Does this sound right?

[shallowreef]

My acros are still not polyping during the day or much at night. So one of My LFS guys thinks i need to take out half of my rock because my acros are to close to the lights and its making it hard for all the water to get around them. My lights (dual 250x20k) are about 20" off of the water and are on for 11 hours. He also wants me to cut that back to eight and raise them even higher. He says its too much light for my 90.

I always thought that live rock was needed to have a well established Reef? I also thought that you can never have too much light?

I am so frustrated and P.O. that i am ready to get rid of all of my SPS and go to fish only. I mean this is rediculous! I never should have attempted SPS if i knew this was going to happen!:evil:

Sorry for venting i'm just at a complete loss.

I know i haven't been on in a while but i've been getting my car ready for racing season.

Thanks again,

Nick

 

[jlehigh]

Breathe easier Nick, Plyp extension is not a health indicator. If the coral is getting enough energy/food from the light why would it spend the energy to try filterfeeding..

LR is a good component in a reef tank for biological filtration but in order to receive the benefit without negating it you do need good flow througout the tank.

But lets takl about your SPS. Other than the polyp extension is there any reason you question the health of the corals?

Tell us more about your tank..

 

[shallowreef]

OK,

Heres a run down of what i got going on right now.


-Ihave 7 SPS colonies of the eight, three of them are fading to a whit color in certain areas and one had a major die off and algae grew over the dead spot and now there is this thick leafy algae growing on it.
-I only have a staghorn that is extending its polyps.
-I have a 90 gallon tank that is being over run by xenia.
-I run carbon and phos remover constantly with filter socks.
-My ph is at 8.3 day/night.
-My calcium is always around 1300.
-I add phytoplankton once a week.
-I only have 6 fish in the entire tank.
-I have a sand bed about an inch deep.
-For some reason i can't keep clams in my tank?
-I don't see fish nippind at my sps constantly.
- i have to seio 820s
-I have two maxi jet 1200s on a wavemaker
- my main return is a mag9.5
-I have a PM skimmer
-my salinity is at 1.024


Thats all i can think of right now.

 

[reedman]

My calcium is always around 1300.

I hope you meant Mg....if this is your Ca level you are WAY too high.

• What is your Alk at?
• How are you checking salinity? Swing arm, hydrometer, other
• How long has the tank been setup?

I wouldn't be that concerned with the light unless these are new corals that came out of a dramatically different lighting setup.

Like John said, flow has a large impact on coral health. With SPS this is especially true.

Four parameters play the biggest role in SPS health (IME): Alk, Cal, Sal, Mg

To a lessor extent PH and temperature. These two are more a stability issue than a particular number.

SPS like a very stable environment. They will have difficulty with significant fluctuations in any parameter and to complicate it further if you bring Alk up too far the Ca will go down (and vice-versa).

 

[-=dieseldave=-]

Like Reedman said if you cal is 1300 that is your problem and you Alk would be on the floor.
Your lights in my opinion are too high off the water 10’’ would be good. You lighting period it fine they are 20k’s they likely have half the par value of 10ks.
You can’t keep clams or corals in water with Cal that high. You would have a hard time keeping a Crocea and possibly a Maxima under, 250w 20ks 20’’ off the water, unless you have them hugging the surface of the water, dead center under the bulb. Move the lights down.
However take a deep breath and don’t give up keep asking questions we are all here to help. You can do it!

 

[loohunter]

hang in there buddy you are in good hands

 

[jlehigh]

Good stuff Reed and Dave.

So Nick let's start with the chemistry then work through some of the other topics such as flow. If you dont already, get your hands on some Salifert tests for Alk, and CA. Mg is important too but the Alk/CA balance will tell us allot.

Once we know where all of your chem levels are (CA, Alk, Salinity, Mg) we need to find some ways to increase your flow. You have a goodstart but I guaruntee if Xenia thrives in your tank it's not enough flow for long term SPS success. Xenia in all honesty should look like crap in an SPS tank with far too much flow for it. A better place for it would be in a sump or refugium with a cheap yellow spectrum 70-90 watt bulb as xenia CAN be used as a form of nutrient export.

Tissue loss is a problem however lightening is not neccesarily. I find your case interesting however because the algae that lives in SPS corals and convert light into energy is typically green and brown and you would not have light corals if it was heavily populated, yet you have little polyp extension so the coral doesnt seem to be feeding much in that regard.

Pictures would probably help us out.. I wish you were local, as I'd come by and take a look myself..

 

[liveforphysics]

Ok, just a couple things I saw that seemed kinda goofy to me. First, filter sock running 24-7 means your water is looseing a ton of its coral available foods. Secondly, doseing the phyto plankton is definately a good thing, but I'm curious if it gets to do more than slightly tint the filter sock and skimmate a slightly greener shade.


With reguards to the xenia thing, I noticed that my SPS tank doesnt grow xenia worth beans anymore, and my softy tank grows xenia like wildfire. The xenia in the sps tank all looks healthy and pumps rapidly, but it just doesnt spread anymore. I dont know if its and indicator of nutrient levels, but the SPS look great and are growing great, while the xenia just kinda exists. Perhaps that could be an indicator to someone of a problem in your tank.

Remember the inverse square rule (1/x^2, x=distance). When your lights are 20" up, depending on the reflector, you might only be getting perhaps 100watts total out of your 500watts of light generated into the tank. Once again, its all going to depend on reflectors.

I dont remember the exact figures, but something like 60% (guessing, cant remember exactly, might be higher) of an SPS coral tissue is dedicated to captureing prey. No other animal on earth has this large of a portion of its tissue dedicated to prey capture.

However, even with all that dedication to food capture, your filter sock is incompairably better at it. Remember that the detritus you capture and remove with the sock and skimmer is covered in the bacteria which corals use as food.

I'm not an expert here like Mojo, but hopefully one or two of these things I mentioned might lead to fixing the problem for your tank.

Best of luck to you!
-Luke

 

[spongebob lover]

Hang in there dood, you can do it and don't give up .
What kind of test kits are you using?
I really hope your tank gets better.

Xenia in all honesty should look like crap in an SPS tank with far too much flow for it

in that case my tank is way ready for SPS .

 

[NaH2O]

I dont remember the exact figures, but something like 60% (guessing, cant remember exactly, might be higher) of an SPS coral tissue is dedicated to captureing prey. No other animal on earth has this large of a portion of its tissue dedicated to prey capture.

For SPS it is about 90% of "food"/energy comes from photosynthesis/light, and not prey capture. The rest is from external food sources like detritus, fish waste, and the bacteria associated with it.

How often are you changing out your carbon, and also how often are you changing filter socks? When was the last time you changed out your phosphate remover?

You said "don't see fish nipping at the SPS constantly"...do you see any nipping at all?

What are you trying to feed with the phytoplankton?

How close is the Xenia to the SPS?

I think I've asked before about parasites on the corals?

Sorry for all the questions....

 

[Elmo18]

Im not a fan...of using filter socks 24/7.... just my opinion..

Are you using it 24/7?

Best,
Ilham