Trouble keeping SPS in one tank, but fine in my other

[ddiomede]

Hi everyone,

I've been having some troubling issues with my newish tank.

Some parameters first:

Tank: 50 cube
Sump: 15 gallons total water volume
PH 8.0
alk: 8.5
cal: 460
mag: 1300
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 2ppm
Phos: .17, this one varies a bit.
Salinity: 1.025
Temp: kept steady between 79-80
For lighting I have a kessil a360W controlled by apex
Flow is 2 mp40's.

The tank has been set up for roughly two months now. All dry rock start.

The problem I've been having is my sps, even easy one's like purple stylo's have been STN'ing on me. When I move them to my older system, the STN stops immediately and the coral begins to get better.

There are no pests in the new tank, as I have bayer dipped all sps before adding them in.

I do a 10 gallon WC every other week. Aggressive skimming as well.

I just don't get it. The STN starts from the base and works it's way upward. Then just a few days ago, my purple stylo started to STN from the tip of the branch.

The only variable that I've just recently fixed is temp swings. I was seeing the temp swing from 77.9- 82.5 during the day. I've added a chiller so the temp is now stable. I'm just at a complete loss as to what's going on.

 

[reef bloke]

Phosphate is pretty high. I would do a water change with water from the good tank and run some more Po4 remover.

 

[ati70cutlass]

nothing wrong with your phosphate levels. I run .1 to .3 consistanly and grow sps like weeds. the tank is not mature enough... after about 3-4 and good water quality you should be ok. that is about the time mine started to not kill my sps.

 

[reef bloke]

What's the colour like at .3ppm? I hold my Phosphate at around 0.03ppm which I find ideal.

 

[Relativity]

Thats the reason people usually start with LPS and softies before trying sps. I think you should add live rock from your old system to your new tank and wait a few months

 

[Leonardo_]

I think you give a possible reason yourself. The tank is cycled with dry rock and is up and running for two months. There's possibly a lot of unwanted nutrients (phosphates) coming out of the rock, causing high PO4 and therefore problems with keeping SPS.

Leonardo

 

[cbbram]

i think you give a possible reason yourself. The tank is cycled with dry rock and is up and running for two months. There's possibly a lot of unwanted nutrients (phosphates) coming out of the rock, causing high po4 and therefore problems with keeping sps.

Leonardo

+1

 

[ddiomede]

Thanks everyone.

The dry rock start, while ideal since you eliminate pests for the most part, you still have to deal with phos leaching.

I think at this point, I'm going to just move all of my zoas, palys, and lps over to the new tank, as well as transferring over a piece of rock or two from my existing system.

The only colony that has all but STN'd on me, is the purple stylo. I am going to frag off some good branches and place them in my existing system. I'm going to then take the rest of the colony and freshwater dip it and see if anything undesirable falls off. I just want to be certain there aren't any pests.

I'll start testing regularly to see if my parameters remain stable, and wont be putting any more sps in that tank until I begin to see coralline growing on the rock.

Thanks again for the replies. If I find any pests, I'll make sure to come back and post what I found. Hopefully I wont have to update this thread lol!

 

[Leonardo_]

Good luck and keep us updated

Leonardo