to all the sps guru's out there i have a mixed reef (90 gallon) and my sps are not coloring up like they should and polyp extesion is almost none. also growth is almost none too. all my monties seen to be doing great and my softies and zoos are doing wonderfull. i see alot of people say that stable alk is key for sps so my question is what is stable? how much of a swing is allowed between alk being used up and and supplementing shifts. i am going to target for around 8 to 9 dkh. right now i am slowly lowering it from 11dkh. all other parameters are nitrite, ammonia 0, nitrate 0 api, calcium 450-500ppm salifert, dkh 11 (slowly lowering) salifert, salinity 1.025, temp 78-80. also i have a heavy bioload and dose vodka,sugar to keep nitrates undetecable. any thoughts would be greatly appriciated i can't figure out what the problem is with my sps
alkalinity question?
- Thread starter adambirk
- Start date
The key to any sps tank is stable parameter all across the board. You want your alk, cal, mag, sg, to all stay steady. Shoot for as low as nutrients as you can with just alittle so you dont starve your corals. Right now my tank has been steady at 8.6 for over a week now with out any moving. So when bringing your alk down from 11 very slowly try to keep it steady at 8-9 for as long as you can. If you have to test alk everyday at the same time to see if you move or not.
Henry Bowman
Reefing since '87
What are you using to supplement alk and Ca? I use 2part and a doser. Keep my alk at 8 Currently the tank is using 75ml a day. It is dosed over 6 hours from 3AM to 9AM. Alk has been betw 7.5 and 8 for a year. I have good growth and PE.
i have been dosing 2 part b ionic to supplement i still have to figure out how much to dose dailly to keep it stable. i run an octo bh300 dual on my tank. no sump. it is only the acros that are affected all other corals grow like weeds and have good colors. also have 2 gbta that are doing great. i have checked for bugs/pests multiple times and not found anything also the last couple of days i have started to notice what is looking like rtn on 2 of my sps one bluetipped stag and a yellow acro colony. both i have had for 6 months and were doing good now in the last 2 months or so my acros are browning and not extending polyps. and not growing at all no growth tips or anything. the rtn is starting from the base up. i have tried changing flow lighting and nothing has helped and now with the rtn i really dont know what to do. i have heard that fragging helps but if they are already doing bad wont fragging kill them completly? i guess i will try and keep my alk stable as possible because that is really the only one that swings much.
Henry Bowman
Reefing since '87
alk stability is paramount to SPS health. RTN is one of the symptoms of unstable alk parameters.
Sorry you are having problems. I'd recomend you put your 2 part on a dosing pump.
I keep my alk at 8. Close to natural salt water.
Sorry you are having problems. I'd recomend you put your 2 part on a dosing pump.
I keep my alk at 8. Close to natural salt water.
also it is not all sps that are being affected by rtn and one colony (not sure what it is) is slow growing but good in color and no rtn. and the 2 that do have the rtn are on completely opposite sides of the tank. also i added 3 frags 2 acros and one blue with purple polyp encrusting montie and one acro (bright green) browned out in 2 weeks and other slightly brown and encrusting montie looks awsome. what is going on with that. over the last 2 weeks i have not dosed any alk because i have been slowly bringing it down and i dont have a high demand yet (mostly frags only a few small colonys) so why the poor color and no polyp extention on acros but the encrusting montie looks awsome if it was alk wouldnt it affect my monties to? i have 3 caps purple, green and orange and all are great color and good growth.
Henry Bowman
Reefing since '87
adam
I feel you pain. Some SPS are more sensitive to alk changes than others. Get your alk steady and you'll find your SPS doing much better.
In answer to your other post. Yes, swings in alk can cause colors to diminish.
I feel you pain. Some SPS are more sensitive to alk changes than others. Get your alk steady and you'll find your SPS doing much better.
In answer to your other post. Yes, swings in alk can cause colors to diminish.
coolfishy101
Member
There may be more than one factor here. Getting alk is very important, however you mentioned you have a mixed reef. What other types of softies do you have in your tank? There could be a small amount of toxins coming from the softies stressing out the sps. Monties are a much healthier coral, they might be able to tolerate this. Do you run any carbon?
lighting is 2 250 watt 20k reflux se with to 54ho atinic+ halides are on for 8 hours a day and t5s for 10 hours. yes i do run carbon 4 cups in to bags run in a fluval fx5 canister along with gfo. i change 2 cups of carbon biweekly and the only thing in the canister is carbon and gfo and this is cleaned out every other week when i do a 20 gallon waterchange. bulbs are at max 6 months old so i doubt that is the problem. i have been growing a blue maxima on the sandbed for over a year so i know that my lighting is sufficient. no aefw or red bugs i have checked countless times and can never find anything. the only thing i have ever seen was a hairy leg crab brownish body and black claws. this has been in my yellow acro colony before but i have never seen it eat my acro. i saw on a thread last night about how hairy crabs are bad and may be eating or stressing out my acro. this could explain the problems with the yellow colony that i am having and as soon as i see this crab again i will get it out of the tank. but i have a brown with blue tip stag and this has completely browned out after holding its color for months now this is suffering from a severe case of rtn more than half of this small colony has been affected and i have never seen anything bother this coral. (i watch my tank alot at night with red led flashlight) so i know that this is not a pest on this one.) so the only thing i can think of is the alk. as far as the softies go i have pulsing xenia, kena tree, a yellow lether toadstool, and waving hand xenia(the non pulsing kind), orange ricordia mushrooms, blue/purple mushrooms and green bulseye mushrooms. other corals are dragon eye zoos, orange zoos, eagle eye zoos, frog spawn, candy cane coral, green open brain coral, a medium colony of suncoral, orange montie cap, green montie cap, purple montie cap, a blue base purple polyped encrusting montie, and orange montie digita, and large colony of button polyps. none of these other corals are affected and all the softies grow like wildfire. the lps and monties dont grow real fast but all have great color. like i said it is only sps that are affected. i think i have answered all questions but if there are any more please ask because i am really wanting to move my tank to an sps, monti, clam, and maybe some really cool zoos but not if i cant figure out what is going on. i really dont want to buy great looking sps just for them to brown out in my tank.
i have to pick up a new mag test kit because it is out but my mag usually is around 1350 to 1400 so i know this is not it. as far as flow i have 2 korrila 4s, i korrila 3, i korrila 2, and the return from my canister (fluval fx5) that is for carbon and gfo only is 600 to 900 gph. this is 50 times turnover rate. i do not have a fuge my tank is not drilled i am going to upgrade to a reefready tank in a month or so i am just trying to find a nice used setup now thats why i am not drilling this tank. if i have to tear down i will be upgrading. i am dosing a carbon source aka vodka and sugar and this has brought my nitrates from 5 to 10ppm down to undetectible. that is why i am lowering alk because i have read and been told that i might have isues with frying my corals. and for the crab i have been on the look out and his days are numbered bit like i said before i doubt he is the underlying problem here because all sps are browning except for one colony and one frag. also how long usually does it take after alk is stablized should i start to see an improvement if this is the problem? i know there is know set time just looking for some kind of indication so i need to know if i need to keep looking else were. also one other question i have is when i feed my tank my yellow acro which used to be really hairy with polyp extension and now has none puts out what looks like long white stringy tenticles so i guess my question is is there something that the sps are not getting? i stated before i have a heavy bioload and with the carbon dosing i am able to feed heavy and not have detectible nitrates so i thought that i would be giving my corals enough food but i see others feed cyclops and such which i dont could this be a cause or am i just overthinking this and should just tackle the alk issue and go from there? i would just like to say thank you for the help because my lfs does not really know anything about sps and living in northern michigan there are not any other reefers or lfs around to get advice from so all of you are real life savers.
29reef
It's all about the flow
I and many other sps keepers have nitrate at 5-10ppm and IMO this is just fine for sps. I think you might be overdoing it with the vodka and sugar. The refugium would allow you to grow algea at night which would help keep you ph stable. Your not using a ca reactor or Kalk drip right? That's also an issue IMO. One or the other is good both would be great. Or a pump for liquid additives. Changing your alk will stress your corals. There's no reasion to move away from a stable alk. Do you use a chiller? Does your temp change much? How do you measure it?
The white stuff you see coming out of the sps is generally a stress mechanism; from what I understand it's normally not a good sign. It's the mi___al filiments I believe. I forgot how to spell it sorry.
Sounds like you don't quite have all the equipment together for your tank IMO I'd try to find a "reef ready" tank and start from there. Last time I checked there weren't too many sumpless, chillerless, reactorless, refugiumless, sps tanks...there's a reasion for this.
I don't mean to come across as harsh but your expecting too much from your current system. Vodka and sugar are not just magic tools to good sps color and growth.
The white stuff you see coming out of the sps is generally a stress mechanism; from what I understand it's normally not a good sign. It's the mi___al filiments I believe. I forgot how to spell it sorry.
Sounds like you don't quite have all the equipment together for your tank IMO I'd try to find a "reef ready" tank and start from there. Last time I checked there weren't too many sumpless, chillerless, reactorless, refugiumless, sps tanks...there's a reasion for this.
I don't mean to come across as harsh but your expecting too much from your current system. Vodka and sugar are not just magic tools to good sps color and growth.
podman1973
New member
sps are tricky for shure 8)
