Help me revive my tank and color up my SPS

[MountainManReef]

Hello all,

Let me try and give you some information up front. I'll keep it as brief as possible.

Display: 25g 24x24x12 shallow cube

Total Water Volume: 70g (additional volume in garage fish room sump/fuge)

Lighting: Kessil A360w (can post photoperiod info if necessary)

Skimmer: Bubble King Mini 180

Other Filtration: BRS Dual Reactor w/1 chamber 1/4 filled with Brightwell Aquatics Xport PO4 (I am phasing out phosphate removers.) I also run about a 1/2 cup of BRS Rox Carbon passively in a mesh bag which I change monthly.

Water movement: 2x Vortech MP10s on lagoon mode at about 50%

Salinity: 1.023 specific gravity.

Salt Mix: Reef Crystals

Mg: 1200ppm (Red Sea) (I will admit, it has been unstable lately, perhaps bad box of salt.)
Ca: 400ppm consistently (Red Sea)
KH: 9dKH consistently (Red Sea)

Ca/Alk Addition: Avast Marine Kalkwasser Stirrer hooked up to ATO.

Phosphates: 0.00 as per Hannah Checker (not low range)

Nitrate: 0 (Salifert)

Bioload:
2 True Percula Clowns
1 Algae Blenny
1 Coral Beauty Dwarf Angel
2 Bengai Cardinals
1 Four Line Wrasse

Other Dosing: 60ml of distilled white vinegar daily.

Problems: Brown SPS Corals with no PE as referenced below.

Ponape Birdnest (which at one point in time was totally white/bleached, has since bounced back and is showing at least some tinge of green/pink.) Also in the photo is a Tricolor Valida (if you can call it that) and a Seasons Greetings Monti Cap. The cap is in pretty good shape and growing.


This is a frag of a Red Planet, which was 100% brown, it has since got some green back to it.



This is what I think was supposed to be a Strawberry Shortcake (I honestly can't remember.)


This is supposed to be a pink birdsnest, has pretty good PE, but is really brown.


Here are two latest frags I've added. I'd say they have been in my tank about 8 weeks. There has been a noticeable decline in color, but they are a bit better off than the others.




So my question for the community is what is my next step? I **think** my tank is nutrient poor due to my heavy skimmer. I have zero nuisance algae, and incredibly minimal algae growth on the tank (it is more white/gray than green.) I've been trying to up my feedings, but I work during the day. So max I can feed is about twice daily.

I've been considering converting this system to Zeovit, or picking up some of the Zeo nutritional supplements. I would really like to enjoy this aquarium again! I spend a lot of time on maintenance, testing etc, that doesn't seem to pay off. I'd appreciate any and all advice!

 

[lynchmob3000]

Target feed your sps some reef roids and see if the polyps extend

 

[MountainManReef]

I do broadcast feed reef roids 1-2 times per week. Have not see a difference. I can try target feeding.

 

[bogg]

I'm assuming it's high nutrients or use an old-school Hanna low range photo meter
Lots of people don't like phosphate testers but as long as you do the test right keep all the do it right keep vials clean I think it's pretty accurate
Lighting (can of worms)

 

[MountainManReef]

I'm assuming it's high nutrients or use an old-school Hanna low range photo meter
Lots of people don't like phosphate testers but as long as you do the test right keep all the do it right keep vials clean I think it's pretty accurate
Lighting (can of worms)

Not sure what you mean. Are you assuming I have high nutrients because I don't use a low range Hannah meter?

 

[Realposition]

60ml of vinegar is a pretty high dose for a tank that small. I would raise the salinity to 1.026 and reduce the carbon dosing/po4 removers till you are able to get a reading for nitrate and phosphate

 

[rovster]

Throw a halide on there for a couple months and report back.....oh snap, sorry....

I like kessils and under the right situation they can be made to work. Your problem is either too little light, or too high nutrients. honestly from the appearance of the corals it looks like excess phosphate, possibly nitrate. Since you say you have no algae issues, the light comes into question. I jokingly say throw a halide over it but at the same time if you do that then you will KNOW what your issue is.

I am not an LED hater, I have radions over my tank. I've also run halides and believe they are the best "set and forget" lights. If you are dead set on your kessil, I would start by increasing the intensity. Maybe also increase height above water and intensity to better the spread. Honestly I don't know much about those, although I did run 2 kessils for supplement when I had the halide.

Good luck and be patient. What ever you change only do one thing at a time and give it a week or 2 before you look for any change. If you see a positive change overnight, you are imagining things, LOL!

 

[MountainManReef]

60ml of vinegar is a pretty high dose for a tank that small. I would raise the salinity to 1.026 and reduce the carbon dosing/po4 removers till you are able to get a reading for nitrate and phosphate

I was thinking the same. I did it a few months back when I was getting a reading anywhere from 0.02 to 0.06. I am going to continue to wean off of Po4 removers simply because servicing the reactor is something I don't like doing. Vinegar daily is much easier. Once I'm off GFO I will play with vinegar.

 

[miggs76]

your corals look like mine did before I started feeding them every day. Having no phosphates and no nitrates is great if you feed everyday, but not so great if you are only feeding 1-2 times a week. I thought brown corals meant my lights were too dim and I have LEDs but through trial and error found that my corals were brown because I was obsessed with no nitrates and phosphates.

 

[MountainManReef]

Throw a halide on there for a couple months and report back.....oh snap, sorry....



I like kessils and under the right situation they can be made to work. Your problem is either too little light, or too high nutrients. honestly from the appearance of the corals it looks like excess phosphate, possibly nitrate. Since you say you have no algae issues, the light comes into question. I jokingly say throw a halide over it but at the same time if you do that then you will KNOW what your issue is.



I am not an LED hater, I have radions over my tank. I've also run halides and believe they are the best "set and forget" lights. If you are dead set on your kessil, I would start by increasing the intensity. Maybe also increase height above water and intensity to better the spread. Honestly I don't know much about those, although I did run 2 kessils for supplement when I had the halide.



Good luck and be patient. What ever you change only do one thing at a time and give it a week or 2 before you look for any change. If you see a positive change overnight, you are imagining things, LOL!

Ugh, yes I've had those thoughts. However, I'd say I'm more likely to go back to T5s. With that said, the form factor and power bill of the Kessil is really preferred.

 

[MountainManReef]

your corals look like mine did before I started feeding them every day. Having no phosphates and no nitrates is great if you feed everyday, but not so great if you are only feeding 1-2 times a week. I thought brown corals meant my lights were too dim and I have LEDs but through trial and error found that my corals were brown because I was obsessed with no nitrates and phosphates.

Yes. This is where my thought process is headed. I've overbuilt this system, and I have more indicators of low nutrients than high.

I should mention that I had a refugium with chaeto and caulerpa until the beginning of November. I emptied it when the macros just stopped growing and seemed like they were decaying/polluting my water. I don't think they could compete with my skimming.

 

[MountainManReef]

Well rovster, I'm really glad you brought this up. I never really considered this light (especially over such a shallow tank) to be a possible culprit. However, your comment caused me to log in to my Apex for the first time probably since I got the light 18 months ago. At which time I was really wow'd by the ramp features and thought I wanted some cool sunrise and sunset. I also remember people talking about cooking corals under LEDs.

So let's save the conversation on Kelvin/color for a future date. Here are my intensity settings over my photoperiod.

11:00-13:00 = "Sunrise" - Ramp time 120 minutes/Intensity - 12%-85%

13:01-15:00 = "Noon" - Ramp time 120 minutes/Intensity - 85%-90%

15:01 - 18:00 = "Daylight" - Ramp time 180 minutes/Intensity - 90-80%

18:01 - 22:00 = "Sunset" - Ramp time 240 minutes/Intensity - 50-11% (I don't know what I was thinking)

So in total, I have this thing dialed in pretty weak.

For 5 hours a day, I am at peak strength between 80-90%
For 2 hours a day, I am between 85% and the light being off
For 4 hours a day I am between 50% and the light being off.

Anyone have a recommendation on how to adjust my light from here? I am thinking about decreasing my photoperiod to 10 hours, and having the light run at 100% for about 9 hours of the 10.

 

[lynchmob3000]

your corals look like mine did before I started feeding them every day. Having no phosphates and no nitrates is great if you feed everyday, but not so great if you are only feeding 1-2 times a week. I thought brown corals meant my lights were too dim and I have LEDs but through trial and error found that my corals were brown because I was obsessed with no nitrates and phosphates.

+1 I found this to be true also

 

[risin]

Too low nutrients imo. Get phosphate and nitrate to register and dial in carbon dosing from there.

 

[jgalen0025]

Your sg is too low, are you sure its accurate?

 

[MountainManReef]

I use a refractometer, I will admit I've been calibrating it off of 0 tds RO water. I've been slowly bringing my salinity up,

 

[rovster]

How high is the light off the water? I would run the light at your defined peak for 4-6 hrs steady, no ramping. What you do on either side of that is up to you. Also make sure you are running it in the 14k or whiter for a good amount of time and go from there.

I know lots have mentioned low nutrients, but those corals do NOT look starved for nutrients. In fact they suggest otherwise. Deep rich brown is not starving, well maybe light starving. I know your testing says othewise. Just so you don't drive yourself insane, get yourself a new nitrate kit and a Hanna URL phos kit and confirm.

 

[MountainManReef]

How high is the light off the water? I would run the light at your defined peak for 4-6 hrs steady, no ramping. What you do on either side of that is up to you. Also make sure you are running it in the 14k or whiter for a good amount of time and go from there.

I know lots have mentioned low nutrients, but those corals do NOT look starved for nutrients. In fact they suggest otherwise. Deep rich brown is not starving, well maybe light starving. I know your testing says othewise. Just so you don't drive yourself insane, get yourself a new nitrate kit and a Hanna URL phos kit and confirm.

The light is about 14 inches off the surface of the water. New nitrate kit wouldn't be bad, but I've never registered a nitrate reading. I know the Hanna ULR Kit is a good investment, but it's a tough bullet to bite at $220. Maybe I can borrow one from someone.

 

[rovster]

Hanna URL is like $50. It's the green egg that reads for phosphorus not phosphate. You do have to convert it manually.

 

[Peter Eichler]

I use a refractometer, I will admit I've been calibrating it off of 0 tds RO water. I've been slowly bringing my salinity up,

The first thing you need to do is get your refractometer properly calibrated and your salinity set at 35ppt. Other than that I think you will struggle with coral color and kessils. The blue cloves and carbon dosing are other potential problems. Carbon dosing is not a longterm solution to PO4 issues.