nadking
New member
I pulled out all the sps, I did not notice any brown spots on the acro but I did see some white spots on my monti caps.
Cant keep a sps to save my life, what am I doing wrong?
- Thread starter nadking
- Start date
I pulled out all the sps, I did not notice any brown spots on the acro but I did see some white spots on my monti caps.
nadking
New member
I don't know if I would go this drastic of an approach.^^
My first guess is lack of light. For the montis and acros both having issues at the same time I would say two different pests at the same time unlikely.
Your tank is 26" deep? Are your lights right down close to the water? Do you have good (and clean) reflectors?
My second guess is phosphate. Test kits can be iffy at best to really know for sure. Do you have algea issues?
Third guess faulty Alk or salinity reading?
Hang in there you'll figure it out-
The lights are about 5" from the surface of the water, I keep glass tops on the tank so the reflectors stay pretty clean. I also have 3 cooling fans, in an attempt to make the bulbs cooler. I did get really good growth out of the caps before the problems started happening. I do not get much algae growth on the rock other than coraline. I do go get some brown diatomish algae in my sand, if I do not rake it about once a week.
Here are some old pics, I never did get great color but things did grow.
I have only used API kits for testing, and I'm not sure how accurate they really are, but they have been replaced within the last year. I have 2 hydrometers to check specific gravity and it is always appx. 1.025- 1.026.
I did remove all caps and acros last night, I plan on keeping the tank sps free for a while and see if my problem can be solved with time, and keeping alk more stable.
What was your previous source of water?
nadking
New member
Previously I used tap water treated with alpha to dechlorinate. I moved over to the RODI about 6 months ago. The water here in Fort Collins is pretty good, I have seen successfull tanks in the area run with both RODI and tap water. I will stick with the RO from now on just to be safe.
cwegescheide
YOU have been ignored!
I bet you have very high phosphates and you may have some pests. Only real way to test for Po4 is a Hanna meter. Especially if you are not running P04 remover.... API kits are a waste of money imo.
I agree, I think this is your problem.
You are not getting enough Par from your lights becuase of the glass covers
needmore-reef
New member
Just my two cents, but your tank looked great before. I am going through a simalar struggle switching to SPS, I didn't QT my corals and I introduced pests into the tank, check out the sticky on SPS pests. your unknown acro certainly has flat worms and I bet my pay check your montis are getting eaten by nubibraches. good luck.
nadking
New member
I was under the impression that ecobak should help lower phosphates, thus other phosphate removers are not necessary. Hopefully santa will bring a nice Po4 meter so I can get some idea of what the phosphates actually are at.
nadking
New member
I worry that without the tops I will evaporate water out the ying-yang. I found that when I did not run the tops on the tank the reflectors and bulbs get filthy with salt creep, this too would lower par quite a bit. It would not be an issue if the lid was easy to get off, but unfortunately it is a two person task, and cleaning the reflectors and bulbs regularly is quite a chore for me.
nadking
New member
I liked the way the tank looked before too, my biggest concern was all of the green cyano growing on the rock and sand. The ecobak and increased flow have fixed that problem, but it also looks like it could be at the expense of some corals. I removed all sps from the tank, and did not see many visible pests to the naked eye, other than white specs on a monti cap. They were very hard, and I do not know if these spots were actually pests. However, I did not look microscopically, and must admit that my knowledge of identifying sps pest can definitely be improved.
murraycamp
Member
Lots of good suggestions here (PO4, PAR, ect.). I agree that your alk swings are too much. I would strongly consider a Ca Rx or dosing pumps with 2 part. One more suggestion: what is your K level?
denash24
Me too!
My .02 cents / hope this helps;
1. Remove the glass tops/ lids, cleaning the lights or reflectors is part of the maintenance. Also removing the glass tops allows for evaporation, better gas exchange, and more light.
2. Use only RO/DI and I know there are plenty of debates about this issue but the way I see is if you've spent so much money on having a large tank do you want it to be an experiment or do you want to provide your corals with the best chance for survival and the opportunity to thrive.
3. Buy a dosing pump or CA reactor, pick whichever works best for you as they are both good at keeping stable parameters.
4. And sadly from personal experience and an issue that I'm currently having to battle, CHECK FOR PESTS. Some of that looks like AEFW damage, you will not be able to see them with the naked eye/ not that they're tiny just that they will completely blend into the coral, dip one of those pcs in Coral RX and you'll see them come off.
Good luck
1. Remove the glass tops/ lids, cleaning the lights or reflectors is part of the maintenance. Also removing the glass tops allows for evaporation, better gas exchange, and more light.
2. Use only RO/DI and I know there are plenty of debates about this issue but the way I see is if you've spent so much money on having a large tank do you want it to be an experiment or do you want to provide your corals with the best chance for survival and the opportunity to thrive.
3. Buy a dosing pump or CA reactor, pick whichever works best for you as they are both good at keeping stable parameters.
4. And sadly from personal experience and an issue that I'm currently having to battle, CHECK FOR PESTS. Some of that looks like AEFW damage, you will not be able to see them with the naked eye/ not that they're tiny just that they will completely blend into the coral, dip one of those pcs in Coral RX and you'll see them come off.
Good luck
nadking
New member
I have not tested my potassium level. The salt I am using claims it to be at 380, but im not sure how much of that gets depleted by my system. I will look into 2 part dosing pumps to try and get the alk and calcium more stable.
nadking
New member
In reply to your post
1. Would installing a cooling fan blasting over the open water in my sump be enough to reach desired evaporation levels, and gas exchange? I know from the past when my lids were not on I would burn thru about 3 gallons of top off water a day, and I simply do not have an area big enough next to the tank to keep a top off reservoir that would last more than a day or two.
2. I agree RO/DI from here on out is the way to go.
3. Calcium reactors make me extremely nervous, as I have heard many horror stories of tank crashes involving them. I am going to look into some sort of automated dosing pump to maintain more stable calc. and alk levels.
4. I am now sps free, and I heard in the pest thread that after a few months the pest will die without any host coral to munch on. I am going to try this approach and hope that the next acro I try several months down the line will do much better with clean, more stable water.
