sps problem

[gary504504]

Hi,I'm a lps guy but I'm trying to make the transition to sps,I got this coral from a local pet shop and the front is doing well, but it is dying on the back side,looks like the tissue is gone and it's just brown skeleton in the back but the polyp extention is good in the front,can someone help me out with what's going wrong

Ph 8.1 to 8.3
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0 according to api test kit (only cheap kit I have so I don't trust it much)
Phosphate 0
Calcium 415
Alk 8.7
Magnesium 1470
Temp 76 to 78

I run a vertex omega 180i skimmer, aquamaxx biopellet reactor, aquamaxx gfo reactor with rowaphos, and filter socks,lighting is in a floating canopy 2 ghl mitras 6100hv leds supplemented with (2) 48 inch 54 watt t5s, leds max out at 60% at height of day,no fish at the moment, velvet killed all 8 of my fish and I have been fallow for 4 weeks now (doing the recommended 72 day fallow period) only thing I add is phytoplankton once a week, Ohh and I run a geo 618 calcium reactor with course arm media and neomag for magnesium


http://i1268.photobucket.com/albums/jj574/gary504504/Mobile%20Uploads/20160325_181422_zpsj5otijc6.jpg (http://s1268.photobucket.com/user/gary504504/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20160325_181422_zpsj5otijc6.jpg.html)

[Acronic]

IME when birds nest rtn's at the base like that it's due to alk swing of some sort. Your alk I would say is verging on the high side for use with carbon source. Tell tale sign is the rounded growth tips of birds nest.

[gary504504]

What should my alk be if using biopellets, also if I slow down the calcium reactor to let alk drop will my calcium be maintained over 400, also will the coral recover

[DamonG]

What should my alk be if using biopellets, also if I slow down the calcium reactor to let alk drop will my calcium be maintained over 400, also will the coral recover
I'm trying hard to keep mine at 7.5. And if you simply slow your bubble of Co2 down(i had to slow mine from 4 to 3 seconds per bubble), it should lower the alk a little.. Mine also did keep my calcium high enough(it dropped about 10ppm)..

[Acronic]

Don't worry too much about calcium. Some of my best colours were at 390 calcium

[33yrplus]

How long have you had the coral?

What lighting was it under in the store?

Parameters look fine, even with carbon dosing. What is the salinity? Do you have a refractometer and calibration solution?

Is it very close to a pump?

[gary504504]

Yes I have a refractometer, and salinity is 1.026, I've had the coral about 3 to 4 days now and it was under Chinese black box leds at the store,also its about 12 inches away from the nearest pump but by looking at the polyps it's getting pretty good flow

[33yrplus]

Might want to try moving it to another area of lower flow and lower light and see if it makes any changes in a week. Try to replicate the flow conditions it was in in the store. That's assuming the store had it for a while. If it's newly arrived then it's trial and error.