SPS Color and Growth Timeline...Suggestions?
- Thread starter MHG
- Start date
hi you should keep sps with some nitrate 2 and lower and phosphate around .03-.04. dont shoot for 0 on either. and dont use red sea phosphate kit it always reads .08.use hana or better digital. i switched from led to 250 watt halide 20k radium in june and still have a couple purple pieces that are brown. i think the purple humlis likes 14k light better than 20k. so he may stay brown. so i feal your pain. it takes time and money to keep sps. good luck.
Thanks... I have been trying to get the nitrates up since I stopped the pellets. I stopped the prodibio as well but the 5 feeding a day are still not getting it done.
I am using a hanna digital...
Well its been weeks of heavy feeding and I went away for 9 days. During that time my wife kept up on the feeding. Asside from coming home to brown fuzzy glass, the color has improved.... My more stubborn corals have blue tips instead of brown and my palmers blue millie is starting to show signes of life after weeks of being almost white...... I will do all my tests tomorrow to see what the nitrate is. It is nice to come home and notice a difference.
Looking at some threads of other peoples growth has made me angry again. I need to stop doing that...
NO3 .25
PO4 0
Alk 8.7
Cal 450
PH 8.4
Zoas are doing better. SPS did better (not great) for a few weeks but hasnt changes much...
Cant get the nitrates any higher without crazy algae problems on the sand bed...
NO3 .25
PO4 0
Alk 8.7
Cal 450
PH 8.4
Zoas are doing better. SPS did better (not great) for a few weeks but hasnt changes much...
Cant get the nitrates any higher without crazy algae problems on the sand bed...
So today I have my first solid Nitrate reading... It measures .50.... I have been noticing better color and growth. I have also been vacuuming my sand for 3 weeks now as I think there may have been some leaching of phosphates. Everything is looking good. In a month or two I will post some growth shot comparisons...
Next month is the one year mark on some frags...My rose milli has done nothing in 12 months...
Next month is the one year mark on some frags...My rose milli has done nothing in 12 months...
Yeah its all about not starving your SPS. So many people here on RC shoot for zero levels of PO4 and NO3....which can lead to pale colors and poor growth. You need to feed your fish heavily and keep up with water changes. I feed my fish twice daily and my SPS colors are amazing.
Update.... I switched back to 2 part from kalk. My calcium was rising crazy high and ph spikes into the upper 8's were a daily accurance.
My alk is a rock solid 8dkh. Calcium is still a bit high even though I have not dosed kalk or calc in weeks....(calc dosing pump is off until it drops). I bought a salifert mag test kit as I ran out of reagent for my red sea test kit.... Salifert measures exactly the sameat 1440... Never changes in a year and a half....
I can still see some new growth daily. But over all it seems to have slowed down a bit...
Nitrates are at 1.0. Phosphates are zero....
I cut my first frags.... Two corals were getting too close to each other. So I guess that is a good thing....
My alk is a rock solid 8dkh. Calcium is still a bit high even though I have not dosed kalk or calc in weeks....(calc dosing pump is off until it drops). I bought a salifert mag test kit as I ran out of reagent for my red sea test kit.... Salifert measures exactly the sameat 1440... Never changes in a year and a half....
I can still see some new growth daily. But over all it seems to have slowed down a bit...
Nitrates are at 1.0. Phosphates are zero....
I cut my first frags.... Two corals were getting too close to each other. So I guess that is a good thing....
Some of your posts show what helps your tank.
U said when u went away for 9 days that your colours and growth was better. I think your problem is your to reactive to changes in your tank. I would try to keep your hands out of the water and try just let it do its thing for a while. If your changing parameters every few days instead of letting the dosing pump just keep it all stable.
U said when u went away for 9 days that your colours and growth was better. I think your problem is your to reactive to changes in your tank. I would try to keep your hands out of the water and try just let it do its thing for a while. If your changing parameters every few days instead of letting the dosing pump just keep it all stable.
A valid comment but I assure you I don't change anything unless weekly testing indicates I should... When you stare at it every day you tend to not notice the growth...
So while I have noticed an improved growth rate since getting my nitrates up (they are at 2 now), some of that growth is colorless. Like mu two Jesus stag frags turned a light brown from what I think was a lack of nutrients, they have now doubles in size but all the new growth is a whitish purple not the dark purple like when I got them.
I am contemplating turning my lights down 20% to get my par levels closer to the tank where all my frags came from...
I am contemplating turning my lights down 20% to get my par levels closer to the tank where all my frags came from...
ksicard
New member
You need much higher nutrients, nitrates between 1-5ppm and phosphates between 0.02-0.04ppm.
Reduce your GFO amount and change it out less, you def have a lack of nutrients working against you. Also rod's food is to large for your SPS to feed on, try oyster feast. And to help with the nutrients instead of feeding pellets switch to all frozen food and feed twice daily with that.
Feel free to ignore but that's my advice on the matter. I keep my tank at 3-8ppm nitrates and 0.04-0.08ppm phosphates. I have a high nutrient import and also a high nutrient export, having nutrients is a good thing as long as they are kept in the proper amounts without huge fluxations.
Reduce your GFO amount and change it out less, you def have a lack of nutrients working against you. Also rod's food is to large for your SPS to feed on, try oyster feast. And to help with the nutrients instead of feeding pellets switch to all frozen food and feed twice daily with that.
Feel free to ignore but that's my advice on the matter. I keep my tank at 3-8ppm nitrates and 0.04-0.08ppm phosphates. I have a high nutrient import and also a high nutrient export, having nutrients is a good thing as long as they are kept in the proper amounts without huge fluxations.
I agree on the higher nutrients... I use the rods food coral blend with reef chilli. The rods food complete reef is more for my fish....my nitrates have been between 1 and 2....
Not so sure on the phosphates... When. Have detectable phosphates I get algae issues...
The pellets are more for my anthias as I am only home and awake for about 2 hours a day during the week... Prior to the auto feeder I could not keep anthias...
Not so sure on the phosphates... When. Have detectable phosphates I get algae issues...
The pellets are more for my anthias as I am only home and awake for about 2 hours a day during the week... Prior to the auto feeder I could not keep anthias...
