Damn the SPS game is hard!

[jawwad2004]

Its either black or brown. . .still dont know what it is

 

[skatezen]

What type of carbon are you using? Some are known to leach phosphates. Also how is your algae situation? Do you have a lot of nuisance algae?

There is a Carbon article out there, I thought I had it bookmarked, but I don't. I spent 15 minutes trying to find it and I can't. The point behind all of this is that it show which carbons leak phosphates and how to properly use carbon in a reef aquaria. I know that the Marineland Black Diamond brand is one of the best ones to use. I use it myself.

 

[jawwad2004]

Well I use ESV Granular carbon. Other people who use it love it.
I used to have major dinoflagellate blooms, not anymore though.

 

[masterswimmer]

Well I use ESV Granular carbon. Other people who use it love it.
I used to have major dinoflagellate blooms, not anymore though.

I use ESV GAC also. I find it to be less 'powdery' than the Black Diamond. Easier to rinse.

master

 

[alrha]

i tend to like Seachem's Matrix Carbon, it is a pretty hard carbon and doesnt "dust-up" much.

ok :backtotop

 

[jawwad2004]

My Arsenal!

Well this is what I am getting:
Phosban Reactor wit phosban (200g) plus microjet pump (117gph)
Salifert Test kits: calcium, alk, phosphate, Ph, Magnesium

I have already started to feed my fish more.
From, what Ive read so far, it says that lighing can cause a bleaching affect. That if you have really clear water, the light can penetrate better. To remedy this, ppl have shorter photoperiods or just hang their lights farther from the surface of the water.
I wont know the root of my problems until I get those darn test kits!

 

[Dace]

I use ESV GAC also. I find it to be less 'powdery' than the Black Diamond. Easier to rinse.

master

ESV, ESV, Me too, ESV :backtotop

 

[Dace]

I am having terrible luck successfully keeping SPS corals in my tank. They survive and grow but the coloration sucks! My green slimer is more like a brown slimer, same thing with my green cap. Couple of my other sps look like the colors they're supposed to be, but not as vibrant as other peoples corals. I am using strong lighting (2 250 10k plus 2 110 watt vho superactinic). nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, phos, all are undetectable. What can I do to get better coloration?

Stick with it.. when you finally get the problem resolve theres nothing Better then a SPS TANK....

 

[jawwad2004]

I wanted to ask, does bulb choice, age and kelvin rating have an affect on the corals coloration? Is it just a minimal influence or more of a stronger variable?

(Also in my avatar, you get a cut off shot of my green slimer when it actually used to be green, this was when my equipment was sub par, dont understand what could be wrong)

 

[spykes]

what is your photoperiod?

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Jaw,

What's your temperature?

 

[jawwad2004]

what is your photoperiod?

Right now its at 6 hours of 250w mh and 8hrs of 220w vho superactinics

Wingo:
Temps steady at 78 -80 degrees.

After reading a few more articles, I found out that softies release toxic compounds which can be detrimental to SPS. Is this true?
I have quite a few softies in the tank.

 

[Deanos]

Running carbon will help counteract the effects of the compounds released by the softies.

 

[jawwad2004]

Oh, so I guess thats not the problem since Im running carbon continously. I change it out every 2 weeks.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Oh, so I guess thats not the problem since Im running carbon continously. I change it out every 2 weeks.

You have an obession with cleaningness!!!! LOLOL fix your mind :smash:

 

[meschaefer]

jawwad,

Was doing a search for something else and found this thread. What changes did you end up making and what are the results so far?

 

[jawwad2004]

Well once I had purchased a refratometer, I quickly found the problem. My sg was up at 1.031!!!!
I gradually bought it down to 1.025, and things have never looked better.

 

[Pedro]

If only things were that simple, lol. Glad all is well again.

 

[jawwad2004]

I wanted to revive this thread and tell everyone what I have done to thrive a little better in the SPS game:
Its been about 8 months and I have about 18 SPS frag colonies growing. . .rapidly! Colors have never looked better. I think one of the problems I had were definitely my bulbs. When I switched them, they were over a year old (EVC 10k). I purchased XM 10k SE and they give off a very crisp white light, so this definitely helpd. I also monitored my calcium and alk. I was considering going with a calcium reactor setup, but Ive seen better results on tanks which dose ESV B-Ionic. Luckily I get a great price on this stuff so dosing at about 30ml per day of both components is sufficient, inexpensive, and a 2 gallon unit lasts me about 3 months. I recently started to dose ESV Magnesium, however I cant speak much on the results yet since its too short of a time period to notice a significant change. I also added a Tunze 6000 powerhead in my setup (which I want to upgrade to the new controllable nano streams) which added more flow. Also continuous use of carbon (esv) which I change out every two weeks helped a lot.

Finally, which some of you may not agree with me on would be, FEEDING YOUR FISH. . .A LOT! I have someone feed them three times a day sometimes even more, this has definitely helped in coloration and growth of my corals (I will ellaborate on this later)

I purposely have not posted pics of my setup because I wanted everyone to see the drastic changes. Im still debating whether I should wait another month or so, but lets see how I feel when I get home. Please feel free to ask me any questions. Thanks!

 

[Pedro]

I would like to see a picture of that cap to see what it looks like now. Glad things have improved, i guess that comes with experience. At least now you are more aware of what to look for and things to do.