djkms
Fish Freak
Hello all,
I am currently struggling with my 225 gallon SPS system. It started out with brown corals, now they are brown but bleaching out and I am losing colonies I have had for over 2 years. I will try to be as descriptive as possible with the chain of events with my system, sorry in advance for the long post.
I started out with a 125 gallon mixed reef which was almost 2 years old before I moved and tore it down. Here is a pic before being tore down
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/Dr_digitaL/IMG_3846.jpg
The system was lit by AI SOL blues only for the 2 years it was up. I maintained the following parameters steady:
KH 8-9 / CA 420 / PO4 .02-.04 / NO3 2-5 / PH 8.1-8.3 / Temp 78-80 / 1.026
I was happy with the growth but the color of my SPS just wasn't as great as I wanted so I decided to switch to MH/t5
I have a buddy who owns a maintenance company so he helped me tear down the 125 when I moved (almost a year ago). We got the tank tore down in a couple hours and we rebuilt it in his shop and that's where it sat for a couple months until I settled into my new place. While in his shop the issues began. Honestly, it was rather neglected there. A couple times I was bad about refilling the 2 part containers so there was alk spikes, a couple temp spikes (2-3 degree daily change) and some of my corals were placed in bad spots and didn't get enough flow so they browned. On top of this I also changed out my SOL Blues and had put 3 250w radiums over the tank. I didnt lose any corals during this time but about half of my SPS browned out.
Almost exactly 8 months ago I finally settled into my new house and got the ball rolling on getting the system into the new house. I upgraded the tank to a 225 gallon and added about 75lbs more cured live rock from my buddies shop. We used as much water from the 125 as possible and the new water was matched to the old to minimize shock. The 125 was broken down and put into the 225 within hours. No losses but still a lot of brown corals.
I have kept my parameters stable without fluctuation since the 225 was setup. I maintained the following parameters for about 5 months before changing things up:
KH 8-9 / CA 420 / PO4 .02-.04 / NO3 2-5 / PH 8.1-8.3 / Temp 78-80 / 1.026
(same as the previous system)
After 5 months I got tired of not seeing any change in my browned out corals and also got sick of fighting cyano. My cyano problem wasnt huge but I did have to do a couple days lights out in order to combat it. So my next mission was to bottom out my nutrients in hopes to color up my corals and keep the cyano at bay. So I started to lower my nutrients (I vinegar dose) gradually until they bottomed out and started to dose amino's and trace elements. This was a bad idea because now my brown corals have started to lighten up, still brown and flesh has started to come off the corals. Mostly STN and have so far lost about 10+ corals. While bottoming out the nutrients I also gradually lowered my kH to 7.5ish (I read a great thread here in the advanced section that states lower nutrient systems should have a lower kH while higher nutrient systems should have a higher kH).
Now some corals are doing great, coloring up nice while others just look like poo. I am starting to think that once some corals brown out there is no hope for them coming back. I actually hope that is the case because by "textbook" I think I am doing everything right. The changes I have made to the system have been very gradual and I am just at wits end.
Here is a complete rundown of my system including all equipment, inhabitants, maintenance routine, what I dose, how much I dose, etc:
http://www.aquaticlog.com/aquariums/djkms/5
So now that my browned corals are bleaching I am thinking about bringing my NO3 back up to 5 and po4 to .04 over the next few weeks and fighting cyano again. Thoughts on all this?
btw I feed the tank 3 small "pinches" of NLS pellets through a auto feeder 3 times a day and 2 cubes of mysis soaked in vitachem and selcon a day. I feed Nori as well. Now I am sure some of you will say to not feed as much but for me thats not a option. I like to keep my fish vibrant, healthy and happy and will not starve them. I also have anthias that need multiple feedings.
I am also thinking that maybe my skimmer is just not pulling enough DOC out of my water which is affecting my corals health even though my NO3 and PO4 are in check?
Pictures of my current system can be found on the above link. Here is also a video I did not long ago which shows you how my corals look:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/kOO-eGlMXRE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I constantly look for pests and do not see any. I have a macro lens for my camera and shoot with it all the time and no pests have come up in any pictures that I can tell.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
I am currently struggling with my 225 gallon SPS system. It started out with brown corals, now they are brown but bleaching out and I am losing colonies I have had for over 2 years. I will try to be as descriptive as possible with the chain of events with my system, sorry in advance for the long post.
I started out with a 125 gallon mixed reef which was almost 2 years old before I moved and tore it down. Here is a pic before being tore down
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/Dr_digitaL/IMG_3846.jpg
The system was lit by AI SOL blues only for the 2 years it was up. I maintained the following parameters steady:
KH 8-9 / CA 420 / PO4 .02-.04 / NO3 2-5 / PH 8.1-8.3 / Temp 78-80 / 1.026
I was happy with the growth but the color of my SPS just wasn't as great as I wanted so I decided to switch to MH/t5
I have a buddy who owns a maintenance company so he helped me tear down the 125 when I moved (almost a year ago). We got the tank tore down in a couple hours and we rebuilt it in his shop and that's where it sat for a couple months until I settled into my new place. While in his shop the issues began. Honestly, it was rather neglected there. A couple times I was bad about refilling the 2 part containers so there was alk spikes, a couple temp spikes (2-3 degree daily change) and some of my corals were placed in bad spots and didn't get enough flow so they browned. On top of this I also changed out my SOL Blues and had put 3 250w radiums over the tank. I didnt lose any corals during this time but about half of my SPS browned out.
Almost exactly 8 months ago I finally settled into my new house and got the ball rolling on getting the system into the new house. I upgraded the tank to a 225 gallon and added about 75lbs more cured live rock from my buddies shop. We used as much water from the 125 as possible and the new water was matched to the old to minimize shock. The 125 was broken down and put into the 225 within hours. No losses but still a lot of brown corals.
I have kept my parameters stable without fluctuation since the 225 was setup. I maintained the following parameters for about 5 months before changing things up:
KH 8-9 / CA 420 / PO4 .02-.04 / NO3 2-5 / PH 8.1-8.3 / Temp 78-80 / 1.026
(same as the previous system)
After 5 months I got tired of not seeing any change in my browned out corals and also got sick of fighting cyano. My cyano problem wasnt huge but I did have to do a couple days lights out in order to combat it. So my next mission was to bottom out my nutrients in hopes to color up my corals and keep the cyano at bay. So I started to lower my nutrients (I vinegar dose) gradually until they bottomed out and started to dose amino's and trace elements. This was a bad idea because now my brown corals have started to lighten up, still brown and flesh has started to come off the corals. Mostly STN and have so far lost about 10+ corals. While bottoming out the nutrients I also gradually lowered my kH to 7.5ish (I read a great thread here in the advanced section that states lower nutrient systems should have a lower kH while higher nutrient systems should have a higher kH).
Now some corals are doing great, coloring up nice while others just look like poo. I am starting to think that once some corals brown out there is no hope for them coming back. I actually hope that is the case because by "textbook" I think I am doing everything right. The changes I have made to the system have been very gradual and I am just at wits end.
Here is a complete rundown of my system including all equipment, inhabitants, maintenance routine, what I dose, how much I dose, etc:
http://www.aquaticlog.com/aquariums/djkms/5
So now that my browned corals are bleaching I am thinking about bringing my NO3 back up to 5 and po4 to .04 over the next few weeks and fighting cyano again. Thoughts on all this?
btw I feed the tank 3 small "pinches" of NLS pellets through a auto feeder 3 times a day and 2 cubes of mysis soaked in vitachem and selcon a day. I feed Nori as well. Now I am sure some of you will say to not feed as much but for me thats not a option. I like to keep my fish vibrant, healthy and happy and will not starve them. I also have anthias that need multiple feedings.
I am also thinking that maybe my skimmer is just not pulling enough DOC out of my water which is affecting my corals health even though my NO3 and PO4 are in check?
Pictures of my current system can be found on the above link. Here is also a video I did not long ago which shows you how my corals look:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/kOO-eGlMXRE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I constantly look for pests and do not see any. I have a macro lens for my camera and shoot with it all the time and no pests have come up in any pictures that I can tell.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
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