I Suck at SPS. Help please. :(

Enigma · #1 10-28-2012, 01:19 AM

Orginal lighting:
4x36" T5s, a couple of inches above the tank. ATi bulbs. 2-Blue+, 1-Coral+, 1-Purple+
12 hour light cycle (SPS required more light than a shorter cycle allowed)

New lighting:
2xSol Blues, 12" Above tank. Blue and Royal Blue at 25%, White at 18%. Lights ramp over the course of 2 hours. Blue and Royal Blue are on four ten hours, white for eight hours. This includes the ramping time.

Enigma · #2 10-28-2012, 01:22 AM

Oh . . . the Convexa has *never* done well in this tank. The birds and monti did very well, while the valida did okay (nice polyp extension but washed out colour).

All this changed the day I added the Sols: they were 11" at first, with the same light cycle, at 40%. Cyano exploded. Chemiclean and blackouts followed.

Enigma · #3 10-28-2012, 01:28 AM

Parameters (and yes, this is for my 40B). I dose for calcium and alkalinity manually, twice a week. I test my parameters on Sunday (and those are in my signature), but I don't dose until Monday (and Thursday). Salinity is usually at 1.026. Magnesium is dosed when it reaches around 1350. RO/DI is used.

I use Kent carbon (not a new batch: have been using it for months) and ROWAphos in fluid reactors (ROWA just changed when everything went down the toilet). Skimmer is an SWC 120 cone (which has been off since all of this started, due to insane microbubbles). I have a new biopellet reactor, but that isn't online yet.

The green bird and monti have been doing well in this system since I switched tanks three months ago. The pink bird has been in it for around 2 months. The valida and convexa were added the same time as the pink birdsnest.

Enigma · #4 10-28-2012, 01:30 AM

Oops. Missed water changes. Water changes of approximately 10% of the total system volume (55 gallons) are done once a week.

Edit: I should also add the my hammer coral is not happy. All of my other corals (LPS and softies) and doing as well as they were before, and most of them are doing very, very nicely. The last couple of weeks have just hammered my SPS. This system has never been great for them. It has been a real challenge to balance their needs and the needs of my LPS. My contest entry tank is being designed more as an SPS tank.

At this point, I don't have any concerns about either of my birdsnest corals dying. If I don't mess with them I'm sure they'll come around. I'm worried about my completely browned out monti cap (which is a lovely green with purple rim), but I hope it will pull though. I'm not optimistic about the condition of my valida (completely bleached) or convexa (bleached and STN?).

Enigma · #5 10-28-2012, 01:46 AM

Another thought about the lights . . . the T5s were placed to the back of the tank, the Sols are centered over the tank. They're the new Sols: 70 degree optics on the corners with 40 degree optics on the others. There is a lot of light that spills onto the floor around the tank.

canadianbudz604 · #6 10-28-2012, 01:53 AM

i wanna follow along on this one, im a newb at sps. however i havent had one bleach out or brown out yet

daniella3d · #7 10-28-2012, 02:41 AM

I think your corals are starving. You should try zeovit amino acids and coral vitalizer, a little drop each day. That really revived the color of my coral.

Your calcium is too low.

I used Chemiclean a few times without any effect on my corals, SPS or LPS or soft or even the gorgone. The only thing that hapened was that one of my photosynthetic sponge in my nano went white and I thought it would die but it has recovered since, fortunately. I will never use Chemiclean in that aquarium again because that sponge is precious to me (unavailable for sale) and I don't want to lose it but none of my SPS were affected. Photosynthetic sponges are often in symbiose with type of cyanobacteria and thus some sponge may be affected by Chemiclean by losing their symbiotic partner.

I suspect the corals need acclimatation to the new light and they are just plain starving.

Enigma · #8 10-28-2012, 02:47 AM

You must be reading my mind, Daniella.

I realized, around 15 minutes ago, that I haven't fed my SPS in weeks! I just dosed Pohl's Coral Vitalizer, Fuel, and Microvert. In trying to choke out the cyano bloom (which has been ongoing since August) and algae, I seriously reduced my SPS feedings, and then quit altogether.