brown sps

[Master Shake]

I got hit by sandy last year and set my new 120 about 9 months ago, its been a slow start since i cant afford colonies but with some help of friends in the hobby and working at a lfs i managed to stock it decently. certain things are growing well like polyps, mushrooms, favias, all of my lps and clam. My only issue is with the acros, they are browning out and refuse to grow vertically but are encrusting very well. i thought they were getting too much light so i reduced the time and moved some down but noticed no difference, flow is a mag7 return pump and a mp40, light is 6 bulb tek with all kz bulbs on about 10 months of use(cant be the bulbs since ive had this problem for the past 4 months and had the same light with bulbs on my old tank and it was doing amazing) and its not just all sps its just the acros montis are doing awesome. skimmer is reef octopus diablo xs160, chaeto in sump and temp at a constant 77,78. i run a 25w aquauv in line with my plumbing.
alk-9
calcium440
mag1400
phosphate .02
nitrate 0

i tried red sea coral colors and noticed no difference, any ideas?

 

[duke62]

Brown acros usually mean excessive nutrients in tank. WhAt test kits are you using that you are coming up with those numbers and whats your color combination in your fixture. I do think your p04 is higher then you think if you are getting brown in your acros.

 

[Master Shake]

phosphate test is hannah checker and i tested it 2 weeks ago and got .02, .01 and .00
tested it last week and got around the same numbers so it was not a fluke, nitrate is api, i know not great but its what i have at work that i dont have to pay extra for even tho im probably going to end up getting a better one all other kits are red sea

 

[Master Shake]

color combo is 1x fiji purple, 1x coral light, 1x coral light gen 2 and the other 3 are the kz actinic bulbs

 

[duke62]

API is very inaccurate for NO3. Get the salifert its a 10x better test kit for NO3. Hanna checker is good but with that test kit its usually .03 lower then actual po4 reading in your tank. There is another kit that hanna has that is alot more accurate but all in all not horrible. You want it to be at 0 with that kit. Im def leaning toward high nutrients in your tank. Lets see what others say

 

[mbg75]

Are they pure actinic? If so, they don't produce enough par.
If that's the case, your only really lighting with 3 bulbs

 

[Master Shake]

i know api is inaccurate but i figured even if it was it would give me a general idea of where my levels are, if anything all equip is same if not better than my old tank and im getting sub par results to say the least

 

[Master Shake]

i believe the fiji purple is the kz version of pure actinic

Are they pure actinic? If so, they don't produce enough par.
If that's the case, your only really lighting with 3 bulbs

 

[Master Shake]

and also right before sandy i upgraded from a 4 bulb tek which had 2 actinic, i fiji purple and 1 white and got better results than i am now with more light

 

[mbg75]

Can u list the 6 bulbs off the labels on them? The actual brand and model?

Also what dimensions the tank is.

 

[Master Shake]

120 tech tank, 48x24x24
bulbs all 54who kz:
1xcoral light
1x coral light 2
3x super blue
the only 4 kz bulbs carried by bulk reef
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/aquarium-lighting/t5-fluorescent-aquarium-lighting/bulbs.html

 

[mbg75]

120 tech tank, 48x24x24
bulbs all 54who kz:
1xcoral light
1x coral light 2
3x super blue
the only 4 kz bulbs carried by bulk reef
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/aquarium-lighting/t5-fluorescent-aquarium-lighting/bulbs.html

If thats whats in the fixture, That's fine. They are not pure actinic.
10 months is about it for uncooled t5 to keep SPS.
6 bulb is on the minimum end for SPS in a 120.

Are the Acro's placed high in the tank?

 

[Master Shake]

had no issues with the 4 bulb on the old 90 or even the 6 bulb when i upgraded, acros range anywhere from 6 inches from top to 4 inches off the bottom and have tried different heights for all of them

 

[duke62]

Your lights are fine. Unless they are old bulbs. Like i said it all stems from excess nutrients. Get some good NO3 kits or ask someone to test for you. Do a very large water change and clean your sand and sump of all deitrus. Baste around and under your rock then do the big water change. Do a 20 to 30 percent water change every week for a month and see if the colors start to show any change.

 

[Master Shake]

no detritus, i have very open rockwork and fan off any extra detritus from all rocks at least once a week if not twice, and sump is spotless. just did 2 50% water changes 4 and 3 weeks ago, i can do another 25% one this week tho, the solution to pollution is dilution i guess

 

[Master Shake]

just got new nitrate kit today(red sea pro) and it came out as the highest color on the spinning wheel contraption they give u with it, for those of you who dont know what that means it said that is 4ppm, doing a 30gwch as soon as my water heats up soon, any other ideas? fish dont get fed that much skimmer works like a beast and chaeto is growing good

 

[mbg75]

just got new nitrate kit today(red sea pro) and it came out as the highest color on the spinning wheel contraption they give u with it, for those of you who dont know what that means it said that is 4ppm, doing a 30gwch as soon as my water heats up soon, any other ideas? fish dont get fed that much skimmer works like a beast and chaeto is growing good

That Red Sea kit will test a high and low range. To get a high range reading u dilute the sample as per instructions.

 

[Master Shake]

i already know i have to get it down because its high, dont really care how high as much as that i have to get it down. tested my ro and came out 0. just finished water change and plan to do at least one more this week. any other good tricks for lowering it? not sure how it got so high since i did 2 50% wch a few weeks ago and fish dont get fed that much

 

[duke62]

Do you have a deep sand bed with sand movers? If so they may be moving to much sand releasing the NO3 from the sand bed.

 

[Master Shake]

no deep sand bed, might be 2 inches at deepest part have 4 xl leopard nasarius and stir it about once a week manually