No SPS growth... stumped

Discussion in 'SPS Corals' started by Sacul1573, Oct 18, 2011.

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  1. Dingo

    Dingo Giant Squid

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    do you have a DSB or sand bed that could be releasing nutrients? this happened to me a while ago and I was stumped as to why everything stopped growing but then i realized that my sandbed was saturated with phosphates and releasing them back into the tank
     
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  3. Newreef15

    Newreef15 Horrid Stonefish

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    dingo did you have a dsb or just a sand bed that did that?
     
  4. xmetalfan99

    xmetalfan99 Giant Squid

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    I would put my money on your alk being to high. The suggested alk when running biopellets is between 7-8 dKH. You are much higher than that.
     
  5. FaceOfDeceit

    FaceOfDeceit Hockey Beard

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    Hmm. I was unaware of the recommended Alk being 7-8. I too run pellets (EcoBak) and my mix keeps my Alk at 9.x consistently. I am having no growth or color issues however. Thanks for the info xmetal.
     
  6. BioFreak

    BioFreak Feather Duster

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    I wouldn't worry about the Alk as this reading of 9 is what you are normally at, right?

    I say this because natural Sea Water is at 2.5meg/L or 7dKH.
    But the acceptable range for aquariums is 2.5meg/L to 5mg/L or 7dKH to 15dKH.

    But if you can't find anything else it wouldn't hurt to lower it since you are sitting at 3.2meg/L
     
  7. m2434

    m2434 Giant Squid

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    polyp extension is related to food, not nutrients. Some corals may be able to utilize dissolved nutrients as a food source, but likely many can not. As to the browning, definitely sounds like nutrients. As Dingo said, if there is a lot of crud in your sand or rocks, there could be a localized accumulation of nutrients. By the time they get into the system, and disperse, it is not high enough to be detectable, but still, in the localized area by the corals, is high enough in concentration to drive excess zoox. Also, some have noted excess carbon may cause browning. Did you say you run GAC? How often do you change it? Or perhaps in your system, BP is just less effective than vodka. In which case, the color should hopefully now start to come back.
     
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2011
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  9. Sacul1573

    Sacul1573 Millepora

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    I have a sandbed of approx. 1-2". I too have wondered what you are mentioning, especially since when the tank was first set up, it ran for about 2 months with LR that was leeching phosphates into the water at a very high rate (5-10ppm). Perhaps the sandbed had absorbed some of this, and is now leeching it back out?

    I do run GAC in a media bag in the sump, about 1 cup worth, replacing every other week.

    I'm starting to believe that the BPs were not very effective in my system, as I know I had a spike in nutrients (small algae bloom) as they began to kick in. I'm now starting to think my sandbed might be a slight problem, as I have noticed algae/cyano builds up on my sandbed first if it's time to replace GFO. Perhaps the switch to BPs allowed nutrients to build up to this point, aided by the sandbed?

    At any rate, I fed the corals last night and this morning, and will continue to dose vodka with increased feedings. Lets see how that runs out, and if things dont look improved in a week or so, I might start talking more about sandbeds.
     
  10. Dingo

    Dingo Giant Squid

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    both... but mostly the DSB, it was contributing about 75% of it
     
  11. Dingo

    Dingo Giant Squid

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    I have stopped use of sandbeds in my tanks because if you do not properly maintain them then they usually accumulate crud and dirt and allow buildup of organics between the rocks and the sand. Your tank will function great for quite some time while the sandbed sucks up the phosphates and other organics... then it comes to a point where the equilibrium level shifts and then suddenly overnight the sand is releasing phosphates with a vengeance!
    here is an article describing an extreme case: Old Tank Syndrome - BeanAnimal's Bar and Grill
     
  12. Sacul1573

    Sacul1573 Millepora

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    Thanks Dingo. I've already dealt with this phosphate nightmare once with the bad live rock, I'd hate to have just transferred the problem to the sandbed.

    I've ordered a Sailfert PO4 test kit, which will hopefully give me better resolution than my API, which always reads <0.25ppm.

    I'm also wondering if it's leeching something else that might be harming the water chemistry, besides PO4?