Whats the problem here...?

[Reef_Me]

Hola fellow reefers

I have been having serious trouble keeping sps alive in my 20gal long. I figured this would be a good time to post because i can give you accurate params(i just tested)

Nitrate - N/A
Phos - N/A
Cal - 450
Mg - 1200
Alk - 8
pH - 8.2

I think I'm having an issue with lighting.. i doubt i am over filtering because I am simply running a penguin emperor 750 on the tank with some carbon. For the past few months, my sps has been receding and losing tissue (stn) I thought it was because of a new light i added which was an aquaticlife 30" 4x24. I turned the lighting down so that the four would only be on for 3 hours.

Could i be starving my tank with the carbon? i only have one purple firefish in there with a cbs and serpent star. i feed 6 days a week 1 or 2 times a day.

Can you think of a factor I am missing?

Thanks as always,
Dave

 

[Reefvet]

What SPS have you tried to keep ?

Are there any corals, any kind, surviving ?

How did you measure pH and when ?

Balancing a 20 gal. is tricky. SPS first and foremost need stable alkalinity.

Are you just doing the water changes or are you dosing anything ?

What is that salinity and how do you top off for evaporation ?

 

[Reef_Me]

I have tried to keep an acro and branching monti, as well as a new stylopora. My trachyphilia is receding after being nibbled on by a valentini puffer in my other tank. I have an Aussie war coral and Lord scans doing well

I measure my ph at night with an Api test kit as well as a cheapo dip test. I would like to get a probe at some point.

I use rodi water that reads 0ppm for top off. Every day or two I put in around half a gallon.

I supplement when needed with Kent a and b as well as Kent tech m

salinity is at a constant 1.025

The reason I think it's starvation or lighting is because I am successfully keeping coral in my 72 with the exact same parameters.

I forgot to mention that I am getting basically no PE from ANY of my coral including the healthy ones.

 

[Reefvet]

Well if you're LPS are doing OK then the tank is somewhat stable. The SPS would need more light and water movement in the tank than the LPS would like in a tank that small. So flow might be one of the issues.

Why not just make it an LPS tank ?

Montis and Acros need a lot more water movement than the LPS are going to like.

So you're growing SPS in the 72 ?

And have you been feeding the trachyphilia ? Even if it's lost tissue it can grow back.

 

[Reef_Me]

The Sps were happy in the 72 until I took a risk and bought the valentini puffer which likes the taste of Sps.

My water movement is around 1200gph, so I wouldn't be surprised if that's why the trach isn't doing well. I try to target feed but the cbs is greedy and plucks the food before it can finish.

Sps are beautiful and I would really enjoy being able to keep some, but I might just have to wait until I upgrade the tank volume to get more.

 

[rovster]

What to you have for water movement? Any pics, even if it's just the rocks? I would look hard at either flow or water chemistry especially with regards to stability. Dumping a half gallon in there every few day hardly speaks "stability". There may be other underlying issues as well.

Giving a snapshot of your parameters although sometimes helps is not enough. I would test your alk and salinity everyday for a week and report back. Also, in tanks that small, temp fluctustions can be an issue. I'm not talking about 3-4 degree regular swinging, but that one time it swings a little too far out of range. That can set you back weeks to months. Good luck. I hope you figure it out.

 

[risin]

My guess would be lighting and possibly flow.



For reference, my lord acans have to be almost completely in the shade or they bleach and die. If your lords are thriving in direct light, my guess is the lighting is too weak for sps.

 

[Dapg8gt]

Agreed with all the above. I think you would need to add some more info and pics of the setup to get some real solid advice. You put n03/p04 @ n/a and literally those two numbers could very well be your entire issue by themselves.

I'm with the above feelings that Without an Ato in a small tank your salinity can drift enough to negatively effect sps , if you really want to keep acros successfully in the 20g I think getting an Ato is a must and a good place to start.

 

[Reef_Me]

Thanks for the advice everyone! I put n/a for the no3 and po4 because they are both reading zero with my salifer tests. What's normal for the amount of top off in a 20gal? I typically add top off when I can see the water line right under the black coping. I don't let the salinity go above 1.026.

my Alk drops 2dkh in a week but now that I am on my winter break I will do some seriously regimented testing

I should test during the peak hours of light as well as night time

All my lps are on the bottom sides of the tank where you find the least par. I wish rent a center had a par meter lol

I will do more testing everusage in order to find a daily scope of ranges and get back to you

 

[Reef_Me]

Also I will add some pics tonight if that helps

 

[lafayettereefer]

Thanks for the advice everyone! I put n/a for the no3 and po4 because they are both reading zero with my salifer tests. What's normal for the amount of top off in a 20gal? I typically add top off when I can see the water line right under the black coping. I don't let the salinity go above 1.026.

my Alk drops 2dkh in a week but now that I am on my winter break I will do some seriously regimented testing

I should test during the peak hours of light as well as night time

All my lps are on the bottom sides of the tank where you find the least par. I wish rent a center had a par meter lol

I will do more testing everusage in order to find a daily scope of ranges and get back to you

You should try to test at the same time everyday if possible. That will eliminate one variable. Also if your alk is dropping by 2dkh then it isn't considered stable. Alk swings especially downward will cause stn/rtn.

How often are you doing water changes? Is that all you're doing to get params in order?

 

[phenom5]

My first thought would be alk/ salinity/ water parameters. Second would be flow.

Do they recede at the tips or at the base?

I would definitely explore those two before I looked at the lighting.