100% on a IM25 lagoon and was still lacking light.

Light is just one part of the equation, make sure you have good flow and water parameters as well.