I am in need of some serious help from the sps gods!!!!
For the past 3 years my tank has been the definition of mediocore. Most stuff lives, a few frags die, and almost nothing grows like it should. I have recently started trying to get things back on track, and I am not having any success.
Nutrients
My nutrients have been undetectable for the longest time, and my corals always were very pale and showed no growth. I dabbled in dosing KNO3, but didn't like it. I recently began over feeding the heck out of my fish with Rods, Spectrum pellets, and mysis cubes. I now have nitrates between 10 and 25 (salifert) and phosphates around 0.05 (hanna ulr). I've been holding these levels for a couple weeks now.
Dosing
I have brs dosers for my calcium and alk. I am manually dosing magnesium, but should have another dosing pump to automate that today. I am using BRS brand for all 3 supplements. I have a bottle of acropower I have dosed on and off, dont notice any difference.
Lighting
Sun power 8x39w all ATI bulbs, runs for 9 hours a day. Light is about a foot off the top of the tank.
Current levels
I chased my alk around for about the past month, turns out I had a bad batch of hanna alk reagent. Since figuring that out about a week ago, my params have been very solid.
Levels as of today:
Alk 8.06 (hanna)
Calcium 450 (salifert)
Magnesium 1260 (salifert)
Nitrates about 15 (salifert)
Salinity 1.026 with refractomer.
Temp fluctuates less than 1 degree throughout the day. (78.9-79.0 with Apex probe)
I sent water off to Triton labs today for further testing.
Salt
I was using Reef crystals for a long time, recently switched to H2Ocean because it matched the alk I like to run in my tank better.
Problems
SPS do not grow
almost at all. They show very pale colors. Over the past week, all my montis have died or almost died. I am at a complete loss, my parameters have been stable and I have been testing so much I'm not sure what could be the issue. I also have burnt tips and slow stn on a couple pieces. I would normally assume burnt tips = alk burn but my alk has been stable in the 7.8 range for a week and the tips are losing more tissue every day. I also get almost no PE, except at night on a few pieces.
Now for some pictures:
Notice the STN on this pieces (some type of stag). It has been stn'ing in this area for about a week. It use to have some PE, and now has none.
This piece has burnt tips that receede slowly every day. It also has grown extremely slowly over the past year or so and has gone from some PE at night, to none. It looks extremely stressed and ready to die.
This piece was really nice when I got it, always had polyps out. Now its completely colorless, never has PE.
Ths encrusting monti with blue polyps is barely hanging on, all the polyps are receeded far inside the tissue and it looks like its about to die.
This piece has grown absolutely none at all in over a year. It is slowly receding (notice the white around the base, stn)
This is a Jason fox mystic I think. Notice the white tissue, receeding all around it. The pocillopora in the background is about the only thing I have that is doing well.
Pro corals red rainbow acros is what this one is I believe. From the top town it looks pink but has no color from the side. That much growth is in over a year.
PLEASE HELP I need some experience opinions here. I am doing everything I think should be right, my ALK, calcium, and Mag are stable in good ranges, and things are only getting worse. I'm not sure if I'm missing something trace, if there could be something toxic in my water, etc.
