Bird's Nest Coral question, please!

monkeysee1

monkeysee1

Member
Hi again, everyone!
I have seen a lot of nice SPS corals on line and am particularly interested in the Bird's Nest and Montipora corals because they are so pretty but I have a few questions:
Do I have enough light? (I've read it needs to be REALLY bright).
Right now I have FOUR T5's (2 white and 2 blue, at 54 WATTS each) and a pair of Current LED's (one 12000k Diamond White and one Deepwater/actinic blue).
Or do I need more?
Pretty good water flow - I have TWO Hydor Koralia powerheads
I ask this because I recently bought a tiny SPS frag as a pilot study before going any further or too deeply into this SPS thing. For a while it was doing good but now I noticed it's turning white (perhaps shedding its polyps? I don't know).
My alkalinity is 8 and my calcium is 420. NO nitrates, nitrites OR ammonia!
It's strange because I have some soft corals and I also have an LPS Torch and LPS Duncan. And 11 fish. They are all DOING GREAT!
What am I doing wrong??
Any insight would be appreciated!!!
 
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Bird's Nest and Montipora corals are some of the most forgiving SPS corals to own and good starters for SPS. Your lighting is difficult to tell if it is enough based on the info provided. I do not know if the LEDs provide much intensity or not. Surely the T5s alone would ne weak for SPS in a 90G. Place them in good flow areas near the top and the coral will tell you if the light is strong enough. Montis tend to turn brown under low light and the birds nest depending on type will show no growth in tips.
 
Thanks so much, coralsnaked!
I will try moving my one little SPS up close to the water surface and see how it does!
Weird because I also have a Derasa clam, a cocoa feather duster, 2 sea urchins and other inverts (Fire shrimp and some little peppermints). And they're all doing well!
Maybe it IS water flow: I'd like to get those nice Vortech powerbeads, just don't have the money right now. Guess I'll wait a few months to get the ones REALLY I like (600 bucks A PIECE) before getting ANY more SPS's!
 
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If its turning white (bleaching) then it might be getting too much light. If its turning brown then it might not be getting enough light.
 
Hi pyithar!

It's the coral dead center in the picture.
Was purple, now it's STARK white - first at the tips but now working its way toward the trunk :(
 

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Pics not working. . . try a service like photo bucket.

what kind of Koralia powerheads? 850? 1500?

Also do you have a test kit for Phosphates? soft corals and LPS can tolerate higher phosphates than SPS can.
 
Hi again, ryeguy!
Can you see it now?
I have the 850 flow (2 of them- not the best for sps right?)
I have a RED SEA phosphate tester but it measures ONLY inorganic phosphates, right?
THANKS! :)
 
Is that a purple porci? So white tips and bleaching towards trunk could be lots of things on an SPS. The pic really doesn't help much but most likely something is stressing out the ooxanthallae within the corals and is making them leave the coral, which makes them lose color. As long as it is just the color fading and not dead tissue or no polyp extention, the coral will most likely come back if no other major stressors happen. So don't mess with it. Corals reject their current Zoo for a new strain and just move on so just let it be. If it is bleaching from the base and loosing tissue most likely its a goner anyway no matter what you do.
 
Thanks, guys!

Is that a purple porci?
Click to expand...

Yesl
It's turning white FROM the tips TO the trunk!
SO I guess I'll just leave it be for now (midway between bottom and top of tank) - and watch and wait!
 
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Have you had any large swings in alk recently? You say you tested at 8 but what is the alk level of your water change salt?

If you did a largish water change with a salt mix that has 11dkh you may have burnt tips from the sudden increase.
 
Hi, ryeguy;!

Did a 15 percent water change a few days before I originally posted. I use the H2 Ocean salt with RO DI water. It went up to 10 dkh then settled down to 8. It's been hovering around 8 since. Could this be the problem? Do I need to dose more soda ash?
I'm doing another water change today.
 
It doesn't matter so much what the number is, it matters more that the number is consistent.

I keep my alk at 7dkh because I run zeovit, so to maintain that level I use a salt mix that has low alk. That way I can do any size water change I want and not worry about all swings
 
Your flow is way too low. Right now your getting 18X turnover. You need at least 50X for sps, and thats being conservative. I would personally go higher in the 60 to 70 range.

You need to upgrade your water flow. Whatever combination of pumps that gets you to 50X turnover should be your next upgrade. I would also look at a wavemaker like the Vortech or Jebao, the Gyre would be a good choice as well.
 
How old are your bulbs? I have a mixed reef and when my SPS aren't happy I change the bulbs. With T5's they only last at best in the SPS application about 7-9 months.

I'm running two actinics, one 14k and a purple+ ATI bulbs. You can still use the powerheads you've got just put the coral in a very high flow area. All of my LPS's are either in the rocks or in the sandbed. I've got a good mix of mostly LPS hammers both wall and branching, frogspawn, Duncan's, fuzzy mushroom Kenya tree, montipora Green tree, very large toadstool and a green acropora, pink pocillopora . I've just started with the SPS in the last two months and learning by trial and error what they like. It's a juggling act :D

I am not going to say that my SPS are fantastic by any means, but they do grow and have good color and polyp extension for being in a mixed reef So keeping them is possible Going to a serious SPS reef isn't something that I want to do but I do wish to keep a few that I like.

If you're bulbs are more than 7 months old replace them. I found best price at Marineandreef.com with amazing customer service. I have nothing to do with them other than being a very satisfied customer.
 
in my opinion sps like a stable environment. your softies doesn't need the same parameters as an sps, so them doing well isn't a good indication that your sps will be doing well.

sps like things stable. so make sure to match alk, calcium, ph, water temp, and salinity when doing a water change. i feel when keeping sps its better to do little more often water changers. so things stay more stable. also dont keep moving and touching your sps, they hate that and wont grow as fast IMO.
my advice put it in a good flow area, high making sure its getting lots of light and keep it there and pray for the best.

also you might want to have someone else test your water to make sure your testing correctly. it cant hurt to double check your results.

i think with t5 you will need 4-5 watts pre gallon to keep sps, but i am not 2 sure what your led are giving off. so wont really say one way or another if its enough lighting.
good luck
 
Thanks oldbones, whosyourcaddie Dkuhlmann and anthony!
Your flow is way too low.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I've suspected that all along. This week I'm going to bite the bullet and order VorTech MP40s to up the flow and get my T5's replaced while I'm at it like Dkuhl suggested. I last replaced them back in December. It's almost July so I'm just about due.
Anthony - I'll try doing smaller water changes but more often. I moved the coral closer in line to the power head.
What you guys said has been proven out in my little SPS pilot experiment!
Maybe after this stuff comes in I can graduate to SPS!
 
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