Sps help

[MarkTaylor1985]

Hi all, I'm fairly new to the sps world so please be gentle. I have a a few frags in my system & while some are doing well others are struggling. Amongst those doing well is red plating monti, pavona, stylo & tricolour acro. But I hae a red monti digi that's not extending all of its polyps properly & also another type of monti digi that's starting to go the same way. Water levels are

Kh-9
Ca-420
Mg-1280
No3-non traceable
Po4-0.35

Any suggestions advice please

 

[reefsurfing]

what test kits are you using? how old is you set up? Do you have a picture? yadda yadda yadda. Need some more details my friend. Your stats look solid given you keep them in that range and your PO4 could stand to come down just a bit.

 

[MarkTaylor1985]

System is fairly new it's only been running since end of July. Po4 is coming down in due coarse as I'm using & algae scrubber & just waiting for it to catch up after a fish loss maybe a month ago. All test kits are salifert but are calibrated before use with FM ref solution po4 is measured by a elos high res kit. Tank is lit by a ai sol 40/70. Levels are stable, there is t a lot of coral in there & water changes keep on top of replenishing the elements at the moment. Unfortunately I haven't got any pictures at the moment but will get some ASAP. Only fish in the tank are a fumanchu, ornate wrasse & a tiger Jawfish. Thanks for the response & I appreciate its difficult to diagnose without a photo so I'm trying to put as much detail down as possible

 

[sahin]

Hi there mate. Apart from your phosphate which could come down a little; the rest of the parameters seem fine.

You arent dosing any organic carbon source are you?

I would just keep up the water changes. Hopefully the affected corals will pull through ok.

I've never encountered Monti eating pests; so maybe do a quick search and then "test" or inspect for pests.

Other than a specific pest, with time, and as an SPS tank matures, SPS corals do much better. Sometimes it can take well beyond 6 months for an SPS tank to stabilise.

Watch the Alk very carefully and ensure it does not fluctuate. Test every day if required.

Other then pests such a monti eating nudibranches and acropora eating flatworms; Alk level is the biggest parameter affecting SPS corals.

 

[sahin]

PS, if you arent doing so already; spend as much time in the SPS forum on Reefcentral as possible - you'll learn so much here. Even though I'm a member on other forums including UK forums, I spend probably 80% of my online time right here.

 

[ryeguyy84]

I agree with above... I had a hard time with sps in the beginning and I'm still no expert but once everything gets stable the colors really brighten up. A few months after I switched from manual dosing to dosing pumps all my corals are growing much better.

I'm going to have to trim my orange cap soon because its going to start shading my zoas.

 

[MarkTaylor1985]

A picture of the frag suffering, not the best sorry

 

[MarkTaylor1985]

Sahin- thanks for the advice, I am going to start reading the sps part of the forum to help me come to grips with sps. The tank is maintained on water changes at the moment as the alk usage is very minimal probably due to the higher po4 levels. I don't believe pests are the problem as I have an ornate or Christmas wrasse that carefully inspects every frag I add. For now I have moved the frag into a different light & flow area lower down the tank & I'm going to monitor how it reacts to that