Help with sps

[soldier1911]

The sps frags that I bought three months ago have barely grown. A lot of them look like they are just sitting there no coraline growth either. I have two species of acro, two montipora species and two green birds nests. I have 2 250 watt 20k mhs and 1 150 10k mh bulbs over a 75 gallon. Got a reef devil protein skimmer and a pump that promotes pretty good water circulation. My calcium level is a little above 500 and my alk is about 4.11 and kh is about.28. I'm also dripping a gallon of kalk twice a day. Other additives are coralvital , blackpowder once a day, and strontium every four days. Any suggestions???

 

[DonW]

First stop adding anything to the tank. Dkh of .28? I shoot for 8-10. CA of 500 is way to high 380 to 400 is just fine. Start doing water changes with something other than oceanic salt and this should bring you back into the ball park.

Hope this helps

Don

 

[NaH2O]

soldier1911 - Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!!

Here is a good article for you: Reef Aquarium Water Parameters. I hope you find it helpful.

I agree with Don the calcium is on the high side. Can you verify your alkalinity reading again? Don, if I'm reading the post right, alk of 4.11 is 4.11 meq/l which is the same as 11.5 dKH.

How old is the system? What are your other water parameters (salinity, nitrates, phosphates, Mg)? Do you have any additional flow other than from the skimmer? What else is in the tank (softies, macroalgaes, etc.)?

 

[kevinpo]

I have not found that a high calcium reading will prevent growth in stony corals. It does make it more difficult to maintain a good ion balance between calcium and alkalinity because they become unstable as they approach the saturation point. Elevated levels of calcium (450ppm+) will also cause plate-out on the shafts, impellers, and magnets of pumps. This can be reduced by keeping your magnesium at about 1350 ppm.

In regards to your lack of growth phosphates are often the culprit. Coralline algae will grow in very low light levels but not if phosphates are present. Salifert phosphate test kit is pretty good and easy to use.

HTH,
Kevin

 

[soldier1911]

Thanks for the advice everyone. My system has been running for about four months. Other parameters are fine. I do have some nitrates present but they aren't very high. I need to test for mg, I don't have a test kit for that yet. I have a powerhead that helps with circulation in the tank. I did a small water change yesterday and plan on not adding any supplements for the next couple days to get my calcium down.

 

[NaH2O]

Does anyone know what's in the Blackpowder & Coral Vital? I'm curious to the phosphate content, as well. Soldier1911 - Kevin made a good point about phosphates, and that is something you may want to investigate. Salifert's phosphate test kit, I've found, to be easy to use and worth owning. Do you also have fish - if so what and how much are they being fed?

 

[soldier1911]

Yeah I have 4 damsels and a tang. I feed them twice a week with brine shrimp. My phosphate level is very low. I just tested it with the salifert. I'm thinking that my lights may have something to do with the amount of algae I see on my rocks. Is 650 watt metal halide (2-250 20k and 1-150 10k) too much for a 75?

 

[bradreef]

lighting looks good. I would want no phosphate reading with a salifert.

 

[Skimmy]

sounds like you might need to increase your flow. only one powerhead in a 75g?? you should have a total of 30 to 40 times your total gallonage in flow.
about 10 times from the sump, the rest from powerheads or a closed loop.

 

[Skimmy]

i would definately dich the black powder and coralvital as well,... you might as well be putting skimmate back in your tank.

 

[steve-s]

Does anyone know what's in the Blackpowder & Coral Vital?

Snake oil

Sorry, couldn't resist!
Cheers
Steve

 

[NaH2O]

LOL, Steve. That isn't the first time I've heard it compared to snake oil. I was curious to what the ingredients were because someone once told me Blackpowder was something like dried blood. It seems so rediculous (the blood part), so I thought I'd ask the question.

 

[Beckmola24]

Found this article about the Black Powder... http://www.aquasurge.co.uk/articles_spectra.html

"Unlike his previous products that depended on enzymes and primarily vegetable matter, this product in part is fractionated from animal sources resulting in a bio-available electrically charged amino acid complex. What's quite interesting and different from other snow-like plankton products is that BlackPowderâ„¢ doesn't contain plankton or fish oils. It contains only what is known to be rapidly utilized and digested. Therefore there's minimal leftover waste to degrade. Also, the particle size of BlackPowderâ„¢ is intentionally varied so that initially a large range of organisms, including some fishes, can consume it. There is also a time release effect as in nature, where the colloids dissolve, yet retain their electrical potential."

 

[64Ivy]

At four months, your system is still very new. Sometimes the stability that stonies seem to need is difficult to maintain in a young system. That being said, I too am a believer in parameters a bit closer to NSW. I used to run my Alkalinity at 11.8 dKH (and higher) and periodically would get these strange 'rtn' events that would always occur from the bottom upwards. After trying just about everythiing, with the excption of Coral Vital , I finally lowered my alk to between 9.8 and 10.2 and it has never happened since. Finally, I've also had corals just go dormant...sometimes for nearly a year. I guess during this acclimating period, they're really 'deciding' which way to go and, IME the very best help we can give them at this time (good parameters notwithstanding) is to simply leave them alone. Moving them around and dosing all kinds of additives will usually kill them with kindness. So if that's what's going on, just keep things stable and let 'em be.

Oh, and you never mentioned your import water. You ARE using an RO unit, right?

 

[Skimmy]

i used to be a big fan of mark weiss products, you couldnt pay me to put most any of them in my tank now, im sketchey about putting anything that smells like apple juice in my tank. :lol: also, i totally agree that maintaining levels closer to nsw, definately means more stability down the road. but i cannot express enough how important flow is for good growth & color.