sps advice

[$mooth]

I would like to know how to tell if my sps corals are happy and doing well. I purchased most of these within the last two weeks or so. I have a 120gal tank with 2 250watt MH and 4 54watt T5s. MH run from 1:00pm to 7:00pm and T5s run from 11:00am to 10:00pm. Light unit is about 11 inches from tank. Top corals are about 13inches under the light. I have some where the polyps hardly come out and other where the polyps out the whole day. All my sps are showing good color. Do I need to move them lower or higher? Any advice would be appreciated.

Current corals

ORA Joe the Coral Acro"“ middle (great color and polyps out like crazy)
ORA Plum Crazy Acro "“ top (great color but polyps don't really come out)
Fuzzy green - Lower (great color and polyp extension)
Red Planet x2 "“ top and middle (top not so good, middle doing great with good polyp extension)
Tri Color Valida x2 "“ middle and lower (no polyp extension and still brown)
Indo Blue Tip Acro "“ top (great color but polyps don't really come out)
ORA Miami Orchid "“ top (ok color but polyps don't really come out)
Northwoods Tri-color Acro "“ top (good color but polyps don't really come out)
Acropora Pulchra "“ middle (great color and polyps out like crazy)
Red Birdsnest "“ middle (great color and polyp extension)

Here are my water specs,

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 1
Nitrate 10ppm
Calcium 440
Alkalinity 8.5
Salinity 1.024
PH 8.2
Temp 75 to 79 (when lights are on)

Thanks!!!

 

[Reef Bass]

Hmm. Having any testable nitrites makes me think the tank has not yet fully cycled. How long has the tank been running? You don't mention your magnesium level? Phosphates?

 

[bskiba]

that temp swing is on the higher side and nitrates are not a good thing to have.

 

[$mooth]

Hmm. Having any testable nitrites makes me think the tank has not yet fully cycled. How long has the tank been running? You don't mention your magnesium level? Phosphates?

sorry, the nitrites are at 0. i forgot to edit that. the tank was setup one month ago and fully cycle about two weeks ago. i haven't tested mag nor phosphates but i have a pho-zorb in the filter.

 

[$mooth]

another question i have is how high should i have the corals at? some say 12 inches under the light and some say more. my tank size is 5Lx2Hx18inD.

 

[kissman]

i think its a little early to be putting SPS in a month old tank. Most tanks havent fully cycled till 6-8 weeks and are usually not balanced out till 6months to a year. You are probably going to still go through growing pains with different algae. Hope it goes well for you. Good luck

 

[Islander84]

Did you use live rock or dry rock? Is everything in your tank new? Including water....probably shouldnt rush into SPS....you will have alot of dissapointing moments...not to discourage you, just putting reality out there for you...hope all goes well!

 

[sminker]

that temp swing is on the higher side and nitrates are not a good thing to have.

False statement, sorry.

Temperature swings happen in nature, keeping your tank within a +/- 1-2 degree range is asking for disaster when your tank happens to overheat or cool rapidly.

Theres a very long and detailed thread in the Chemistry forum that discusses this topic.

As long as my tank stays below 83 and stays above 74, I could care less what the temp is. Ive gone from 85 to 73 within a 12 hour time span. (heater malfunctioned and cooling fan didnt shut off). Didnt loose a single coral due to my daily temperature swings. The max ive hit was 87 and the lowest ive hit is 72, not in the same day. Dont get me wrong, I did go into panic mode.

 

[CHSUB]

there are hurricanes, red tide, algae blooms, natural and manmade disasters in nature, should we duplicate that in our tanks too....point being: health corals can withstand stress, but the less stress the better.. mass bleaching in nature can be triggered by temperature swings!!

 

[sirreal63]

Temp fluctuation is not stress if it is within the temps the corals are acclimated to. The danger is in letting it go as little as 2 degrees outside of the daily norm. This has been documented by people who actually study this in the wild, not people who write books to sell. Stable temps do not mean one constant temp but a stable daily range. Corals that have a daily temp fluctuation are better adapted to change than those that are not allowed that fluctuation.

While it is early in the life of the tank to be loading up on sps, keep the water parameters in check and it can work. I would never recommend starting sps so early but if you are able to keep the chemistry correct it can work.

 

[Alex T.]

Hmm. Having any testable nitrites makes me think the tank has not yet fully cycled. How long has the tank been running? You don't mention your magnesium level? Phosphates?

I'd argue this statement. Some of the best SPS tanks I've ever seen had measurable nitrates..one even had 5 - 10 ppm http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/58-tank-of-the-month

i think its a little early to be putting SPS in a month old tank. Most tanks havent fully cycled till 6-8 weeks and are usually not balanced out till 6months to a year. You are probably going to still go through growing pains with different algae. Hope it goes well for you. Good luck

More times than not I'd agree with this. I believe that in a new tank that was cycled with dead, cleaned rock with dead sand and a carbon source, that many pitfalls new tanks suffer can be avoided, but this recommendation wouldn't be advice for a newcomer to SPS.

Temp fluctuation is not stress if it is within the temps the corals are acclimated to. The danger is in letting it go as little as 2 degrees outside of the daily norm. This has been documented by people who actually study this in the wild, not people who write books to sell. Stable temps do not mean one constant temp but a stable daily range. Corals that have a daily temp fluctuation are better adapted to change than those that are not allowed that fluctuation.

While it is early in the life of the tank to be loading up on sps, keep the water parameters in check and it can work. I would never recommend starting sps so early but if you are able to keep the chemistry correct it can work.

Totally agree with this this statement. I regularly let my last tank fluctuate between 77 and 84/85 degrees with no chiller, and no losses that I could contribute to temperature. I did however lose a few to trying to find that "perfect spot" where a specific coral would do better in the tank. I finally came to the conclusion that there is no perfect spot, and that moving them causes more stress than needed, and can actually exacerbate a problem.

 

[Alex T.]

My apologies Reef Bass. I thought your post read 0 nitrates...not nitrites. Now I'm in full agreement with you.

 

[jerpa]

Temp fluctuation is not stress if it is within the temps the corals are acclimated to. The danger is in letting it go as little as 2 degrees outside of the daily norm. This has been documented by people who actually study this in the wild, not people who write books to sell. Stable temps do not mean one constant temp but a stable daily range. Corals that have a daily temp fluctuation are better adapted to change than those that are not allowed that fluctuation.

While it is early in the life of the tank to be loading up on sps, keep the water parameters in check and it can work. I would never recommend starting sps so early but if you are able to keep the chemistry correct it can work.

I could not agree more. I bought an established tank that had been kept at 79 degrees for 8 years. The first time the tank got to 82 everything bleached. Those same corals now experience temps from about 75-86 throughout the year and some days it swings 8+ degrees. During last week's heat wave a wonderful woman in my life forgot to close the drapes in the living room and the temp was at 90 when i got home and nothing in the tank noticed. I am not advocating temperatures near 90 but if my tank had always been kept at 80 I doubt anything would've been alive when I got home.

 

[sirreal63]

another question i have is how high should i have the corals at? some say 12 inches under the light and some say more. my tank size is 5Lx2Hx18inD.

It is hard to say without more information. What bulb, ballast and reflector are you using? 18" is shallow and the wrong reflector can blast sps in a small area while starving the ones on the perimeter.

 

[Gumma 1]

Op,I think you may be blasting your new Corals with light to soon.I would run halides for 6-7 hours and t5s for about 8-9. Maybe raise lights to 13 inches above tank.o

 

[$mooth]

It is hard to say without more information. What bulb, ballast and reflector are you using? 18" is shallow and the wrong reflector can blast sps in a small area while starving the ones on the perimeter.

i just purchased the oydessa Metal halide unit which uses 250watt 15k with 4x 54watt T5 HO bulbs. i just recently brought phoenix 14k bulbs to replace the current bulbs.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/48-ADV-PLUS...ltDomain_0&hash=item460155aaed#ht_1716wt_1085

 

[sirreal63]

The reflectors in those fixtures are awful, not good spread but you can work with it. Watch the SPS for any signs of bleaching and if they are bleaching move away from the light and slowly bring them back under it, like an inch every other week. The Phoenix has very good PAR, but with those reflectors it is mostly going straight down. Keeping it higher off the water will help with spread. I am sorry you bought that thing and hope it doesn't die on you but you bought it so it is what it is. You can grow SPS under it and the quality is spotty, some never have issues with them, some have them die or short out soon after they get them.

 

[bskiba]

tanks can change in temp a good amount daily as I have seen TOTM that do but I wouldn't aim for it. As many tank that do go up and down i have seen people start losing coral from a 5 degree swing. yes it can happen. i wouldn't try and do it.


Plus in nature the ocean can either be very stable in some spots or tides can go down and coral can be exposed to direct sunlight for hours. Would you want to let frags sit above water baking for a few hours? Probably not. But can they learn to adapt to it. Yes.