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05/09/2012, 12:36 PM | #1 |
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SPS losing color
Hi,
My SPS reef has been going great until a couple of months ago. I noticed that some of my corals were slowly losing their color and growth rate. I have noticed some nuisance algae growth around the tank lately. I am not sure what is going on and I need some help from the pros! I have a 29g tank that has almost been running for a year. I am currently using a DIY led light fixture with 25 CREE leds. I am running a skimmer, mp10, GFO, and carbon. I do weekly 3-5g water changes with RSCP salt. Current tank Parameters: Alk 8 (redsea) Calcium 510 (redsea) Mag 1440 (redsea) Nitrate 0 (salifert) Phosphates 0 (salifert) PH 8.0 (salifert) Salinity 1.026 Any advice would be great! Thanks! Last edited by Reeflow; 05/09/2012 at 01:20 PM. |
05/09/2012, 12:41 PM | #2 |
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what's the color combination of the leds. I did a diy a while ago and my spectrum had too much blue in it. corals looked horrible and the ha was growing faster than the coral.
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Steve Am I really doing all of this for a fish tank?????? Current Tank Info: 360g Envision Acrylic Tank, Closed Loops, Vectra L1's, MP40QD's, 400w Radiums, Regal 300ext, Dastaco Ext3 CaRx, Controlled by GHL Profilux |
05/09/2012, 01:20 PM | #3 |
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My current setup is 13 royal blue xt-e leds and 12 cool white xp-g leds. I have had this light setup since day one.
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05/09/2012, 03:21 PM | #4 |
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If you have algae, there must be phosphates/nitrates coming from somewhere. Do you use GFO and if so have you changed it recently?
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Eric "One thing that humbles me deeply is to see that human genius has its limits while human stupidity does not." Current Tank Info: Taking a break |
05/09/2012, 03:25 PM | #5 |
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If you have nuisance algae, you have phosphates.
Also how high above the tank are your LEDs?? |
05/09/2012, 03:27 PM | #6 |
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05/09/2012, 03:28 PM | #7 |
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05/09/2012, 04:06 PM | #8 |
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I am assuming you just put the LEDs in???
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05/09/2012, 07:55 PM | #9 |
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05/09/2012, 08:03 PM | #10 |
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I just tested PO4 again and is still at 0ppm
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05/09/2012, 08:13 PM | #11 |
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The only way to truly test your PO4 is to use a hanna meter as they are the most precise. Are you using RO/DI water? Whats your TDS?
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05/09/2012, 08:19 PM | #12 |
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Have the LFS check your water for po4. Do you have fish? How often do you feed them?
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05/10/2012, 06:07 AM | #13 |
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I would suspect high nutrients. That would cause brown out.
Usually when SPS bleach its due to too much light. A friend of mine, as soon as he built his new tank with LEDs, all his SPS bleached within the first month. And yes, for an accurate PO4 reading, I would recommend a hanna checker. Do you have an nuisance algae? If you do, the algae is making PO4 unreadable. |
05/10/2012, 11:04 AM | #14 |
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05/10/2012, 11:05 AM | #15 |
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05/10/2012, 11:14 AM | #16 | |
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Quote:
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05/10/2012, 11:18 AM | #17 |
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From my understanding the algae use up some of the phosphates and nitrates, so readings of 0 for those two are probably due to the algae.
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40b, bh2000 skimmer, 48X3w Cree LED Eshine Systems with a sun-rise/set controller. 2X750gph koralia evolution powerheads |
05/10/2012, 11:22 AM | #18 |
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05/10/2012, 11:30 AM | #19 |
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what do u dose?
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05/10/2012, 11:37 AM | #20 |
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BRS recipe 1
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05/10/2012, 11:43 AM | #21 |
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Do u spot feed corals....ur phosphate and nitrates are 0 because of algea...have u added any new rocks...how often do you change gfo and carbon
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05/10/2012, 12:03 PM | #22 |
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Any recent changes to the tank?
If you do have nuisance algae the next thing would be removing PO4. Which normally people get a GFO reactor or also you can try a turf scrubber. |
05/10/2012, 07:38 PM | #23 |
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I would most definitely look at getting your PO4 checked with a hanna meter (maybe a local reefer can help you out). I would also test the TDS of the LFS water. You can buy a handheld TDS meter for like $20 to get a good idea of what your getting. Sometimes LFS's will not replace the DI cartridge as often and after the membrane it may put out at like 10ppm TDS, and since the DI is used up it doesn't remove the 10ppm of dissolved nutrients.
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05/10/2012, 08:15 PM | #24 |
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Here are a couple of before and after shots. I also included some algae pics.
Before After Before After Algae pics |
05/10/2012, 08:24 PM | #25 | |||
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