Brown/Pale SPS WTFFFF
- Thread starter Greyson
- Start date
It can be. Temperature is the leading cause of massive bleaching events in the wild.
I hope it doesnt stn..
So today i got a phos test kit came out to 0. I know its not a hanna but its good enough to give me an idea. I took out the chemipure elite and kept purigen and phosguard.
pic
The resolution of that test kit makes it worthless.
You are targeting a range of .03 mg/lto .09 mg/l. You get a slight color change between 0 mg/l and 0.25 mg/l. That range is huge.
Greyson
New member
i feed twice daily .. i only have one fish and don't really think i want more.
Greyson
New member
Where did the trend of having .03-.09 come from anyway?Can you please tell me where YOU personally got these numbers from ? Was it from another member on here? and if so where did they get their info ? i remember when i first started in 2007 with my first reef tank everyone said you need 0 phos 0 nitrates and now all these oddball ranges are constantly changing with time and trends. This is a huge contradiction, when my levels were "pristine" my corals looked horrible. Too many "marine biologists" and "chemists" on this forum.
It's typical of seawater. "0" was a number people targeted because the technology within the hobby wasn't capable of measuring 100ths of a ppm and now it is. As such, hobbiests are now able to balance nutrients to a level that promotes color and reduces algae.
additionally, the hobby overall continues to advance as people learn more about the physiology of coral. It wasnt long ago that most people kept browned SPS as a normality.
Nutrients are limiting factors in reef ecosystems. They typically read almost undectable, not because reefs are clean, but because the are consumed as quickly as theyre produced.
I did too when I had my issues. I added two other fish and the color responded very, very well.
I now have 4 fish in my 30g SPS system and feed pinches probably 5 times an evening. I'll also dose 0.5ml of oysterfeast in the AM.
Greyson
New member
I re-tested my levels .. i finally increased the nitrates to 5 ppms and i'm going to try to maintain this. My phos is still 0 with api kit. No algae, polyp extension looks better on pocillipora and stylo, stylo got slightly more "colorful". I keep reading about tanks that have high nitrates 20-80 ppms with undetectable phos. and they seem to have the best colors and growth. I'm going to try to see if maintaining this will help with overall health.
Greyson
New member
I ended up pulling everything except the chemipure elite ... today i woke up and inspected the tank and everything looks good, my pocillipora sprouted new bumps which is a nice sign of growth. My pink birdsnest has not really shown too much polyp extension in a while, it used to have nice blue polyps but i havent seen it in a while. I wonder how long it will take to color everything up if i maintain these levels.
Greyson
New member
Just wanted to bring up that my birdsnest is not looking too good. One side of it has alot of flesh missing.. its got stn for sure. and i have not seen polyp extension for a while so thats kind of telling me that its not doing too well. My other sps look better, pocillipora has had some real nice growth in a matter of two days and is encrusting more.my stylo had a small amount of growth and seems to be getting a bit darker, especially in the polyps. my other other millie has had some growth and PE is CRAZY nice. Monto cap that was "grey" is orange again and is encrusting.
I think i've done more good than bad. I think the birdsnest has just been damaged from before, even though it seems to be growing new tips.
So far i've been feeding reef roids EOD after my nitrates went up to 5 from 0.
I also add 1 drop of whole milk daily.
1 drop of Kent iodide daily, which is FAR less than what is recommended.
I feed mysis to my dendros once every 2 days, and my wrasse gets food from that.
I have no algae and no cyano, i do occasionally have small eraser head size patches of diatoms however, i lightly stir up my sandbed every other day and i never have a problem.
Params.
salinity 1.025
Alk 8.3
Calcium 440 ppm
Nitrate 5 ppm
Phos. 0 ( api kit, i know i know not hanna )
temp 79-80 depending on time of day.
Not sure what Magnesium is since i have not tested for it, but i use reef crystals so i would assume it should be in range.
I have been keeping my alk pretty stable at around 8-8.3 for the last 4 days compared to how bad it was a few weeks back. I honestly couldn't be happier with the way the tank is progressing with the exception of my sps and corraline algae which is growing very slow compared to what alot of people get in their first few months. I'm still debating if my lighting is a cause for some of my problems aside from water chemistry.
I think i've done more good than bad. I think the birdsnest has just been damaged from before, even though it seems to be growing new tips.
So far i've been feeding reef roids EOD after my nitrates went up to 5 from 0.
I also add 1 drop of whole milk daily.
1 drop of Kent iodide daily, which is FAR less than what is recommended.
I feed mysis to my dendros once every 2 days, and my wrasse gets food from that.
I have no algae and no cyano, i do occasionally have small eraser head size patches of diatoms however, i lightly stir up my sandbed every other day and i never have a problem.
Params.
salinity 1.025
Alk 8.3
Calcium 440 ppm
Nitrate 5 ppm
Phos. 0 ( api kit, i know i know not hanna )
temp 79-80 depending on time of day.
Not sure what Magnesium is since i have not tested for it, but i use reef crystals so i would assume it should be in range.
I have been keeping my alk pretty stable at around 8-8.3 for the last 4 days compared to how bad it was a few weeks back. I honestly couldn't be happier with the way the tank is progressing with the exception of my sps and corraline algae which is growing very slow compared to what alot of people get in their first few months. I'm still debating if my lighting is a cause for some of my problems aside from water chemistry.
I use reef crystals and I find myself having to tweak the magnesium very often. I feel like most of their batches have low mag and high alk. You definitely need a new test kit for Phosphates. Hanna's were on sale last week on BRS. Check that.
Remember only dose what you test for. So be careful with the iodide.
Keep working on your alk stability. Sps take a while to show signs of improvement, stability is key and even bringing your parameter to ideal levels too quickly counts as a swing. The sticks do not like swings
Remember only dose what you test for. So be careful with the iodide.
Keep working on your alk stability. Sps take a while to show signs of improvement, stability is key and even bringing your parameter to ideal levels too quickly counts as a swing. The sticks do not like swings
Greyson
New member
I was considering to get the tropic marin pro salt after i finish this batch of reef crystals. would you recommend that one ? And yes i do realize that they do not like the alk swings, but my alk was 4.5 and that was a big no no .. thats why i gradually brought it back up. I know all the fundamentals already of reef keeping, i just always like to hear of opinions of people who had success with certain things. I just want to keep my sps happy, because this is my first time keeping them and i really like them.
I know exactly how you feel. I had bad luck with SPS for a while. Chasing numbers like crazy. GFO, prodibio, vodka, zeovit, you name it, I tried it. I used to follow successful threads, copying everything they did, but no two tanks are alike. in only succeeded when I started to "KISS".
See this Hobby is painful, just over a month ago I had a bad case of AEFW and had to start over. (Side note: ALWAYS, always dip your corals, even if it comes from the best reefer you know)
I have been gradually switching to redsea pro. See I am not a big fan of sudden changes, even when switching salts. I mix my reef crystals with the Red Sea Coral Pro, and I increase the amount of coral pro with each water change.
The only Tropic marin salt I've ever tried was the bio actif stuff. I hated it, it was causing a algae bloom for some reason.
See this Hobby is painful, just over a month ago I had a bad case of AEFW and had to start over. (Side note: ALWAYS, always dip your corals, even if it comes from the best reefer you know)
I have been gradually switching to redsea pro. See I am not a big fan of sudden changes, even when switching salts. I mix my reef crystals with the Red Sea Coral Pro, and I increase the amount of coral pro with each water change.
The only Tropic marin salt I've ever tried was the bio actif stuff. I hated it, it was causing a algae bloom for some reason.
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