Calcium, alk, mag not being used up?

theyangman

theyangman

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Joined
May 22, 2013
Location
London, Ontario
I haven't done anything to my tank additive wise in 2 weeks, and when I did a testing routine today before the water change, all my parameters are still bang on?? Shouldn't some of these have gone down in two weeks? That being said, I have seen no coral growth either really....


DateMagCalAlkSGNitratesPhos
9/4/201313004507.51.025100.14
9/17/201313004607.71.025100.08

Cal, Alk, and Nitrates are tested via: Salifert
Mag: Elos
Phos: Hanna
SG: Sybon refractometer.
 
theyangman

theyangman

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May 22, 2013
Location
London, Ontario
What else could my sps need? There is a ton of flow. Plenty of light. The paramters seem bang on? What am I missing here. By all accounts my sps should be showing something????

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theyangman

theyangman

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May 22, 2013
Location
London, Ontario
Flow: tunzewave box and two mp40s

Lighting: 4 x 36" t5ho bulbslongside my maxspect razors

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Neopimp

Neopimp

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they need time.... fluctuations are bad ...just be patient and wait... when they start to grow some do so pretty quick.
 
W

waldo

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Mar 31, 2013
Location
Kilworth, Ontario
theyangman link said:
What else could my sps need? There is a ton of flow. Plenty of light. The paramters seem bang on? What am I missing here. By all accounts my sps should be showing something????

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Your tank looks great Tony it will all workout :)
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pulpfiction1

pulpfiction1

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Nov 16, 2010
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Seems to me your tank is less than a year old, no matter how many quality product you throw at it or put into it its still not going to perform like a three year old mature tank
But that's just my opinion based on observation from here in the peanut gallery

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S

spyd

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Jan 31, 2011
Location
Kitchener, Ontario
Get those phosphates out of there. Are you running bio-pellets at all out of curiosity? I wouldn't worry about stagnent growth right now. It takes time for SPS to start growing. Some will grow like weeds and others will take a year before they start doing something... Keep those levels where they are though and try to get rid of those phosphates and nitrates. SPS love a clean system.
 
jroovers

jroovers

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Aug 29, 2012
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spyd link said:
Get those phosphates out of there. Are you running bio-pellets at all out of curiosity? I wouldn't worry about stagnent growth right now. It takes time for SPS to start growing. Some will grow like weeds and others will take a year before they start doing something... Keep those levels where they are though and try to get rid of those phosphates and nitrates. SPS love a clean system.
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I agree with Derek, your phosphates are way too high.  The upper end of the desirable range is 0.03 ppm.  You may want to consider running GFO if you aren't already doing so.  You're going to have to have a lot of patience as well, as Derek noted even if everything is bang on, it can take a year or longer for a frag to start branching out.  In terms of mindset, I think you really need to think of it as a 3 to 5 year project before you see a mature system, especially if you are newer to the husbandry practices. 
 
theyangman

theyangman

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May 22, 2013
Location
London, Ontario
Phosphates have been dropping considerably over the past month. 5 weeks ago I was at .37, then .28, .14 and now .08.

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theyangman

theyangman

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May 22, 2013
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London, Ontario
Nitrates have also come a long way. I was well into the 80 range about 5 weeks ago. Thats when I started prodbio and got all my reactors online and wprking properly (gfo, pellets and carbon)

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Poseidon

Poseidon

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May 15, 2012
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SW Ontario
this hobby requires patience, thats all we can say,
good luck trying to get us to explain coral growth and everything else, we dont REALLY know, what starts it or continues the growth
all we really know (lets be honest) is to have the proper equipment, stable levels and strict maintenance routine, and then basically wait and wait until your tank starts to come to life.

I was talking about it with another reefer the other day, and he said : you go on the forums and you see alot of these beautiful sps tanks, then you find out their only 8months -/+ old, then all of a sudden they start lossing pieces, and things start to crash because they rushed into everything so fast and nothing was really all that stable yet.... Hence the reason you see alot of nice tanks that are only a year old forsale, after a crash and with all the heart break ppl rarely want to start over again.

Just wait it out Tony, dont add anything for awhile and just wait and stabilize your tank, get your levels down to where they should be and wait some more, then after your certain its good to go, slowly add new pieces.

Thats all any of us can tell ya...
I wish you the best of luck and may the god of the ocean (thats me Poseidon) be with you haha :)
 
jroovers

jroovers

Super Active Member
Joined
Aug 29, 2012
Location
London
I think a lot of people with young tanks who have success also have quite a bit of experience.  Derek's (Spyd's) tank isn't that old, but he has lots of experience to work with, which obviously helps.  Poseidon has a good point, you've been collecting some SPS frags and maybe until all your parameters come down into the ideal range and stabilize you may want to hold off from adding more. That said your existing pieces should come to life if you get those phosphates down and maintain your other parameters.  Once things do take off you will then see your Alk and Ca consumption go up. 
 
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