Need help with browning sps

[harmonyexotics]

Hi guys.

My tank is a standard 30 gallon (36x12x17) that has been setup and running for around 5 months now. I only currently have 5 small frags in the tank. One small eagle eye zoa frag, a green mushroom, a Green Slimer, orange monti cap and a Ponape birdsnest. The softies are fine, but about a week after I put the 2 sps frags in they slowly turned brown. Theyve been in the tank 2 months or so. The montipora is fairly new and its still a nice orange...but slightly faded.

The sump consists of a filter sock, Bubble Magus Curve 5 skimmer, ~6 gallon fuge with macro and LR, and a Mag 9.5 return pump. I have a wp25 in the tank for flow along with 2 returns from the sump. I also run carbon and gfo in a BRS dual reactor.

The tank is lit by a Hydra 52 suspended about 12" off the water. All colors are at 80% except the White, Red, and Green which I keep on 15%. Sunrise is at 12pm with a 4hr ramp up. Sunset is at 7pm with a 4hr ramp down. So the tank is lit from 12pm-11pm with 3 hrs being full intensity. Originally they only went to 60% but a local sps keeper told me that wasnt enough light.

Tank maintenance consists of 5G weekly wc with IO. Filter sock is washed weekly. Salinity is kept stable by an ato. I also keep kalk in the top off water.

Parameters seem to be ok.
Nitrate - 0
Phosphate - 0
Alk - 9.5
Cal - 420
Mag -1350

I did recently start dosing Aquavitro Fuel 2 weeks ago but see no change good or bad.

3 fish in the tank. I feed every day a small amount.

Im thinking maybe if I go to twice monthly wcs to raise the nitrate some that may help. But I want others advice. Thanks in advance guys!

 

[harmonyexotics]

I have been using an API test kit ....and I have my doubts about it's accuracy. I will order Red Sea kits soon. Forgot to mention the Salinity is 1.026 on my refractometer

 

[PaleHorse]

i would guess the light but without par meter hard to tell. if i had a browning sps i would say its the light. Raise the intensity of the lights slowly. 12" abouve the water is safe to turn the lights up.

 

[harmonyexotics]

Ive been upping them 1% a day. Id like to get the blues close to 100% and the whites to around 40. This is "supposed" to be an sps dominant tank, but if I dont pinpoint the issue soon I'll go another route.

 

[harmonyexotics]

As far as the monti being pale though, and not brown, what does that suggest to you? Starving coral?

 

[PaleHorse]

can you post a pic. your coral are not starving. you have fish and lps. im sure there is plenty.

i would lean towards the light. were you having problems before? are you running the gfo and carbon for any particular reason?

 

[PaleHorse]

Also try to get your light ratio equal.

 

[harmonyexotics]

I had an algae problem. I dont think very highly of the API po4 test. It always read zero. But I knew the algae was coming from something. So I started GFO. The algae went away. The only pics I have of the tank arent great. I dont have a good camera, and with my phone, the leds jusy make everything look bluish purple. Doesnt show the actual colors of the corals.

 

[harmonyexotics]

The nitrate always reads zero as well. Would going longer between water changes help anything? Instead of 5G weekly, maybe every 2 weeks? Guess I can skip a week and then just test and see what changes. Several people have told me nitrate around 3 to 4 ppm actually helped color up sps

 

[swhobbie1]

I have a setup similar to yours. I have a 40g, 36Lx15Hx16D, Hydra 52 14" off the water, Eschopps PSK 75, GFO reactor. You may want to check out different settings people use for the Hydra 52 on your tank.

This is the current (peak) setting on my Hydra 52. Its still in acclimation mode - set to go to up a little more but is close to the max % I input. This % are what AI recommended for my tank. I have been careful to use acclimation 50% over 6-8 weeks and so far the dozen or so SPS I put in there are doing ok. I did have two pavona's that were doing great then suddenly took a turn for the worse and bleached. You may want to try changing your lights some but go slow with it. I noticed recently when I increased the UV slightly that some corals have new colors (eg. red planet which was green has red tips now.)



So far the colors are looking ok. Here is one coral I got and was brown. Has turned green. Have no idea what it is but looks like it is liking where it is now.

 

[swhobbie1]

Also .. peak is 8 hours for all colors except R (4 hours) and UV (peak 2 hours).

 

[harmonyexotics]

So you did a custom timer for each color right? I just have the simple timer setup. On at 12. 4 hr ramp. 3 hrs max setting. 4 hr ramp down.

White 20%
Violet 80%
Red 20%
Green 20%
Deep Blue 80%
Royal Blue 80%
UV 80%

Is this too intense maybe? Or not enough?

 

[swhobbie1]

I'm thinking the W is too low and the UV too high .. but I am no expert.

I read through a lot of links and this is what I setup. These % were recom to me by AI for my tank for SPS - except UV I up'd from 15% to 25%.

Yeh… This is what I setup. I left the R low because some said it can cause algae. I also have been keeping the UV low because some said it can bleach corals if you push it too high to fast.

My lights are still in acclimation mode but close to the max (below) i input. I also setup clouds 15% prob, 10% reduction and Lunar from 230am - 5:00am

Light comes on 1:00pm.
> ramps up until 4:00pm to reach this % … until midnight, 8hr
UV 15%
V 60%
DB 70%
RB 60%
G 20%
R 0%
CW 45%

> ramps up 4:00pm until 8:00pm
R 15% … until midnight, 4hr

> ramps up 5:00pm until 6:00pm
UV 25% .. until 8:00pm, then ramp down to 15% at 9:00pm - thru midnight

> ramp down midnight to 12:10am to 0%
all colors but DB, RB

> moonlight, ramp down midnight thru 1:30am to 5%, stay at 5% until 5am then 0%
DB
RB

 

[harmonyexotics]

Thats some schedule. Lol. Ill cut my UV way back and slowly up the white over a period of a few weeks and see what happens

 

[ChrisKirkland]

I would raise the nutrient presence in the tank if your nitrate and phosphate is truly at 0. In my experience a ULNS will cause this. I would try to keep my nitrate at .5 -1 and PO4 at .03-.05.

 

[ChrisKirkland]

AcroPower is also said to help this, I dose this weekly.

 

[harmonyexotics]

Thanks. May try Acropower soon if I dont see results from the Aquavitro Fuel.

 

[harmonyexotics]

As far as test kits. I want to ditch the API. I think about all its good for was the cycle. Do you guys prefer Red Sea or Salifert tests?

 

[cdmurphy]

I prefer the Red Sea test kits over the Salifert kits. I find the Red Sea kits easier to use but as far as accuracy goes I'm not sure which one is better than the other.

 

[ChrisKirkland]

As far as test kits. I want to ditch the API. I think about all its good for was the cycle. Do you guys prefer Red Sea or Salifert tests?

I use red sea pro kits. They are titration and I like that they are pretty accurate and easy to use.