SPS Newb

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afm32607

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I keep killing every SPS I buy. I need some advice, the longest I've had one last was about 2 months, it was a stylophora. What am I doing wrong?

I just bought 2 SPS ORA Frags (Stylophora and Policopora). The stylo is looking like the middle is turning white and the polyps are receding and the policopora is not extending nearly as much as they were in the store.


Tank Stats:
75 Gallon (80 LBS Live Rock)
20 Gallons in Sump
MP 40
2 x Tunze Nano Streams
Weekly 10 gallon water change

Calcium - 470 ppm
Alkalinity - 9.3-9.6 dkh
Mag - 1350 ppm
Salinity - 35 ppt (1.027 sg)
Temp - 78 Deg. f
pH - 8 up or down .2
Lighting - 4xT5 fixture, Reef brite XHO 48"led fixture (avg PAR on bottom is 200)

Filtration -
Fluidized GFO
2 Bags Chemi-Pure
Reef Octopus 200xs Skimmer
1 Bag of Purigen

Additives:
- 2 Part ESV additives
- Biofuel carbon source
- Microbacter 7

Coral -
Mostly Zoas and Palys
Some GSP
Chrisiata coral
Policopora
Stylophora
 
Fluidized GFO + 2 Bags Chemi-Pure + Purigen + Biofuel Carbon Dosing ?!?

Overkill with nutrient control could very well be your problem here.

Light sensitivity could be an issues as well. LED's are intense. Most PAR meters under-measure LED's significantly.
 
Does seem like overkill with chems. Calcium seems a bit high but don't think that is it. What are your nitrates and phosphates? SPS are very sensitive to those
 
Let me add that SPS are just as sensitive, if not more, to a lack of nutrients (Nitrate/Phosphate) as they are to moderately high nutrient levels.
 
With the filters we are using nowadays, it seems more reefers are experiencing a lack of nutrients rather than high nutrients.

I find that SPS are more tolerant of low nutrient condition at lower Alk of around 7 dkh. I know my SPS start to lose color and have less PE when my Alk goes above 8.5 dKH. When I lower Alk to around 7.5 dKH and keep it there, everything goes back to normal.
 
Tank has been up over a year and a half.

Ammonia and Nitrites are both 0

Nitrate is 1-2 ppm (hard to tell with my kit an exact number)

Phosphate is probably 0, I used a salifert test kit for this but I can't tell the difference between the first couple levels.

There is absolutely no algae in the tank, except 3 bubble algaes.

I was thinking of getting rid of the GFO this weekend as I started the microbacter 7 about 3 weeks ago and what algae was present at that time has cleared up.

As far as fish I have a Kole tang, marine betta, citron goby, and a clownfish (I had two but the small one has since disappeared, I suspect the betta ate it). I also have a blood shrimp, reef lobster, fifteen hermits, and maybe a half dozen snails. Also added an emerald crab to eat the remaining bubble algae, though it only seems interested in my favorite palys.

My zoas and palys look terrific. I thought if there was a lack of nutrients they would shrivel first, they have never looked better, except for the ones being eaten.
 
Are you acclimating the corals when you put them in? Where is the placement ? Are they going white or browning out?
 
So i started by putting them in this little tray i made on the sand bed. At that point the stylophora started to have its polyps retract in the center of the coral.

This weekend I moved it up to the center of the tank to give it better flow.

The policopora stayed in the tray but its polyps are not extending, I haven't moved it yet.

I temperature acclimate for about 20 minutes and then drip acclimate for about an hour and a half. I feel like I did a poor job acclimating the corals though as i had to pick up the bag and pour it out every 20 minutes or so. So if you have any suggestions for how to best acclimate corals I'd love to hear it, my LFS is a bit stingy on the water so I have to leave the corals in the bag when i acclimate as there is not enough water to acclimate them in a bucket.
 
If the shop where you buy it have the same light or "bigger" light. IMO you don't have to place them on the sand bed, but that me. I have buy a milli 2 week ago and put it where I wanted to have it and was open after 30 min to 1 hour. With leds its dangerous.
 
The par at the store was a little less than in my tank on the sandbed tray. I don't put corals right where I want them because I'm so used to killing them and then having to unglue the dead skeleton always depresses me.

The store has 10k (i think) 400 watt metal halides suspended 36 or so inches above the water line.
 
Last edited:
IMHO, a 75 gallon tank do water change 10 gallon a bit more but not too bad. You have to be very sure your new water parameters (e.g. KH, Temp, salinity) are similar to tank water parameters before pull in. Please also make sure your parameters provided above are stable enough in a long period of time, not just a point time. Especial KH should keep no more than 5% change within a day.

A tank over a year should be very stable if you did water change correctly.

Keep going, we all came from the same route, and I won't surprise that you will win big success soon.
 
Just as a follow up. I have been doing 5 gallon a week water changes to minimize fluctuations and Alk changes by less than .5 dkh a week for the past few months. I have had a Monti for 3 months and two acro frags for 2 months and all are growing, some slower than others. So I appreciate your help.
 
what did you do to fix the problem i think 10 gallons would of been not enough water changes to help nitrate i do a 5 gallon on a 24 it auctaully only holds 15 gallons because of rock and false back.
 
A few months ago I had a similar problem. Everything was dying...birdsnest/pocillapora, acro....forgetaboutit. First thing that i focused on was stabilizing po4. I started carbon dosing with no3po4x by RedSea and ran gfo/chemipure; Did 10% water change weekly as well. I than switched to doing more frequent water changes and here is why. Even if your po4/no3 are low, other things like alkalinity and calcium may be swinging to much between water changes which will cause sps to do poorly in your system. Instead of going out and buying dosing pumps/test kits/2 part/all of the other craziness i started with the method mentioned before. Swiched from doing 10% to 15% weekly and instead of doing it once a week i do smaller more frequent changes every three days that eventually equal out to 15%. Now not only am i keeping acro, I even started seeing very rapid growth and better coloration. I know that this will not last for ever as the corals demands for calcium goes up the bigger they get. But for now I will just roll with what works!!
 
shih87 said:
IMHO, a 75 gallon tank do water change 10 gallon a bit more but not too bad. You have to be very sure your new water parameters (e.g. KH, Temp, salinity) are similar to tank water parameters before pull in. Please also make sure your parameters provided above are stable enough in a long period of time, not just a point time. Especial KH should keep no more than 5% change within a day.

A tank over a year should be very stable if you did water change correctly.

Keep going, we all came from the same route, and I won't surprise that you will win big success soon.
Click to expand...

Very good advice...I forgot to mention in my above post that my tank has just met the 1 year mark.:headwally:
 
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