Growing out corals.

[DKoKoMan]

I test my water every Sunday for salinity, alkalinity, phosphate and nitrates. I am currently carbon dosing and slowly make adjustments based on the numbers. I have had some good growth, coloration and limited algae.

I do have two separate frags (Acro and Monti) which are currently brown. I had these in my reef from the start and when I had excessive nutrients. They have not died and have not computed up. Just the other day I noticed the acro finally getting a green base and the color appears to be coming back. That being said I have great coloration in all other sps.

[adam84]

Other than lowering your nitrates my suggestion would be to keep your lighting high but lower the length of time at 100% try to replicate natural sunlight starting the day with only the blue spectrum for an hour or two then the whites and then full spectrum for only a few hours and ramp back down. I have been using led for a few years now and what works well for me is I start my blue channel in the morning for 2 hours then the whites come on, 1.5 hours later I have 3 T5s that come on for 4 hours (2 true actinic 1 coral plus for a more full spectrum light) 1.5 hours later the whites are back off and it's 2 more hours of just blues.

[DKoKoMan]

Forgot to add... you could get your water tested by another reefer or LFS to compare against your water tests. That way you will ensure accuracy.

[Frank Infanti]

Ok so here's an update.

Pretty much lost all of the sps frags. Even a easy to keep green birdsnest. The only thing that looks good is the Octospawn.

I dismantled my skimmer & return pump to check for wear & metal poisoning from the impeller magnet & found nothing. Everything checks out great. Even checked the pump I have for my salt mixing station.
I didnt want to take my mp40's apart but they look good with no swelling or signs of wear. My HYDRAS are now running at 100% @ 14k

My rodi is showing 0 TDS
Alk 8.5
Cal 430
Nitrite still high at 25
Mag 1300
Phos .12
Sal 1.025

I had made room in my sump and now have added a refugium running cheato which I hope will help with the phos & nitrite.

I dont see any pests in the tank attacking the SPS and the frags that I did add came from a reputable member but I had dipped anyway.

I'm lost & don't know what to do anymore.
I heard that even that my phos & nitrites are high it should cause the sps to die off. It's not bleaching it's the actual flesh coming off or my coraline algae is growing on it.





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[adam84]

What is your ph running at? Try to check it before lights out and then again before they come back on in the am, see if it is swinging over nite. Have you checked for stray voltage?

[Frank Infanti]

Originally Posted by adam84

What is your ph running at? Try to check it before lights out and then again before they come back on in the am, see if it is swinging over nite. Have you checked for stray voltage?

Ph day 8.08
Night 7.9ish



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[WarDog]

Have you pulled any affected frags out and dipped? I am wondering about AEFW. Where have you been getting your SPS frags?

[Frank Infanti]

Originally Posted by WarDog

Have you pulled any affected frags out and dipped? I am wondering about AEFW. Where have you been getting your SPS frags?

A couple of local can reef members. No I didn't pull anything out since I was hoping they would come back

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[DorySaid]

Well Frank it looks like you have a nice setup so you probably covered everything equipment wise. As I said, why don't you just get some flatworm eXit and use that in case like Wardog said its AEFWs. But more importantly, just get your nitrate and phosphate down a bit more before you add more coral. There are no doubt successful colorful tanks that run high phos and nitrate but I believe it probably has to do with corals or other inhabitants in a more crowded system being able to keep up with consuming them. If you just have a few frags, they may be getting overwhelmed with the excess nutrients. It seems like every other parameter looks very reasonable. Only thing if anything, is just those are a little out of wack. I find chaeto only slightly impacts the nutrients but i still love having it. Use some Red Sea No Pox and a little bit of GFO. Start slow. That Red Sea takes about a week or so to start working but when it does, it really does. Makes more of an impact on nitrates more so than phosphates.

[Ryanerickson]

Originally Posted by DorySaid

Well Frank it looks like you have a nice setup so you probably covered everything equipment wise. As I said, why don't you just get some flatworm eXit and use that in case like Wardog said its AEFWs.

flatworn exit does nothing for aefw