29 gallon mostly sps

[benningtondt8]

Overall things have been going well these past four months, but I feel they could always be better. So sorry for the long description but i dont want to leave anything out that light be helpful. Any info into how things might be improved would be great. I started a bare bottom 29 gallon mostly sps reef tank 4 months ago, overall things have been going really well. I made a canopy and yanked out an individual double ended 250 MH from a crappy oddessy fixture I bought when I first started keeping corals. I figured this would be good enough untill I saved up for a better light. I started out by putting some montipora caps, and digitata along with a few lps. I began dosing B-Ionic 2 part with BRS dosers and have been happy so far. I have the reefkeeper lite so everything is automated through it. I also have a mp10, and a tunze 6025. Also with the return witch is rated at 700gph @ 4ft, but I have it scaled back some with a valve. I waited about 2 months and everything seemed to be growing better than I have ever had before experienced with good PE. So I decided to take a leap and order some nicer sps corals. I choose vivdaquariums and ordered the following:

Vivid Red Table (Acropora sp.)
ORA Hawkins Blue Echinata (Acropora echinata)
Vivid's Blueberry Acropora (Acropora sp.)
Pink Lemonade Acropora (Acropora sp.)
Wintergreen Staghorn (Acropora sp.)

I was happy with the overall quality of the corals especially the Blueberry since it was encrusted nicely.
A few days later I also got a rose millepora and some other kind of acropora (possible staghorn) from reefsystems coral farm.

Everything seemed to be settling in nicely for the most part. I will try and post some pictures, because I know they can speak a thousand words. Over the last few months the echinata shows some PE, maybe a little growth but nothing to brag about. The Blueberry has become more of a pale green with some blue tips, but is continuing to encrust with good PE. The red table has good PE and color, but no noticeable growth. The pink lemonade is coloring up with the best PE, also starting to encrust. The wintergreen stag is darker with little to no PE, but have noticed decent growth. The millepora has lost color and the longer PE(sorry cant remember what their called), but shown some encrustation. The other stag( I call it a aqua tip) has good PE, and shown more encrustation.
I did change out the light 5 days ago to a Galaxy 250W Metal Halide Retro Kit with Electronic Ballast. Since then the aqua tip stag has gone pale with less PE. I scaled back the photoperiod to 5 hrs. the light is mounted 8inchs above water and the closest corals are 8inchs under the water.

My parameters are:
Calcium 430
Alk: 10.2
Mag: 1500
pH: 8.06
temp: 79.4
-dont test phosphates, or nitates
-little to no algae, scrub glass maybe once a week so most likely they are low.

Any info on how to improve or what to change would be great!

 

[benningtondt8]

Some of the pictures, wont let me upload others
View attachment 168875
Rose Millepora

Echinata

Red Table

Pink lemonade and blueberry
[/ATTACH]

 

[chefzif]

Give it time once they encrust good they will take off looks good for 4 months! Patience and all will come in time! Good luck and keep us posted! Chef

 

[benningtondt8]

some more pics

I.D. on this one would be nice, sorry only pic of this coral that would upload

wintergreen stag

 

[benningtondt8]

mystery wrasse is only fish in tank

 

[benningtondt8]

here is somewhat of an update and a question. I slowly increased the lighting period to 9hrs. Since I got the new light things seem to be growing faster but the colors still fade to light brown. I dont know if there is too much light or too little nutrients. I dont have a PAR meter. It doesnt seem to be just one color that fades its all. I have managed to keep the purple tips of a valida i got a month ago. A hawkins echinata has turned brown with white tips. I did trim my dkh to around 9.2, as i had heard some get better color with lower dkh.
The reason I think it could be too little nutrients is that i haven't had to clean the glass for over a month and still no sign of algae, on rocks either. i feed the wrasse twice a day. I have an african flameback in QT so i hope when i get him in there i might get more of a nutrient load.
Do you think I should cut back my lights, or feed heavier?

 

[29reef]

I suggest you decrease yor light to 7-8 hours and after your sure your nutrient levels are low, start using an amino supplement.

 

[ReefJunkieOK]

What color temp is the bulb? Any actinic supplements? Agreed on the amino supplement, It helped me in the past. Have you considered adding any other fish?

 

[benningtondt8]

The bulb is a SE XM 15K, no other supplemental lighting. I will adding a flameback angel in the next week, he's in QT now. What brand of amino acid do you recommend?

 

[allsps40]

I have good results with AquaVitro Fuel.

 

[fishguy597]

I have used the aquavitro before and didn't notice anything to write home about. like reef junky said consider a few more fish. I think your tank is to sterile. if I read this correctly you only have one fish there isn't any fish poo to feed them. trim your lights back to 7-8 hrs.

 

[benningtondt8]

ok I cut back lighting period to 7hrs. I will also add more fish gradually. I also turned my hydor slim skim nano off. I looked online and aquavitro seems hard to find, where did you guys get yours?

 

[saleenpwr88]

I would rethink adding that angel...the majority of pygmy angels nip at SPS. I had a flame angel in my SPS tank and had little to no PE. It has taken a long time for them to recover as well since I removed the angel.
And until you get your corals looking better I wouldn't bother dosing aminos either IMO. I have a 70 gallon tank and in the beginning I was dosing and chasing numbers. Now all I do is weekly 10 gallon water changes and things are better than ever.

 

[reefsahoy]

from my experience brown corals could indicate too much nutrients, pale colors could indicate not enough. are you using a skimmer? what is it rated for vs how big is your tank? sometimes if you use a really big skimmer it will strip out most of the nutrients and trace elements causing pale colored corals. you can try a trace addition or better yet, more often water changes and feeding some cyclopleeze to see if colors become more intense. if the corals are brownish, then i'd feed less. just my .02 cents

 

[benningtondt8]

I still think I'll give the angel a try and just watch out for any signs of nibbling. I have a 75g FOWLR I can put it in if it gets a taste for sps.

The corals are a pale brown so low nutrients. My tank is 29g with a 20g sump, but roughly 40g in total. The skimmer is only rated for 30g, but I knew being BB and low bio-load that I probably wouldn't need a larger one. I was doing weekly 10% water changes but in trying to get nutrients up I have switched to bi-weekly.

 

[fishguy597]

If I were you is invest in some good test kits especially for nitrates . stay away from API. I only do saltwater changes once a month unless I see something going on. you want your water to be a little dirty side. I used to strive for 0 nitrates. and 0 p04. Since I let them creep up a bit it helped my tank a ton. also check your alk often I think that is the biggest one to check.

 

[benningtondt8]

I check alk and cal almost everyday and levels are staying fairly consistant. I've been using the newer red sea test kits, i might get the nitrate/phosphate kit. I'm also tempted to try the Hanna checkers. I always just sort of judged nitrates/phosphate by looking at algae growth. There seems to be a fine line between not enough and too much, so the test kits are a good suggestion.