Looking For Suggestions Moving Forward

[whiteshark]

Hey guys! I'm about 6 months into my shallow 30 gallon SPS reef. I have several frags that are doing well, nice PE, good color, some growth. I do believe in the "if it aint broke don't fix it" philosophy, but I know to get the max coloration and growth moving forward, my current routine may be insufficient. So I'd like some input from those who have a long history in keeping the stunning pieces I see on this site.

So here is the current routine: Brightwell Zooplanktos-M a few times a week and bi-weekly 10-15 gallon water changes. That's it. Other than that I just clean the glass which rarely gets any algae. I have a Bubble Magus doser ready but I haven't gotten to the point where water changes aren't replenishing Ca, Alk and Mag enough. Not sure if I ever will get to that point, but I'm ready if I do.

Current parameters:

Ca - 415ppm
Alk - 7dKH
Mag - 1300ppm
Phosphate - 0ppm
Nitrate - 0ppm
pH - Stable daily cycle between 8.2 at night and 8.35 during the day
Temp. - Between 78 and 79, Apex controlled

Lighting is an AI Vega and 4 T5's. 2 ATI Coral plus, a Blue plus and a Purple plus. The following is a pic of the AI lighting schedule:



The T5's come on at about noon for 3 hours. The entire lighting fixture is hung about 18 inches off the water. Keep in mind this tank is only 12 inches deep.

There are two fish in the tank currently. A Tanakas pygmy wrasse, which has been there from the start, and a Midas blenny I just added.

The equipment I use is list in my sig. The 3 MP10's are set to about 40% reefcrest. It's a pretty erratic flow pattern.

If anyone would like to give me any tips going forward I would really appreciate it. I feel like some of the corals have a bit more color to give, and that growth could be a bit better, but maybe I'm just thinking wishfully. Thanks for reading!

 

[whiteshark]

I suppose it's only fair to add some pics:

This was taken August 24th:



And this is from yesterday:



So that's pretty damn good. But then there is this:

Garf bonsai with good PE, but losing color:



A slimer that has lost some color since this pic, and the acro next to it which has receded:




And this milli which has seen better days despite putting on some new growth:



They seem to be growing for the most part, but the colors have left a bit to be desired. Some haven't really grown either. I guess the point is that it's not bad, but looking for tips to make it a bit better.

 

[markalot]

I don't see any algae, the recession looks amazingly clean. Did you clean it, or is your tank that clean? You see where I'm going with this? I'm having some of my own issues, but pale and colorless corals, for me, has always been lack of food in the water column. I add food, like Reef Roids, I get better color and growth, then PO4 and Nitrates become the issue. It's a great balancing act and shows the need for good export.

IMO, with limited experience.

 

[whiteshark]

You're definitely right. It's too clean and I've had that issue. I have to let the tank go untouched for weeks just to feed the few astrea snails. I've backed off GFO, but with only two fish there doesn't seem to be enough nutrient contribution. I'd like to increase it without go overboard.

I'm going to go see if an LFS has some reef roids. Like I mentioned, I add that zooplanktons - M once or twice a week, but that's it as far as coral food goes.

 

[MisterP]

IME... With such a small tank ( I have a 20g) doing that large of a water change strips nutrients even further. I would fire up the doser to help maintain your levels of alk, calc, mag. Then , I would watch for N and P to creep up a little say 2-5ppm for N and 0.1 for P then I would do a 20% water change, for you would be ~6 gal. I've only been doing a 20% water change monthly.

I only have 3 fish so even feeding heavy doesn't really allow nutrients to climb if you see where I'm going with this. I'm only dosing 10mL of Alk and 3mL of Calc daily and occasionly (2-3 weeks) adding 20 mL of mag.

Then after you can effectively balance nutrients worry about lighting, flow, etc. to improve colors. Also, I would think your numbers would drift (calc, alk, mag) between water changes or it may be that nothing is growing and using them up. I say this because a doser will allow levels to remain pretty rock solid with 2-3 times weekly testing of alk and calc until you get it dialed.

 

[whiteshark]

IME... With such a small tank ( I have a 20g) doing that large of a water change strips nutrients even further. I would fire up the doser to help maintain your levels of alk, calc, mag. Then , I would watch for N and P to creep up a little say 2-5ppm for N and 0.1 for P then I would do a 20% water change, for you would be ~6 gal. I've only been doing a 20% water change monthly.

I only have 3 fish so even feeding heavy doesn't really allow nutrients to climb if you see where I'm going with this. I'm only dosing 10mL of Alk and 3mL of Calc daily and occasionly (2-3 weeks) adding 20 mL of mag.

Then after you can effectively balance nutrients worry about lighting, flow, etc. to improve colors. Also, I would think your numbers would drift (calc, alk, mag) between water changes or it may be that nothing is growing and using them up. I say this because a doser will allow levels to remain pretty rock solid with 2-3 times weekly testing of alk and calc until you get it dialed.

Thanks for your input! I do the water changes to replenish micronutrients, but it certainly strips PO4 and NO3 in the process. You're probably right about the other parameters changing a bit from the relatively large water changes, though my before and after test results generally yield similar results (Ca, Alk, Mag). Might just be because the frags are small still and not using much, but getting the doser going makes sense if for nothing else than to get the hang of using it.

Let me ask though, would it make sense to let the nutrients creep up a bit and in the mean time just use kalk to keep the other params stable? I figured I might need the doser someday if the corals all get very large and really start sucking up a lot of the big 3, but I wonder if kalk will hold it stable while they are small? My worry is possibly overdosing alk while the frags are still small. I would imagine it would be more difficult to OD on alk as the corals grow and are using up much more of it.

 

[MisterP]

Kalk will definitely be just as good as 2 part so just use your Doser to add kalk. There are plenty of calculators online to give you equavilent dosages to raise or maintain certain levels. IME as long as you use a good salt mix doing water changes doesn't seem to make much of a difference for the sort of ancillary elements, outside the big 3 (all,calc,mag). Water changes are more for nutrient export, IME. I've gone as long as 2 months as long as salinity, alk, mag,calc, N and P are in order. I wouldn't sweat things like Strontium, Iodine,etc. They make up such a negligble portion of the whole.

If nothing else continue feeding just turn off your skimmer for a day or two. I really think you just need to find the balance of import/export. It'll just take time.

 

[LawmanRob]

Kalk will definitely be just as good as 2 part so just use your Doser to add kalk. There are plenty of calculators online to give you equavilent dosages to raise or maintain certain levels. IME as long as you use a good salt mix doing water changes doesn't seem to make much of a difference for the sort of ancillary elements, outside the big 3 (all,calc,mag). Water changes are more for nutrient export, IME. I've gone as long as 2 months as long as salinity, alk, mag,calc, N and P are in order. I wouldn't sweat things like Strontium, Iodine,etc. They make up such a negligble portion of the whole.

If nothing else continue feeding just turn off your skimmer for a day or two. I really think you just need to find the balance of import/export. It'll just take time.

^^^^^
Very good advice.

 

[whiteshark]

Many thanks! I've decided to fire up the doser because I was going to have to learn how to use it eventually. From what I see, though, I can only set it to do a daily dose of some quantity. I can't, for instance, tell it to dose every other day. I see this being a problem if the tank needs less than 1 ml per day of a supplement. If that happens to be the case I can manually dose until consumption increases or dilute the supplement. In any case, I'm going to back off the water changes a bit, monitor Ca, Alk and Magnesium consumption, dose accordingly, and keep a close eye on PO4 and NO3. If PO4 and NO3 don't increase from backing off water changes, I'll turn the skimmer off for a bit. Once I get all three where I want them and stabilized, I'll start looking into lighting, placement, flow, etc.

Thanks again! The information/advice is a big help!

 

[whiteshark]

FWIW, after just a few days of dialing back GFO and that poop machine blenny being added, a couple corals are starting to show slightly better colors. Also in the process of bumping up alk a bit as it is lower than I had thought. Way too early to consider anything a success, but it's a decent start. Thanks again for the suggestions!

 

[lynchmob3000]

What's your sg?

 

[whiteshark]

1.026. Measured with a refractometer calibrated with calibration solution. I always check it in sunlight.

 

[rovster]

This is just my opinion. Before my current upgrade, I was running a 30 gallon standard as a temp holding tank for my corals but it became a pretty nice display. My SPS had what I would consider very good (some locals thought amazing) colors and polyp extension. This tank had no sump, just a HOB filter and HOB skimmer and a nano GFO reactor.

At first I only had fish in there. Everything was pale and starved. By the end, I had 12 fish (albeit small) and colors were rich and deep. I went a little overboard with the fish, I ended up having to carbon dose to keep things in check. This tank ran for well over a year and grew a lot of my frags into mini-colonies for my new tank.


What I would do if I were in your shoes:
1. Add more fish. Maybe shoot for 5-6 small ones and go from there. Go for more if you like, but keep them small and peaceful. Feed them what they need to get fat, that's it.
2. Increase your T5 to 5-6hrs a day.
3. Watch as your SPS get deep color and grow faster

Seriously though, I think the best way to get these sticks to color up is to have massive import of nutients, and slightly more massive export to keep the water clean. Sounds counterproductive I know. But with the more import, corals have more stuff in the water available to them at all times. Hope this helps....

 

[whiteshark]

All information is helpful and I appreciate it. Especially when it comes from a place of experience. Thanks rovster!

 

[rovster]

Oops, meant to say I started with only 3 fish

 

[NeverlosT]

backing off on GFO will go a long way. GFO in high doses can affect your alk levels in addition to stripping your tank of nutrients. Too much carbon can also lead to stripping everything out of the water column.

I'd check your lighting levels, use the BRS calculator to figure out how much GFO and Carbon you really need, and consider that their calculator is for a fully stocked tank.

It is a funny thing, but some people struggle with SPS coming at it from the dirty tank end, and others struggle when things are too clean. there is a middle ground that often comes with aging the tank a bit.

Good luck!

 

[whiteshark]

I didn't know gfo could affect alk. It reduces it I assume yes? What is the specific chemical reason for it affecting alk?

 

[BradR]

I put sps from a 180 into a 100 gal container filled with the live rock for a year with just a tunze powerhead for flow and 400w 20k radium. Would dump in 5 gallons Kalk saturated water once a week or so and manually pulled out the bubble algae growing. Occasionally fed the clownfish in it. Got the most incredible growth and colors with that setup.
Agree with the recommendation to back off on the skimming. Good luck.

 

[whiteshark]

Might as well post this here. Took a flier on this SPS as the price was right. I don't know what it is, nor did the shop owner who is a very reputable guy. All he could say was that it was an Acro. I know it's small, but can anyone take a stab at an ID?

 

[whiteshark]

Is it normal for corals to slime up after adding reef roids? I wasn't expecting that.