Lps acting up... necessary to feed them?

nathan1986

nathan1986

New member
The lps corals in one of my tanks are starting to not open fully (common question asked i know, sorry). All corals have been in the same location, same amout of flow and weekly water change every friday. No new corals added and all corals have been in the tank for about 7 months. Corals acting up are mainly my hammers, frogspawn and octospawn (all branching) there is no noticable tissue loss, they just are not inflating all the way the past few days.

Tank info (try not to bash lol)
-parameters, no idea never tested the water since day 1
-salanity is 1.026
-temp is 79-80
-red sea coral pro salt
-purigen and chemi pure elite in filter basket

Inhabitants
-2 false perc clowns
-4 turban snails
-bunch of stomatella snails
-tons of mini brittle stars
-astrea stars

Bads
-bubble algae (came out of no where 2 weeks ago)
-vermited snails here and there

Tank is a biocube 29 and its about a year old. Stock lights, running 2 blue actnic bulbs. One bulb is the age of the tank and the other is about a month old
 
Forgot to mention i do not target feed my corals. And i feed the clowns pellets. Always read the corals will take the elements out of the saltwater and that target feeding isnt necessary. So the only "food" they have been getting is directly from the elements in the water.
 
I never do in either of my tanks. I dont dose or anything like that. My other tank is 3 years old and only thing tested on it is salanity at every water change.
 
There are quite a few people on this forum that also dont test their water and most of them are keeping sps corals as well. Besides the bubble algae the tank at question has never had any algae besides a dollar bill sized part of the tank that had some cyano during cycling. Purigen and chemi pure elite is changed every 2 months and 5 gallons of water changed religously each friday. I think 2 times the water went 2 weeks before changing and thats when bubble algae got worse. But i solely rely on excellent water quality and consistant salanity. Only thing im unsure on is how old bulbs can go (for lps corals) and if people target feed their lps corals or let the water provide what the corals need.
 
i test at least once every week usually, but i only test for Calc, Alk and mag, as nitrate and phosphate are not something i'm worried about i do weekly 5g waterchanges on a 29g biocube, but i still dose calc, alk and mag even if it's just small amounts right now, and just started dropping 1 drop of skyy vodka once every 2 day's.
 
I don't target feed my corals either and I only have issues like you're describing when my alk gets low. Despite the 5 gallon weekly water changes you may not be getting your core parameters back up to NSW levels (calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium) If you're also having some algae issues I would suspect phosphates could be an issue.

I don't test often but I have kits on hand for when things look off. Also, is your refractometer calibrated?
 
The coral pro salt is not for peeps who don't test, and not for a tank full of lps. Just my opinion, good luck
 
It's designed for the stick crowd, and if you read the labels it will describe that. Also not testing is a no no.
 
I only asked because i had a thread talking about the salt i use and everyone said the pro salt im using is fine. Your the first to mention its not good for lps corals. Thanks for the info tho ill look into it today and see if maybe there is a better but just as good salt alternative out there for lps.
 


I run Red Sea regular and I am sps dominant. These values are just too high as I run a low nutrient system and coral gets real t'd off quick with low nutrients and high params.
 
Ya i see exactly what you are saying tweaked. Wasnt trying to dispute you or anything i just wanted to know why. The peramaters of the pro salt are pretty high. I started using the pro salt way before i had any corals in the tank and never really crossed my mind to research the salt when i started adding the corals. Im all out of pro salt so i think im going to switch from the pro to the sea salt version and lower my salanity to 1.023 instead of 1.026 seeing how i have no sps corals. Only other question i have is the factory pc lighting, how old can the bulbs go before i should change them out. One is almost a year old and the other is fairly new, maybe a month old. The nano section on here is hit and miss sometimes on good informative responses
 
uploadfromtaptalk1429327155635.jpg
Crappy cell phone pic but here is the tank at about 1pm today.
 
If it were me, I would switch to the regular red sea salt and keep the salinity at 1.026/35ppt. That salt tests perfectly for me all the time and has for years. 7.9alk and 400ca on average. My triton tests were also spot on with years of using this salt. GL
 
I don't think your frogspawn & others are not extending because of not being target fed. For me a frogspawn grows quickly utilizing whatever food particles or other organic particles are available.

You should definately test the big 3 IMO. Based on your water volume and age of the corals, they could be going into growth phase and using lots of Alk & Ca. Even with a brand like RSCP your usage could be exceeding the amount you replenish. I've been using that salt for several years and when I bought a real test kit at year 2, I was astonished at how depleted my big 3 parameters were. That's when I began 2 part dosing via pumps.

I have no way of knowing if that's the cause of your issue - sometimes corals deflate for a few days for no apparent reason. But low ALK-Ca-Mg parameters is worth looking into IMO. Good luck.
 
Thanks reef frog for the info. Im strongly considering getting hanna checkers (or any testers of good quality and accuracy) to test alk, ca and mg. Just for instances like this that im having
 
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