Hello. I am hoping to get some help. I have a 90 gallon corner tank that for the last 7 years has been filled with fish and softies. I also have two carpet anemones. I decided about 6 months ago to switch to SPS ( because lets face it, they are far and away cooler coral.) But I am not having much success keeping them. My nitrates when I first tested were very high six months ago. I have been running a two little fishies 150 GFO reactor for three months now. I have been able to keep most frags alive for a month or so, but mostly its just a slow decline. I cant even get birdsnest coral to stay alive. My nitrates are now hovering around .5 and dropping. I have reefbrite LEDS over the tank and I am assuming ( perhaps wrongly ) that they are enough light as they keep my two large carpets happy. I know that over the years a lot of bad nitrates may have sunk into my live rock and is now leaching out. Have I just not given the tank enough time to be ready for SPS? I do 10 percent water changes with reef crystals every week and at the moment I am running carbon in a bag and the GFO reactor. Also a rather large protein skimmer. Any advise on how I can better keep these beautiful corals alive and thriving? I have a green slimer in there now and he's been in the tank for about 6 weeks. He still has pollyp extenstion on the sides facing up but a lot of the green has turned to white on the bottom of the branches. Could this ne a sign that i need more light? I really appreciate any help you can give, and i apologize that i may not have included all of the info that you need to be able to help me so please ask away if there is more info needed. Thank you again.
Switching from Softies to SPS ( help please!)
- Thread starter Jerm0007
- Start date
epicurus84
New member
What happens, does it turn light in colouring, and then die. Or does it loose tissue.
If the first it gets too much light from the LED's.
What i would do if i where you, go find a nice LPS coral, not to big or expensive. But one that can tolerate pretty high light. If this grows well start with a montipora.
After that go on with acro's.
If your nitrates and phosphates are low then you should (normaly) don't have any problems. Altough i had the same problems in my old tank (never fixed it).
Also look if the flow is good and random. That helps a lot
If the first it gets too much light from the LED's.
What i would do if i where you, go find a nice LPS coral, not to big or expensive. But one that can tolerate pretty high light. If this grows well start with a montipora.
After that go on with acro's.
If your nitrates and phosphates are low then you should (normaly) don't have any problems. Altough i had the same problems in my old tank (never fixed it).
Also look if the flow is good and random. That helps a lot
Oh, an the birdsnest and the acros I tried at first lost tissue, but the green slimer I'm trying now doesnt seem to be losing tissue but rather losing color... Should i move the slimer down lower in the tank? He is currently high up on the rocks right below the lights.
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smtank
New member
If the Ca/alk/mag levels are not on par than everything else is a moot point.
Posting some images of the corals you're concerned about can help a lot as well.
Start with the basic chemistry and move on from there.
Thank you all, I will post some pics tonight when I get home from work. Hopefully my iphone will be able to take good enough pics to show you all what they look like. Oh, and where should those three be at? When I use the test kits should they all just be in the "normal range?" Or should I be trying for a certain level of each significant to SPS?
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Do you have a sandbed? If so, 7 years is pretty close to the limit on them. You might consider switching it out before you dive in too much.
Every few years, I will swap out a bag during water changes. Suck it out with a siphon and then put washed sand down a long funnel back in it's place. It is messy, but the cloud doesn't last long in the tank
Just post the results of the tests, right now.
Alk
Calcium
Mag
Nitrate
Phosphate
Every few years, I will swap out a bag during water changes. Suck it out with a siphon and then put washed sand down a long funnel back in it's place. It is messy, but the cloud doesn't last long in the tank
Just post the results of the tests, right now.
Alk
Calcium
Mag
Nitrate
Phosphate
I do have a sand bed. its actually a pretty deep sand bed as I need it to be so for my haddoni carpet. I'd say its nearly 4 inches deep. I have never changed it out aside from vacuuming some up and them every two years adding a new bag of live sand to make up for the stuff slowly vaccumed out over time. I will run a fresh gambit of tests tonight and post all results as well as some pics asap.
