SPS problems....Need advice please!!!

[Psyops]

Thanks Alex T. for the response. I took my Rox offline yesterday. I do have the other carbon from BRS. Should I switch or give it some time for my system to recover, then continue with the new carbon. For whatever it's worth, I was using 1 cup of carbon per 250 gallons of water volume. The recommended dose was 1.5 cups. I have seen some people use only about 1/3 cup or so for this amount of water volume with better results.

Funny because my phos is about 0.02 (Hanna) and Nitrate is around 2.0-3.7 mg/L (Hanna). Obviously it can remove other things also. I am going to post this issue in the chmistery portion and see what Randy Holmes is going to say about it.

 

[Enjoy]

Finally I am keeping some SPS frags alive, and actually getting some growth on some SPS frags. This guy has started to encrust nicely.

It will still be a long journey, but at least I'm heading in the right direction.

Sorry for the crappy cell phone pic....

 

[BuckeyeTodd]

First off, that is a gorgeous setup.

Those corals look to me to either have too much light or not enough nutrients(Or both). The purple appears to be peeling from the tip, which makes me guess light. All of them look pale to me. If it were my tank I'd cut back the light, take maybe an hour off the supp and an hour off the MH. You said you ran this light before, did you run the LED's then too? I'm thinking the combo may just be a bit too much. I'd also start feeding a little heavier. If you don't want to put more food in, maybe start some Aminos. Good luck, I hope it turns around for you.

 

[tmb22]

Finally I am keeping some SPS frags alive, and actually getting some growth on some SPS frags. This guy has started to encrust nicely.

It will still be a long journey, but at least I'm heading in the right direction.

Sorry for the crappy cell phone pic....

Great to hear!! I have been quietly following this thread and my stomach aches for you and these problems that seem to come from no where. Really glad things are looking better. What do you think is helping the most? Did you pull the ROX offline?

 

[jgraz]

I just came across this thread for the first time and read through the whole thing. I was feeling so bad while reading. the last post you had seems to make it better. Glad to see you having a turnaround. Did you ever really track down the problem. I think you may have been spot on with the salt issue.

 

[Enjoy]

Sorry for not replying in awhile. I have been dealing with all kinds of back issues, and haven't had much time for the tank.

As soon as the bio-pellets got colonized with bacteria, I could see a big difference in water clarity, and skimmate color mainly. Then I slowly started watching frags go through the same process dying from the tips down. After awhile I decided to pull the pellets again. I am done with them, and really have seen no positive results other than water clarity. Maybe it is something I am doing, but I have researched everything I can about the pellets, and still had major issues.
I also changed salts about a month or so ago. I have been trying out the Seachem Aquavitro Salinty. So far - so good.

Now that everything has calmed down, it seems like the SPS are doing alright. My chalices are growing like crazy so I cant complain. Just have to wait and see how the system reacts, but I will not be putting pellets back online anytime soon.

Lately I have been focusing on my fish...

My newest addition:

Thanks to everyone for the kind words.
I will try to keep this thread updated.

 

[borcu]

so what do you think, what was the problem?

 

[Enjoy]

Not 100% sure.

The bio-pellets were causing the issue I was having, but chemically I don't know what it was. I would say that it striped the nutrients from my water, but witt the growth of chalices, and macro algaes I can't see that being true.

I am not saying I found the problem, and now my tank is going to be better. All im saying is that nothing but bad results came from BioPellets.

 

[pulit]

i had a similar problem in my tank , ontop of the ideas above try taking off your filter sock for a few weeks . see if that help alil . i havent had one in over a year . and my fuge is growing like crazy . acro all look healthy with great PE.

i didnt read the whole thread . hope im not repeating it

 

[montrealreef]

I know this may seem unlikely, but I have been struggling with the same problem and I seem to have narrowed down the cause to the reefbrite led strip in combination with an ULNS.

I cut down the reefbrite photo period from 8 hours to 3 (LED on 1.5 hours before and 1. hrs after main lighting system which is a 6 bulb ATI power module) and my SPS recovered. I started to gradually increase the LED photoperiod and the SPS started to burn again. I then cut down on them and SPS recovered .

I think that the reefbrites put out a lot more light than what we can perceive and it was just too much for my corals, especially with ULNS.

Too bad because I really love the look of the tank with the LEDs + T5 on.

my two cents

sam

 

[jbanks]

+1 with Montrealreef.. I have see this happen in general with LEDs.. I truly belie that the rules change in terms of intensity and time when using LEDs...

 

[RichardinMa]

I think it was related to the water being stripped by the ROX Carbon. I had a hell of a time keeping any SPS in my 160 system while I was running units of Chemipure Ultra and Purigen. Once I cut that way back my problems stopped and I was no longer getting bleaching and STN/RTN. That system also has a low bioload and I had identical problems to yours. I do not run bio-pellets and have no intention of doing so until there is a better grasp of their benefits and shortcomings. There are just too many variables in people's systems that make them either great or deadly.

 

[Ellery]

I am experiencing the same thing today - Everything looked OK last night and I just bought these Frags on Sunday. I took all the ROX and GFO off, stopped Vodka/Vinegar Dosing, Shutdown the biopellets and did a 10% water change. I've never had issues back in the day when I never made water changes on my old DSB system. I hope they start recovering soon.

Enjoy - Did you recover any of your original Frags that stated RTN'ing?
or should I basically kiss these 5 frags good bye...