My first attempt at SPS...FAILURE! High alkalinity or PO4 kill them that fast?

[Texastravis]

Well got my 300 DT up and running. Yes I sadly had to use tap water to get it going and I used instant ocean as the salt.

MY parameters are:

Ca = 420 ppm (elos)
dKH = 12.0 (salifert)
Mg = 1200 (salifert)
PO4 = .40 (hanna)

Lighting = (3) 250Watt 20k Radiums in Lumenbrites
Flow= 4 K8s on a Hydor wavemaker/controller

Got some Zoas in there from older tank and they seem to be doing fine so I decided to try out some SPS. I knew my PO4 was too high since I used tap water BUT didnt think PO4 would kill them off immediately and I had some GFO coming in the mail.

Put green slimer frag and orange monti in a week ago, both of them started bleaching after 2 days and both completely bleached at 4-5th day.

Will high PO4 kill them off that quick?? Or is my alkalinity too high? I read that a lot of people have better results with a lower alkalinity of around 8-9. If thats the case how do I lower alkalinity? Will adding calcium to the water lower the alkalinity since the Ca levels will be increasing?

Thanks!

 

[Texastravis]

Tank pics

Oh and I have since added GFO reactor as well as hooking up RO unit tomorrow for all my top off water.

 

[drdoolittle]

Just curiosity, how long was the tank running before you added the SPS?

 

[Grant W]

Have you cycled the tank and have you tested for everything else? It looks brand new also the back walls if they are prefab will be leaching some nasty stuff for a while. could use more info before I can give much advice.

 

[Texastravis]

Been running about 2 months cycle period, already went through its diatom. All other parameters good. Back wall is sealed back foam so shouldnt be leaching.

 

[Texastravis]

The pics are from when it was first set up. Now it has a spider webby film of brownish algae.

 

[drdoolittle]

i would wait until you start to see some coraline algae to grow on the rocks until i put in sps. unlike softies or some lps, sps are much more sensitive to water quality/stability.

 

[clowndude]

I'm curious what kind of water you are running? With a GFO reactor running shouldn't your po4 be a lot lower? Both your alk and po4 are high. I would get those under control before adding more sps. Also what are your nitrates? I have a feeling they are high if your po4 are that high.

What is your current bioload in the tank? (Fish)
What is your feeding schedule like?
Have you tested your water you are using for the tank for p04?

 

[Texastravis]

I'm curious what kind of water you are running? With a GFO reactor running shouldn't your po4 be a lot lower? Both your alk and po4 are high. I would get those under control before adding more sps. Also what are your nitrates? I have a feeling they are high if your po4 are that high.

What is your current bioload in the tank? (Fish)
What is your feeding schedule like?
Have you tested your water you are using for the tank for p04?

Its a new tank, just tested nitrate and as expected 0. The PO4 is what I measured it to be when I had the SPS in there, yesterday I added my GFO reactor and changed top off water to RO water so now my PO4 should go down. As said, the reason it was so high was because of using tap water to fill the tank initially.

Bioload is just 2 fish and 4 turbo snails in a big-o 400 gallon system so no problems there. Big-o skimmer running too and its been pulling out a bit of stuff.

 

[Texastravis]

Also tested ammonia, as expected 0. pH is 8.1 and temperature has been fluctuating from 77 to 81 from night to day. I know this probably isnt the best temp but I dont have a chiller and I dont think this would cause them to bleach so fast.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

jmo

jmo

without getting into a lengthy post I suggest growing corallines before attmpting SPS

 

[tynman]

Tap water will do it alone to sps but your ALK is a little high I run my tank between 8 to 10 but its normally at 9.3. When I test my phos and I see .11 on my hanna meter I change the phos remover so .40 would be a little on the high side. But all 3 things can kill sps. I run a 90% sps tank.
Good luck.

 

[Texastravis]

Thanks for the posts. How do I get alkalinity down? I filled the tank with instant ocean so I am guessing instant ocean has a high alkalinity.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Ca = 420 ppm (elos)
dKH = 12.0 (salifert)
Mg = 1200 (salifert)
PO4 = .40 (hanna

this isn't what killed your SPS

 

[wickedfish]

Cross check your alk result with a Different brand. Something in your tank is off and it's not what you posted. If it were the phosphates the corals would have turned brown then maybe died but not likely. What did you use to glue that wall up? What is your lighting? And what is your photoperiod?

 

[clowndude]

Just out of curiosity, I don't see any liverock in your tank. Or at least any with coralline on it. I think like Gary said, once you get your coralline going plus getting your phosphates in check you probably will be more in line of keeping sps, but I wouldn't add anymore till your get your phosphates fixed.

What part of Texas do you live in because I know San Antonio has a high alk out of the tap due to the hard water we have here. I think a few water changes will help with RO also. I would test your salt mix with RO and see what kind of readings you are getting. Instant ocean is normally one of the lower salts so it shouldn't be mixing that high of a ALK, but mixed with tap it probably can. I know mine mix which consists of RO and Brightwell salt mixes right around 10 on Alk.

Hope this helps.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I don't see any liverock in your tank. Or at least any with coralline on it.

place a piece of real liverock (ie: one full of life including corallines) in this aquarium ASAP

 

[Fish4Me2]

How did you go about cycling it? As others have noted, the pictures make it look a bit sterile still, which probably won't be the best/most stable environment for coral.

 

[Texastravis]

Yeah I added some zoas that are on live rock to the tank a couple weeks ago so hopefully the "live" will spread. The zoas are actually doing pretty well.

The foam wall was done per what other people on reefcentral have done so I know that isnt leaching anything.

Lighting is run 8 hours and as said before is (3) 250W 20k Radiums

Im kinda depressed that yall are saying that the PO4 wouldnt kill them that fast. I was hoping that was the problem since thats an easy fix. PO4 dropped from .4 to .2 in 24 hours so tomorrow I suspect it will be close to undetectable.

Im going to setup the carbon reactor. I have been to our local WTP and they dont have any advanced treatment such as activated carbon so there might be some trace elements in my tap water like phenol or some other harmful chemical. Hopefully carbon might fix any problems with stuff I put in my tank.

I knew better than to use tap water....Just never had any problems with it before..plus 400 gallons of RO is quite a bit of water.

 

[Texastravis]

Fluoride have any harmful effects on corals? Seems weird that my zoas are doing fine while the SPS died immediately. Also, I put a huge spaghetti leather in the tank same time as zoas and it died off pretty dang fast too....not sure why but I am guessing same reason the SPS did.

Again, zoas are doing fine and so are the few fish I put in recently.