if someone could help ? about my sps

[murphreef]

ok well my sps have been doing poorly over the last 3-4 weeks and im just not sure why....

my red milli was growin like crazy then all the new growth tips died off...

my blue stag about 3" big stn'd on me over the last few weeks

my humilis did the same thing

my tri color stag was growing like crazy then started dyin off in areas to now its pretty much 1/2 gone....

my a validia has lost some of the new tips flesh died off and now its just skeleton

my 2 a tenuis are doing moderately ok were growing good now none noticeable growth

and one of my other frags seems ok

my tank is a 100g
lighting is 2-250W 20K DE with another 180W of 10K PC
30X's turnover from returns and power heads
150lbs LR
run caron 24/7 and a UV filter
i run phosguard too in a fluval filter
do 2 - 5 gallon water changes weekly using via aqua oceanpure pro salt with RO/DI water
dose daily with B-Ionic

ihave a lot of other corals from LPS to softies to clams and all of them are doing great from my large bubble to my croceas to my leather finger

all my sps were doing good until like i said 3-4 weeks ago

water parameters are as following from today

PH8.2
Am 0
Na 0
Ni 0
PO4 undetectable
Ca 450
Alk 8.3 dkh
Mg 1470
Temp 80
SG 1.025

what could possibly be going on here??
tank realy wansnt made for sps it has a "plenum" bottom with crushed coral.... no sump and 2 fluval 404's.... water stays good as far as all test results go and tank is 3 years old just started recently having issues with the sps

thanks for any input

BTW heres a pic of my new LEE MAR 180G flat polished black back with center overflow i just got im getting all the equipment up and runnig guna run a closed loop with an oceans motion 4 way a mrc 2 stage calcium reactor and all the other good stuff it should be nice and i want as many of my sps to survive until i can get them transferred over!

and i made a custom cherry stand and matching canopy for the tank :rollface:

 

[fishdoc11]

How long ago did you add the phophate remover?
Have you had any alk or temp spikes?
Anything chanhe right before this happened?
How long have you had the sps corals and are they frags or wild colonies?
Chris

 

[murphreef]

i added the phosphate remover about 2 months ago i noticed a small amount of phosphates in the tank so i added it then

no temp spikes i run a chiller.... i cant get my alk above the mid 8's usually it settles at 8.0.... it did fall to 7 the other week but i raised it back up

the only thing i can think is i changed bulbs they kept burning out due to a malfunctioning ballast running to much power to the DE's it would fry the electrode... now the bulbs work fine cuz they gave me a new ballast and new bulbs at the same time... im wondering if they coulda fried the new growth tips.... it seems like the corals got burnt maybe by the new lighting?? but they still havent gotten better and are slowly getting worse

the 2 tenuis acros are the lowest ones in my tank maybe thats y they havent gotten burnt since they are towards the bottom while the others are upnhigh??

well ive had the blue stag for about 4 months now the valida about 3 months now the humilis was about 1 month and wild aquacultured .... the tri color stag was from a fellow reefer .... it was doin great.... the two tenuis colonies were wild not even aquacultured.... ive had one for about 6-8 weeks the other about 4 weeks now

what do u think

thanks!?

 

[fishdoc11]

My first inclination would be to blame the phosphate remover. Lots of people have used the Fe based removers and had STN/RTN problems including myself. If you do a search you will find lots of threads on this particularly during the period of time soon after they came out.
My second inclination is to blame the fact that the corals are still fairly new to your system. How long has the tank been setup? FWIW the success rate with wild colonies is fairly low, on the order of 50% or so even with experienced sps keepers. The success rate with aquacultured(propagated in the ocean) is ~ 75-80% and the success rate with tank raised frags is near 100%(#'s taken from poll in this forum, may not be exact but they are close).

I'm guessing a combination of those two is causing your problems.

I would recomend removing the P remover or reading some threads on it's use use by people that continue to use it and studying their methods(very thorough rinsing, small amount used etc...)
I would also recommend slowing down until you figure out what's going on. When you are able to keep a couple of Acros healthy with no problems for a few months I think it would be safe to add some more, preferably tank raised to start with. After the tank change of course....very nice tank BTW

hth, Chris

 

[murphreef]

thanks for the info

i removed the phosphate remover media from the fluval that could possibly be a problem coupled with the wild colonies

i dont have a sump to place some macro algae in so i was running the PO4 remover instead ...

i have a frag of a blue tipped acro that i got that was tank raised its done very well and is still doing good.... then i also have a frag of something else and its doing fine its mainly the wild ones im guessing that are being affected....

i havent added any new corals fore a while all was doing well and i wont add anymore until i fix the problem and see these start to get better

im guna have the next tank set up right so it should be fine and ill wait till add more sps after it looks good... just puzzling cuz everything else is doing fine

 

[fishdoc11]

FWIW you shouldn't need the P remover with a good skimmer
I wouldn't doubt at all that your losses could be attributable to just the colonies being wild and possibly the source/stress incured during shipping etc....IMO avoiding the P remover is still a good idea if you can.
Sounds like you have it under control. Good luck with the new setup and be sure to post some pics when you get it running
Chris

 

[murphreef]

thanks alot i will deffinately post some pics

the new tank im using an asm g4 skimmer with the sedra 9000 pump so i think that should be able to handle all the needs well

what do u think??

but i cant wait to get it up and running and switch everything over its guna be one fun project thought thats for sure

so how can i stop the acros from getting worse just kinda wait and see game right now since it seems like all my parameters seem ok thats theres nothing i can really do

i removed the PO4 remover and yeah the skimmer is a POS its just a HOB prizm deluxe it works decently but im sure it could do better

 

[jiggy]

u need more flow.. u only have 30x in a 100g.. i have almost 80x in a 120 and i think i need more

 

[fishdoc11]

Sorry I missed you posted again.

I haven't used an ASM but from what I have read that sounds fine to me. I'm guessing it's the G4x not the standard G4 with that pump.

Waiting and giving them good water conditions is about all you can do for the Acros.

I made the mistake of buying one of those Prsim deluxe skimmers too

IMO 30x's should be fine for now, depending on how you use it of course. When the tank matures and colonies grow out you might find out you need more. You might find you need more before that. It really depends on each individual tank

Chris

 

[spykes]

do you happen to have any mag drives in your tank? or a pump that has stainless steal parts? i had many friends who had this problem, one day suddenly everything was STNing and sliming on them. You should check your CU (copper).