LPS ok, SPS not doing good

[jdthomas24]

ok, i had an ALK swing about 2 weeks ago. Since then i lost a few SPS but most of my LPS have been ok. Dendros and Toodstool are not opening though. I have done 3 water changes since last Saturday of 25 gallons each on 150 Gallon DT. I have tested my mag, cal, alk and they are all within parameters. Before i did my water change today they were as follows.

cal 500
mag 1300
alk 9dkh

i honestly do not know what more i can do, anyone have any insight on this? im stumped keep my tank temp at 77 and i run MH 250 watts about 7 hours a day and the PC about 5, there is a mix schedule with all on some and only some on other times. i still have some bleached SPS but they are not all the way dead.

[jdthomas24]

hammers only open slightly also

[jdthomas24]

no one in this???????

[kingnai]

Stability is key do you test for nitrates and phosphates? I struggled so much when I started because I thought I was doing everything right. Hindsight I never tested for phosphates or nitrates and I was using the cheap test kits for alk and calcium which were off.

Honestly if you can invest in your water and follow randy's advice in the chemistry fourm everything else will fall into place. Corals will thrive and grow and you will have a happy tank.

[losthere]

Just keep up your water changes, and keep everything stable. Dont do or add anything new(i.e. bulbs,reactor, vodka, etc) just keep doing everything the same as you normally do. It will take time but if you keep your params stable, after a while things will start coming back.
No mention of your salinity. That is just as important as alk, cal, and mag.

Dosing system? Frequency of dosing?

You should test your tank every few hours throughout the day and see if there are any swings within the day. HTH

[kingnai]

Also LPS and softies are much more forgiving than SPS... LPS success is not an indicator that the tank is fine and sps should be happy also. I have a friend that has a beautiful tank with zoas and mushrooms growing like crazy. I gave him a Sunset monti to put in his tank and it stayed alive for a month or so but his water params couldn't support it. I was able to take it back and it has doubled in size in the past month.

Invest in a great skimmer, Use a Lamotte test kit for Alk and Nitrates, and Elos test kit for Calcium, Hanna has a new phosphate meter that is only around $50 that is awesome.

[jdthomas24]

sorry, my salinity is at 1.025 , it was at 1.021 for the longest and everything was fine. i started raising it slowly over the past 2 months to what it is now. i have aso tested to make sure my refractometer is line with the LFS. It was right on. nitrates are at 0 and phosphates are close to 0, i have a reactor with phosphate remover running 24-7. i stumped and ill about it. i have done 3 waters changes in the past 7 days to make sure it wasn't anything in the water. Also i forgot to mention. i did use kick ich from Ruby Reef a little while back but stopped treatment when i had a naso die. I a, also trying to make sure i have all of that out of my system with the water changes.

i dose with 2 part and have had to dose much more ALK than Calc because the Calc was always good but the Alk was a little low.

[jdthomas24]

what does everyone think? keep on with more water changes? would there be anything else i need to test for in the water besides the normal, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, calcium, mag, and Alk? i did have a cleaner wrasse come up missing but no spike form it. i guess the crabs ate him.

[jdthomas24]

^^^^^

[jdthomas24]

bump

[Frick-n-Frags]

keep on keepin' on and ride it out if you are doing all the right things now. also, dont get your timeframe screwed up. it could take months for a sulking coral to get over it..not the next day.

in reefing, "a week aint squat"...

[jdthomas24]

lol, nice .......I have moved all my SPS to another tank that's been in action for awhile, they seem to be doing a little better. MY dendro starting opening some which makes me feel better. I will leave them in the other tank for a couple of months.