Sps starving to death... please help

[AriMiko43]

I have a 156 gallon tank with 80 gallon frag tank and 50 gallon sump. I would say my total water volume is about 225-250 gallons. My current levels are...

Alk 8.3
Cal 420
Mag 1410 [a bit high I know]
Phosphate 0.04
Nitrate >2

These levels have been staying very stable

About a year or so ago I had a huge problem keeping sps. They would turn very pale and die within a few days. I found out my issue was running to much gfo so I backed off it and starting adding reef fuel to the tank and was able to keep sps. Sps starting growing great since then and colors were great. Everything has been going fine up until now. It seems it started up again.

I have not changed anything as far as my maintenance. I change my carbon and gfo once a month-month and a half. My levels have been staying consistent as far as alk,cal,mag. I am still adding the reef fuel 2-3 times a week. It seems all the sps is starting to burn from the tips and starting to stn. I am also losing lps now. I believe I am low on nutrients because my glass is staying very clean for almost a week or more.

I am feeding the fish 2-3 times a day now and have been shutting off my protein skimmer at night. My carbon reactor has a cup of carbon and my gfo reactor has 150 grams of gfo in it. I have a SWC 230 skimmer, 2 mp-40's and cree diy led lighting. The problems that are happening now is exactly what I experienced before but the reef fuel is not helping.

How can I build up the nutrients in my system so the corals can feed? Please help:headwally:

 

[ESJ]

Have you been increasing the Reef Fuel as your corals have been getting bigger? Maybe you just need to increase the Fuel.

 

[ridetheducati]

If your nutrient (PO4 and NO3) levels are accurate, you have plenty in the system. Cut your GFO usage in half.

 

[DaddyJax]

Why are you running GFO again? Or carbon for that matter?:headwally:
How many and what kind of fish do you have?

 

[suzig]

i really see no need for gfo if you're using RO/DI water and have a good size skimmer and an acceptable bio load. ime if you do water changes frequently, you can even ditch the carbon.

 

[Geeray]

i really see no need for gfo if you're using RO/DI water and have a good size skimmer and an acceptable bio load. ime if you do water changes frequently, you can even ditch the carbon.

Now idea where this advice comes from... Many Many people see a need for GFO even while using RO/DI. The possibilities of what the actual problem is based on the info we have is huge.

 

[suzig]

Now idea where this advice comes from... Many Many people see a need for GFO even while using RO/DI. The possibilities of what the actual problem is based on the info we have is huge.

it comes from years upon years of experience

 

[Geeray]

What's your salinity? How are you testing salinity? Has your meter been calibrated lately?

IMO you should get your parameters double checked because bad/expiring test kits are fairly common.

 

[Geeray]

it comes from years upon years of experience

Unfortunately your experience doesn't match A LOT of other peoples experiences sorry. Next someones going to chime is and say it must be the LEDs... Lol

The OP might want to consider a smaller amount of GFO changed out more frequently but to say GFO is completely not necessary is insane.

 

[Jpugh73]

It must be the leds . lol

 

[suzig]

Unfortunately your experience doesn't match A LOT of other peoples experiences sorry. Next someones going to chime is and say it must be the LEDs... Lol

The OP might want to consider a smaller amount of GFO changed out more frequently but to say GFO is completely not necessary is insane.

to say gfo is necessary is bonkers

 

[likefish]

i too am struggling with nutrient balance in my tank.... nutrients too high = algae growth, nutrients too low = pale / bleached corals.

I am attempting to find the sweet spot. First reccomendation i received form a local was to decrease the intensity of my DIY LEDs. He stated that with increased nutrients the corals were holding up to the pounding of light, with low nutrients the corals wer showing bleaching.

I have reduced the intensity of my blues and both the intensity and duration of my whites wile trying to find a nutrient sweet spot.

Just my 2 cents...... best of luck to ya... keep us posted.

 

[AriMiko43]

Everything was going fine up until I changed out my gfo and carbon. I did not add any more then I usually do. I run the gfo to keep my phosphates in check. If I dont run it, my phosphates jump up. I'm wondering if I might have put to much flow through the reactor for the gfo. I just cut the valve back a bit.I am using salifert test kits which are not expired.

I have 4 clownfish, 4 chromis, 1 firefish, 1 hippo tang, 1 yellow coris wrasse, 1 mystery wrasse, 1 watchman goby, 1 radiant wrasse, 1 vroliks wrasse, 4 yellow tangs, 1 algae blenny, 1 royal gramma. 1 sunburst anthias, 2 dispar anthias, 1 cardinal, 1 naso tang, 1 blue spot jawfish, 1 fairy wrasse, 1 longnose hawk, 2 melanarus wrasses and a blotchy anthias. So I do have a lot of fish in the system.

Why is my glass hardly building up any algae on it? Is this is sign of something being wrong? I do not dose anything besides the reef fuel. Should I start dosing some coral nutrition? like I said this was the same issue I had a while back. The tank is mature and has been running for 3 years. i have a 3 inch sandbed with about 150 lbs of rock filled with coraline.

What are you successful sps keepers dosing into your tank? Like I said my daily routine is feeding nori in the morning before work then when I get home I feed mysis and brine mixed with fake or pellet 2 times. I am dosing through a bubble magus doser, no reactor.

 

[minireef30]

I would do a water change if you haven't already, and cut the gfo/carbon out until you start to see algae growing again. Then if need be start back with the gfo/carbon slowly.

Water change to "reset" any imbalance and then let the water get a little dirty. Should help straighten the tank out. The burnt tips has me thinking a kh test kit is bad or something because that usually only happens in low nutrient tanks with high alk.

 

[cugly]

Try some pohls extra special and coral vitalizer and amino acid from zeovit try one product at a time and see what the reactions are seems like your system is running low nutrients. .and zeovit additives will help that from experience I run full zeo with low nutrient system and im able to keep colors vibrant ..goodluck

 

[Geeray]

When you start back up with GFO use a much smaller amount and change it out more frequently. I know it's more of a pain but it seems to work for people. If you used 500 grams in a month try 125 grams changed out weekly. It's hard to say for sure but if the problem happened right after you changed out the GFO then most likely the sudden drop in phosphates is the problem. Could be be that you just had the flow through the reactor to fast was well but reducing the amount of media will help with that as well.

Good luck!

You might find that you need to switch to T5's or Mh that seems to cure every conceivable issue no matter how seemingly unrelated it is... Lol just joking

 

[Allmost]

did you leave the last batch of po4 in for too long ?

seems like that might be the case ... last batch got full [of po4] and stopped removing, your system po4 went up, corals adapting, then new GFO introduced and within 2 hours po4 went back to normal [which is no longer normal for your corals]

if that is the case. try feeding some particle foods. there are alot of choices out there. dont overfeed, just a bit daily is enough. your system will be back to normal in 2 weeks.

just guessing what has happened though. think about what u have done differently last 2 months, cant tell exactly what the ISsue is from just tests and results of today.

 

[demonclownfish]

Coral frenzy would be a good addition, and as others have said dramatically reduce the amount of gfo. There is such a thing as "Too Clean" for SPS.

 

[Dog boy Dave]

Unfortunately your experience doesn't match A LOT of other peoples experiences sorry. Next someones going to chime is and say it must be the LEDs... Lol

The OP might want to consider a smaller amount of GFO changed out more frequently but to say GFO is completely not necessary is insane.

Many people, especially us old timers have success using methods to reduce phosphate long term with out carbon dosing or chemical reduction like GFO. While some people choose to use it, to many of us it is not necessary. To be honest most of the problems that I see on this site are caused by improper system design or unrealistic bio loads. A properly designed and populated system can run quite nicely long term without a lot of chemical supplements, additives or other bandages.

 

[vic8361]

I would feed the fish more and see what happens. I feed 5 to 6 times a day.