Paling and dying SPS

[deepseanige]

Hi all,

I am running an SPS dominated tank now from last October. Over the last few months I've added various SPS to the tank which mostly started to pale out slowly over the months. I've had two completely die now. I have a suspicion that lack of nutrients are the source of the problem but would appreciate a second opinion.

My set up is as follows:

Total tank volume is 74 Gal
Display is 30"x14"x30" (LxHxW)
ATI powermodule 8x24w
Running Balling Light - Fauna Marin chemicals

I wasn't dosing anything up until the last couple of weeks which I now dose:

2 drops KZ amino acids
2 drops KZ Coral Vitalizer
1ml Pohls Xtra​

I haven't seen any improvment from dosing the above yet.

-Parameters-
PO4: 0.008
NO3: 0
ALK: 9.2
Cal: 415
Mag: 1380
PH: 8.0 - 8.3
Temp: 76.82 - 77.9

I'm starting to think about stopping the bio-pellets to allow Nitrates to rise a bit?

 

[mark54321]

I had the same problem with my corals after using bio-pellets,they strip the water of nutrients very fast.Now I dose Coral Amino (15 drops) and Lugol's (2 drops)by Brightwell and also strontium ( 10 ml.every 3 days) on my 120 gal.Within couple of weeks colors returned and all SPS are doing fine.Also I feed my tank 3 x daily.Hope it helps.

 

[deepseanige]

Thanks mark, I've been dosing the KZ products now for a couple of weeks but haven't noticed a slight bit of difference.

Maybe I'll double dose for the next couple of weeks and see if there is any significant change?

 

[Alex T.]

Well, there's a few things here. First, with a 14" height that is a lot of light. It would help to know the bulb configurations and photoperiod of each bulb.

Secondly, I assume you have a low range phosphate meter to be getting a reading of .008. If that's accurate, you're very low in phosphate for a captive system.

Third, I see no fish mentioned and feeding schedule. This would help as well.

Fourth, your alkalinity is borderline a little high for running a ultra low nutrient system (ULNS). When I was vodka dosing the same thing happened to me when nutrients were undetectable....as they are in your tank. When I slowly dropped the alkalinity to the 7 - 8 dKH range things slowly rebounded.

And lastly, if this tank was set up in October, you could simply be going through the trials of the first year. Your tank is very young and needs to mature. Are you readily growing coralline algae?

The most important thing to remember is to change only one thing at a time and see if it has a benefit. Doing it all at once will get your head spinning as to what the culprit may be. The ATI Powermodule is an extremely powerful units that pump out a lot of par. In a 14" deep tank it must be incredibly bright. If there was no slow acclimation in both duration and intensity diffusion then your results seem typical of too much too fast.

I would concentrate on the easiest components first like lighting. Then move to alkalinity and see what develops.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Toadally]

The same thing happened to me when I used bp's. But to be fair I think I did too much too fast and that was the reason my corals didn't fair too well. I have to agree with Alex that there are several variables at play with your system and you should only change one at a time and slowly. Good luck!

 

[deepseanige]

Hey Alex,

Some more info:

1. Bulbs used are:

2 x ATI blue+
3 x ATI aquablue
2 x KZ fiji purple
1 x KZ Superblue

2 bulbs - 12hrs ramping up and down for an hour
6 bulbs - 8 hours ramping up and down for an hour

The unit is also about 9" from the water surface​

2. Yes, low range phosphate kit (Deltec Merk kit)

3. Fish: 1 Kole tang, 5 Ghost Cardinals, 2 clowns, 1 royal gramma, 1 bi-color blenny

I feed the fish twice a day with New Era Marine Flake and Herbivore Flake​

4. Sorry, that alk result was with a salifert I re-tested today and it was 7.7 on the Deltec kit

I didn't see any coraline growth up until a few weeks ago and am now seeing a small amount of growth on the back glass.

 

[allsps40]

I am going through this right now. Try to get your no3 up a little not much 3-5ppm is good. Feed more and or add more fish. I stopped vodka MB7 dosing, removed my GFO reactor and am feeding more. I will take some time for the sps to come back. How long are you running your lights for? I also found that I was running my MH for to long.

 

[Alex T.]

I would take the midday lighting down to 6 hours for now, with a total of 10 hour photoperiod. I would also raise the lights more.

After reading countless posts in the T5 Q&A Thread, you'll see many people having problems when acclimating corals to the PowerModule fixture. I'm beginning to think that aside from a young tank, your corals are getting absolutely blasted with high intensity light with no shaded spots. Grim Reefer actually warns people that any tank under 18" in height does not need overdriven T5 bulbs to make SPS happy.

You've got the fixture already, so I'd concentrate on less midday light, raising the fixture if possible and even laying light diffuser over the top of the tank to slowly acclimate your corals.

Good luck.

 

[deepseanige]

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the advice, My T5s are dimmable, would it be better to dim them to say 70% as well?

N

 

[Alex T.]

LOL...maybe even a little more. if you look through the t5 Q&A thread you'll be amazed at the par that these fixtures put out. At the depth of your tank I would think you could grow SPS on the sand bed with absolutely no problems.

 

[neoalchemist74]

+1 on your Alk being too high. I had the same thing happen in an established tank. I was used to running my Alk at 9.5 and through some tinkering reached undetectable nutrient levels. I started loseing sps one after the other. Brought my alk down to 7.5 ,adjusted my calcium reactor and everything started to get better