30 Gallon SPS Reef Build

[snakeblitz33]

Check to make sure your sand isnt clumping.
Set your temp lower. To 78 or 79. Most sps like a little cooler water.
Send your water off to get tested. It will tell you your exact parameters, heavy metals, etc.
Run that poly pad and add a cup of live sand from a well established system to your tank.
What do you feed?

 

[lubeck]

Coral frenzy cyclopeze formula one and two. Mysis. Silversides. Phytoplankton. Emerald entree. Krill.
I feed all these items but I just recently started to comine them all made a batch of combining all the items listed and added coral vite and made frozen cubes.

 

[snakeblitz33]

Hmm.
Could you share a pic of the affected corals?

 

[lubeck]

MY potassium iodine and iron test kits came in today. I just got done testing potassium and it came in at 340. This could be the main reason ??
I will post pics of some corals later

 

[geoj]

Sounds like you are getting closer to a fix. arty: How long has it been since the brown out from the sand change?

 

[lubeck]

I changed the sand about 10 days ago. To be clear, the browning of corals happened or happens usually a couple weeks after I get them. I just got a new acro but all the others have been in the tank for a few months.
I just dosed some potassium and will do so for the next few days. I believe that and the increase in food source may fix the problem Fingers crossed.

 

[geoj]

My friend that was going to start potassium is dragging his feet. :sad: I would love to see if there is a correlation with phosphate. What brand test kits did you get?

 

[lubeck]

Red sea test kit. Are you saying that in dosing potassium it will increase phosphates? That is possible. The directions say indications of an overdose is algae and browning of corals.
I'm starting to wonder if the carbon dosing really is the reason. Or if my corals were/are consuming more potassium than what my water changes give ? Still too early to tell but we are on the right track I think.

 

[lubeck]

I just got done taking a iron test and I think at best I'm showing .05. It says the norm should be .15. I don't know if it's the combination of chateo and corals diminishing it too quickly or not. I have not skipped one weekly water change since I started this tank in January. Hmmm. Going to check iodine next.

 

[geoj]

Red sea test kit. Are you saying that in dosing potassium it will increase phosphates? That is possible. The directions say indications of an overdose is algae and browning of corals.
I'm starting to wonder if the carbon dosing really is the reason. Or if my corals were/are consuming more potassium than what my water changes give ? Still too early to tell but we are on the right track I think.No, the roomer I am hearing is with high phosphate and low potassium corals brown out, now some people are saying that if you correct the potassium corals can color up even with a slightly high phosphate. My plan is to test all of this, but for now my corals are looking pretty good with just feeding. The only one giving me probs is a monti cap and I am convinced it is from alk swing or pH being low.

 

[geoj]

I just got done taking a iron test and I think at best I'm showing .05. It says the norm should be .15. I don't know if it's the combination of chateo and corals diminishing it too quickly or not. I have not skipped one weekly water change since I started this tank in January. Hmmm. Going to check iodine next. I would leave Iron for last, as it is a limiting factor of photosynthesis (algae growth). I have dosed it for just that, to increase algae growth in my tank when no water changes were being done. The idea was to use the algae as a scrubber for nitrate, but it was more work then it was worth. So if it was me I would skip iron until I tried everything else first.

 

[lubeck]

I added a poly pad to my sump. Had a hard time as to where I should put it so water could pass through. I don't have any chambers. Hopefully water will pass through, which I don't see why it wouldn't considering its surrounded by water:hi:
It made my protein skimmer go nuts. I guess I sit and wait.
I believe that it took some time to get all the benifits of the vodka out as I'm starting to see an increase of algae on the lr. I've gone back up with my water changes to 8gal.

 

[snakeblitz33]

Lets see what the poly pad says and go from there. There are MANY other ways to limit nutrients in the tank besides VSV dosing.

 

[lubeck]

How many days does it typically take? A week?

 

[snakeblitz33]

You should start noticing something on the pad within a few days to a week.
So... How has it been going? What have you been up to? How's the corals?

 

[lubeck]

The pad looks a little gray. Kinda like what a sock would look like I just did a water change because I believe my tank is cycling due to the sand change over I did a couple weeks ago. A lot of my coralline died on my back wall and most of my rocks were exposed to air for longer than I wanted. I'm noticing a lot of bubbles sticking to my rock and in some cases my corals. I'm blowing them off as Often as I can. I'm having an excess of nutrients right now and my lr is no longer clean as it was when I was carbon dosing. I'm going to have to cut back on my feeding
However, my corals HAVE shown improvements in color and to a small degree, polyp extention. I'm optimistic that with another month or so they will be healthy. Ultimately I believe the carbon dosing is what caused the browning or the lack of me not feeding the tank enough. I also have a low potassium which hopefully will be corrected with my new salt. Aqua vitro.
I need to post some pics

 

[lubeck]

here is an unhappy coral

the green mili is supposed to be lime green, as you can see its not at all

this is a new piece i got about a week ago.. im using it as a test to see if it washes out still after i stopped carbon dosing

this guy has been doing okay and one of the very few corals that didn't loose that much color

this guy should be deep purple..im too lazy to show the when i first got it but since its washed out it has some sublte improvement of coloration that cant be seen from the pick

this coral should be purple with deep green.... its brown.... booo....

here is a before and after pic - 3 month span

 

[lubeck]

here is an acro that i have seen some progress on color... you can see on the left side of the piece that there are small circles of army green, those were not there before and every day they spread a tiny bit more...

the large whitish acro didn't make my sand change over and i have a tiny frag that will hopefully make it through.

not the right color...

 

[lubeck]

I'm having an issue that I've not had before. Coral recession. I have about 4 corals having some recession Im not sure why i have had some big changes- change over my sand, stopped carbon dosing, changed salts, and did dose 3x over the course of two weeks with potassium even though my potassium is low i have a feeling it is because of the potassium, which im going to stop doing i dont get it because I'm seeing better color but am seeing recession now to. I just did my tests
Phos- .03
Trat-2.5
Mag -1290
Cal-420
Alk-10.1
Temp -79

 

[geoj]

How are you keeping your alk up?