Mariculture receeding

P

Psionicdragon

New member
Hello,

I recently started to do SPS again and not sure what is going on with the mariculture sps.

The spec are as follows:

Nitrate 0
Phosphate 0
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0

Calcium 460
DKH 14 (its a bit high)
Sality 1.024
Temp 80


So the sps are receeding from the base and with no PE. One of them has stn in the center.

There aren't much swings or any swings from what I can see, but I am not sure whats going on.

Thanks
 
It's your Alk, if it's STN then it'll happen.

Lower it by using Kalkwasser, to maybe 10, then gradually to where you want it.

As a safe approach, it's alk that typically causes the STN.
When it's RTN, it can be a combination of High Lighting too fast ( Bleaching ) or high alk.
 
Nitrates at 20 is really high.

A small trace of it, around .1 - .5 is more than enough for SPS to feed on.
I hope you mean, .2 and not 20.

Reduce nitrates doing a water change, or with a media reactor.

Sounds like you have a heavy bio-load which is the leading cause of heavy imports and light exports.
 
Combination of high alk, nitrate, and phosphate. Hardly ideal conditions. Is the tank fairly new as well?
 
Maricultured coral are very delicate, they are pretty much wild corals so they require prestine water conditions. Like Darryl mentioned the combination of high Alk, nitrates and phophates are probably stressing the coral.
 
Thanks for the response everyone :)

This is the last tank that I have set up for a year now. I haven't dosed anything for this tank in months, but not sure why the Alk is so high.

Nitrate is at 20ppm. 2 days ago, it was at 0 along with Phosphate. I think its because I dosed oysterfeast and it caused a spike.

I did a 15 gallon water change. Its basically a 100gal Hexagon set up. So it is the combination of the three then?
 
hm, api test kits aren't reliable....

Apparently my calcium is at 380...will adding calcium to correct the alk problem stress out th ecoral even more?
 
CA and Mag along won't affect corals much.
In conjunction to other parameters that are offset will cause that.

It's your oysterfeast, did you use a cube or just a few drops?
A little bit of that goes a very long way.
What ever isn't consumed, usually causes those nitrate and phosphate spikes.

Personally, I only use Oyster and Rotifeast, the day before or the day of my water change. Feed during the morning when the polyps are extended, water change by late evening. Sleep in peace with no problems to worry about.
 
phishsauce said:
CA and Mag along won't affect corals much.
In conjunction to other parameters that are offset will cause that.

It's your oysterfeast, did you use a cube or just a few drops?
A little bit of that goes a very long way.
What ever isn't consumed, usually causes those nitrate and phosphate spikes.

Personally, I only use Oyster and Rotifeast, the day before or the day of my water change. Feed during the morning when the polyps are extended, water change by late evening. Sleep in peace with no problems to worry about.
Click to expand...

THanks, i didn't think about that.

I just spent 12 hours lowering my alk to 10 and raising my calcium from 380 to 450. Hopefully things will balance out now...didn't know my tank was so out of wack..
 
Also, as I'm sure you know, make sure they have good random flow. If the water can't carry away the coral waste effectively, it'll cause tissue to recede as well. If this happens, you typically see the receding in the middle of the coral, where the growth is tight.

As others have mentioned, the chemistry is a big issue, and you need to make sure you have it in check and stable (Alk especially needs to be stable). But, good chemistry won't eliminate a flow issue.

As with every trouble shooting circumstance, make adjustments on the simplest probable causes, first. Then watch the effect. Your tank will tell you when you're on the right track, but this requires patience. If you just make a bunch of changes, there's a good chance you'll end up chasing your tail...fin. Waka waka!
 
Seems odd your dkh is 14 if you didn't add any supplements. If you plan on doing SPS get yourself a better test kit. I switched to red sea pro and have been happy. API didn't seem very accurate. When I first started sps I wiped them all out by trying to raise my alk because of a bad API test kit. It was reading low when my dkh actually went all the way to 19. Maricultured colonies are not the way to start sps, they are very tough to keep IMO.
 
crawlerman said:
Seems odd your dkh is 14 if you didn't add any supplements. If you plan on doing SPS get yourself a better test kit. I switched to red sea pro and have been happy. API didn't seem very accurate. When I first started sps I wiped them all out by trying to raise my alk because of a bad API test kit. It was reading low when my dkh actually went all the way to 19. Maricultured colonies are not the way to start sps, they are very tough to keep IMO.
Click to expand...

I agree, I need to look for my Salifert test kits.
 
Psionicdragon said:
Well after raising my calcium, the PE are back out. DKH was at 10, but now its at 12 :(

I am confused.
Click to expand...

What did you use to raise your calcium? Some Ca+ supplements have carbonates in the mix; these are used to raise Ca+ and KH, simultaneously. Examples of these products are Tropic Marin Bio-Calcium and Kalkwasser.

Even though someone recommended it, Kalkwasser doesn't immediately lower KH. People make this mistake because if you use Kalkwasser for an extended period of time through dripping or an ATO, it will precipitate Phosphates. This will, in turn, allow your corals to utilize your Ca+ more efficiently. If increased Ca+ uptake arises, then it's followed by increased carbonate uptake. This will cause both your Ca+ and KH numbers to drop, which causes you to supplement more for them. But, if your using Kalkwasser in an SPS, most likely it won't keep up with your Alk needs. This sometimes makes people believe that Kalkwasser will directly drop your KH.

I say all of this just in case your dosing Kalkwasser.
 
I was talking to an owner about wild/aquacultured corals at a local fish store. I bought three of them before and they all STN'd over a few months so I was curious. He said most of the people he knows of that have issues with these colonies do not have proper/adequate flow.
 
Wow...I am at a complete lost now...

Based on my Salifert:

Calcium is now at 480ish and Alk is at 14.7....

Guess API is kind of horrible. I was 2 points off though with the API vs Salifert ALK test
 
kaserpick said:
What did you use to raise your calcium? Some Ca+ supplements have carbonates in the mix; these are used to raise Ca+ and KH, simultaneously. Examples of these products are Tropic Marin Bio-Calcium and Kalkwasser.

Even though someone recommended it, Kalkwasser doesn't immediately lower KH. People make this mistake because if you use Kalkwasser for an extended period of time through dripping or an ATO, it will precipitate Phosphates. This will, in turn, allow your corals to utilize your Ca+ more efficiently. If increased Ca+ uptake arises, then it's followed by increased carbonate uptake. This will cause both your Ca+ and KH numbers to drop, which causes you to supplement more for them. But, if your using Kalkwasser in an SPS, most likely it won't keep up with your Alk needs. This sometimes makes people believe that Kalkwasser will directly drop your KH.

I say all of this just in case your dosing Kalkwasser.
Click to expand...


I am not dosing kalkwasser or anything that would affect KH/Calcium. I was dosing Calcium Chloride to raise the calcium level up and to reduce Alk.

I am dumbfounded atm with the situation. Anyone know a way to reduce alk in a tank?
 
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