Monti's grow like crazy, Acro's die??

[dragonladylea]

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Ok, my Monti's, Echino's, Danae and Paly's grow like crazy, my zoos don't grow or grow super slow and as far as keeping Acro's forget it other than the pink digi frag I have. My green slimer is bleaching from the bottom up. Using 14K 175w MH and all the water parameters are great except for the nitrates at about 15. What am I doing wrong??

 

[rleechb]

i'd get those nitrates down to 0. Also, a digi is a monti, not an acro.

 

[dragonladylea]

So the nitrates is the only reason I cant keep Acro??

 

[faddn1]

do you have good water movement?

 

[rleechb]

acros are very particular about their water quality. yes, 15ppm of nitrates is an issue.

 

[dragonladylea]

Water flow is good. Here is a pic of the Slimer the first week, now its bleaching from the bottom. Only problems I have had with anything of the other SPS was a "browning" so I switched to the 14k, but that was before I added the Slimer.

 

[getwood65]

thats not bleaching if it starts by the base - most likely stn

 

[dragonladylea]

thats not bleaching if it starts by the base - most likely stn

I'm new at SPS what is stn??

 

[getwood65]

slow tissue necrosis

 

[getwood65]

it just seems strange for it to bleach from the bottom-can you see the coral flesh where it looks like it is bleaching?does it look like it is peeling or flaking off of the coral?

 

[dragonladylea]

No flaking or peeling that I can see and the polyps are still coming out on the rest of the branch. my purple did the same thing slow bleaching from the bottom - up. Could this be damage from when these were fragged?

 

[RichConley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7793874#post7793874 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rleechb
acros are very particular about their water quality. yes, 15ppm of nitrates is an issue.

No, no they arent. Nitrates dont bother acros. Phosphates do. If hes got 15ppm though, hes probably got phosphates.


High nitrates will just brown out acros.

THe recession from the base sounds like Alkalinity issues.

 

[twon8]

i agree with rich, check your alkalinity.

 

[dragonladylea]

Param's

460 calcium
1400 mag
9 dk
8.3 ph
15 nitrates

P.S. I'm a she!!

 

[gemxsps]

Alk is fine.. Calcium is little bit high but not issue.
I think you have to reduce nitrates.
Less feeding and water change helps reducing nitrates.

 

[Dom_P]

I'd check PO4 too as noted above...

 

[RichConley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7794478#post7794478 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dragonladylea
Param's

460 calcium
1400 mag
9 dk
8.3 ph
15 nitrates

P.S. I'm a she!!

what salt are you using? I think seachem (or kent) is using a huge amount of boron to buffer, and that'll artificially inflate your ALK.

 

[dragonladylea]

Use I/O salt and I'm pretty sure that my phosphates are now pretty much non existant. (had a problem a few months ago and started using Rwophos) had the Purple Acro at that time but didnt get the Slimer until after the phosphate problem was corrected. I will have to get another test kit and test for it to be 100% sure.

 

[getwood65]

your parameters seem fine-you can get a ballpark figure on your phosphates with a salifert test kit,but unless your willing to part with a lotta cash only experience will tell you if you have high levels.seeing that your alk is ok i'm guessing(stress the word guessing)that your water flow is not good enough-without proper flow sps,especially acropora can start to die off in the areas not getting the flow,which is alot of the time the base area or between the branches.you can get seio's fairly cheap if your on a budget-they do a good job with wide flow providing you regularly clean them.

 

[dragonladylea]

Right now I'm running a maxijet 400 and a rio 600. Also running a maxijet 1200 with the skimmer. Just bought a rio 1100 to switch for the maxijet 400 but havent put it in yet. Should I have more??