SPS help

8-ball

New member
Hello all i am brand new to RC but still somewhat new to reefing as I ahve only been doing it for 5 years and I knw some who are life long reef keepers. My question is I have about 8 species of SPS most are frags but 3 are good size colonies for some reason lately my PE has been minimal and my blue mili colony has totally died turned white within 24-48 hours sloughing off tissue I belive this is called RTN. I am afraid my other colonies might soon do the same thing please help. Tank is a 90g with 2 150w mh and 2 t5 for supplement. I have a wet dry (old school I know) a large skimmer, phosban reactor, Uv sterilizer, and a surge 2500 for return. also 2 koralia 4's for flow. fish include a melanarus wrasee, true perc, longnose hawkfish, 3 anthias, naso tang, and powder blue. I have 3 peppermint shrimp, 1 skunk cleaner, lots of snails and 2 serpent stars.

P.S all my LPS and soft corals are fine

Levels
MG 1500 (little high not sure why)
Alk 9.3
Ca 490
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
Sg 1.026
Temp 79-80
PH 8.0
I tested for copper at my LFS and it was 0
 
Sounds like a good set up. I think you should use reef crystals or tropic marin salt. Make a 20% water change every week. Feed some oyster feast liquid just as the lights go out. I would also take all carbon, gfo etc out for just a bit, as well as putting your skimmer on a timer to run 12 hrs a day. Your mag is way to high 1300 is best. alk 8 ca 425. I think my tank runs better when nitrate is 5 to 10 ppm. Often less is more with acros, they really do need a lot of food, many reefers really starve them.

Possibly a ground probe.
Possibly new bulbs.
More food.
 
Thanks for the suggestion on the salt I am currently using Red sea coral pro. Just curious why you suggest pulling out the media? Also hadnt thought about a gounding probe... lights are about 3-4 month old bulbs. I will try a new food that you suggested I was only feeding reef bugs and coral vibrance once a week however my skimmer is on all day till light out so maybe it was pulling everything out. I will try reducing my skim time what time of day is best to run a skimmer day/evening/night?
 
If you have bio-balls in that wet/dry, I'd start removing them slowly. They are considered nitrate factories. Also, 2 koralia 4's aren't going to cut it for sps. You're going to need more than that.
 
usually high nitrates make things brown out and stn not rtn. It sounds to me like you should retest. have you had a jump in alk or sg? how long have you had these acros? where are they located in the tank? maybe a chemicle got in the tank by accident?

my suggestions
RUN CARBON
AND do a large water change.

if your tank has been stable and sps growing. It would take a large swing in an important level like Alk or high sg or high temp to cause a meltdown.
 
I have had the tank about 4 years going as a reef. It was bought as a used system though and I think it was about 5 years old when I got it. I have had the acros for about 3 1/2 years for the larger colonies and have recently been buying more in the last year. The colony that died a got about 6-8 months ago, it was growing and had fully encrusted the plug and then recently lost PE and turned white. I have looked for red bugs, aiptasia, nudibranchs, picking fish, and other pest which makes me think its a water quality issue or something more unseen. I did a 50% water change 2 days ago. My tricolor valida had good PE yesterday but none of the other SPS did. I will say that the tricolor is closer to the powerheads though so maybe its a flow issue.
 
I will retest tonight and run carbon. I will also try to pull some of the bioballs out. I dont think I can pull all at once though due to loss of bacteria. What do you guys suggest I do for flow right now the 2 powerheads are on timers alternating on 5min off 5min each opposite the other. How can I check for electricity in the tank I dont feel anything when I put my hand in.
 
Are the colonies that died your 3.5 years or 6 months old? If it's the later, are the colonies wild or mariculture?
 
What do you do to control Alk and Calc? Two part, reactor, water changes...? Need to keep that stable. Water changes may have been enough in the past, but you said you have added more sps colonies recently.
 
how about AEFW? do you see bite marks?
try and remove the effected colony and do a dip in revive. see if you get flatworms from it.
 
The colony that died was one of the newer ones I got it from a local reefer his colony is about the size of a medium grapefruit. I dont know wether aquacultered or maricultured.

As for alk and Ca I just do weekly water changes every sunday and test levels on wednesday if something is off I dose on that day based on levels. Most of the time I dont have to do anything sometimes I add a little purple up for Ca. My purple up is about 2 years old is that a problem?

I dont see any flatworms I dipped all my new purchases and lots of stuff came off before adding into my tank but I cant say I saw AEFW. Plus if it was AEFW would they consume an entire previously healthy piece in 24-48 hours.

I will get a pic up soon. What do you guys suggest I do about flow more powerheads, a larger return pump? Any suggestions. Could phosphate cause this problem too? I have a refugium but I have read that refugiums can give a false idea on phosphate control.
 
The colony that died was one of the newer ones I got it from a local reefer his colony is about the size of a medium grapefruit. I dont know wether aquacultered or maricultured.

As for alk and Ca I just do weekly water changes every sunday and test levels on wednesday if something is off I dose on that day based on levels. Most of the time I dont have to do anything sometimes I add a little purple up for Ca. My purple up is about 2 years old is that a problem?

I dont see any flatworms I dipped all my new purchases and lots of stuff came off before adding into my tank but I cant say I saw AEFW. Plus if it was AEFW would they consume an entire previously healthy piece in 24-48 hours.

I will get a pic up soon. What do you guys suggest I do about flow more powerheads, a larger return pump? Any suggestions. Could phosphate cause this problem too? I have a refugium but I have read that refugiums can give a false idea on phosphate control.
You need to test your ALK daily for a few days. See how far it drops each day. Dose some two part EVERY day to keep it constant, or get a Calcium reactor if you want to go that route. If you have sps colonies your ALK must be dropping enough each day to affect the health. You really want it constant whether you aim for 8 or 10 you want it CONSTANT at that level. Goodluck.

PS - Ditch the purple up... I dose Bionic two part (you could use BRS). If you get your alk and calc steady you will see corraline algae take off.
 
PS - Ditch the purple up... I dose Bionic two part (you could use BRS).

Agreed. Purple up is basically just very fine aragonite sand. :)

8-ball,
You mentioned your got the 8 pieces of acros from a local reefers and 3 of them are small colonies which STN over 6 months. The rest of the frag (5) are showing no polyp extensions? What about the rest of your SPS corals that you have kept over these 5 years period? Are they growing and healthy? Or only newer corals you acquired locally showing signs of min polyp extension and STN?
 
if you only dose once or twice a week then most likely bowie is right that your levels are unstable. When you started out with a few smaller sps it could probably keep up but when they grew the larger the sps the larger the requirements. Set up a dosing schedule once youve established how much your tank consumes. Like bowie said, test consistantly for a few days and see how much your tank is dropping in a 24hr period. The key with sps is consistant levels bouncing from 8 to 10 is going to cause problems. Get stable and then if they dont rebound then go from there.
 
Yea, get yourself two BRS dosers 1.1ml/min during a groupbuy for $180. Add a couple timers that work down to the minute. For around $200 you will be all set up. This way you can even split the doses throughout the day. Levels will always be spot on. As the corals consume more add a couple minutes to the timers.

If you have a controller you can use that to control the pumps down to the second...
 
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