steventaylor702
New member
Do you alclimate your corals to that intensity?
Keeping SPS is soooo hard and expensive! Thinking about quitting after 2 years.
- Thread starter kurfer
- Start date
Wazzel
New member
Of course I did/do. Not doing so is disaster in the making with LEDs. I do a 30% 2 month acclimation every time I add a coral. I tried more and longer, but found that 30% and 2 months does the trick. Not willing to try less or shorter than that to know it that is still overly cautions.
I run my lights almost totally against most of the common advice and have good results. Makes me think the common advice needs more looking into to see if it is good/valid advice.
Thanks for the reply.
I keep my tank at 35ppt, using 3 refratometer's calibrated via solution and LFS (3 different stores). I really only use the Apex as a tool to measure my change in salinity and rather ignore the actual number (reads 36.8) calibration on that tool is spotty at best. I just like a reference number to see how much it changes after WC and to alert in case of ATO failure.
3 alk test kits...dont keep them long I test pretty much daily so I go through them alot.
SPS stay on top of rocks, acans on sandbed. The one in the shade is actually the worst off.
Lights are:
2 hydra 52 12 inches above water and here are my light settings:
You realize that what you have pictured is for sunrise/sunset/clouds only? These arent your actual light settings throughout the day.
steventaylor702
New member
OK . I just wanted to throw it out there everyone's tank is different
steventaylor702
New member
If you have it on location setting the slider panel on the right is how you adjust your intensity for the day you don't get to choose individual ramp settings when you're in location mode .
power boat jim
Well-known member
I have about 700-1000 bristle worms in the sand/rock so I know nutrients are ok?
...
This to me is an indicator. That is a huge population living in just a few sq feet. I cant imagine the amount of leftover food there has to be to support that big of a population. If you cut it back they may die off leaving a whole different problem. I would look into how much you really need to feed the tank and start reducing the amount. Also siphoning the the sand bed may a good way to get rid of the nutrients and many of the worms that should die off once the detritus reduced. The population will stabilize and control itself after that.
I'd stick to aquatica. The new owner is great.
The previous owner was very abrasive and always made me feel as if I was disturbing him.
nyknicks4412
New member
If all your corals are dying...could there be something in the water you are not testing for that is causing it?
Maybe someone accidentally sprayed an air freshener near the tank or something? Just a thought...
Maybe someone accidentally sprayed an air freshener near the tank or something? Just a thought...
ReefsandGeeks
New member
Quite a long thread so I havne't read all of th comments but heres my 2 cents.
A tank doesn't need to be the most technologicaly advanced/automated system to be successful with SPS. I have a 40 tall mostly SPS with a few zoas, leathers, and a hammer. Equipment includes chineese LED lights on a timer (either on or off, no in between), sumpless with a canister filter (cleaned every other week), a simgle 800gph powerhead carefuly pointed to give good flow to everything in the tank, kalk drip with vinegar for top off/carbon dosing (pressurized gasoline container with an airline hose hotglued to it), and a swing arm hydrometer. I feel like a tank with stable perameters in the right range will handle any coral you want, assuming things like lighting is right, flow is good, and no chemical warfare/copper contaminents/fish nipping at coral...etc.
Reading though it seems most of your perameters are good, so I can see your frustration. If everything tests good, then I'd go to lighting and flow, then if those were good I'd look at chemical contaminents like other corals, or a houshold chemical near the tank. it's amazing how far some windex or frebreeze will float around in the air, even if sprayed right on the surface to be cleaned. Not sure how to remedy that. Huge water changes? lots of GAC? Replace the wife's cleaners with RODI water so she doesn't accidentaly get anyhting near te tank?
I do obsese over my tank though, always tinkering with it every day making sure everything looks good, so I'm able to get away with not having everything so automated. If anything is out of wack, I'd see it pretty quickly and adjust.
I hope you do find what's been causing s many problems with the SPS that you want. After you make changes you could try to find somewhere that has some 5$ SPS frags and throw it in to test the waters. I'd hate to be constantly losing $30+ frags.
A tank doesn't need to be the most technologicaly advanced/automated system to be successful with SPS. I have a 40 tall mostly SPS with a few zoas, leathers, and a hammer. Equipment includes chineese LED lights on a timer (either on or off, no in between), sumpless with a canister filter (cleaned every other week), a simgle 800gph powerhead carefuly pointed to give good flow to everything in the tank, kalk drip with vinegar for top off/carbon dosing (pressurized gasoline container with an airline hose hotglued to it), and a swing arm hydrometer. I feel like a tank with stable perameters in the right range will handle any coral you want, assuming things like lighting is right, flow is good, and no chemical warfare/copper contaminents/fish nipping at coral...etc.
Reading though it seems most of your perameters are good, so I can see your frustration. If everything tests good, then I'd go to lighting and flow, then if those were good I'd look at chemical contaminents like other corals, or a houshold chemical near the tank. it's amazing how far some windex or frebreeze will float around in the air, even if sprayed right on the surface to be cleaned. Not sure how to remedy that. Huge water changes? lots of GAC? Replace the wife's cleaners with RODI water so she doesn't accidentaly get anyhting near te tank?
I do obsese over my tank though, always tinkering with it every day making sure everything looks good, so I'm able to get away with not having everything so automated. If anything is out of wack, I'd see it pretty quickly and adjust.
I hope you do find what's been causing s many problems with the SPS that you want. After you make changes you could try to find somewhere that has some 5$ SPS frags and throw it in to test the waters. I'd hate to be constantly losing $30+ frags.
incorrect, here is my current real time setting:
Matches what my settings are during peak times.
power boat jim
Well-known member
No, For stn if the problem can be corrected,every now and then the coral can recover especially if you can frag it. RTN is nearly always a death sentence no matter what you do.
OnlyCrimson
New member
Without reading too much of this, one of the best things you can do is get back to basics. Good quality water mix and water changes frequently to start. I kept my 60 cube going for about 6 years and yes it was expensive but it was not very difficult. Tanks go through phases that you'll have to deal with, but with time things sort themselves out. Best of luck!
By the time you notice RTN, it's typically taken the colony anyhow, but I get it out as quickly as possible. Frankly, with STN, I usually remove the colony, and frag the healthy parts. SPS can recover/halt STN, but often it takes the entire colony anyhow, just slower .....
simple math, gotta stop rethinking this!
I just noticed something odd with my Apex DOS pump, when cleaning out my sump today and removing my pellets I noticed the motor running, a giant air bubble was brought into the line and while it was running...no alk mix (2 part) was coming out...only the calcium.
This could be why my alk numbers are so low, if i'm doing WC with my red sea pro it's probably jacking up my system. Replaced tubing in Apex, made sure was air tight and now it's working fine. Slowly brought my alk back up to 8.0 from 7.2 and will eventually keep it at 8.5-9.0 to see how my system reacts.
Giving my 2 leathers away to my LFS tomorrow. Will miss them as they filled the tank nicely! But I really want to keep colorful SPS corals!
I just noticed something odd with my Apex DOS pump, when cleaning out my sump today and removing my pellets I noticed the motor running, a giant air bubble was brought into the line and while it was running...no alk mix (2 part) was coming out...only the calcium.
This could be why my alk numbers are so low, if i'm doing WC with my red sea pro it's probably jacking up my system. Replaced tubing in Apex, made sure was air tight and now it's working fine. Slowly brought my alk back up to 8.0 from 7.2 and will eventually keep it at 8.5-9.0 to see how my system reacts.
Giving my 2 leathers away to my LFS tomorrow. Will miss them as they filled the tank nicely! But I really want to keep colorful SPS corals!
lynchmob3000
New member
I would suggest that your Nitrite is too high for that low of phosphate. I resent ly went thru this with a friend's tank. Started dosing thrive bio stimulant and the tank did a 180. He had huge fish and fed alot, and I'm sure missed some water changes. Sps browned rtn stn montis to acros didn't matter, Zoa's melting closing up turning brown. Nems were splitting moving around. I would recommend carbon in a reactor and vodka dosing and maybe a 15 to 20 percent wc. Biopellets are hard to understand so I stay away from them completely.
