Need help.

brian0813

brian0813

Member
Ok so I've always been good with LPS but sps is another story. Even with the new system I feel I'm losing them. So I need help what am I doing wrong. It's a 93 cube. Hob skimmer radion gen 2. A cheaper power head but it definitely moves stuff around. I'm getting a little diatom bloom but hopefully when I add chateo that will take care of it. Anyways I'll get all my readings today for you but here's some pics. I'm losing color in my sps it seems and my hammer doesn't want to open nor frog spawn I just moved my caps to the top because I was worried about not enough light. If my coral placement isn't right please help me out. Thanks
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Hammer and Frogspawn are LPS....
With so little info about your system the first things I would ask about are the following:
How old is your system? (since you are experiencing a diatom bloom)
How bright (and do you know your PAR values) are your lights set too?
Did you properly acclimate your corals to your lighting?

Parameters are of course necessary but not necessarily a clear indication of what is happening right now.....
 
+1 to cet98. We can help u better once we know how mature your tank is, your parameters ( cal/alk/mag/nitrate/phos/nitrite/ammonia/pH ), your kind of light


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1.027 is normal sea water salinity. Question is how much/fast it changes. Do you use an auto top off? Or how often do you top off to keep salinity the same?
How do u acclimate corals into your system?


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As I suspected your parameters don't tell us much....I would be weary of large SG swings if you are not running an ATO...
What about my inquiries above?
 
cet98 said:
Hammer and Frogspawn are LPS....
With so little info about your system the first things I would ask about are the following:
How old is your system? (since you are experiencing a diatom bloom)
How bright (and do you know your PAR values) are your lights set too?
Did you properly acclimate your corals to your lighting?

Parameters are of course necessary but not necessarily a clear indication of what is happening right now.....
Click to expand...
Lol yea I started rambling I know it's lps. It's only about 3 weeks but all rock sand and half water are from my older setup. I just adjusted the radion to 90% and the light is about 16 in off water
 
brian0813 said:
Tanks about 3 weeks old but my live stock is from my tank and about half the water.
Click to expand...
Its to new for sps your gonna have cycles and even if it was set froom a existing tank u will have mini cycles for a while sps need stability temp stability is important salinity stability and alk r most important imo and frim my experiance with sticks to keep em alive some r more forgiving then others. I read a article one time where ora said stabile crappy water is better then unstabile good water. Mainly meaning sps will adjust to stabile crappy conditions but when u have good water one week and a cycle the next its to much for it to handle . Just let your tank di its thing and stabile out then add sps
 
Yea I've been keeping an eye on it and the only thing that moved is my phos. And now salinity is a little higher then usual. I'm just worried about the sps I already have. I think your right I'll let everything stable out before adding out thanks!
 
Joe makes very solid points...he knows his chit when it comes to SPS....
I would also consider decreasing the intensity of your LEDs and place your corals down low and allow them the recover...you can slowly raise their placement over time once they bounce back...
Also, get yourself an ATO and eliminate your SG issues...
 
Hi, here's my $0.02.

In your 1st post, you mentioned chaeto to get rid of the diatoms. Well, diatoms eat silica so the chaeto won't do anything. You have to let the diatoms eat up all the silicates and then they run their course and die out.

Also, your phosphates are way too high to keep sps and could also be contributing to your LPS being unhappy. You're at 0.25 and, IMO, you should at least be at or below 0.09 if you want your sps to grow. Keeping in mind NSW levels are at 0.07. At your high levels the stony corals will have diminished ability to properly uptake calcium carbonate to built their skeletons. Chaeto can help with this but I'd probably consider GFO at your levels.

Also, I'm wondering if you thoroughly cleaned your old sand before putting it in your new tank? Depending on how old the sand was and how well you cleaned it, you might have released nitrates, phosphates, sulfates and/or dissolved organics into the tank when you disturbed it, which could be harming your livestock.

Lastly, you will probably fry your coral with a Radion at 90% unless you gradually ramp it up over time. I hope this hasn't happened already. If not, dropping it to 30% for a while might let the corals rebound.
 
Everyone else has already made good suggestions, but I gotta chime in here too - if your hammer and frogspawn are receiving too much light or are in an area with flow that's too high (watch them, if they're really getting jostled by the current, move them) then they won't open up fully. I know you said this was a new tank and you moved all of these from another tank, it's possible that their placement is just not optimal.

As far as the SPS, I agree, get the parameters in check.
 
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