SPS lightining up big time

[kwl1763]

In my 450 that's been setup for about 6 months. (Click my little red house to go to the link for full details)

It's got a monster skimmer that rocks. 2 fish a foxface and a copperband in it and about 25 SPS colonies and frags.

I run carbon and phosban 24/7 and after the cycle have never had a trace of nitrates or phosphates.

I have about 80 astreas, 1 dozen turbos, ad 50 or so ceriths. I have never really had an algea issues at all! There is enough turf for the snails and that's about it. I have to scrape the glass about once a week but that is to keep the corraline from growing more then anything.

The problem is my water is actually to sterile I think. The acros are becoming quite light. They are still healthy but the tricolors as an example are very very light at the base and still light purple at the tips but it's just that they look very odd and lose their nice base colors.

I feed a small amount of oyster eggs and cyclopeeze and golden pearls about once a week.

Several possibilities:

Stop phosban
Only run skimmer a couple hours a day
Feed the corals lots more
Feed the fish like crazy
Start dosing amino acids
Start dosing nitrate
Do nothing as the problem will take care of itself as I add more fish!

What do you think?

[_K_E_P_]

Too clean??, get a whole bunch of fish :D

[twon8]

i would take off the phosban, get a lot more fish and the feeding with them, feed the corals more often as well. I can't imagine a tank that large with that few fish in it. I would have impulse bought my way to at least a dozen...

[vidrine7322]

Pack it full of fish and feed the hell out of them, for good colors you need alot of nutrients being pumped into the tank, but no more than your skimmer can remove. If that makes since lol

[cwegescheide]

Have you tested you ALK lately? I had a pretty significant alk dip that corresponded with a pretty major coral lightening event.

There is definatley a correlation between feeding the fish/tank and coral coloration as well of course.

[Serioussnaps]

dont change anything........just feed more.....dont stop phosban...keep up on WC;s and make a concoction--------------------------cyclopeeze, oyster eggs, rotifers, chopped up shrimp, selcon.......just make a concoction and dump it in there more often than you are.....but keep up on maintenance......you do this and i promise they will color

i think its a combo of intense lighting and "to clean of water"....dont get me wrong you still want the clean water you just want to be introducing foodstuffs......this is what they great export is for.........allows you to feed more and not turn into a nutrient sink

[toothman]

I agree with the "do not change anything". But you have to add fish it is that simple. You can not go wrong with 10 green chromis, some tangs and anthias. Then start feeding them way more than you would think. A example: a entire 6 oz pack of frozen food weekly.

Most likely you will think I am nuts, how can a tank absorb that amount of food, it will.

Oh yes, your acros will start to grow, a lot.

[jackson6745]

Are you mad? 2 fish in a 450gal :D You should have at least 20. I would have closer to 40 :D

[ReeferAl]

There is clearly agreement that the water is "too clean". How you go about changing that is up to you. You really need to feed more. I have 18 fish in my 400 gal, soon to be 20. Adding more fish and feeding them appropriately would certainly take care of the problem. If you really don't want more fish then simply feeding more coral foods would also help. I think even eliminating the Phosban and cutting back on skimming wouldn't be enough unless you also feed more.

Allen

[kwl1763]

Thanks everyone. I will probably feed the corals more. I will have a full fish load eventually but I carefully qt everything so it's going slowly. 3 more fish (2 clowns and a regal) willl go in over the next week and then 2 tangs, pair of triggers, several fairy wrasses, and a couple others, etc. so I'm confident it will go away in time. But no I'm not having 40 fish! 20 is more like it.

[Jar*Head]

I have 26 fish in my 240g cube just to keep up with the monster skimmer. I think your skimmer is much much much more powerful.

[Nuuze]

I too have this problem due upgrading to a bigger tank. Last week I went from feeding fish once a day and corals every couple days to 3-4 times a day for fish and corals with a combination of flake, frozen and liquids for fish and corals. So far it's looking better and ammonia, nitrite and nitrate still 0.

[kwl1763]

This is a beautiful thing to me though. Now we can keep lots of fish, feed them tons. Feed our corals tons and still have no algea issues. To me it's a real testament to how far we have come in the hobby just in the past decade or so!

[Nuuze]

How much fish is enough? Currently I have the following in my 79G:

-small blue tang 1 1/2 - 2 inches
-maroon clown
-2 firefish
-cleaner wrasse
-six-line wrasse
-jennifer fish
-2 sand gobies

The only one I really see feeding the tank is the blue tang. There's about 30 or so SPS frags/colonies, one anemone and a few LPS, softies.

[naka]

When I notice my corals lighten, I dose seachem reef plus for 2 weeks. Works for me. I learned it from Eric C. (**********.com)

James

[Nuuze]

Thanks Naka, I'll give that a try. Whats the dosage like for that product?

[Nuuze]

Never mind, got the dosing instruction on Seachem's site.

[Nuuze]

Naka,

Does Seachem reef plus make your skimmer go crazy? Mine did, how long does it make your skimmer go crazy for?

[icliao]

I pack the following fish in my 500GL and my NO3 < 0.5 ppm and PO4 < 0.03 ppm.

Big fish:
Yellow Tang 1
Purple Tang 1
Sohal Tang 1
Powder Blue 1
Hippo Tang 1
Majestic Angel 1

Medium to small:
Flame angel 1
Royal Gramma 1
Sunrise dottyback 1
Orchard dottyback 1
Green Chromis 10
Clown wrasse 1
8 line flasher wrasse 2
Yellow wrasse 1
Flame hawk 1
Red Blotch hawk 1
Bi-color blenny 1
Black blenny 1
Yellow tail Damsel 3
Cleaner wrasse 1
Pencil wrasse 1
Lamark's Angel 1

I feed 3 - 4 square of vitamin enriched brineshrimp, some flakes and a sheet of sushi nori.

[icliao]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8732533#post8732533 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Nuuze
Naka,

Does Seachem reef plus make your skimmer go crazy? Mine did, how long does it make your skimmer go crazy for?

I add 3-5ml of Reef Plus into my frozen brine shrimp along with water daily then feed it to my fish. Never had any problem with skimmer.

[Nuuze]

hmmm, wonder if I had my skimmer adjusted high skimming everything out of the water...

[Serioussnaps]

What i am saying---you dont have to add fish. The whole add fish thing is a categorization everyones mind is making.......equating add fish with feeding more. You can feed more without fish....IE feed the corals. But then i went back and read you had a 450 and changed my mind.....ADD FISH......why....because you have a fricking 450 dangit. So lets move the thread to WHAT FISH SHOULD YOU GET?

Get our your wallet

[kwl1763]

Here is my for sure fish list with a few openings still:

Already in:

Copperband Butterfly
Magnificent Foxface
Regal Angel (Awesome Fish)
2 True Percs

Still to come:

Sailfin Tang
Powder Blue tang
Solar Wrasse
Flasher Wrasses (hopefully a harem)
Flame and/or Potters angel
Pair of Blue throated triggers

Possible others:
Scott's Fairy Wrasse
8 line fairy Wrasse
Pair Wantanabe Angels

[Serioussnaps]

Got the CBB eating? if not i got your magic bullet...lovely fish one of my favs......mine stuck his beak in a tunze and then got sucked to the side of it.....he didnt make it and had him for almost 3 years

I just put a magnificent foxface in my 55(he is very small) and i also have a mated pair of percs...looks like we got the same taste in fish.

May I suggest some rhomboid wrasses? lineatus, mystery wrasses.....leopard wrasse....asessors yellow and blue.....oh i could go on.......nice start though

[kwl1763]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8734884#post8734884 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Serioussnaps
Got the CBB eating? if not i got your magic bullet...

Ya I've had him for 3 months now. It took a while but he is a pig now and eats mysis and brine like they are going out of style.

Not to derail to much but what's your secret? I had to put live mussells crackled open to get mine to eat then started mixing in mysis. Took about 3 weeks to get him eating mysis from the water column! That's the great thing about QT though.

[Serioussnaps]

the only secret is PISCENE ENERGETICS MYSIS------never seen a CBB refuse one....at least a healthy CBB...only ones i have seen refuse it were on their last leg anyways.......i suspect as you corals start getting more food/nutrients you will see a positive color shift

[kwl1763]

Mine refused them for quite a while! As I said I had to mix with the mussell then he eventually (like 2 weeks later) ate them and loves them now!

Back on topic :) I have started alternating each night, cyclopeeze, Golden Pearls, and Oyster Eggs. Also feding the fix significantly more so I'll let everyone know how it goes.