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

[powderbluu]

stability is the key. I run my tank with pretty high ALK (11-12), at one point it was much higher and SPS are doing well.

Also, trial and error. I find that there are certain thing you can keep and can't keep in the tank togeter. All my SPS, LPS and softies are doing extremely well, except for leather and acans. Leather dies a few months in my tank and acans don't expand.

Dave

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.

 

[Dustin1300]

I like keeping alk a lot lower than that around 8-9...

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[M007]

1.) dKH is certainly too high. Since you have no alk consumers in your tank it might take some time to drop it into the 8-9 range. I don't believe IO is all that high in dKH so I suspect your kit might be off if you have'nt been supplementing with a reactor or two part.

2.) P04 needs to be under 0.01. 0.2 is still too high.

3.) No live rock - dead tank. If you cycled your tank with little to no LR you never really had a cycle so unless you boosted with zeo or MB7 and fed your tank you have pretty much zip in the bac department.

4.) SPS are out of the picture for you at the moment. I would suggest getting some more basic life forms going first then move on to more demanding SPS.

Love your set up. Look like it has the makings of a nice reef!

 

[stanlalee]

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

this isn't what killed your SPS

I agree. Not that I know what did but I would most likely suspect the sps didn't like the transition from where they came from (most likely a mature stable sps system) to where they ended (new cycled set up with no visual evidence of maturity). lps and softies seem not to care much at all with these same transitions.

I see alot of harping over the dKH. dKH of 12 doesn't do anything harmful in of itself except potentially make some corals grow faster especially if its been stable there and your not running any carbon/bacteria systems (not that I'm even convinced high alk causes burned tips and other associated problems with carbon dosing...too much anedotal data and inconsistancy with who it affects).

 

[saltygeek]

I agree with the others that the sytem is likely too new and that the alk wouldn't be the biggest issue. Im suprised no one asked you where you placed the frags in the tank though. Your running 250 watt MH with lumenbrights which could give a good punch of light if they weren't acclimated well. This would generally take a few days for them to bleach out as well so it could be the lights. In either case I would let the tank stabalize for a few more months and then try another frag, starting it low and slowly bringing it up.

 

[bad badger 1]

hey i think the use of tap water is the simple answer to your problems. Never use tap water in a reef tank (or any fish tank tbh) there is so much stuff in tap water you don’t want in your tank. buy an RO unit and do some big water changes using RO water and only use ro water for water changes and top off water! also did you use live rock or is it all dead rock. It looks like the rest of the set up is great.
Good luck.

 

[Texastravis]

Thanks for all the replies and info. I did place several pieces of "live" rock throughout my tank so hopefully the bacteria will start to spread.

Po4 is still drastically dropping. Im going to add carbon reactor to the system today. Hopefuly my RO unit will come in the mail soon and I will do a couple of water changes with it.

 

[Grant W]

You have heard it all alreary but the main answer is the tank is just too young for sps. I would give it at least a few months if not longer to settle in. Def get the carbon going to remove the nasty stuff from the tap water. If you take your time this will end up a really nice tank but it has to be a stable environment first before you add the sps. Dip everything for pests and do drip acclimation when adding new animals and you should be all set. Grant