Carbon, SPS, and Toadstool Leathers

[serbusfish]

Im experiencing some issues with my SPS corals. A few are duller in colour than they should be (Monti Caps), I have an Acropora colony that is going brown and also bleaching from the base, and my stylophora's polpys have mostly stopped coming out and the base has signs of bleaching.

Im wondering if running carbon can cause problems like this? I have run carbon filter pads constantly since setting the tank up as I have a Toadstool leather coral and im worried about chemical warfare. If I remove the carbon will the Toadstool harm the other corals? Do proteins skimmers remove the chemical warfare?

 

[fishchef]

Mixed Reefs are hard. We had one, but didn't run carbon...used Purigen and Bio-Marine Polyfilter. The Poly removes heavy metals and organics. Purigen removes organics. Found that leathers tend to like higher NO3. Had some issues when we removed the Poly...it removed particles in the water from the GFO. The problem with the Acro sounds like lighting.
We had two very large Toadstools in a 125 with a Monti, both grew like weeds.

 

[oblio]

I run carbon and my leather and sps are fine. I don't think the carbon is causing this issue.

 

[serbusfish]

Nitrate - 5
Phos - 0.03
KH - 8.3
Cal - 430
Mag - 1350
SG - 1.025
Temp - 26'c
PH - 8.0

My parameters are all good which is why im looking to other things that could be causing the issues. Most people seem to recommend only running carbon for a couple of days in saltwater tanks as they remove trace elements?

I turned my GFO off recently as im dosing Red Sea NoPox (which is working well, nitrate has started reducing and phos remains low). My Acro is getting around 300 PAR, im currently slowly bumping my lights up so it gets closer to 400.

If Carbon isnt causing these issues what else could it be? I should say that I have other SPS that are doing well, I have a large Birdsnest colony, Digi Monti's, other Acros and a Millepora with no signs of colour or tissue loss.

 

[serbusfish]

Bump

 

[K.C.]

If the carbon was your problem it would unilaterally affect your corals and you'd have to be running one heck of a lot of carbon.

The GFO is a good candidate for stripping water to the point that some SPS won't survive.

I've been keeping SPS for 30 years and mixed reefs for 40. It's pretty tuff to kill a coral with carbon.

You make no mention of water change regimen, the number of softies you have and their size. I've kept many a mixed tank where leathers and hard corals flourished, chemical warfare isn't inherent in a mixed reef.

 

[serbusfish]

If the carbon was your problem it would unilaterally affect your corals and you'd have to be running one heck of a lot of carbon.

The GFO is a good candidate for stripping water to the point that some SPS won't survive.

I've been keeping SPS for 30 years and mixed reefs for 40. It's pretty tuff to kill a coral with carbon.

You make no mention of water change regimen, the number of softies you have and their size. I've kept many a mixed tank where leathers and hard corals flourished, chemical warfare isn't inherent in a mixed reef.

I only use a small carbon filter pad measuring around 3.5" x 3". This sort of thing:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Finest-Filters-Compatible-Carbon-Compact-Filters/dp/B005AK9VZA

I do 12% water changes a week, and use liquid supplements for alk and cal. So far my mag doesnt need to be buffered. I only have 2 larger softies (Toadstool as mentioned which is around 5" across, and Clove Polpys which are around the same size) and a few small mushrooms here and there.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

It sounds like a lighting issue to me. What lights do you have

 

[serbusfish]

It sounds like a lighting issue to me. What lights do you have

Maxspect Razor 320W. Maxspect settings are 52% white channel, 100% blue channel, currently in the process of slowly increasing whites to 60% to get better PAR.

 

[DocHogan]

Is it possible you have the lights to intense? I believe I killed a couple frags with the razor led's. I had the white at 65 and the blue at 80. Now am running at 50 and 60.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I agree with DocHogan and the reason that I said it's probably your lights is they're either too weak or too powerful, in your case it's too high of a setting. Back them down by half of where're your set now and see if it doesn't improve. Remember % of lights isn't really something to go by. For instance like you're saying 100% blue and 52% white you are cooking them. They need to be acclimated to the higher power of LED's. I burned up my acans when I got my new light a Ocean Revive Arctic T247 that replaced a Chinese Black Box which I was running at 100% blues and 60% whites. SO when I got the new lights I set them to 60% blues and 40% whites and burned the heck out of my acans. I lost 15 frags from too intense of lighting

I then set my lights to 40% blues and 10% whites and it was still too much whites so I dropped them down to 5% whites. Now after ramping them up I'm at 65% blues and 25% whites. I'll let them stay at that for a week then bump them up again. I'm wanting to get to a point where I can set the lights for best color of fish and corals in my tank. The survivors from me burning them up are now even better than they were before this happened. Quality lighting makes a huge difference. Don't worry about PAR values at this time, let them get used to the lighting then once acclimated you can set them how you want.

Most important thing in this hobby, Nothing good happens fast! Take it slow and let them acclimate to the lights.

 

[serbusfish]

I have been running the Razor since November 2015 and acclimated very slowly. Only now am I planning to go higher on the whites as it seems my PAR was a little too low for the SPS. My LFS actually recommended I go 70% white 100% blue but I dont think this is necessary.

I will take some PAR readings and post them asap so you can see what I mean.

 

[serbusfish]

OK here it is. I didnt take readings everywhere just in some important areas. Settings of the Razor are 52% white, 95% blue. The readings shown were taken either just above or just next to the corals in question:



As you can see the Acro colony at the top left isnt getting enough PAR, iirc it should be 350 - 400. Other areas arent too bad but I dont think a small increase should hurt anything?

 

[sixpackgarage]

I had a similar experience with monti going pale and even had some tissue dying in the center. I removed GFO and started using carbon. It has healed and more than doubled in size, has nice color and you can even see polyps which I never saw before. I'm sure it could be a lot of things, but GFO is the only variable I changed consciously.

 

[serbusfish]

I had a similar experience with monti going pale and even had some tissue dying in the center. I removed GFO and started using carbon. It has healed and more than doubled in size, has nice color and you can even see polyps which I never saw before. I'm sure it could be a lot of things, but GFO is the only variable I changed consciously.

Well im in the opposite situation really, I was used GFO but removed it recently as I started dosing Red Sea NoPox. I have put a small amount back in to see if anything improves, my water parameters are all spot on so im clutching at straws for now :uhoh2: