help new to sps keeping

loganlemaster

New member
Ok I need some help. Every time I think I know something about this hobby my system proves to me I dont. The tank has been up and running since march, Im keeping zoos a hammer, a couple plates and some mushrooms. My ph is around 8.0-8.1 ca 440 alk 7-8 mg 1350. I decided to try some sps frags from mr. Coral I got 2 millis and 3 acro frags. The frags are small and appeared to be freshly glued to the plugs. I have a razor for lights over a 36x18x12 tank, lights are 10 inches off the water and running at 25W 45 b max intensity. Im topping off with kalkwasser at a half tsp per gallon water mix. Water is rodi. I dont have a phosphate problem, no algea dont really even have to clean my glass to often. I run a brs dual reactor with carbon and gfo and also an in sump skimmer. I lost one milli over night the other seems to be rtn. Why cant i keep sps??? I also lost some meteor shower cyphastrea on a rock i brought over from my biocube, it just turned white and died. Please help:(
 
Well if it helps I run the radions on my sps tank at 45%-55%intensity the max intensity tends to burn the crap out of my corals there is such thing as too much lights when it comes to LEDs I find. It's best to start low and ramp me up slowly over weeks
 
Mr. Coral has a terrible reputation, I bought some frags from him, around 10 total, in 2011 and they all RTN within 2 weeks.

Note my other sps did perfect.
 
Ok guys where is a good place to buy sps frags, that have had time to establish on the frag plugs. The ones from mr. coral seemed freshly cut. The ten dollar price tag was attractive but maybe they hadn't had time on the plug???
 
Mr. Coral is a chop shop basically, they frag then ship.

Good places are live aquaria, wet thumbs, world wide corals, just to name a few
 
From experience I would recommend that you focus on your alkalinity. At 7-8, you are most likely experiencing ALK fluctuations at night because of the natural CO2 processes. If you are running ALK at 8 and it dips below in the 7 range, more delicate acros will RTN. If you notice, the RTN happens overnight. Keep it simple and don't over think or overspend. Buy a two part calcium/ALK like bionic or brs brand. Be disciplined about dosing and youll be fine. Try to get your ALK a little higher but also stable and you should have no problems.
 
You lost 2/5 fresh cut sps pieces and you're worried? Relax lol. Fresh cuts don't always make it, especially after a cut and ship. Acropora species don't always have huge polyp extension like most milli's do. I have some that the polyps are only visible because they're a different color and I have some that are out so far that I can't even see the body of the coral. A better judge of coral happiness is color. If its growing and retained its color or even getting more colorful after a cut and ship then your fine. You're just experiencing the world of owning sps.

Also I'm not the most familiar with the razors, but I've played with a few and they are powerful. I wouldn't be surprised if your meteor show was just straight light burned in the new tank light intensity.
 
From experience I would recommend that you focus on your alkalinity. At 7-8, you are most likely experiencing ALK fluctuations at night because of the natural CO2 processes. If you are running ALK at 8 and it dips below in the 7 range, more delicate acros will RTN. If you notice, the RTN happens overnight. Keep it simple and don't over think or overspend. Buy a two part calcium/ALK like bionic or brs brand. Be disciplined about dosing and youll be fine. Try to get your ALK a little higher but also stable and you should have no problems.
I have the brs two part but have not tried it yet. I got my mag up in the 1300-1400 range then started topping off with kalkwasser. I wanted to see if the mag held there and if the alk raised im getting ready to test. I will report my findings.
 
You lost 2/5 fresh cut sps pieces and you're worried? Relax lol. Fresh cuts don't always make it, especially after a cut and ship. Acropora species don't always have huge polyp extension like most milli's do. I have some that the polyps are only visible because they're a different color and I have some that are out so far that I can't even see the body of the coral. A better judge of coral happiness is color. If its growing and retained its color or even getting more colorful after a cut and ship then your fine. You're just experiencing the world of owning sps.

Also I'm not the most familiar with the razors, but I've played with a few and they are powerful. I wouldn't be surprised if your meteor show was just straight light burned in the new tank light intensity.
Yeah its only two frags just hate to lose coral. Im running the lights at 25%blue and 45%white in the middle of the photoperiod, hope thats not to much it is a shallow tank.
So far the acros are still ok i think. Ive got coraline algea on some of the rock brought from my other system but nothing on the newer live rock. I was hoping that getting my levels up would promote it to grow. I guess time will tell.
 
Was that 12" in height, in my experience blues are able to crank up it's the whites that burn the corals. Depends on the look you want.
 
Yeah i like the blue look and the corals seem to like the blue better i raised the whites a little thinking the sps might need it but i think i will lower the whites and up the blues
 
Fts
 

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