I Suck at SPS. Help please. :(

[Enigma]

I don't dose anything that I can't test for, with the exception of the Chemiclean (the ingediants of which are a closely guarded secret). Even the food I add to the system can be tested in a way: through testing the biproducts of it (nitrate and phosphate).

In an ULNS (which this system has sucessfully now become, and this has me very pleased), it is important to feed SPS. To give you an example of how low nutrient this sytem is, I haven't had to clean the glass in nearly two weeks. There is zero algae in this tank (though there is still a little bit of cyano).

[daniella3d]

Also I have noticed that feeding my corals with zeovit amino acid and coral vitalizer does not make the cyano worse. The best way to get rid of cyano is to syphon it out on a very regular basis. It just disapear with time.

I think with a ULN it is a must to feed. I don't think anyone with a zeovit tank with ULN are not feeding their corals or they would just have poor growth. Corals need more than just light.

It is also normal with a ULN to have pale corals in color. Zooxanthellea die and corals need feeding.

Chemiclean is an oxidant. It does not contain antibiotics. It will get rid of the dissolved organics in the tank, and that's what cyano feed on. I use it in my main tank a few times per year just to help to clean extra dissolved organics and get rid of it. I always use less than recommanded as it makes the skimmer go wild.

Originally Posted by Enigma

I don't dose anything that I can't test for, with the exception of the Chemiclean (the ingediants of which are a closely guarded secret). Even the food I add to the system can be tested in a way: through testing the biproducts of it (nitrate and phosphate).

In an ULNS (which this system has sucessfully now become, and this has me very pleased), it is important to feed SPS. To give you an example of how low nutrient this sytem is, I haven't had to clean the glass in nearly two weeks. There is zero algae in this tank (though there is still a little bit of cyano).

[Aquattro]

I don't feed my corals regularly in that while I use Zeovit, I often forget to add the drops for months at a time. If you've got fish, you feed the corals. They really like light too, and at the levels you're running the SOL, they may be starving for light.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

I think with a ULN it is a must to feed. I don't think anyone with a zeovit tank with ULN are not feeding their corals or they would just have poor growth. Corals need more than just light.

This is where it gets tough online. I completely disagree with this. So now what is Shelley supposed to think? I don't feed, I've been throwing frags out the window stuff is growing so fast.
Sufficient light, feed the fish, regular water changes and then stand back and watch them grow!

[camaro7019]

Its your ai sols, they are not on bright enough, i had this problem with mine, i switched from 2 150 watt metal halides to 2 ai sol's and i started them at 50% on blue royal and white 12" from water, i started getting rapid tissue necrosis on my main acropora colony, i thought maybe it was to much light, but then i noticed my green star polyps were going brown, i still thought too much light but i thought na cant be, so i kicked them up to 80% guess what, it was the light lol my green starts are growing so fast, my sps are growing like crazy!!! turn your lights up man, atleast to 50-60%

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by camaro7019

Its your ai sols, they are not on bright enough

Ya, I gotta agree with that. While that might have been a good starting value, I would of ramped those up a bit every few days until you got to at least 60% range.
Mine are 6 inches off the water and 100/100/85 and we've all been discussing how that maybe isn't enough light to keep the colors where they were.

[Enigma]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

This is where it gets tough online. I completely disagree with this. So now what is Shelley supposed to think? I don't feed, I've been throwing frags out the window stuff is growing so fast.
Sufficient light, feed the fish, regular water changes and then stand back and watch them grow!

I've really cut back on feeding my fish, too. I've gone from three frozen cubes a day (lots of variety) to two frozen cubes every two days (mysis and cyclopeeze). The fish and most coral are still doing very well. Some stuff looks better than ever (but not the SPS).

My line of thinking is certainly inline with Daniella's, but my experience is limited.

That in a handful of weeks I've gone from needing to clean the glass daily, and having an army of stomatella snails, to not needing to clean my glass (or powerheads, or overflow, . . . ) and not having a single stomatella snail visible, leads me to conclude that feeding the SPS could prove to be beneficial. Had the change been gradual I may not feel the same. While maybe not required under optimal circumstances, I'm certainly not dealing with optimum circumstances.

[Enigma]

Originally Posted by camaro7019

Its your ai sols, they are not on bright enough, i had this problem with mine, i switched from 2 150 watt metal halides to 2 ai sol's and i started them at 50% on blue royal and white 12" from water, i started getting rapid tissue necrosis on my main acropora colony, i thought maybe it was to much light, but then i noticed my green star polyps were going brown, i still thought too much light but i thought na cant be, so i kicked them up to 80% guess what, it was the light lol my green starts are growing so fast, my sps are growing like crazy!!! turn your lights up man, atleast to 50-60%

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Ya, I gotta agree with that. While that might have been a good starting value, I would of ramped those up a bit every few days until you got to at least 60% range.
Mine are 6 inches off the water and 100/100/85 and we've all been discussing how that maybe isn't enough light to keep the colors where they were.

That is so counter intuitive when I've got bleached corals! I've asked for advice, so I'll do it.

Can I do 1% per day?

[Aquattro]

I don't have experience going from T5 to the Sols, but I started my sols at 65/65/65 and went to 100/100/85 over 7 or 8 days. You could probably do 5% every couple of days.
As for feeding, sure, maybe it helps fine tune corals, I don't think so, but really, until you've got the basic fish food light combo worked out, i wouldn't be adding any extras to the soup.
Simply up the feeding of the fish a bit. So what if you get a bit of algae on your glass every couple days, takes 10 seconds to wipe with a mag float.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Enigma

That is so counter intuitive when I've got bleached corals! I've asked for advice, so I'll do it.

Can I do 1% per day?

We don't know they're bleached from too much light, and in fact, I'm pretty sure you could ramp those suckers up to 200% across the board and not bleach SPS. Sure, too much too quickly can bleach them, but I'm guessing they've just faded from lack of light. If you leave an acro in an unlit tank for 2 weeks, you're going to get a white coral.