SPS corals browing from bottom up

[mikedoyle]

Well all but 1 of my SPS that I have gotten in the last 6 months slowly lose there color from the bottom up when I put them into my tank except for the ice blue tip which is doing great. The SPS that do brown out don't seem to die I have had a purple bonsai for 6 months that has still not regained its color but seems to be growing. I am wondering what I am doing wrong any help would be greatly appreciated.

Tanks Specs
150 gal long with 55 gal sump
2-250 watt MH 14 k bulbs, 4- 36" t-5 giessman bulbs 12" from water line
BRS dosers
300 gal capacity skimmer
dual 400 watt heater
JBJ ATO
MAG 9 return
4 koralia 1400 gph power heads on wave control
around 200 lbs live rock
2" sand bed
refiugum with chaeto, red grape, cauleparea
filter socks on dual 1.5" returns
RO/DI unit with 0 TDS always

PH- 8.2 API
Phosphates- 0 hanna checker
nitrate-0 API
nitrite-0 API
Mag-1440 Red sea
Cal-480 API
DKH-9 API
Salinty-9 API
Temp 78-80

I hope this is enough info to get started I am stumped I have done alot of reaserch and can not come up with a solution or reason for the corals browning. I am starting to think my tank may be to clean but not sure.

 

[fishmate]

do you happen to use any GFO media filtration?

 

[ksicard]

if your po4 and n03 are truly zero then I'd buy some fish till you get 1-5ppm nitrates, and 0.02-0.08 phosphates. Also I'd add more flow, try out the jebo wp40's for a cheaper solution to increasing your flow.

 

[mikedoyle]

Yes I do use BRS high capacity gfo have been for probably 8 months had a hair algea issue I now have a bit of cyano but has become less and less

 

[mikedoyle]

I have 9 fish yellow tang, blonde naso tang, melanarus wrasse, pair of Sebea clowns, bi color belenny, two yellow tail damsels, and a mandarin dragonette. I feed one frozen cubed rinsed per day and half sheet of nori daily. I was planning on getting a goby but that was it should I get more fish than this.

 

[trueblackpercula]

Got a flick of the tank and corals? Hard to see what is going on

 

[mikedoyle]

how do you insert pics

 

[rogerwilco357]

wow all those fish and 0 on the N03 and P04, you may need to add some nutrients or look for stray voltage . maybe reduce the carbon and gfo?

 

[biggles]

I run a 250W over driven radium 5" off the water and 4x39W T5's 3" off the water on my 18" deep SPS tank so i'm pretty sure your corals are browning from lack of light if you're really running them a foot off the water.

 

[Jblank44]

Salinity is 9? Also, when is the last one you have changed your lights? Sps need very high lighting so they may be loosing color from lack of light. What's the placement and waterflow?

 

[mikedoyle]

Sorry salinty 1.025, I changed all bulbs in january. All SPS corals are placed towards the top of the tanks I would say no more than 4 inches below the water line. The ice blue tip acro the only one that is doing well I have proably 12" down in the tank. I guess I will try and move my lights down but everything I have read said to put them 12" from the water line so that is were I started.

 

[Jblank44]

Sorry salinty 1.025, I changed all bulbs in january. All SPS corals are placed towards the top of the tanks I would say no more than 4 inches below the water line. The ice blue tip acro the only one that is doing well I have proably 12" down in the tank. I guess I will try and move my lights down but everything I have read said to put them 12" from the water line so that is were I started.

Everything seems right! If they were getting too much light they would bleach... Are they getting a lot of flow? Sps like strong flow

 

[mikedoyle]

I think they have good flow there are 4 koralia 1400 gph powerheads on a wave maker thats a 37 times turnover rate without counting the return pump. Do you think I should add another powerhead.

 

[Jblank44]

I think they have good flow there are 4 koralia 1400 gph powerheads on a wave maker thats a 37 times turnover rate without counting the return pump. Do you think I should add another powerhead.

That seems like great flow for the tank! But the position of the sps could be change son it's getting more, some sps like to be literally in front of a powerhead with a ton of flow.

 

[mikedoyle]

I have tried putting them at the top of the live rock were there is very high flow without any good results. I'm stumped on what else to try

 

[fishguy597]

0-Po4 & nitrate, I think I would get another brand of tests and check again. is this a young tank? if it were me I would cut back on the carbon and gfo . I would feed a little more and get your nitrate up.

 

[flzak]

Stray voltage ??

Stray voltage ??

wow all those fish and 0 on the N03 and P04, you may need to add some nutrients or look for stray voltage . maybe reduce the carbon and gfo?

What do you mean by stray voltage?
I am dealing with the same problem, struggling to keep up no3. Using hanna and rowa Testkit for my Po4 and Red sea Pro for my No3

Glenn (DK Europe)

 

[fishguy597]

Sometimes a powerhead or a heater may have an opening to the water and the water has voltage in it.then if you walk up and stick your hand into the tank you can complete the circuit. A gfi receptacle should let you know if there is a short though. don't trust an extension cord type gfi..

 

[mikedoyle]

I ordered a red sea nitrate test tonight to check my level, as far as the phosphate I thought the hanna checker was about the best you can get. The tanks has been running for about a year and a half now. I did take the carbon out and will be cutting back the GFO when I change it out later in the week.

 

[trueblackpercula]

If there stn or rtn from the bottom it may mean your sps are starved.