Problem keeping sps

[Beagle]

Here's the specs for my water condition:

Ammonia, nitrite - undetectable

Nitrate - 5ppm

Mg - 1350

Ca - 480

kH - 12

PO4 - 0.03

pH - 8.3

Temp - 26 Degrees

Tank Specs:

Length - ~4.2ft

Width - ~1.5ft

Height - ~3.1ft

Lighting - 250W MH with color temp of 12k

Turnover rate for tank is 10X and using a tunze 6080 (8500lph) for main tank.

Tried to keep several SPS with different positioning(thought it might be due to the flow rate or lighting) but they just turn white within a week or so. SPS are never placed more than 1ft from the light source, but they still turn white.

Any ideas anyone?

[uyopong]

Here's the specs for my water condition:

Ammonia, nitrite - undetectable

Nitrate - 5ppm

Mg - 1350

Ca - 480

kH - 12

PO4 - 0.03

pH - 8.3

Temp - 26 Degrees

Tank Specs:

Length - ~4.2ft

Width - ~1.5ft

Height - ~3.1ft

Lighting - 250W MH with color temp of 12k

Turnover rate for tank is 10X and using a tunze 6080 (8500lph) for main tank.

Tried to keep several SPS with different positioning(thought it might be due to the flow rate or lighting) but they just turn white within a week or so. SPS are never placed more than 1ft from the light source, but they still turn white.

Any ideas anyone?

turn white becoz of bleaching or STN/RTN?

[tineng]

hard to say leh.....you nitrate and kh a bit high.....but there are other information that you might want to share, like how long your tank has been running, how are your rock wall, how's your other lives stock doing....maybe even a tank shot......

[angelfishlover]

Brother i kept my SPS at 20 ppm for nitrate but for three weeks surviving.Wah this guys parameter is way better than mine but the SPSes died???

[BFG]

Brother i kept my SPS at 20 ppm for nitrate but for three weeks surviving.Wah this guys parameter is way better than mine but the SPSes died???

What species of sps is that?

[Achilles Tang]

Turning white is a sign of stress... bleaching.... you didn't describe your lighting system and no, of hours you leave it on.

Sometimes it could be you picked a sick coral.

[Copperband]

Are you using only one bulb? for the 4ft?

If you are... i think thats the issue... not enough coverage? any supplemental T5 Lighting?

[angelfishlover]

What species of sps is that?

Some limegreen acro which flouresce under blue actinic.Open white light very ugly.

How many hours you usually on the light???I usually on for 9 hours.Dunno if that should be enough or not???

[sky107line]

hard to say leh.....you nitrate and kh a bit high.....but there are other information that you might want to share, like how long your tank has been running, how are your rock wall, how's your other lives stock doing....maybe even a tank shot......

Yup!....Agreed wif wat bro tineng had mentioned here.....Picture of other L/S and a tank shot would be good to explain more on e issue that you're facing now? Perhaps you could tell us more on the testkit that you are currently using bro.....

[iantoh]

hi there bro beagle,

if youre still keen on keeping sps, do consider starting with montipora species first, instead of acroporids,

as theyre generally easier to maintain and less likely to experience sudden tissue necrosis.

also, try to position your sps in areas where it receives indirect but good flow. indirect meaning there isnt a

constant blast of flow against its tissue. the reason being that flow blasting against a coral, any coral,

impedes the extension of its polyps and generally leads to its demise. ideally, if you can imagine an area

of flow emanating out from your tunze, place your colony just slightly to the side of this flow path.

also, consider employing a controller for your tunze if youre not already using one. often times, when flow only

comes in one direction, the other "shaded from flow" side of the coral will suffer and start to TN, which then

spreads to the rest of the colony.

from your parameters, everything seems optimal, so it could also be a case of something possibly toxic,

for which we cant test for, like copper or lead, etc, which may be present in your water source. for this,

i'd recommend employing a polyfilter pad to see if it changes colour and picks up any errant metals that

may be the cause of things.

for a 4 ft tank, a single 250w bulb is also probably insufficient lighting for SPS type corals, but im guessing

youve started by placing your corals directly beneath the bulb spread area, so low light probably isnt the problem.

one more thing could very well be that, if youre not experienced in keeping SPS type corals, you might correspondingly

not be very adept at picking good healthy specimens from shipments, which is a mistake we all had to learn

from one way or the other, so you might just have purchased unhealthy or bleached but look super bright specimens

that are in essence, highly doomed to die thereafter.

tell us more bout your setup? like what other corals you keep? and fish? an angel, parrot fish or rabbit fish could

also be a concern if it pecks on the coral's polyps when youre away at work.

cheers,

ian

[FuEl]

Ca & kH way above NSW levels. pH a little on the high side. Corals are just as sensitive inverts compared to other inverts like molluscs, crustaceans, etc. Most of the time their hardiness is taken for granted and most people don't bother to acclimatize their corals at all. Sudden changes in water parameters will lead to bleaching.

[angelfishlover]

Ca & kH way above NSW levels. pH a little on the high side. Corals are just as sensitive inverts compared to other inverts like molluscs, crustaceans, etc. Most of the time their hardiness is taken for granted and most people don't bother to acclimatize their corals at all. Sudden changes in water parameters will lead to bleaching.

Only certain acros are hardy for new SPS keepers.I got mine and have grown 1cm for the past one month it is cluster acro.I sure you that cluster acro is also good but if u want to see it's growth mus take pics after 1 month if not u see there is no diff.

[sky107line]

Brother i kept my SPS at 20 ppm for nitrate but for three weeks surviving.Wah this guys parameter is way better than mine but the SPSes died???

[angelfishlover]

Yup! I guess you're right.... 20-25 ppm of nitrate will not kill e sps instantly...Beside that e colour will only remain brown......As for ur T5 bro Angelfishlover, You might wanna extent e time of running from 9 hrs to 15hrs instead.....Just my 2 cents.

Oh ok wah nid to get timer already.plus another 2x39watts light.So long nvr check out the Malay Reefers already.

[angelfish]

Here's the specs for my water condition:

Ammonia, nitrite - undetectable

Nitrate - 5ppm

Mg - 1350

Ca - 480

kH - 12

PO4 - 0.03

pH - 8.3

Temp - 26 Degrees

Tank Specs:

Length - ~4.2ft

Width - ~1.5ft

Height - ~3.1ft

Lighting - 250W MH with color temp of 12k

Turnover rate for tank is 10X and using a tunze 6080 (8500lph) for main tank.

Tried to keep several SPS with different positioning(thought it might be due to the flow rate or lighting) but they just turn white within a week or so. SPS are never placed more than 1ft from the light source, but they still turn white.

Any ideas anyone?

Hi Beagle,

how long this system has been running ?

and some setup description could help us to understand more on your system

just my 2cents

[RockyBoy]

Probably some dissolved stuffs that are killing the sps. Need to run GAC to absorb those toxic stuffs & improve the water condition.

[hammy]

check ur salinty. The rest of the parameter is within acceptable range.

a pic of ur system with FTS will be great for us to analyse the prob.

[boxerz]

Turnover rate for tank is 10X and using a tunze 6080 (8500lph) for main tank.

I think that is far to low for SPS and lack of Sr could be the cause of tissue recession in SPS.