Sps struggling

[WaReefer458]

So I've had my 40 up and running for a couple months now and I started buying frags about 3 weeks ago. I started with a blue stag and a green milli frag to see how things were doing. After a week they looked pretty happy so I I added a couple more. A green acro and a bonzai I believe it is called. Everything still looked good so I bought a birds of paradise my Lfs just got in. After putting it in I noticed a couple of the other frags were starting to get a bit lighter on the coloration, not really browning out but just getting a little lighter color on the sides. My water parameters are good but not sure if they are just stressed or what. I've constantly been moving them around trying to find everyone's happy place as far as flow and lighting based on how the polyps were looking. I'm running a Kessil a360. Lights come on at 7:30 and ramp to 80% at noon. Then they ramp down from 7pm to 9. I recently made a frag rack to keep them all lower in the tank thinking maybe I'm nuking them with light. I would just like a little input on my lighting and flow. Flow is an mp40 running reef crest mode to only about 40%. I also do a 5gal water change weekly.

Parameters are:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5ppm
Phos 0
Alkalinity 9-10
Cal 550
Salinity 1.024
Temp 78 and it stays that all day
Ph 8.0 during the day and drops to 7.7 at night
Not sure about mag but shouldn't be an issue

 

[Joke]

Do you dose

 

[alazo1]

I think moving them down is a good move. Your tank may not be mature enough for sps. However, I would just leave the corals and tank alone and see how they do. I would'nt even do any water changes for the next month or so, keep fish feeding light and your biological filtration should take care of waste. Moving corals around can contribute to stress specially in a young tank such as yours.

 

[WaReefer458]

I bought the bionic 2 part but haven't even opened it yet. No need if everything is good. I figured I'd leave everything alone for a bit and see how it goes. Just outta curiosity, why stop doing water changes? To let my alk and calcium come down a bit?

 

[WaReefer458]

Forgot to add in that my bioload is pretty light as well. 1 chromis, 2 clowns, 1 bicolor blenny and a cleaner shrimp. All are very small.

 

[WaReefer458]

Kinda hard to see but my blue stag and this bonzai have small grey patches on the sides

 

[WaReefer458]

Everyone else looks happy tho.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Just keep the tank stable and give it time.

 

[WaReefer458]

The patches are even bigger today and after talking to a buddy he seems to think I should cut out anything dead on the frags and re glue them to plugs. I guess I got nothing to lose by doing that. They definitely seem to be " on their way out "

 

[DaveRaz]

Man I wasn't able to grow SPS until the 6 month mark in my tank. The more I tinkered the longer it took. Changing flow, lights, location and generally the tank going through many biological changes had to be the reasons why. I started the tank one year ago this week and didn't have any significant results until around May. but in my case not only was the tank new but I was new to the hobby. I am finally learning to watch it and stop tinkering. Good luck.

 

[WaReefer458]

Well the deed is done. I cut the tips off both frags and glued them in the rock. Got 4-5 pieces off each frag so I'm thinking even if only 1-2 from each make it then that was still a better deal than losing both. Or maybe they are all gonna die. Only time will tell but I think I'm done buying corals for a while.

 

[sonic]

Be patient and don't move them around, better yet glue them down. I had a hard time at the beginning as well. Around the 6-8 month mark everything started to take off. Stability is key.

 

[WaReefer458]

I didn't want to glue anything down as the tank will be moved in March when we move. I glued all the clippings on my rock as a Hail Mary but will leave the others on my frag rack for now. I should have known better than to keep buying frags but they looked good for a couple weeks. Either way I'm done with corals until the tank is finally settled when we move.