Trying too hard to attain ULNS

[nj_evoIXgsr]

Good morning RC,

I have issues with keeping SPS but everything else grows like weed for me. LPS&Zoas such as torchs, hammers, favia, chalices, etc.

Details:
80Gallon system

RC salt @1.026
10% WC every 2 weeks
Filtration consist of - BM Curve 5, ton of Chaeto with lots of life and 4sand bed, GFO+Carbon in TLF reactors, NOPOX and LR+LS

Parameters
NO3 - near 0 (red sea pro test kit)
pH - 8.2-8.4 (pH probe RKL)
ORP - ~340 (ORP probe RKL)
PO4 - 0.02-0.08 (Hanna not the ultra sensitive one)
ALK - 7.4-7.8 (Sailfert)
CA - 460-490 (Sailfert)

Notes:
Ranges are normally what I see from multiple tests between a month span.
ALK - Dosing B-Ionic through BRS 1.1
CA - Never dose because RC salt is high and my load just doesn't bring it down enough to be in "recommended" range.
Carbon - recently switched to SeaChem Matrix (I was using the regular crap from petco until I double checked what I should be using)


So with NO3 and PO4 at acceptable levels, I would think I would be fine.

What do I dose for food?

ReefEnergy a&b almost daily
Feed ocean nutrition pellets every other day
Feed Rods food 2-3x a week

It will probably be asked so my lighting is the Prestige LED hybrid - LED + T5s.



What could be my issue?
Am I stripping the tank too much?
Is there a correlation with ULNS and SPS growth vs low-high nutrient system?

I am upgrading my tank in a week and starting over. I am going to try to maintain a higher SPS count so I want to lockdown what I may be doing to cause my issues. Switching over to Red Sea Coral Pro salt for various reasons. I wish there was Tropic Marin Pro but have yet to find it locally available. ESV was another option but everyone that carries it is a lot further away and unlikely to go near often.

[reefwars]

What sort of troubles are you having , tissue loss or color and growth?

It's possible that nutrients are stripped but the numbers don't seem to say that , lighting and nutrients play a huge role in the colors you acquire , growth Is more focused to flow and elements and nutrients available.

If they are just slowly dying off could be many reasons from pests , fish , current to bad neighbors etc.

A bit of detail on the type of hard corals , how long you've had them , the symptoms etc will help figure why your having troubles:)

[ridetheducati]

Overlooking lighting and flow. Strong lighting and flow?

[MyNameIsNemo]

Funny I have the opposite problem, my mix reef which grows SPS alot faster than the LPS and such.. lol. I think the most important thing to look at for SPS are water,flow, and lightning.

[MondoBongo]

most likely issue is that you need to ditch the GSR and get yourself a nice MR ;)

[lynchmob3000]

I wouldn't be dosing b ionic unless I had the need for both. Something to do with the chemistry of the two bottles. I've only been successful with that product and dosing equal parts of each. That's why they only sell it as a pair. Plus it's expensive. It's an amazing product but designed a certain way for a reason.

[lynchmob3000]

Make sure your refractor is functioning properly cause RC shouldn't be too high on ca if your mixing it at the right levels. Most complain about the kh being too high. I've had no issues to date

[FraggledRock]

you say you check monthly?

do you only dose monthly?

[nj_evoIXgsr]

I check almost bi-weekly or 2-3x if my numbers seem off/higher than normal.


I use 2 jebao rw8 + return and kNano for a possible dead spot. I don't point them directly at the sps. They range from 5-7"- 12" deep.

Lighting is T5 - 1ATI Blue+, 2 UVL 454 and 1ATI Coral+ then LEDs, 10% white, 80% blues and 40% reds/greens mix.

T5s mix is only ran for 4.5 hours. Actnics for 6, LEDs for 6 without the ramp up or below 30%.


Mondo - I'd prefer the SE. No way I would take the MR weak 6speed trans vs the 5speed. The evo is sitting in the garage 70~% of the year for the next 2 years. I am just having it sit to reduce maintenance costs and I will start setting it up for Time Attack after the 2 years.

[MondoBongo]

Totally OT but who are you doing TA with? NASA/scca? I guess I should clarify. I have a ix mr in gg. I've had it since I got it new. Before that had an 05 viii in EB. I love these cars, the ct9a is my favorite platform.

[nj_evoIXgsr]

SCCA seems more prevalent? I would make that choice soon after I start setup.

I have not tracked my car yet. More of a $$ reason than anything. I break something and my wife would go bananas more than she goes bananas everytime I purchase a coral.

Have you tracked or gotten your license on either?

I can't see myself in the X. I know some people who love the move to the X because of the comforts but the CTA9 is just in another league in my opinion.

Sorry, don't have many pictures available but here is my POS in the meantime.

http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u433/mikeycanuela7/20140203_155953_zpsw6uhxrj_edit_1391484175891_zpsmr2jb0t3.jpg

[Mcgeezer]

What kind of skimmer are you using? Sps love ultra low nutrients and PAR.

I have a mixed tank that grows everything. I run all ATI t5 bulbs which run high on blue spectrum with some red/purple from the coral plus bulbs. Sps seem to love 20k lighting blends.

What kind of GFO are you using? I have a lot of success with rowaphos.

SPS also like a little higher alk between right at or slightly above 9

[nj_evoIXgsr]

I use Rowaphos. I spoke with others and they said alk is acceptable at my current level so I kept it as is. I'll try for higher alk since 9 is still an acceptable range.

I use a bubble magus curve 5 which does a pretty good job. While using nopox my skimmate has been improved.

I am going to run more ATI bulbs (already purchased).

2ATI Blue+ 1ATI Coral Plus and 1 UVL 454 or 75/25 depending on how blue it is. I like 15K or higher.

[Mcgeezer]

I have healthy sps even with slight amounts of nutrients. My only issue has been brown cyano on the sand bed in the back corners since my flow isn't good in the corners. Otherwise, as long as my colonies get blasted with flow, eat their cyclops and reef chili 3x a week, and get 8 hours of light, then they show off and grow in their full glory.

I also run chemi pure blue as my carbon source. Having very clear polished water is also a very important factor for sps to allow even distribution of light.

[titusho]

SPS needs:
Sufficient Random and Gentle flow
Good coverage lighting - $14K works good
Low nutrients
Constant Parameters. You can keep SPS at ALK 10 if you keep it constant. Personlly, I run it as close as nature water level, which are:
Ca 400-410
ALK 6.5-7.0
Mg 1250
PO4 <0.03
No3 <1
Sanlity @ 34
Very important, potassium - around 380.

You need to eliminate your problem 1 after 1 to identify what is not right.

If you think Light and Flow are not the problem, and you are confident that test results are accurate, you need to keep this as stable as possible, i mean test every other day for a period of time to see if your parameters are stable, and within range of your target parameters whatever it will be.

I Highly recommend to check for pest, and check if fish nipping SPS. HTH.

[MondoBongo]

ULNS is something that i've never personally been able to come anywhere close to obtaining. it's never really made sense to me either. corals do need a certain amount of "dirt" in the water.

now granted i don't keep what many people would probably consider more fragile or touchy sps, but i feel i get excellent grow from mine, and i tend to run a very dirty tank. the only time i ever saw issues with slow down of growth and/or coral death was over the summer when my nitrates got up over 50ppm due to general negligence and hubris.

typically i am running around 5 - 12ppm of nitrate in my system, and there is phosphate because i always have at least some cyano.

in reference to your alk readings, are those in dKh? i'm not at home currently, so i don't have my notepad, but that does strike me as a touch low. it's certainly not bad by any means, and i'm sure there are plenty of people running the same numbers, but my alk tends to be a shade higher. round abouts 8 - 9 dKh.

i dose kalk through a brs 1.1. i think you mentioned b-ionic before, but i'm not familiar with that.

i also don't bother feeding my coral most of the time. once every few months i target feed my LPS, but other than that they get cast off pellets and sometimes nutramar ova/cyclop-eeze from when i feed the fish, but i don't do anything specific for them.

do you have an auto top off? i'm assuming by the list of your other equipment you most likely do, but i figured i would ask.

have you tried taking your carbon and rowa-phos offline for a month or two, and seeing if there is any change?

i guess i am still a little confused on what the actual issue is though. your sps is not growing fast enough, or dying off, or something else?

on the evo front, i was most of the way to an SCCA time trial license a few years back, but never ended up going through the physical or filling out the rest of the paper work outside of my safety log. NASA isn't too prevalent in my area, mainly SCCA stuff around here. i haven't been out racing for a few years now.

she has 93,000 miles on her now, all mine, so for the last few years i haven't wanted to tempt fate racing a high mileage evo that is also my daily driver, and have just been dogging it with commutes. i actually went out last night to test drive a focus RS, which may become my new daily driver shortly here if the numbers work out. allowing the evo to become the garage queen that she so richly deserves to be.

it's always awesome to see other evo drivers also keeping saltwater. i also love the white with the rear diffuser. the VIII and IX are gorgeous looking in white.

here is me a few years back at a snow rally cross event:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-VlrSN0N5BZo/Uw3kiaNM-PI/AAAAAAAAA5w/8c8EVwNStnY/w755-h505-no/2070_59257453101_2580_n.jpg

and here is me and a friend sitting in the paddock at a level II scca tt event:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-gXgTNUqU8AI/VL5lrkFTgYI/AAAAAAAABT4/GcpDogw8GPo/w895-h672-no/evoandjerevo.jpg

love these cars. :dance: