Need some advice, cant keep SPS

[Rodmad]

Nitrates

Nitrates

Run your skimmer for 6 hours a day or only long enough to get a little bit of nitrates in the water column. I aim for 5-10ppm along with dosing strontium and SPS seem to like it. I know this goes against everything most reefs do but when my tank was a running low nutrients like your tests indicate, my purple and blue sps turned brown. Im no expert nor do i claim to be one but I cant deny something that works. Bdw, i also run AI Sol Leds, I have 2 sols and 1 nano over the top of a RSM 250 which sit 4" over the water level and although there is a clear lens cover over my lights (standard thing from RSM) i run 9.5 hours a day and 6 of those i run whites 40% blue 80% and super blues 90%. Bear in mind that corals adjust to your light intensity and loss of coloration is mainly due to nutrients. I also keep my k at 400-410. Good luck!

 

[ridetheducati]

Corals need sunglasses and sunscreen. Turn down the lights.

 

[krazysvede]

Corals need sunglasses and sunscreen. Turn down the lights.

Lol! Thanks, lights have been reduced to 30% and will continue to monitor.

 

[suzig]

Lol! Thanks, lights have been reduced to 30% and will continue to monitor.

the coraline looks good in your tank so ill say its not an issue with water parameters, and the light is probaby not too intense "per se" its more just the corals are not used to that much light. if they do well with lights at 30% for about a month, id bump them up 5% every other week until you get back to that 50% mark. if they can handle it, great. if not, back them down accordingly.

 

[scrambler1880]

Corals need sunglasses and sunscreen. Turn down the lights.

Could be any number of things including tank not stable yet from being too young but I tend to agree that it looks like the corals are getting 'burned' I have a 24" tall 125 that has been running radions for nearly two years (first the G1's and for the last 12 mos the G2 Pros) I had very similar looking issues with any sps that I added until I turned the lights down. I run my pros at 22% ( though they are only 8" off of the water). I tried turning them up to 28% a couple of mos ago and lost a good three shades of darkness in my monti's before deciding to turn them back down

 

[lynchmob3000]

if the lights were too strong it would bleach the coral out.

 

[lynchmob3000]

220 gallon tank looks very bare to be running a calcium reactor

 

[lynchmob3000]

a guy in my area has a 300 gallon 8 ft tank with 16 ai sols running 11 hours a day ramping up to 85 % for most of the time and a low aqua scape like you...

i personally run 2 maxspect razors over my 90 gallon for 12 hours at 10 inches above the water with the blue channel at 100% and the whites at 93%. they ramp up to that and stay for 6 hours and im getting great growth, pe and color. i have a purple tri color on the sandbed to see what will happen first, the corals up top bleach out or the coral down low browns out.. so far neither... granted i started out with blues at 90 whites 80 and worked it up in a couple weeks.

a month ago a guy had a 29 bc with a g2 pro radion at 85% full sps tank and he said he never had an issue with bleaching. 3" from the waterline in the stock bc hood!

 

[krazysvede]

220 gallon tank looks very bare to be running a calcium reactor

I'm pretty good about keeping the glass scraped down. I really don't like the look of coraline all over the glass.

I turned my lights down to see if that would help any. I had this same light set up over the old tank prior to the crack and left the settings the same as they were before. Prior to the tank crack I had excellent SPS growth and color with these settings.

I've got 2 test kits for ALK now and am testing 2x daily once in the morning and once in the evening and haven't seen any swing so far. The tank is still new so maybe its not stable enough for SPS, though I haven't had that issue with any of the other tanks I've had.

 

[Uncle Luke]

Check with your water company if they're using chloramine. If so you'll need to get a chloramine filter for your ro di system. I had similar issues and got the chloramines removed.

 

[lynchmob3000]

Have you tested salinity lately? Could have slowly went up or what you use to test needs to be calibrated

 

[lynchmob3000]

This go around the tank has been up for 4-5 months maybe. I want to say I got the new tank in August.

I'm really not acclimating for light, as all SPS are in the bottom half of the tank due to my low rock work. The tank is 28" tall and the light rack is about 12" above the water.

Not enough colored sticks to see if feasible to add co2 to your system.

 

[lynchmob3000]

[/QUOTE]

 

[krazysvede]

It's been a couple days and am pleased to say I have seen some positive results so far.

Changes made;
Turned LED's down to 35% and started shutting skimmer down for a couple hours everyday.

I've continued to monitor water parameters and my Nitrates have risen from undetectable to 1-3. I have noticed a significant increase in polyp extension on all SPS and LPS. Recession from the tips seems to have stopped. I will continue to monitor but for now I am optimistic.

 

[AriMiko43]

I am still having the same issues. Correct me if I'm wrong but in a low nutrient system with lower lighting sps doesn't pale out as much as they will with higher lighting? I have 2 of my tanks plumbed together on one sump and it seems like the sps in the lower lighting tank is not as affected as much as the tank with the higher lighting. I also am trying to bump my nitrate levels up a bit.

 

[lynchmob3000]

Clearer water let's more light thru