Struggling to keep LPS

[Blue80]

All,

 

I can't keep any lps in my tank to save my life. I am not sure what the issue is as my softies do just fine. I currently have a 180 gallon aquarium with an icecap 36XL sump and the tank has been set up well over a year with plenty of coraline algae growth in the tank. I fight green hair algae, but it has been minimal for a little while now.

 

I have 3 mp 40s, two on one end of the tank, one on the other (run in lps mode maxing out around 48%).  I also struggle to grow any algae in my refugium (chaeto, caulerpa, etc.). I have switched between the innovative marine 9 watt grow light and a simple 29 watt fluorescent light without much luck. As needed, I run carbon and gfo and test my water weekly. I have 4 ai hydra 32 lights over the tank and run them from 7am to 5 pm. I run filter socks in the aquarium and a reef octopus protein skimmer, which pulls out a lot of junk. These are the numbers I get based on the apogee par meter.

 

 

 

My last test showed phosphates at around .02, but it can get as high as .1. My nitrates were right around 15 but have been as high as 19. I keep my alk between 8.4 and 9 and calcium is 420 and magnesium is 1330. The salinity is 1.025 and tank temp is kept at 78 degrees. I also sent in an icp test a couple of days ago to see if there are issues there, but a previous icp test showed nothing out of the ordinary. I use BRS for alk, calcium and magnesium.

 

I do a water change every two weeks with ro/di water. I have around 15 or so fish and a decent clean up crew. I stupidly had an air freshener in the room, one of the glade plug ins that I recently removed, not sure if that was creating this issue or how much effect it may have had.

 

I welcome all questions and suggestions on what I might be doing wrong, so I can reverse this lps trend and how I can also fix my refugium issue.

 

Thanks in advance!

[lowsingle]

Your parameters are fine, my first guess is that you have a fish that likes LPS.  I had a similar problem when I had an aiptasia eating filefish that picked at all my LPS.  I eventually caught him in the act after killing most of the lps in my tank.  Funny thing is, he never touched the aiptasia…..his favorite was rainbow acans…..

 

Darren

 

[JJKK]

Which LPS have you tried?  I can keep torches, hammers, and Duncans very well but struggled with Chalice and Acans(micromussa).  Maybe tried all the different varieties of LPS?

 

Parameters look good.  Some people would like to see the magnesium in the 1500 mark for torches.  My Trident tells me I am at 1516 for Mag, but I don't dose it.  I do have magnesium rocks in my calcium reactor 2nd chamber.

 

Hope you figure it out.

[Blue80]

3 hours ago, lowsingle said:

Your parameters are fine, my first guess is that you have a fish that likes LPS.  I had a similar problem when I had an aiptasia eating filefish that picked at all my LPS.  I eventually caught him in the act after killing most of the lps in my tank.  Funny thing is, he never touched the aiptasia…..his favorite was rainbow acans…..

 

Darren

 

I have a couple of dwarf angels that have picked at the acans a little, but I have seen some STN on all of the corals, some starting right after I put them in. Thanks for responding.

Edited May 15, 2022 by Blue80

[Blue80]

3 hours ago, JJKK said:

Which LPS have you tried?  I can keep torches, hammers, and Duncans very well but struggled with Chalice and Acans(micromussa).  Maybe tried all the different varieties of LPS?

 

Parameters look good.  Some people would like to see the magnesium in the 1500 mark for torches.  My Trident tells me I am at 1516 for Mag, but I don't dose it.  I do have magnesium rocks in my calcium reactor 2nd chamber.

 

Hope you figure it out.

I can usually keep hammers, but trouble with acans, candy canes, frog spawn, and playing corals. I am hoping the icp

test shows me something. Appreciate the response!

[Blue80]

I got the results of my water test, there does not seem to be a whole lot going on. I will try the recommendations, but would these be the reasons for my issues? Or should I start looking at something else as the culprit?

Aquarium analysis results.pdf RODI Analysis result.pdf RODI recommendation.pdf

[GOSKN5]

I would still lean towards the dwarf angels. Which ones do you have?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Blue80]

37 minutes ago, GOSKN5 said:

I would still lean towards the dwarf angels. Which ones do you have?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have a flame angel and a coral beauty

[howaboutme]

11 hours ago, Blue80 said:

I got the results of my water test, there does not seem to be a whole lot going on. I will try the recommendations, but would these be the reasons for my issues? Or should I start looking at something else as the culprit?

Aquarium analysis results.pdf 373.15 kB · 3 downloads RODI Analysis result.pdf 474.27 kB · 2 downloads RODI recommendation.pdf 42.44 kB · 2 downloads

I personally wouldn't worry about that recommendation. If you have a good RODI that spills out 0 TDS, look for other reasons as stated.

[DaJMasta]

One surprise in the ICP - you're almost running hyposalinity?  Your salinity is close to 30ppt rather than the standard 35ppt, and that's lower than I've heard any reef tank recommendations (more a FOWLR salinity), for conversion's sake, 30.5ppt is around 1.023 specific gravitiy.  Since you say salinity is 1.025, maybe recalibrate that refractometer and take another measurement.  If it needs to be raised, at least it's a simple solution, add a small amount of saltwater each day and wait for the evaporation to bring salinity up to your target.

[menglish]

I am thinking that you light spectrum could be adjusted a bit. PAR is a bit on the low side i think. You highest PAR is only 150uM.  I think lps could use a bit more. Also, not familiar with those lights, but why so much uv?

[Blue80]

3 hours ago, DaJMasta said:

One surprise in the ICP - you're almost running hyposalinity?  Your salinity is close to 30ppt rather than the standard 35ppt, and that's lower than I've heard any reef tank recommendations (more a FOWLR salinity), for conversion's sake, 30.5ppt is around 1.023 specific gravitiy.  Since you say salinity is 1.025, maybe recalibrate that refractometer and take another measurement.  If it needs to be raised, at least it's a simple solution, add a small amount of saltwater each day and wait for the evaporation to bring salinity up to your target.

I double checked and was good at 1.025 with the refractometer and digital Ali it’s tester after having checked calibration. I think I was a little low before my last water change

Edited May 21, 2022 by Blue80

[Blue80]

2 hours ago, menglish said:

I am thinking that you light spectrum could be adjusted a bit. PAR is a bit on the low side i think. You highest PAR is only 150uM.  I think lps could use a bit more. Also, not familiar with those lights, but why so much uv?

I followed the BRS setup and then adjusted to get to the par level I had shown in the photos, adjusting equally across all of the spectrums. I will look to play with it a bit.

Edited May 21, 2022 by Blue80

[Blue80]

Could I have a bacterial issue in the tank?

[DaJMasta]

1 hour ago, Blue80 said:

I double checked and was good at 1.025 with the refractometer and digital Ali it’s tester after having checked calibration. I think I was a little low before my last water change

That's good that the refractometer is working properly, but that may point to needing to be extra careful about salinity when mixing up a new batch or even checking the tank before adding it.  I get some salinity creep in my tanks because of phytoplankton dosing, so I have to keep after it, but even then more than 1ppt off requires more than a day worth of adjustment and could already be negatively impacting some more sensitive things.

While maybe not the cause of your problem, if it can swing that much with a water change (short amount of time), that could certainly impact LPS recovery times, so to give them the best chance to thrive I would look to checking more often and making sure to test the replacement water even if it was measured properly.

Also could  be worth mentioning: the ICP should give you a clearer picture of what's going on if it's taken before the water change - a water change will at least partially replenish trace elements and reduce buildups, so any numbers that could be amiss would be farther from the norm (and thus easier to diagnose as a problem) before the water changes corrects them at least somewhat.

[menglish]

2 hours ago, Blue80 said:

Could I have a bacterial issue in the tank?

Is the tank cloudy or a bit hazy?

That would be signs of a bacterial bloom

[Blue80]

42 minutes ago, menglish said:

Is the tank cloudy or a bit hazy?

That would be signs of a bacterial bloom

No the water is clear.

[JJKK]

Usually bacteria that affects torches and hammers will cause polyp bailouts or brown jelly disease.  Have you had those issues?

 

If yes, you can do antibacterial treatments(Cipro/Chemiclean).

[DFR]

Looking at your ICP, I wouldn’t think that water chemistry is the issue.  The Silicon is likely responsible for the browning of the sand bed, but I wouldn’t stress that too much, just keep siphoning the sand during your water changes.

 

The PAR numbers look fine for LPS and softies to me.  Like Milton, I’m not familiar with AI lights, but if you are using a trusted spectrum blend, I wouldn’t adjust the lights now.

 

My only area of concern is related to your flow.  With the static images and only seeing the hammer(?) in the center of the tank, I can’t get a good feel on the flow in your tank.  I would have probably placed 2 of your MP40s on the back wall set to about 50% max, and kept the 3rd on the side set to 60-75% max.  However, if your “flowing” corals are showing a nice gentle flow with your pumps in the current locations, I wouldn’t move them.

 

If you started with dead rocks, your tank could just need more time for the microbial system to become established and find an equilibrium.  

[Blue80]

On 5/26/2022 at 7:37 AM, DFR said:

Looking at your ICP, I wouldn’t think that water chemistry is the issue.  The Silicon is likely responsible for the browning of the sand bed, but I wouldn’t stress that too much, just keep siphoning the sand during your water changes.

 

The PAR numbers look fine for LPS and softies to me.  Like Milton, I’m not familiar with AI lights, but if you are using a trusted spectrum blend, I wouldn’t adjust the lights now.

 

My only area of concern is related to your flow.  With the static images and only seeing the hammer(?) in the center of the tank, I can’t get a good feel on the flow in your tank.  I would have probably placed 2 of your MP40s on the back wall set to about 50% max, and kept the 3rd on the side set to 60-75% max.  However, if your “flowing” corals are showing a nice gentle flow with your pumps in the current locations, I wouldn’t move them.

 

If you started with dead rocks, your tank could just need more time for the microbial system to become established and find an equilibrium.  

I get good flow with the corals. The tank has been up for nearly 2 years. I have good coraline algae on the rocks. I definitely siphon the sand as you state it gets brown. I will keep at it and see what can be done. Thanks

[YHSublime]

While this data might be more confusing than not, here is the par of my display 22 gallon nano, and my 11.4 gallon "frag tank." The smaller frag tank has an AI Prime 16, and the display has 84 three watt LED's coupled with x4 T5 bulbs. My lights are on from 10am-10pm, and the T5's are on from noon-5pm. 

 

I will say the flow in my frag tank is considerably less than the display, and is MUCH dirtier. I feed a lot, and only frozen on both tanks. 

 

Not saying it will fix your issues, but I also think you could probably bump up the lights a little higher.

 

 

 

[Blue80]

1 hour ago, YHSublime said:

While this data might be more confusing than not, here is the par of my display 22 gallon nano, and my 11.4 gallon "frag tank." The smaller frag tank has an AI Prime 16, and the display has 84 three watt LED's coupled with x4 T5 bulbs. My lights are on from 10am-10pm, and the T5's are on from noon-5pm. 

 

I will say the flow in my frag tank is considerably less than the display, and is MUCH dirtier. I feed a lot, and only frozen on both tanks. 

 

Not saying it will fix your issues, but I also think you could probably bump up the lights a little higher.

 

 

 

Yeah I am definitely bumping up the lights. I appreciate you sharing this. Just out of curiosity, why is the par higher in the frag tank? The reef looks great by the way!

Edited May 27, 2022 by Blue80

[YHSublime]

5 minutes ago, Blue80 said:

Yeah I am definitely bumping up the lights. I appreciate you sharing this. Just out of curiosity, why is the par higher in the frag tank? The reef looks great by the way!

thanks! it’s the display with higher par. I keep a mixed reef, I’ve found the higher par is better recurved than lower. That and the frag tank is a bit of an afterthought tank, turned into a display though.