My tank a SPS graveyard?

[tc2007]

I have a 10 month old 93G Cube. Here are my params from last weeks test

CA: 460
Mg: 1260
Alk: 8.9
Phosphate (API Kit from today) : 2.0ppm???? It's so hard to match the color
Nitrate: 0

Flow: 2X Jebao RW-8. On both sides of the corner overflow. Tried different settings.

I have a Radion XR30W on the standard stand, the tank is 24" high. The water is about 1" from the surface.

I have put 6 small SPS frags so far. Mostly at the bottom.

1. Green Stylophora: Placed on top right side, started loosing tissue, so moved it on the bottom middle. STN and dead in 7 days.
2. Birdsnest: Lost 90% of tissue I think. Or at least it is white. Tried top edge and bottom edge of tank.
3. Bird of Paradise: Same as above.
4. Bonsai: Was dark with green polyps. Became pale when moved up. Then moved down now. Looks ok.
5. Hawkins: Mostly white. Not sure if STN or bleached. otherwise pale brown of what's left. Now at bottom.
6. Frogskin: Light green. Was shedding slime(?) a few days ago. Not sure what's the deal with this but looks ok for now.

I have a small Kole tang, large pink anthias, some gobies and 2 medium clowns, Cherub Pygmy, Chalk bass. Feed flake once and frozen cube or LRS reef frenzy once a day. Apart from that, I try to put Reef Nutrition Oyster feast or CyclopEeeze once a week.

I also have a small RBTA and a mini-maxi, small Hammer LPS, 2 small Leather corals, GSP, Xenia etc. Everything else is thriving and doing good. Just the small SPS frags that are not good.


I am not sure if my Phosphates are accurate. Will get a Hanna tester. Which one should I get?

 

[SoloGarth]

pH of 2ppm? Is that a typo?

 

[SoloGarth]

I would be concerned about light shock from radions. What intensity and lighting period are you running?

 

[CoralNerd]

How many inches are the lights from the water? The recommended hight is 9" above the water.
I recently had some bleaching on my stylophora also and I think it's due to ca being high. Yours is also high, I would shoot for max ca at 440. My tank I also ran some carbon that may of created a problem.

 

[tc2007]

pH of 2ppm? Is that a typo?

My test water color is somewhere between 1.0 and 2.0 on this chart.

 

[SoloGarth]

Oh phosphate. pH generally stands for . . . pH haha

 

[tc2007]

How many inches are the lights from the water? The recommended hight is 9" above the water.
I recently had some bleaching on my stylophora also and I think it's due to ca being high. Yours is also high, I would shoot for max ca at 440. My tank I also ran some carbon that may of created a problem.

I measured the distance to be 8.5". It is on the standard Radion stand for the light.

Attached is my light schedule.

 

[tc2007]

I used to run Chemipure and a filter sock. I have removed everything. So basically there is no mechanical or chemical filtration at all. No skimmer too.

 

[tc2007]

Oh phosphate. pH generally stands for . . . pH haha

OOPS sorry. I corrected it to Phosphates.

PH is 8.2

 

[organism]

I would be concerned about light shock from radions. What intensity and lighting period are you running?

I'd be curious about this one as well as salinity.

 

[organism]

I used to run Chemipure and a filter sock. I have removed everything. So basically there is no mechanical or chemical filtration at all. No skimmer too.

How long have you been running it like that? It's weird that you'd have no filtration but zero nitrates...

 

[tc2007]

Chemipure is on and off with the filter sock. Had a Phosphate removal pad for 2 days. The skimmer was offline for 2 days as well. I do have a 8X8X4 ceramic block in the sump that maybe doing it's job too well

 

[tc2007]

I'd be curious about this one as well as salinity.

Salinity is about 1.025
See chart above for my Radion. It's on 35% max intensity at noon.

 

[SoloGarth]

How long of a photoperiod? I run a six hour photoperiod at 81%. Lights are 12" above water surface. Gen 2 radion over 120.

 

[tc2007]

How long of a photoperiod? I run a six hour photoperiod at 81%. Lights are 12" above water surface. Gen 2 radion over 120.

The lights start at 9am and end at 10pm. See above graph.

 

[tc2007]

What could be the source of such high Phosphates? I am putting a pinch of flakes in the morning and 1 cube of frozen food in the afternoons. That's all.

 

[eddiereefs]

Do u rinse the frozen food?

 

[tc2007]

Do u rinse the frozen food?

No. I don't think this is an issue specially with just 1 cube per day. There are many other people who don't do it.

 

[eddiereefs]

Just give that a shot, it's easy and free and a ton of gunk comes out, u need to have really good Params for sps. And ditch the api kits, get Elmo's or red sea

 

[eddiereefs]

ELos