Help saving SPS...

[Nuuze]

Can someone help me possibly save an SPS? I just noticed this morning its starting to loose some color at the bottom. I bought the frag Friday and was doing okay until this morning. its about 8 inches from the MH and right below one of the Seio's. Its in a 58G with a RIO 2500 return and two Seio M620's. Lighting is 1 175W 14k MH, two Actinic white VHO's. Here are tank stats:

Temp 78-80
pH 8.1-8.2
Ammonia 0
Alk 2.0-2.5
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Calcium 400
Salinaty 1.026

Lighting is 4 hours for VHO's and 8 hours for MH.

Oh, and two Damsels, two Firefish, two bi-color Blenny's, Jennifer, two spot Goby and itty bitty blue Tang.

Nuuze

 

[Bebo77]

do you have a pic?

 

[Nuuze]

I added a link to the pic...

 

[Norwood IND]

What type of lighting was it under before you purchased it? Slow acclimation to new lighting scheme for acros works best. Slowly moving frag up to higher lighting over time.
Make sure powerhead is not directly hitting frag.
Also, raise your calcium. Could also try an idodine dip to try to slow/stop the process...

 

[Nuuze]

How does a Idodine work? Is it Iodine like the stuff I add to the tank from Kent marine?

 

[twon8]

you don't need to raise you calcium, you need to raise your alkalinity, you also need a better reading than 2-2.5. get a salifert alk. test.

low alkalinity will cause recession at the base. it is causing yours.

 

[twon8]

also you need more flow, i would go with at least 820's, likely the 1100's.

 

[Nuuze]

OKay, I currently have the coral on the sand bed and will slowly raise Alk and get a Salifert kit instead of using the Red Sea one I have.

So do SPS require high flow without a power heade pointed directly at it?

So I'm guessing I need additional flow with power heads without the need to replace my RIO 2500 return? Also what should my Alk be at?

Nuuze

 

[twon8]

between 3 and 4 is a good range imo

yes, sps require a lot of flow, but not powerheads pointed directly at them.

 

[Yinger]

Definitely replace the 2 620s with at least 2 820s if not 1100s. Should help out quite a bit. I've owned a couple 620s and they don't push too much water at all.

 

[Nuuze]

Any ideas where I should mount and point the power heads when I get them?

Weird how my one SPS is dying while the other five I have seemed to be doing okay at the moment. (I hope I didn't just jinx myself!)

 

[Nuuze]

Whoa!

okay I got the Salifer KH/Alk test kit today and followed the instructions setp-by-step. The vial did not change to light purple/pink until the last drop from the 1 ml syringe with the KH solution. Did it twice and same thing. Can someone please help to see if I'm doing it right? I put 5 ml of tank water, then two drops ofKH-Ind then a drop at a time until orange-red or pink...

 

[RokleM]

Read your instructions again... All that I've seen are 4ml (even though it's a 5ml syringe).

 

[Nuuze]

You took the words right out of my mouth. I just retested:

12.8 KH value in dKH
4.57 Alk meq/L