Need SPS Exp Opinions Please

[sig45]

In 22yrs reefkeeping, my best advice is maintaining stability. There are alot of ways to keep sps as noted. Regular maintenance is a necessity.
First, what kind of sps/ acros are you obtaining...captive bred,maricultured or wild caught?
There is a big difference. Captive multigenerational corals are ususally better acclimated to our artificial systems.
Second, how are they dying. Lose color, tissue? If tissue loss at base or tips?
Third, how do you acclimate your corals? Do you quarantine? Dip?

There is alot of good advice in this thread

Sig

 

[d5332]

I tried keeping different types of acros purchased from Texas and California online stores. With the volume the stores I use move, origin is probably diverse.

The corals were dying by way of bleaching, never noticed shedding or otherwise.

Some would be covered by what appeared to be sediment.

Sea Level Aquarium checked the water and testable parameters were dead on.

I cut the dose of vodka late June, bought some more acros and they are still alive in the tank.

The only major change in the tank was cutting back on vodka, nitrates don't get very high but I do have nitrates now, GFO seems to truly keep phosphates in check.

The only significant change I have made was cutting back on vodka and now the tank appears to be consuming Alk and Mag at faster rates than water changes and all in one additives such as Reef Complete can replenish.

I am trying to figure out how to incorporate either a sediment tank or drip tray system to catch waste as its about to enter the sump. The filter socks are not for me, have at least two dozen that got used once and never again, simply a PITA, industry needs to come up with cheaper disposable alternative.

Anyhow, I am not running around losing sleep, as long as the corals are alive and they are I will slowly continue to figure out the least time consuming way to ensure the water has ample nutrients to support growth. For that I already purchased dosing pumps but still have not decided exactly which products to dose.

In conclusion, while I do not avidly committed to ensuring that the corals grow at a specific % daily I do want to ensure their survival.

Slowly but surely...

Considering adding various types of macros I the sump and possibly an algae scrubber to aid with the removal of nitrates the natural way and least expensive way.

In 22yrs reefkeeping, my best advice is maintaining stability. There are alot of ways to keep sps as noted. Regular maintenance is a necessity.
First, what kind of sps/ acros are you obtaining...captive bred,maricultured or wild caught?
There is a big difference. Captive multigenerational corals are ususally better acclimated to our artificial systems.
Second, how are they dying. Lose color, tissue? If tissue loss at base or tips?
Third, how do you acclimate your corals? Do you quarantine? Dip?

There is alot of good advice in this thread

Sig

 

[LowezAkar24]

LowezAkar24

Just try doing a water change every two weeks. If it works then stick with. Keeping SPS will require a little bit of work but worth it when you see the growth. Try it out. It can't hurt. I would disconnect one of the skimmers also in the meantime to see how efficient one skimmer is. As someone stated earlier in this thread, they are both probably competing for the same waste. And I also second the response as it pertains to the trace elements being replenished during water changes. Whatever chemicals you are using outside of dosing cal/alk/mag to maintain your tanks paremeters, STOP using them for now. Do this for a month and see how your tank is being affected. Last thing I want to say is to make sure you are not over feeding your fish.

 

[d5332]

Hey, I actually sold one of the skimmers after deciding the Eshoppps S200 was enough, they were not competing for waste since both actually generated waste but I decided to just sell it and clean the remaining one every two days.

Since I started this thread the only major change I have done is cut vodka dosing in half, since cutting vodka dosing SPS do not die.

I just switched tanks and did so by using 100% new saltwater and the tank is bare bottom for now and all corals transferred alive and are doing well.

Vodka was killing the sps corals, zero nitrates, zero phosphates amongst what ever other effects vodka had was not good for SPS.

 

[LowezAkar24]

LowezAkar24

Brother, I am happy you found a solution to your problem. I wish you a long living healthy tank. Wishing you nothing but the best.

 

[d5332]

Brother, I am happy you found a solution to your problem. I wish you a long living healthy tank. Wishing you nothing but the best.

Thanks, I just hope now I dont become interested in getting the corals to grow at optimal rates, I really dont want to become addicted / obssessed with parameters, lighting and stuff

 

[d5332]

hmmm, my cell phone showed me a post that may have been deleted but I'll kill a minute clarifying for whomever it was that posted on this thread btw 9pm and 2am.

The point of this thread was to identify if there are simple ways to keep sps. Simple ways as identified in the youtube videos I have seen, the many online posts I have read, the bragging some do, and so on.

Why did I ask this question? Because I have read and watched video of people that allegedly dont do much to their tanks but grow sps corals like weeds, I wanted to confirm if those tales were factual because I do not want to ever be a slave to a hobby.

I would like to keep some branching sps corals while performing minimal physical maintenance, the type of maintenance, hence my vodka dosing.

Fast forward to today and it turned out that the sps corals in my tank were not dying because of my sand bed, were not dying because of my lighting, were not dying because of my ph nor because of nitrates. The sps were dying because of too much vodka dosing.

I still vodka dose, have not changed much water either other than what was changed last week because i changed tanks.

Pointers I took from this thread mainly from the truly objective folks were:

No sandbed, copied that from MikeC, I left 4 pounds of sand in one corner of tank because I plan on getting wrasses again but originally there was over 100 pounds of sand.

I am entertaining 100 micron filter pads but that is turning out to be a pita requiring fresh pads like every 36 to 48 hours, if I can figure out some kind of pressure washing for filter socks I may truly embrace filter socks, I can't put pads or socks in my washing machine, not cost efficient and its disgusting.

I cut back on vodka dosing, now I have nitrates and phosphates but guess what? SPS have been in the tank since late June 2013 and are still alive.

That pretty much it in a nutshell to whomever posted last night.

As of this moment I am not interested in growth rates, really does not matter to me if a coral grows out within months so I can frag it or whatever.