Need some help with SPS

N

NJcoral

New member
Hello I am new to this forum but not to the reef keeping. I have a question regarding keeping SPS coral in my tank. My tank is gorgeous and in pristine condition. All coral does well EXCEPT SPS!! I have lost about 3 different SPS mostly Mille's. I have Moti's doing well and growing but can't seem to keep the branching SPS's. What happens is weird. They look great for a couple months then suddenly they start loosing everything turning completely white. This happens suddenly but the complete loss takes a couple weeks.

My levels are good: Calcium 400, PH 8.3, DKH 10-12, Phos 0, trates 0. I know my iron is low and my iodine is low. Could this be it? I don't think so. Any help would be appreciated. This really bothers me.

I have a 120 with two MP40's a 55 gallon refuge with mangroves, chaeto and semi deep sand bed, 40 gallon live rock tank, PM Bullet II skimmer, I run GFO, a MTC Procal calcium reactor.

What do I need to test for, look for, or do? Please hep!
 
ja4207 said:
Hows the stability? Temp, salinity, calcium, mag.....

How long has your tank been up and running?
Click to expand...

Temp is very stable 75.5 salinity is 1.025 calcium is maintained by reactor at 400 I can't remember exactly what my Mag level was but I wanna say around 1200 if Im not mistaken. Salinity is stable as well because of the auto top off. Tank is 11 months old.
 
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where are you getting your SPS from? if you are getting them shipped or from a tank that has a different lighting system than yours you could be burning them if you are not acclimating them to the light.
 
Aside from pests, your alkalinity does seem a bit high. I lost quite a few SPS from high alkalinity. I keep alkalinity in the 7-8 range. Growth is not as fast as when I kept it at 10, but everything is much happier and more colorful now.

We also need to know your lighting setup and photoperiod. You say that everything else is fine. If you're new to SPS and have been keeping soft corals and LPS with no issues, there may be a lot of chemical battles going on. You state that you run GFO but I don't see any mention of carbon usage. You'll note that almost every SPS and mixed reef hobbyist runs carbon constantly, whether in a reactor or passively in the sump. This alone may be your problem as the allelopathy between corals in a closed system needs to be dealt with.
 
actually I recently raised my Alk because of this suggestion by MTC themselves. They advised me to raise my Alk to 12 if possible. I actually do think the higher alk made my stuff looking a little happier.

As for the carbon I don't run much. I really didn't think it was an issue keeping the two types of coral. Plus I really don't have that many pieces.

My lighting is LED by Aqua Illumination the SOL blues. They run from 12ish to about 10pm. Ramping at about an hour in the morning and a hour at night.
 
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NJcoral said:
actually I recently raised my Alk because of this suggestion by MTC themselves. They advised me to raise my Alk to 12 if possible. I actually do think the higher alk made my stuff looking a little happier.

As for the carbon I don't run much. I really didn't think it was an issue keeping the two types of coral. Plus I really don't have that many pieces.

My lighting is LED by Aqua Illumination the SOL blues. They run from 12ish to about 10pm. Ramping at about an hour in the morning and a hour at night.
Click to expand...

ALK at 12 dkh is way to high. Its more common to have alk in 7-9 range. I try and keep my alk at 8-9.
 
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What am I missing here? Is there anything more I should be doing? Is it possible that the flow is too harsh in the tank? Is the flow too direct? I am beginning to think the flow should be more indirect rather than pointing towards the SPS. Help!
 
If this is what happened though, allelopathy, wouldn't all the Acros be effected at once? They wouldn't die one by one would they?
 
dkh is high, temp could come up to 77or 78 and you def need to run carbon with the softies as they release turpinates as a defense mechanism. Also if your trates and phos are 0 then you may be starving them. I have about the same setup and my nitrates are about 4 or 5 and my phos is around .003 or so, Just barely detectable. The main items are the alk level and the carbon thou. Hope this helps
 
Thanks Grant. I will run Carbon. I do think it has to do with direct low from the MP40's. As for the Trates and Phos it comes up zero on Red Sea Pro tests. If there is a test kit that could get a real low reading I'm sure I have some sort of trates or Phos.
 
Sorry, I forgot I made that post earlier, but yes, Aleophathic warfare is very common in takes featuring large softies and/or anemones. Not all corals are affected to the same degree. Montipora and Acros, depending on where they are collected, may vary widely in their resilience towards the toxins in the water column.

You could run carbon, but a better solution may be to just remove the offending coral.

If you suspect it's due to flow, just move the corals. If they don't improve, well... Fun times ensue, haha.

Just my $0.02.
 
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