I Am Truly Baffled

[harleymike]

Well, 6 moths ago I had no problems growing anything. Then had huge die off of sps.
Figured it was alk swing. Got that straightened out.
But it never bounced back 100percent.
I am still losing sps slowly and constantly.
Baffled.
Everything is fine.
It usually starts with tips turning white.
But sometimes, and i see one today doing this, it starts at the base and then goes up wards towards the tips.
Cant see any bugs. All LPs is fine. Other than one chalice that has died also now.( maybe chalice is sps) But the one beside it is happy as hell.
I think my sps days are done. Might simplify and stay away form the harder stuff.
My hammer, zoas, sinularia, bubble coral are thriving. HMMMMM what the hell
It is getting to be more work and frustration than fun now.
Do i need to dose with just some sps and softies and zoas.
Also I did add leds, played with the intensity a bunch of times now thinking this was the problem. But they have been in now for over a month. I have them running at 35% tops for 3 hours and then ramping up and down the rest of the time. I ran 8 t5 and 40 Leds before this, so way more power than i have now. HMMMMM

Mike

 

[monizb]

Hey mike it can be the led lighting u got going led are very bright I add a couple sps started them from bottom to top and still bleached them for what I read water has to be clean for sps I like my LPs

 

[KBennett]

Do you run carbon? Could that sinularia be chemically killing your sps?

 

[harleymike]

NO carbon. I used to have a bag in the sump. HMM stopped doing that a few months ago. I will throw a bag back in.

 

[harleymike]

Probably the best i ever did was with a much simpler set up.
Dosed manually, no simmer, I added, kent marine essential elements, and a corla growth I can't remember the name of.
Did regular water changes, I didn't even have a sump. Ran a HOB filter.
Not that it's the cause. But sometimes maybe simple is better.

 

[chief hill]

Water has to be really clean. From what I understand is that keeping softy corals thriving and sps is difficult. So many variables involved. I'm in the same boat as you if my sps doesn't do well then I'll be staying softy and lps as they always seem to do well. They prefer dirty water. Sps loves clean water with little nutrients. Brown coral that's thriving is getting to much food. Colored corals are actually borderline hungry / thriving if that makes any sense.
Then there is our lighting. Led is still somewhat new where t5 and Mh have been working for years.
Tuff call when all the parameters seem ok some things thrive some don't. It's why many have only sps and others only have soft / lps.
Hopefully you have luck figuring out what the cause of your sps is.

 

[harleymike]

Just another point. i moved some stuff, and cut some frags of the main colonies. The ones that died.
And put them into a new tank i have set up. No skimmer, no dosing, new tank, lots of algae. And guess what.
They are doing fine. Infact the purple and red digi are growing very well. Nothing dying anyways..
LOL,doesn't make sense.

 

[Pistol]

Just another point. i moved some stuff, and cut some frags of the main colonies. The ones that died.
And put them into a new tank i have set up. No skimmer, no dosing, new tank, lots of algae. And guess what.
They are doing fine. Infact the purple and red digi are growing very well. Nothing dying anyways..
LOL,doesn't make sense.

that might be short lived if the alk drops too low in that tank. the algae could be helping with nutrient control and ph

 

[harleymike]

I am going to set up a fuge in that tank. Just started a gfo reactor.

 

[Kevin Tran]

Some people don't cut a lot of the mother colony because it stress them out, they only frag a piece so very often. What do you use to measure your salinity. Why don't you take you water to the lft for test. Your measurement could give you the wrong reading.

 

[harleymike]

red sea test kit, the clear plastic thingy with the floating arm for salinity. lol
No local lfs here.

 

[Neopimp]

red sea test kit, the clear plastic thingy with the floating arm for salinity. lol
No local lfs here.

.....floating arm......

Get your salinity checked


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Kevin Tran]

Yea, get your salinity check or buy yourself a refractometer. I just gone through this and lost 6 of my colony , or do this now, use that to test your ro water to see if it read 0

 

[Kevin Tran]

Oh if it doesn't read zero, get back to me before you make any changes to the salinity

 

[harleymike]

I have a tds meter. Ro water is 0. I will look into a refractometer.
where would i get one

 

[Kevin Tran]

No I met to use the floating arm thing you use to test your salinity to test your ro water to see if it read zero

 

[harleymike]

LOL, ok I get it. Daahhhhhh

 

[harleymike]

zero

 

[Kevin Tran]

If it zero than I don't think your salinity is high, maybe low. Remember this is only asumesion, I bought my refractometer at aquarium by design, but most lft sell it and some member on the forum sell it too. Get the model that have ATC (automatic temperature compersation)

 

[Kevin Tran]

I just use the hydrometer to test my ro water too and the reading is below zero. I was using this and my salinity was too high, that why I bought a refractometer