I have decided that SPS is not for me...

F

Flamenco-t

It's been a frustrating a couple of weeks trying to keep SPS alive in my tank. My LPS and softies are growing like weed, but for some reason, SPS is a different ball game that I think I may have to give up on..

I started with a birdnest, and it whitenes within a week and I was separating the white part to prevent it from spreading, but after 3 weeks the whole colony died (5" high and 4" wide) with multi branches

Setup:

AGA 75 gallon RR with 30 gallon sump
4 x 54 T5 with icecap overdrive ballasts 10" above water
ASM G2 with direct feed, recirc, gate valve mods...skimming very well. I clean the cups every 3-4 days. I skimmed wet too..
5x Turnover through the sump, Koralia 4 and MJ High FLow Mods plus an MJ1200
Phosban reactor
Red Sea pro Salt with RODI - 0 TDS
Salinity 1.025
PH 8.2 lights off, 8.3 lights on
Lights period, 4 PM until 12.00 Midnight
Ammonia, Nitrite - 0
Nitrate 20 ppm
Magnesium 1400 ppm tested twice with 2 kits (Salifert and API) DAILY
Calcium 400 ppm tested twice with 2 kits (Salifert and API) DAILY
Alk 9 DKH tested twice with 2 kits (Salifert and API) DAILY

Anything that I am doing wrong ?

Stan
 
I don't run carbon all the time. I usually stick a bag for about 3-4 days and take 'em out. I do this about once a month.

Also, I do about 35 gallon WC every 2 weeks..
 
you only have 200 watts of light on 75G and expect SPS to survive ? I have only a few pieces in my 75 but I have near 700 watts. I think your under lighted , but I could be wrong.
 
Birdsnest requires a very stong light. You don't have nearly enough light with those 4 T5s. That is not even 3 watts per gallon. I just upgraded to MH's so I can keep SPS and have had no issues. I am running at about 6 watts per gallon though. I also keep LPS and Softies in the tank as well. If you don't want to upgrade your lighting and still do SPS, you can always do digitata or Monticap since they are some of the more forgiving SPS when it comes to light intensity.
 
I have 4 x 39w T5s in my 58G. My lights are approx 3-4" above the water. All of my SPS are growing (not explosive growth, but some more than others), including a birdsnest approx the size of yours. They are all mounted mid to high in the tank. So maybe lower your lights and get your SPS higher in the tank? what bulbs are you running?

BTW he has more like 320/340 watts of light with his IceCap ballast (4 x 80/85watts).
 
The birdnest was placed about 3" below water surface. I placed it as high as possible.

Can under-light scenario cause it to die in such a short period of time ?

The old tank where this birdnest used to be was under 400 w MH that was placed 2 feet above water surface and the birdnest was located about 10" below water surface. It definitely thrived at that point..

stan
 
Have any idea if the colony you added to the tank was a wild caught coral? I think the current going rate for loss on wild caught SPS is something north of 1 out of 3 corals.

SPS also like flow, but not direct flow. So if it was getting blasted by one of those powerheads, that could be the problem too.

Does your temperature in the tank fluctuate at all? What is low and high temp during a 24 hour period?

SPS want high flow, high light and stability with low nutrients in the water column.
 
@Ashlar wrote:
Running carbon? Thinking metabolites and such from the softies / LPS could be interfering with the SPSs. said:
give weekly/biweekly "active" carbon changes a try and i bet you will see success, i have seen this personally...i had a couple stn issues, had to frag back a few corals, and after checking all parameters and having no issues i tried this with great success. specifically i had a green slimer STN and it stopped when i added "active" carbon filtration and now looks to have stopped completely and no new 'dead' parts are visible
Click to expand...
 
It's actually closer to 320w of T5 that he has since he is overdriving the lamps. I don't think that lighting is a problem.

How did you acclimate the corals to your new lighting? What type of lighting did they come from?
 
I think lighting... too. It's only 4 bulbs and they're 10" off the water surface

as someone said, wild caught don't seem to fair as well... and birdnest is harder than some to keep

you've only tried 1 sps and calling it quits? imo, get a monti cap frag (not wild caught)

but i still think the lights aren't enough for "much" growth

I'm pro carbon/phosban/skimmer/refugium 24/7
 
I would say its not lighting. I've seen sps survive under pcs, even NO flourescent bulbs, though with little growth. Many people have had success with similar t-5 setups. May have been an acclimation issue or problems with the wildcaught coral.

I personally don't run carbon 24/7 and don't mess with chemical phosphate removal, just a refugium and wet skimming. I would suggest trying an easier sps frag like green slimer, pocilopora or montiopra. Make sure its from a member...a frag from a store may be aquacultured and have the same issues.
 
Lighting and water flow IMO are the most important things to successful sps survival and growth. The more light the better flow you need, all comes down to respiration levels. With the amount of light you have, your flow is more than adequate. The parameters you posted are fine, so? Your softies are fine and growing. As Scott said that could be a problem, sps corals do not grow in the wild very near softies. Run carbon 24/7 and change it every couple of weeks. See if that helps. But it may not. An introduction of a new coral(the sps) near the soft corals really sets off the warfare. And it really would be trouble for the sps near a large established soft coral colony.
I see the lighting as a problem, not so much the amount, but the height as Chris said. With that amount of light 10" off the surface. they are getting very little par for photosynthesis. Ans yes sps can survive in low light situations, granting all others things are in good order. But if the coral is getting very little nutritional needs from photosynthesis, then it needs more from feeding in the water column. In your case the water may be clean enough and it's competing with the softies for food, along with the low light conditions, it could be starving to death.
 
It could be a lot of things but it might be as simple as the tank heating up during the day with lights and poweheads on and dropping significantly at night when everything is off or in night mode. Can you determine that high to low temp is around 1 degree of change?

Stability is your friend with SPS.
 
@Flamenco-t wrote:
Nitrate 20 ppm said:
In addition to the flow ligting and carbon concerns all of which I agree with 1 more thing.

20 is high nitrates for SPS and while it wouldn't kill them your SPS growth will suffer with levels this high. This is exactly why your softies do well and why a mixed tank is difficult. They thrive in very different environments.


Try a monti digitata or cap as others have suggested they are more forgiving. Unless your willing to make some pretty significant setup changes you may just have to stick with a couple of the super forgiving SPS varieties.
Click to expand...
 
Tempwise ranges about 78-80 degrees within 24 hours..

I am not too sure if it was a wild caught or not. The colony was previously placed near the top with MH about 2 feet from the water surface. When I brought it home, I started to place it near the top to somewhat get as much as light from my T5's. I also placed the powerhead to just barely flow near it but not direct flow. I saw polyp extension under actinic every night. It was doing fine for a little bit before it started to whitens..

I agree with most of you on the softies colony being the dominant in my tank. I am going to run carbon 24/7 and will try to get a frag of monti cap to see how to proceed from there..

Would having a softies on one side and SPS on the other side helps to reduce aggression ?

Antyhing else (chemistry-wise) that I should look or test for ?

stan
 
wild caught are generally on rocks and captive is usually on "man made" types of materials.

"Would having a softies on one side and SPS on the other side helps to reduce aggression"

no, it's a chemical warface thing =( carbon might help but who knows... I would think heavy skimming would help.

Can you lower the lights without raising the temp? keep us posted on the monty cap, they pretty hardy =)

(imo, get it from a fellow reefer, not a lfs... from good water to good water = best success rate.)
 
@chrissreef wrote:
wild caught are generally on rocks and captive is usually on "man made" types of materials. "Would having a softies on one side and SPS on the other side helps to reduce aggression" no said:
I'll try to run carbon for a few weeks and get a monti cap then.

I cna lower the lights, but I do have quite a few softies near the top and not want to bleach them. I'll start doing it gradually 1" every week or two.

I'll keep you guys posted..

stan
Click to expand...
 
flam i have lots of small sps frags all doing very well under only t5 lighting
i would suggest running carbon 24 a day i run a ton in all my tanks
let me know if you want and i will give you a few small frags after you add carbon and we can see if they will live
and i think water movement is a huge deal to
 
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