A little help on where to go from here...

Doobze

New member
Alright, I'm just looking for a little input from those of you with experience successfully keeping SPS.

A little bit about my experience and the history of the tank so far:

This tank is my first real all-out attempt at having an SPS specialized tank. It's a 58g (NOT rimless), same dimensions as the Oceanic 58g, set up peninsula style with a 20g long underneath as the sump. My last tank (same physical tank actually) was fairly successful except with SPS (which I accumulated every known pest for) and ran for almost 2 years before I sold off all the rock and living things in it. Learning from this previous tank, I set out to turn my tank into an "acro garden."

In this pursuit I set up the new incarnation of my tank last summer barebottom with an MP40 on full blast at the front and a K3 near the back to get behind the rocks. I'm a student and I really am trying to make this tank as self cleaning as possible by design. The large amount of flow does a great job of keeping things suspended, just about nothing sticks to the bottom for more than a few minutes. I have a 250w Radium sitting about 15-16" off of the water in a lumenmax elite (hung in an entirely sketchy manner, I'll throw up pics lol).

With simplicity in mind, the sump contains little except for my Reef Octopus Extreme 160 skimmer, 2 stealth heaters, a dual BRS reactor, and my return pump. Lights and heaters and such are all controlled and monitored by a Reefkeeper Lite. An ATO keeps my SG constant.

Now, my first two fish that I put in were rescue fish. Big mistake, they had ich, forcing me to run the tank fishless for 8 weeks. My few test frags of things like montis, zoos, seriatapora, and pocillipora did not fare will with the fishless period. Many paled out to almost white and about half STN'd.

Within the last 4 weeks, I've built up my fish list to include:
2x black line fang blennys
2x black misbar ocellaris clowns
3x small blue/green chromis
1x mccosker's flasher wrasse

I also got a bali slimer frag, a nice bit of some kind of rainbow acan, and another acro frag of some sort. Since adding it seems as if the unidentified acro frag is slowly losing its vibrancy and richness of color as some of my SPS did before in the sterile water, albeit maybe a little slower. (all frags added on the bottom of the tank under 4hr photoperiod). Upon testing, I discovered my nitrates were sitting around .25-.5ppm as per Salifert and with 0 ppm P04 as per Hanna Checker.

Upon discovering this, I started feeding much more heavily in order to rid my tank of its sterility. I increased feedings to 3x a day using spectrum pellets. During one of the feedings I would add 1.5 tsp Rotifeast and during another I would add 2 scoops reef chilli. I also turned off my GFO reactor, which had about 6tbsp HCGFO from BRS that had been in there for a few weeks.

This feeding schedule lasted about 2 weeks and seemed to help improve the general look of the tank, reducing the sterile look it had before, coloring up the rocks a nice green/brown.

Now the colors on the unidentified acro frag are fading slowly again. I can't be sure, but the green slimer doesn't seem QUITE as deep green as it used to be. Also, long, thin, but somewhat scraggly and sparse hair algae has started to grown on the rocks. So I tested again and discovered my nitrates haven't really budged, but my phosphates have jumped to .14. So I threw in 3tbsp of the GFO and decided to reducing feedings to 2x a day with the pellets and only feed the Rotifeast and Reef Chilli twice a week.

On a side note, my skimmer is finally producing sizeable, green skimmate since adding the fish and increasing my feedings.

Some notes about my husbandry: In keeping with my endeavor to maintain an easy to care for system, I've adopted once a day 1 gallon water changes. These seems to hold my major params in decent order. These are only skipped if I'm out of town, which isn't often at all.

A rundown of my major params:
SG: 1.026
dKH: 10
Ca: 420-440pm
Mag: 1380ppm
N03: .25ppm - .5 ppm (Salifert)
P04: The majority of the time it's been 0, but just recently jumped to .14ppm Will be testing again when replacement packets come for the checker, probably Monday.
Temp: 78-81

So, my question to the pros out there is this: if this were your tank, what would you be doing with it to make it successful given its history and current state? I'm going to throw up some pics with my crappy little point and click tonight when the lights turn on to help give a more visual representation of the system.

So far, these are things I'm considering doing: Adding one more fish, maybe a Royal Gramma Basslet, as there seems to be plenty physical space in there among the current fish for another or two. Also, I can't seem to get my nitrates up even above 1ppm. I want to aim for around 5ppm, considering my past lack of color and sterility. I also want to aim for <.06ppm P04, so I was thinking maybe add another fish or two, but reduce the amount I'm feeding? Right now each pellet feeding consists of a decent sized pinch of pellets which seems to keep everybody busy for at least 10 minutes if not longer.

Other avenues for me to consider include keeping my feedings the same size at 2x a day and slowly ramping up my GFO by 3tbsp amounts every week till I hit the sweet spot of phosphate. I'm wary of GFO though, because I feel it stripped a lot of color and growth from my previous tank. Also, there's vodka dosing or bio-pellets to consider in conjunction with an amino supplement.

So, thoughts? Hit me with your brutal opinions, I'm determined to turn this into a sight to behold, but I need some expert help!
 
Sounds like SPS starvation & turning pale due to: 1) old or insufficent light, and 2) maybe some growth inhibited by some extra nitrates.
 
Lights are all brand new equipment, set up and first fired near the end of January. Brand new Radium bulb being fired on a Galaxy ballast. Nitrates consistently read below 1ppm according to Salifert test. API nitrate tests show bright yellow, which reads as 0ppm according to that test.
 
From what I understand, fang blennies aren't included in the SPS nipping category, it's the other type of blennies. Besides, I've obvserved quite a bit and never seen them show any interest in my SPS. Keep in mind, these blennies were kept in an SPS frag tank for months with no problems (I helped out at the shop I got them from quite a bit, so I was able to observe them for a long time).
 
Here's a few kinda crappy shots of my tank and a few of the coral I talked about above taken real quick with my iphone camera.

photostream


Hmmm.... something's not working. One moment
 
Not the best pics but the best I can for now. So, if you guys were in my position, what would you be doing?
 
From your description, it seems to me your acros are showing pale colors due to nutrient poor. You increased feeding for 2 weeks, color improve but at the same time you significantly raised your phosphate from 0.00 (I assume this is the Hana Checker with a possible error margin of 0.04) to 0.14. You now notice your acros' color is fading again?

If all these changes happen within a month, I would say these are pretty drastic changes in a very short period of time. The acros are going from good (assuming they are healthy from where you obtained the frags) to nutrient poor (your initial set up) to bad (your increased feeding leading to 0.14) to possibly poor again (your aggressive GFO) in roughly a month? Could it be your acros are just having a hard time adjusting?

Maybe just slowly and passively run GFO for a month or 2 to get phosphate back to normal and then feed normally? Give the acro time to adjust?
 
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