Why don't my SPS do well in my tank

[jay2525]

I highly recommend ICP testing. I dealt with sps issues for years. I found that adding iodine was the key for me and water changes. Iodine is easily depleted in our high skimmer type reefs. I have a 220g and I add 3 drops of lugols every week.
Couple things:
1) do you use a doser? (if not, then you might consider adding)
2) how often do you test? (I have tested every day when things get weird).
3) what is you salinity and how do you know?
4) do you know the par levels within your tank?

The easiest way to fix most thinks is to do a ton of water changes. I moved to changing water every week about 1 year ago and things have never been better. I do a 13% change every week.

Hope this helps and next time you want to try sps, hit me up. I will give you some easy stuff that you can try before you spend money.
Jeff

Im having the same issues the op posted.. when you were struggling were test results good. My test values are solid and consistent. But something like iodine I had not thought about. Im gonna order the icp test that has been recommended to find out.

you are doing 13% on 220 and find that effective?

 

[Jstndnhyr]

What do you use for water changes? Don't trust any shops water. Make your own using a RODI System at home. Replace the CARBON Blocks with Chlorimine Busters and add a dual chamber DI at the end. I promise all your issues will disappear. (Hopefully)

I'm curious and apparently to lazy to look it up myself:fun4:. What do the Chlorimine Busters do? Could they help with algae control better then Carbon blocks?

 

[waterman78]

Well....it's a bit late but he never mentioned the levels of his NITRATES. IME it came down to my placement of the coral and water flow within the tank..however my water parameters had to be consistent and the tank had to be mature enough to convert the waste of my fish and inverts fast enough not to harm the balance in the water's chemistry. IMO, he did a lot of water changes....what is the reason that so many people do frequent water changes? I feel like the minerals/elements have to be used up before I can commit to a water change....almost like I'm allowing time for the system to use up the material before I change out the old water.

My two pennies.

- Larry

 

[jay2525]

Well....it's a bit late but he never mentioned the levels of his NITRATES. IME it came down to my placement of the coral and water flow within the tank..however my water parameters had to be consistent and the tank had to be mature enough to convert the waste of my fish and inverts fast enough not to harm the balance in the water's chemistry. IMO, he did a lot of water changes....what is the reason that so many people do frequent water changes? I feel like the minerals/elements have to be used up before I can commit to a water change....almost like I'm allowing time for the system to use up the material before I change out the old water.

My two pennies.

- Larry

how do you decide when ?

 

[waterman78]

Maybe once a month.... Maybe. Downtime chore

 

[jabel]

jay2525

My alk and ca were fairly consitent, but test for phosphate and other trace elements comes with a ton of error. Adding Iodine was not obvious, but I noticed the difference within a couple days.

The biggest results come from ICP testing. My results about 1 year ago that prompted the moved to weekly water changes showed super high tin which was probably due to a degrading magnet within the tank. It also showed low Iodine, strontium, molybdenum and potassium. I was able to order supplements and the last ICP was perfect.

ICP every 3-6 months is now part of my norm as is weekly water changes.

Feel free to message me if you want to discuss more.
Jeff

 

[waterman78]

Jeff,

Which ICP test option did you choose to get your results?


- Larry

 

[jabel]

I have only used Triton. Seems to have the best reviews.
Jeff

 

[Imaexpat2]

Not to play Captain Obvious or anything....but something is likely off in your system. But even us experienced long time SPS keepers can struggle at times no matter how perfect our systems might be! SPS corals can be finiky at times and sometimes "The Force is just not with you".

This is where a reef monitoring system can pay for itself for you as many allow you to look back over a period of time and see if something changed. This is why I keep a spread sheet on water test so I can go back later if I need to and see if there is a trend. I also keep a "Log Book" on my tanks where I log everything I do and things I see when I am looking intensely at my tanks and corals. Again by doing this you can sometimes go back and see a trend that may crack the code on what the heck is going on in your tank.

Just a thought...

 

[dponchak]

Check out "œAquarimate "œ. It's a free aquarium app with spreadsheets, livestock id, charts, graphs. Way cool.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[isseym328]

I've been having some issues with my sps recently as well super frustrating at times, and I've been doing this for a while. Some of the acros do well and some just don't and brown out/rtn. Most items are automated including dosing, temp, ATO but still have to check for other parameters. Last night did a WC and some acros looked better. Here's a list of parameters I checked and if you haven't might be worth looking into:

TDS (Best to be at 0-1)
Alk
Temp
Chemical warfare (i.e. Anemones)
Having some nitrate/phosphate
Overskimming
Possible too much light