SPS Issues

[Satsujin]

Ok so SPS for the big part are a no no for me. 99.99% of sps I get start growing for a couple of weeks but end up dying. My though is that the constant flow that I currently have, and had in previous tank, is killing them. I ran out of nitrate test and havent gotten around to getting a new test kit but I've been doing water changes every week.

The tank is a 29 gallon tank, in case you haven't seen my tank build thread.

For the past 3 weeks, I did 68% on November 30th (due to not being home and family overfeeding the tank), 50% on December 7th (same reason as above for the big water change), and 34% December 14th. 17% is my usual water change when I'm home. I feed very sparingly and only every other days.

Here are the parameters for the 29g:


All previous tanks had similar parameters but with a dKH closer to 8

Let me know what you think the culprit is for the death of SPS

[brandon0350]

What are your parameters and what lighting are you using?

[Satsujin]

What are your parameters and what lighting are you using?

For this tank here's the parameters and it is also lit by an AI Prime

The salt that I'm using is Tropic Marin Pro Reef, dKH is supposed to be around 8 but mine consistently mixes at 11-12. Might be my test kit that's not giving me good reading. And I only dose 1/2 teaspoon of Kalkwasser per gallon, skipped last week to see if it made a difference in the dKH, but nothing changed

For previous tanks would be roughly the same but a dkh of 8 and it was lit with t5 half blue plus half coral plus

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[orangereefer]

Post pics of the sps so we know what they look like before and after.

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[Satsujin]

Post pics of the sps so we know what they look like before and after.

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They are all gone lol I can show picture of the current 2 that I have that are still alive so far

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[Satsujin]

There they are


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[Drama D]

Could maybe be the slight swing in parameters, no much swing but maybe the corals didnt like it

[Satsujin]

Could maybe be the slight swing in parameters, no much swing but maybe the corals didnt like it

Maybe, can't hurt to add that to the list of potential culprits

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[pirate2876]

Do you have a lot of coraline algae growth? Has the tank been up for over a year?

[Satsujin]

Do you have a lot of coraline algae growth? Has the tank been up for over a year?

Not this tank but my previous tank was setup for 2-3 years and it could only grow montis

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[brandon0350]

It would be helpful to know your No3 and Po4 levels. Running high alkalinity like you are with low nutrients can very easily lead to sps fatalities. I use Tropic Marin Pro Reef and it always mixes to 8dkh. Do you mix the salt in the bag or bucket before you make water? Settling from shipping can cause the parameters to be off. Also make sure you pour your salt into the correct amount of water and not pour your water into a container with pre measured salt. The later can also throw off your parameters, speaking from first hand experience.

What percentage are you running your leds at?
Are your power heads pointing directly at your corals or are you giving the tank indirect flow by aiming the power heads at the glass walls or the water surface?

[bryanmc1988]

What app or program are you using to log your parameters?

[orangereefer]

Try lowering your alk to 8.0. When you first noticed your sps going down hill, what are the first signs, no pe, tips burning, corals bleaching?

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[Satsujin]

Yeah my nitrate and phosphate test kit expired and haven't gotten around to getting new one yet. As for the salt, I do mix the salt before measuring it. I either got a batch with high dKH or the Red Sea alkinity test I got is off.
As for the led I have it at about 70% of what Randy from BRS suggest when he did the conversion from the Ecotech setting to AI
For the powerhead, I got one on the back left side aiming straight ahead, got nothing in front of it, the other is right side aimed at the surface and slightly to the left

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[Satsujin]

What app or program are you using to log your parameters?

I'm using aquatic log

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