# Mixed bag of corals



## Toronto_Discus (Apr 10, 2006)

I have been running my 180G for a year and I still can't get the hang of keeping sps. All frags look good initially when purchased from LFS but some will eventually die off after couple of weeks. Water parameters are stable with good water flow. 

Water parameters
Ph 8.05
Alk 7.7
Ca 480
No3 3ppm
PO4 0
Mg 1400

Hope the experts here can give me some advice as to what I am doing wrong. 

Pic 1: Brown tip and PE starts to retract
Pic 2: Good colour and seeing growth
Pic 3: Looking good.


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## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

Your Alk is too low and your brown out is due to your lighting in my opinion. Also your ph could be a bit higher.

SPS isn't really something you should intend to do great with if you have a young tank like you have. I would have started out with something easier like euphellia and other soft corals. This way you can really see if the coral are doing well or not. With SPS it's a bit harder to tell since the polyp extension isn't something that is notice by a novice.

Also, what are you running with your tank to reduce PO4 and No3? A reactor of some type or are you just doing water changes.

Good luck with this and I hope you keep plugging along


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## Flexin5 (Nov 12, 2011)

i'm no expert but what are you testing No3 and p04 with? is there any algae in the tank? for sps, you should figure out your true readings and go from there, sounds to me like the system is a bit too neutrient poor.


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## Toronto_Discus (Apr 10, 2006)

Thanks for the quick reply.

I'm using the 4 ' vertex illumina 260 and light intensity is set low at RB, B 65%, W 35%, UV 20%. My ph used to stay around 8.2 but declined to around 8.00 during the winter months.

All water parameters are tested by Salifert and not running anything to reduce NO3 and PO4. I feed my fish (12 in total including 3 tangs) 3 times a day and it's hard to believe that my NO3 and Po4 are still low. I run my sump with a 6" DSB with a huge cluster of chaeto (10" x 10"), would that be the reason of low No3 and Po4. Also, I am running bubble king external 200 as my skimmer.

I do 10 to 15% W/C every 2 weeks.



altcharacter said:


> Your Alk is too low and your brown out is due to your lighting in my opinion. Also your ph could be a bit higher.
> 
> SPS isn't really something you should intend to do great with if you have a young tank like you have. I would have started out with something easier like euphellia and other soft corals. This way you can really see if the coral are doing well or not. With SPS it's a bit harder to tell since the polyp extension isn't something that is notice by a novice.
> 
> ...


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## Toronto_Discus (Apr 10, 2006)

I think my system is nutrient poor as well and I started dosing Zeovit amino acid and coral vitalizer. 4 drops twice a week.

Some sps actually show better coloration but my monti cap got worst.



Flexin5 said:


> i'm no expert but what are you testing No3 and p04 with? is there any algae in the tank? for sps, you should figure out your true readings and go from there, sounds to me like the system is a bit too neutrient poor.


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## Toronto_Discus (Apr 10, 2006)

see attached.


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

experts quit commenting on this forum long time ago. Looks like you are more expert than many here

just few of us trying to pretend that we are experts and help as we can

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## Flexin5 (Nov 12, 2011)

Toronto_Discus said:


> I think my system is nutrient poor as well and I started dosing Zeovit amino acid and coral vitalizer. 4 drops twice a week.
> 
> Some sps actually show better coloration but my monti cap got worst.


any algae? perhaps a new breakout with the zeovit?

i was in the same boat, pale sps from a nutrient poor system; i started dosing the zeovit phols extra and that's helped alot. i also started feeding alot more (oyster feast and reef roids)

what and how often are you feeding?


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## Toronto_Discus (Apr 10, 2006)

Not much algae. I swipe the glass every 4-5 days.

Other than Zeovit AACH and CV, I feed coral snow at half dose once a week.


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## Flexin5 (Nov 12, 2011)

hrm....you could try feeding a bit more. 


from my research, you want to keep p04 @ .01-.03 and No3 around the .2 area. 

at the same time, if you find that your sps is browing, then maybe moving them up in the tank closer to the light might work or raising the intensity up slowly.


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## Toronto_Discus (Apr 10, 2006)

Thank you!

Hope I can figure this out soon.

Guess 


Flexin5 said:


> hrm....you could try feeding a bit more.
> 
> from my research, you want to keep p04 @ .01-.03 and No3 around the .2 area.
> 
> at the same time, if you find that your sps is browing, then maybe moving them up in the tank closer to the light might work or raising the intensity up slowly.


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## rburns24 (Jan 31, 2011)

I wouldn't put a lot of stock in the Salifert PO4 test kit. Could you test with another kit, just to make sure?


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## Toronto_Discus (Apr 10, 2006)

SUM recommends the DD phosphate test kit over Hanna for more accurate reading in the low range. Which test kit would you prefer.



rburns24 said:


> I wouldn't put a lot of stock in the Salifert PO4 test kit. Could you test with another kit, just to make sure?


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## Flexin5 (Nov 12, 2011)

Toronto_Discus said:


> SUM recommends the DD phosphate test kit over Hanna for more accurate reading in the low range. Which test kit would you prefer.


I use the hanna, salifert for everything else. seems to be the general choice.


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## Bayinaung (Feb 24, 2012)

what salt are you using? (re low alk). I know some salts are lower in alk more than others. Check your salt and switch to a brand that's got higher alk. Lots of discussions on RC on that.


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## Toronto_Discus (Apr 10, 2006)

I was using DD H2O but switched to reef crystal couple months ago. I have been reading RC a lot and lots of people have great success using reef crystal


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## rburns24 (Jan 31, 2011)

I'm going to give the Milwaukee Low Range Phosphate Colorimeter(MI412) a try. The
Hanna 736 is good, but the consistency of the reagents is dicy.

I buy them 3 boxes at a time so I don't run out and have to keep ordering. The first 
box was good and gave consistent results. The second box was garbage and I 
haven't used the third yet.

If the Milwaukee has consistent reagents, I'll toss the Hanna.



Toronto_Discus said:


> SUM recommends the DD phosphate test kit over Hanna for more accurate reading in the low range. Which test kit would you prefer.


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## rburns24 (Jan 31, 2011)

I think he's running a Zeovit ULNS system, in which case you want your alkalinity between 7 - 7.5dkh, ideally.



Bayinaung said:


> what salt are you using? (re low alk). I know some salts are lower in alk more than others. Check your salt and switch to a brand that's got higher alk. Lots of discussions on RC on that.


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## Toronto_Discus (Apr 10, 2006)

rburns24 said:


> I think he's running a Zeovit ULNS system, in which case you want your alkalinity between 7 - 7.5dkh, ideally.


I'm just using the Zeovit AACH and CV only and not running the whole Zeovit system. I want to figure out what exactly are my issuesssss before trying something new.


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## rburns24 (Jan 31, 2011)

Good idea. Slow and sure is the best way.



Toronto_Discus said:


> I'm just using the Zeovit AACH and CV only and not running the whole Zeovit system. I want to figure out what exactly are my issuesssss before trying something new.


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## Toronto_Discus (Apr 10, 2006)

Just retested calcium and it showed 440 with Salifert. So assuming if all my water parameters are inline, what other factors might limit my corals to thrive? I'm also running corallife UV 36x 24/7, could that be the reason?


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## Flexin5 (Nov 12, 2011)

Toronto_Discus said:


> Just retested calcium and it showed 440 with Salifert. So assuming if all my water parameters are inline, what other factors might limit my corals to thrive? I'm also running corallife UV 36x 24/7, could that be the reason?


i have a turbo twist uv something or other running all the time too; my pump for it took a crap the other day and i've noticed no difference with it on or off.


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## deeznutz (Aug 21, 2013)

To be honest, the brown sps looks like alk burn. Tip recession is a good sign of it. Changing salts can do this as well.

I know your alk is low, not that low, but on the lower end. Bump it up to 8.5.
How do you supplement your ALK and CA? How do you dose it? Zeovit is a waste of time and money imho. If any, AA is the only one I would use

You have any Coralline algae growing? If no, sps won't thrive. Not that coralline makes SPS grow. But for me, if I get some serious coralline algae growth, I know my parameters are in check and SPS will be happy.

Note: explosive coralline growth takes a toll on your ALK and Ca levels.

I'd snip the tips of that browned out sps if it's still around.

-dan


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## Flameangel (Sep 25, 2013)

I'd say that your alk is little bit low.I would adjust it to 8.5-10.5 and give it more lighting if you could.Just like in the wild lighting is quite intense around the coral reef itself and the water is ACTUALLY nutrient poor.


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