Raising SPS corals

LegendLand

LegendLand

New member
I need experianced advice on the proper way to raise SPS corals, im capable of raising a few species in a 30g mixed tank, but im not getting the growth i should from them, most species of SPS will not live more than 6 months...i start to get growth on them, then they go down hill... the water parms are

PH = 8.3
S.g = 23-26
Cal = 400
DKH = 8-10
Nitrate = 0
Nitrite = 0
Phosphate = 0
Ammonia = 0
temp = 78
dont test mag, iodine
water changes weekly with R/O water & instant ocean salt.
lighting 150w 10k MH
flow = moderate to high, enough to kill xenia where the sps are at
---------------------------------
corals include

Hammer
Favia
Xenia
Zoanthus
Acropora
Several Porites
Montipora digitata
Stylophora
Nepthyigorgia
Toadstool
Cabbage Leather

with the favia,montipora,& porites getting the most growth..
but most other sps will not survive...is it because of the small water volume with the other corals ? should sps be in a sps only tank...or is something else wrong ?

i hope someone can help me with this..thanks
 
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I use Kent Coral Builder when the PH is normal to raise Alk, other times i use Kent Super Buffer DKH to raise PH & alk.. i use Kent Liquid calcium to raise calcium, but its rare that i use it as the water changes usually keep it stable at 400..

i use Coralife 10k bulbs its only a single bulb fixture, but the sps are kept in a mid to high position. i plan to get a dual 150w 14k fixture soon..depending on if this tank can even support corals...im not only having troubles with SPS....the hammer corals only do well after water changes...then they will not extend.

also i thought of coral toxins as well, so im using 7.oz of carbon & changing it every week.. still does not help
 
You don't have direct powerhead flow on the sps, do you? That would cause a decline over time (or faster, depending upon the proximity). What other SPS are you talking about--the Stylophora?
 
the flow is mixed a little..its almost like a circle in the tank...with the sps getting the most...over 1 foot from the pump...they showed great polyps for 2 months..now there decreasing..

the SPS corals include
Acropora
Stylophora (ORA Green)
Montipora Digitata
Several Porites Species
porites & montiporas are doing great

but no the flow is not direct on the coral, its on the glass
 
Difficult to say. Any way you can get a magnesium reading?

Unless you have one of the more finicky Acropora species, I don't particularly consider anything you have to be difficult. Something is causing it, but as to exactly what, I don't know.
 
How about feeding are you giving them enough food whether it be fish poop or some kind of coral food, they could be starving.
 
i have 2 damsels in this tank..no i dont feed plankton..but i do add some cyclop-eeze & baby brine shrimp once a month..i feed the fish brine shrimp with vitamins...the small food is fed to keep the Chili coral alive... i didnt think they could starve..after all they have to have the most intense light that $$ can buy to survive.. :)
 
I would get new test kits.

You say here: "i use Kent Liquid calcium to raise calcium, but its rare that i use it as the water changes usually keep it stable at 400.."

Then this: "what ever the mag. is in Instant Ocean salt is what that tank should be at..i do water changes every week"

Instant Ocean is well known for low calcium ~300 so theres no way your levels are correct. Get new test kits and go from there.
 
no way eh ?...well its been tested with Salifert, API & several others.. the calcium is 400...

by the way..i test EVERY DAY..so my test Kits are NEW
 
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Soft corals especially Leathers are very noxious and sometimes dont get along with SPS even with Cabon, IMHO get rid of the softies and concentrate on your LPS and SPS. Phosphate test kits are pretty much a waste of money as they dont test for organic phosphate. I know for a fact that since stopping the use of my Phosban reactor my corals growth has slowed dramatically. Flow is important but not direct flow but you must have strong currents in the tank. Add more fish, you could probably add another 2 fish to your tank, their poop will help feed the corals

Try feeding your corals with a quality coral food from Zeo or Prodibio. I have had great success from both of these products.

Lastly Hammers dont like strong flow and will retract under those conditions. Try placing it in a higher light lower flow area and keep them away from anything nearby as the sweepers are extra long at night.
 
i think its the other corals...i cant think of any other logical reason..doesn't seem like anyone else can either..the soft corals are small now..but i do have alot of toadstools & xenias.. the Hammer is in the low flow with the xenia..but i think the favia could be hurting it with toxins..but will LPS kill SPS with toxins ?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12938553#post12938553 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LegendLand
no way eh ?...well its been tested with Salifert, API & several others.. the calcium is 400...

by the way..i test EVERY DAY..so my test Kits are NEW
Click to expand...

You read that right. If you are not dosing any calcium and are relying on water changes to up your calcium, there is NO WAY your calcium is 400 with Instant Ocean salt.

You can do water changes all day, IO calcium is low and it will only raise it as high as the low 300's.

Either you are dosing something or you need new test kits.
 
I agree with d4. I used IO for some time and always fought to keep cal at 350. If yours is 400 where is the extra cal coming from.
 
Do you have a picture of your tank and what the sps look like? It may give others a good idea as to what is going on. Sweeper tentacles from euphylids(hammer, torch, frogspawns) can reach 10" in length. The toxins of softies, mixed with sweepers of lps, could be the problem. Your parameters seem fine. Does your alkalinity bounce form 8-10 on a regular basis? You said you test everyday, what was the alk reading over the last 3 days? And when you say they die, or start dying, how does it happen? Rapid tissue necrosis from the base? slow tissue nerosis? Spots getting tissue necrosis at random? Some kind of flatworm or red bugs or something? A picture would help out a lot.
 
oh i understand where we got confused now, i DO add calcium, but what i ment was..not every week.. i dose enough to get it stable at about 420-440 then over a period of a month with weekly or every 2 weeks water change, it goes back down....it does stay mainly at 400 with a drop down to 380 about every 5 weeks..then i add some more....not like i dose DKH buffer..alkalinity is not so easy to keep stable.. if i use the SuperBuffer DKH it goes up to 9 dkh then over 2-3 days its back down to 6...BUT if i use CoralBuilder it will stay stable at 9 & almost never drop until 3 water changes or so..

as you can see PH & DKH is not a constant in this system...it Is in my other tank...but not this 30 gallon..
 
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