SPS"Rookie"

T

Tj51

First off, thanks for the time to read this as I tend to be a bit wordy. I have been running a 75 reef tank, drilled with a 30 gallon sump. I recently came into a nice assortment of SPS and thought, cool, looks nice. Never having had SPS except a token piece or 2 I didn't think anything of it, but in research you have to really keep your tank in balance and have great water rather then good water. I will first discuss my tank. As mentioned I have a 30 gallon sump which has a large amount of caeto, and a good protein skimmer (not sure of the brand, but it does seem to bubble appropriately and discharge sludge). I have put about 30 lbs of extra live rock that didn't work in my main tank in the sump (I probably have 60-80 lbs in the main tank). I have a filter sock filled with carbon and am running the return line through it. My main tank...lighting is a Unique 3 ft (in a 4 ft) fixture, the one with the ability to adjust both blues and whites ($1200+ ugh). I also have a current outer orbit with 2 x 250w metal halides (the PCs don't work). Currently I have a couple of brackets on my wall about 18" over the tank and this fixture sits on them, with the MHs sitting not quite close to the middle of the tank, closer to the back, but still "over" the tank. I have my LEDs at the front part of the tank (probably 4 - 6 inches from the front of the tank). I have the blues on full, the whites about 50-65%. The timers are as follows: blues come on at 10am to 10 PM, the LED whites 11am to 9 pm, the MHs 11 am to 7 pm. I am running two korilia's and the return from the sump so I'm getting A LOT of flow. My livestock as far as fish...a pretty large gb maroon clown (but I think she's on the way out, trading her off), a medium to large purple tang, a medium goby, 2 very small false percs, 2 small mandorins, and a small 6 line wrasse. Not a big load to say the least. Besides the SPS (and I still can't name them but I'll put up some pics but not taken so well), I have a 10 head duncan, some trumpets, a few other softies, but a lot of xenia. Water parameters: (from last night) salinity 1.027, phosphates between 02.5 .03 (brand new Tropic Marin test kit), alk around 11 (new Red Sea pro test kit), calcium 400-425 (new Red Sea Pro test kit) and nitrates are under 20 ppm but close to 20 (not new API test kit). So now I hope I've painted a good picture. My thoughts are, is raising SPS off the above going to be easy or am I already in bad enough shape to where it will be difficult. I plan on buying some new MH bulbs in the near future (next paycheck??) but I don't want to sink a lot more into the system. I've had the SPS a couple of weeks now and they bleached up at first (I think because of the LEDs) but color has returned. If my nitrates/phosphates are to high, carbon-based dosing (vodka or sugar)? I have the SPS at the back of the tank and raised near the top. It's been suggested that they would actually do well with my LEDs over them (move the LEDS to the back of the tank instead of the front) as this person know's Unique's color spectrum and said is bad for anything but SPS. I don't mind testing alk and calcium and dosing myself at this point. Suggestions are welcome as long as they don't involve lots of $$$$$ at this point. And as I display the SPS if you can put a name on a few, that'd be cool. So that's all I can think of, your help suggestions ARE MOST WELCOME, including "give it up lol."

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(this has browned up a lot)
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There are a few more pieces but this is the majority

Tj
 
the bleaching is not from light, if it was it would be from the top where your issues are random indicating a water quality issue (if from the bottom maybe pests)

I'd start with getting your trates down. I'm not one for dosing but a lot of people have had good results doing so. I'd start with water changes and feeding less.
 
I agree. Get your nitrates and phosphates down first. Weekly 10% water changes work well for me. a couple of those pieces actually look dead (algae growing on the white skeleton). The 3rd from the bottom looks like a birds nest.
 
Marco, I also think a piece or 2 bit the dust and the algae is what is "coloring it," it turned a greenish before brownish and there is no new growth, as I said, I've didn't acclimate them to the LEDs when they first arrived. Some have done well however. The "hair" is growing on one, one that was "brownish" is starting to get a bright green, etc. As far as the other replies;thanks, I do do 10% weekly water changes, I haven't tested the water as far as TDS, I live in an apartment so I don't have room for an RO unit, I get water from DNA but they say they test and the TDS is 0 (hehe) I tested phosphates again today and they are under .01 (which is good as I don't want to pay $40 bucks or so for phosphate removing media that is supposedly good for a week or so), nitrates still between 10 and 20 ppm. I will look for a bioplastics reactor. As far as the feedings, guilty as charged and if it is cut back on feedings or do away with SPS.......I have read all the articles about fish and how much/little they need to eat, but someone could write the same about humans, and some of us can go without eating a lot, but "some" of us can't LOL (as I head off to Whataburger). If my fish look hungry I feed them. They've been removed from their ocean, put in a little glass cage, the least I can do is let them enjoy. I am hoping there is a happy medium somewhere; added clean-up crew? Possible a 2nd protein skimmer? Again...carbon-based dosing (I saw Pete's response, when I was in the hobby years ago, I vodka dosed for a few months with positive results except for the cyano and now I've read that if you dose a mixture of vodka and distilled vinegar it will keep the cyano down)...... I'll keep working on the nitrates and appreciate your suggestions! If it appears the lighting and rest of the tank is ok, I'll just work on the nitrates, I was worried that I would have to improve quite a few things. thanks for the time to send your replies and keep them coming.

Tj
 
I took some more pics today (those are about 5 days old) as I said, some new color, but not much signs of growth yet. Baby steps! I'll upload them later this evening (still need lot of photography work!)
 
that I don't do, what kind of strainer? These things I can definitely do (and I understand that you weren't suggesting malnourishing my fish) would never think that. I'd even consider feeding "nitrate" friendly foods (right now feed frozen mysis mainly) and a sheet of seaweed
 
I've been doing what matt suggested with the frozen food, it seems to help lower the nutrients big time. I got a set of the small sink strainers from walmart with the fine mesh and a small plastic cup and I just use it for the fish food. I put the strainer on the cup, put the cube in the strainer and rinse all the junk out leaving just the mysis or krill or whatever I'm feeding. Then I fed the fish with the turkey baster. I've also figured that feeding the fish with the turkey baster keeps the good from bring sucked into the filter or getting stuck in the rocks somewhere to rot and turn into nitrates. Also seems to make them a little easier to catch since they learn to tolerate your hands or other weird objects in the tank lol.

One thing I read about early this yr on another forum was dosing the tank with lanthinum chloride. Just about everyone was saying it worked for them so ive been dosing my big tank with it and it's worked great for me with no visible side effects. I have had some big phosphate and nasty algae problems in that tank I was desperate to find anything that would work lol. I had cyano real bad but the l. chloride eliminates it almost completely QUICK. I still dose occasionally if I see any cyano popping up, but only when I see it. The stuff even kills gha, I purposely several pieces of ruble in there covered in gha and it all turned white and doesn't seem to be growing back.


I've also used gfo from brs.com. It's been very effective in my small reef, not so much in the tank that had cyano. I think I've only replaced the gfo once in months in my small tank. Phosphates are still undetectable

These things do nothing for nitrates though. I've had a hard time with nitrates too....in my small tank with all the corals I like to feed I put some more put more lr and the 'trates disappeared. In my bigger tank I feed my fish alot cause of my bannerfish, I use a filter pad called a nitrate pad, takes about 2 weeks to make a big difference but it lowered my nitrates from 20ppm to 5pm or less and kept it there for about 2-2.5 mo.

Anywho, this has been my experiences with these 2. I'm no expert, but I think phosphates are the real nemesis to corals with bony skeletons. I notice my stony corals corals won't grow if I have measurable phosphates but my soft corals wil continue to grow
 
I will check into the nitrate pad, thanks! The strainer and nitrate pad alone should help some, I have a lot of LR but I'm going to increase my clean-up crew. The xenia in the tank and sump should also help. All these tips are great, thanks!
 
Followup: I did order a phosban reactor and NPX bioplastics for the media, will be in at the end of the week. Today, my phosphates were almost undetectable, nitrates (using API will have to change that) on the test, 20 ppm is where it starts turning orange, mine seemed a bit darker than 10 ppm, but close and nowhere near the orange at 20PPM, calcium is still doing well at 450, alk seems to have dropped to 10. I remember before that I used AZ NO3, has anyone had any luck or bad experiences with that?

Thanks!

Tj
 
it came as a package, so I "assume" it will work together..

http://www.webaquatics.com/PhosBan-Reactor-150-Kit-with-Pump-and-NPX-BioPlast-p/webphosnpx.htm
 
There should be a little plastic screens that you can cut to fit. If you use the black sponges for the npx they will clog.


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I made a frozen food strainer with a cup and a mesh bag (small diameter holes). Cut the mesh bag and used a rubberband to hold it over the cup. I defrost all my frozen food in it, and rinse it a few times before mixing it with a food additive and freezing it again for use throughout the week. It's time consuming as I place the clean rinsed food into the same packet with square holes it usually comes in.
 
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