bryman
Aquascape Destroyer
Hi All,
I have a 90gallon mixed reef with mostly SPS. I am somewhat new to SPS but have had pretty good success in this tank. Here's a somewhat recent FTS:
Everything was doing well except that my deep purples, such as my nana and tricolor bali weren't as deep purple as they should be. My lighting is a 6 bulb ATI Sunpower about 8" over the water, with 4 ATI Blue+, 1 ATI Aquablue Special, and 1 ATI Purple +. Stuff has been thriving and I have to hide some of my LPS from direct light at the bottom. I use reef crystals salt and BRS 2 part through dosers 4x a day.
To correct the deep purple issue, I was told to try Potassium and Strontium. I started dosing 2x a week, at a much lower than recommended dosage. Other things besides two part that I dose are:
-Iodide (1ml 2x a week)
-5ml Vodka (2x a week)
-MB7 (5ml 1x a week)
-Extra Alk to offset the vodka/mb7 (5ml 2x a week)
I run Kent carbon in a bag and have a Reef Octopus XP2000 skimmer. I have a decent size refugium with a DSB and lots of macroalgae. I usually do 5-10G water changes 2x a month.
The potassium and strontium are a new addition to my regular schedule. I think my purples are getting better because of it. I am going well below the recommended dosages because I don't have tests for them. Here are my current parameters:
Temp: 78-78.5
PH: 8-8.34
Alk: 9
Ca: 380 (I know its low, but I have increased my dosing to improve it)
NO3: 0
NO4: 0
PO4: 0
My parameters are very stable as I have the entire system controlled by a RKE including ATO from my RO/DI. All my SPS are doing well except the purple color that I was working on. That is until Wednesday night. I noticed at night that my monti true undata and rainbow monti encrusting SPS had minimal PE and the undata produced some white stringy mucous at night. It appears to have a small lesion in the middle of it now. It' about the size of a sesame seed.
I wondered if I made a bad cocktail of chemicals on Wednesday night when I dosed all the 2x week supplments - Iodide, Strontium, Potassium, all within about 5 minutes of each other in the sump. Yesterday night I did a 10G water change in case this was the cause. The rainbow monti still has little PE in the daytime but most of the PE of the undata has returned. I have scoured all my montis in the tank with a flashlight at night for any signs of monti eating nudis or other pests and have found none. The rest of the montis and acros look fine.
Did I just stress these montis out with a chemical cocktail, or do you think something else is going on?
I have a 90gallon mixed reef with mostly SPS. I am somewhat new to SPS but have had pretty good success in this tank. Here's a somewhat recent FTS:
Everything was doing well except that my deep purples, such as my nana and tricolor bali weren't as deep purple as they should be. My lighting is a 6 bulb ATI Sunpower about 8" over the water, with 4 ATI Blue+, 1 ATI Aquablue Special, and 1 ATI Purple +. Stuff has been thriving and I have to hide some of my LPS from direct light at the bottom. I use reef crystals salt and BRS 2 part through dosers 4x a day.
To correct the deep purple issue, I was told to try Potassium and Strontium. I started dosing 2x a week, at a much lower than recommended dosage. Other things besides two part that I dose are:
-Iodide (1ml 2x a week)
-5ml Vodka (2x a week)
-MB7 (5ml 1x a week)
-Extra Alk to offset the vodka/mb7 (5ml 2x a week)
I run Kent carbon in a bag and have a Reef Octopus XP2000 skimmer. I have a decent size refugium with a DSB and lots of macroalgae. I usually do 5-10G water changes 2x a month.
The potassium and strontium are a new addition to my regular schedule. I think my purples are getting better because of it. I am going well below the recommended dosages because I don't have tests for them. Here are my current parameters:
Temp: 78-78.5
PH: 8-8.34
Alk: 9
Ca: 380 (I know its low, but I have increased my dosing to improve it)
NO3: 0
NO4: 0
PO4: 0
My parameters are very stable as I have the entire system controlled by a RKE including ATO from my RO/DI. All my SPS are doing well except the purple color that I was working on. That is until Wednesday night. I noticed at night that my monti true undata and rainbow monti encrusting SPS had minimal PE and the undata produced some white stringy mucous at night. It appears to have a small lesion in the middle of it now. It' about the size of a sesame seed.
I wondered if I made a bad cocktail of chemicals on Wednesday night when I dosed all the 2x week supplments - Iodide, Strontium, Potassium, all within about 5 minutes of each other in the sump. Yesterday night I did a 10G water change in case this was the cause. The rainbow monti still has little PE in the daytime but most of the PE of the undata has returned. I have scoured all my montis in the tank with a flashlight at night for any signs of monti eating nudis or other pests and have found none. The rest of the montis and acros look fine.
Did I just stress these montis out with a chemical cocktail, or do you think something else is going on?
