I cant keep sps alive.

[yerboy]

Originally Posted by GeoJ
http:///forum/post/2989932
You can add a fan that blows on the water and comes on at the same time as the lights.
I have 2 that do that already

 

[veni vidi vici]

One other thing you might want to try is shutting down your phosban reactor. Here is an explanation i received a while back on the issue.
"The majority of the time you have bleached corals it comes as a result of too much lighting or not enough nutrients....or a combination of both. You may not have too much lighting if the corals were heatlhy...but bleached corals need less...so it comes back to nutrients.
Removing what Phosphate you have in the water is the last thing you want to do if that is the case.
Getting bleached corals to turn brown/brownish is success IMO. you can get the color back, first and foremost you want them to get healthy.
Do you have any nuisance algae in the tank?? If not, and you are bleaching corals then take that reactor offline and get some food in there. Im not saying that nuisance algae is a good thing, its a balancing act to get your system tuned enough that you can have your cake and eat it too, but nuisance algae and brown corals is better than bleached and dying corals and something you can work with.......weak dying corals are not nearly as easy to fix
jmo and hope that helps"
Sterile water isnt necessarily good.

 

[yerboy]

the phos media has been removed and replaced with carbon, i have 2 fans that do come on with my Halides.
Just got a battery for my Fluke and im sitting at 65 volts of stray voltage with ground probe removed form the system, much higher then i had expected. I have a few things that are putting out voltage, heater 5vdc, first koralia4 8vac, second koralia4 5vac. With all pumps, heater, unplugged i still have 40vac somewhere, so i need to keep looking.
And to go back in time some i have had trouble with some LPS and others do fine with limited growth. I always thought i was just doing something wrong but the problems may be related.
Edit: i do have small amounts of nuisance algae growing on some frags. this algae was hitchhikers and has not really spread tho i do try to keep it trimmed back.

 

[jerryatrick]

Going to jump on the bandwagon here. Couldn't keep SPS in my tank either with leathers. Never had a problem with LPS though. Kenya tree as mentioned above was another softie that seemed to affect my SPS as well.

 

[yerboy]

Just a small update.
the 3 SPS frags that where dying when i made this thread are still living and there decline to death seems to have reversed and they look much better.
I guess the carbon worked in pulling out the leathers toxins.

 

[jackri]

Glad to hear good news to a situation like this for once

 

[pezenfuego]

I'm going to have to start running carbon too. After fragging my leathers it seems as if the LPS looks like crap for a few days. I thought it was just my imagination. Thanks to this thread, getting SPS will be a lot easier.
Good thread, thanks.

 

[jpa0741]

If you continue to have a problem I would look into removing your grounding probe and only putting it in the tank when you are putting your hands in it. When you have stray voltage it is not a problem until you provide a place for it to travel (grounding probe or you).

 

[matt b]

Originally Posted by 05xrunner
http:///forum/post/2988085
to many leathers...They release of a toxin and usually will kill the SPS..some say just running carbon will take care of it but maybe in your case it wont..I will bet its your leathers killing off the SPS.
Thats 100% not true. Where are you getting the sps from? How long had they been fragged for? When you frag sps they can get infected and just die off. If you frag 10 sps atleast 2 are going to die most of the time. So I would check into that. Are you using a refractometer? What test kits are you using for cal and dkh? That is pretty high for cal and low for dkh. If your using a cheap test kit and your off my 2 points on your dkh that could be a problem. And same with the calcium. A few hundred and your getting to the breaking point. Thats why some people like to keep dkh and cal around 400-12 cause the breaking point for dks is like 16 and 7 and cal is like 300 and 500. So if you keep you levels where they are now if you test is not accurate you could be in trouble. Same with the salinity. The higher it is the more toxic everything is, Nitrates, phosphates, ECT. So if yourusing a hydrometer and your off by like 4 points you could be stressing the corals from moving from a store which usally keep their salinity low cause of parasites and everything in your water would be more toxic. And running carbon is not going to help anythign at all Running carbon is ok some times but only if you do it the right way. Most people do it when doing a water change, Thats the worst time to do it. Running carbon takes all the yellow out of the water and purifies it to make it clear, When you do a water change that brings everything back to where it should be and when you replace he carbon it will again take out all the yellow out of the water and you could possibley bleach your corals from being stressed from the extra light. And not to mention all the other things it takes out that corals need.

 

[hlcroghan]

I get what you are saying Matt, but if he has toxins in the tank from the leathers and the carbon removes them, and they are doing better, didn't he solve his problem? What is the problem with running carbon all the time? I do it and all the things in my tank are thriving. I was under the assumption that carbon removed the bad things in the tank like ammonia.........

 

[matt b]

Originally Posted by hlcroghan
http:///forum/post/3004499
I get what you are saying Matt, but if he has toxins in the tank from the leathers and the carbon removes them, and they are doing better, didn't he solve his problem? What is the problem with running carbon all the time? I do it and all the things in my tank are thriving. I was under the assumption that carbon removed the bad things in the tank like ammonia.........
If you ask me it was a cawinsadince. There is no way carbon would HELP bleaching sps. I would say the source of where he got the corals were the problem. There are like 5 leathers in there man. Theres no way that is what is killing off the sps.If you want to look at what IFs and this could be it then look at his levels and how close the calcium and dkh is to being way out of whack. Carbon does remove sometings that are bad. But they also remove other things.
How do you expect to run carbon all the time? You have to replace it some time. And most people just do it right when they do a water change. THats the worst time cause carbon removes all the yellow compound in the water and thats not a totaly bad thing but if you do that and then the carbon goes bad and slowly stops working and then you start to get your yellow back and you do a water change and remove the carbon, you corals are going to be shocked by all that light and it can and will defenitly hurt SPS. And if your tank is relying on carbon to remove ammonia then you have alot bigger problems on your hands.

 

[hlcroghan]

Yellow? What yellow? Is that a term that I hav never heard? My tank water is always clear and I am little confused about what you were saying about the light. Also, yes I replace my carbon monthly. I have cartridges. I just started a thread in the reef section about this actually. I was giving an example of what the carbon could remove. I have never had ammonia in my tank. I just think if leather can be toxic then that could affect SPS which are more sensitive.

 

[matt b]

Originally Posted by hlcroghan
http:///forum/post/3004563
Yellow? What yellow? Is that a term that I hav never heard? My tank water is always clear and I am little confused about what you were saying about the light. Also, yes I replace my carbon monthly. I have cartridges. I just started a thread in the reef section about this actually. I was giving an example of what the carbon could remove. I have never had ammonia in my tank. I just think if leather can be toxic then that could affect SPS which are more sensitive.
Yellow compund, Like organics that accumulate in the water over time. This is not a bad or a good thing. Just something that accumulates over time. Water changes will help remove this, So will carbon. So if you let your carbon go a month and same with water change and do a water change and replace the carbon at the same time it will clear up the water and take all the organics out of the water all at the same time. This will make the water crystal clear. And can shock the corals. I am not saying there is anything wrong with running carbon, Just saying it needs to be used carfully. I work in a coral farm and we grow our corals in a green house and this is why we do not run carbon. We dont run skimmers carbon or anything. Just water changes and live rock is our filter. Anyway, Yes some times leathers can be toxic at times. But not to the point of where it kills off sps. The only time that would happen is if the leather is touching the sps or if a monster leather dies off. I can garuntee that those very few leathers were killing the sps. Maybe it was the source of where he got them, Or maybe even there was something in the water that sps could not handle. Like if he used windex to clean the glass or something and the carbon removed that.

 

[yerboy]

Originally Posted by MaTT B
http:///forum/post/3004471
Thats 100% not true. Where are you getting the sps from? How long had they been fragged for? When you frag sps they can get infected and just die off. If you frag 10 sps atleast 2 are going to die most of the time. So I would check into that. Are you using a refractometer? What test kits are you using for cal and dkh? That is pretty high for cal and low for dkh. If your using a cheap test kit and your off my 2 points on your dkh that could be a problem. And same with the calcium. A few hundred and your getting to the breaking point. Thats why some people like to keep dkh and cal around 400-12 cause the breaking point for dks is like 16 and 7 and cal is like 300 and 500. So if you keep you levels where they are now if you test is not accurate you could be in trouble. Same with the salinity. The higher it is the more toxic everything is, Nitrates, phosphates, ECT. So if yourusing a hydrometer and your off by like 4 points you could be stressing the corals from moving from a store which usally keep their salinity low cause of parasites and everything in your water would be more toxic. And running carbon is not going to help anythign at all Running carbon is ok some times but only if you do it the right way. Most people do it when doing a water change, Thats the worst time to do it. Running carbon takes all the yellow out of the water and purifies it to make it clear, When you do a water change that brings everything back to where it should be and when you replace he carbon it will again take out all the yellow out of the water and you could possibley bleach your corals from being stressed from the extra light. And not to mention all the other things it takes out that corals need.
Im using Salifert test kits, and a refractometer. Oceanic salt for water changes , that has always had high calc reading. The SPS have come from diffrent places, some from LFS some from local reefers. Also those SPS are still living but to not look very well. 1 i had in to high flow nd its flesh was blown off 1 side of it, the others just seem to be bleaching.

 

[matt b]

Originally Posted by yerboy
http:///forum/post/3006472
Im using Salifert test kits, and a refractometer. Oceanic salt for water changes , that has always had high calc reading. The SPS have come from diffrent places, some from LFS some from local reefers. Also those SPS are still living but to not look very well. 1 i had in to high flow nd its flesh was blown off 1 side of it, the others just seem to be bleaching.
Were the SPS encrusted onto the plug or could you still see the glue? Oceanic salt is the reason for the high calcium and lower dkh. Some like to keep their levels close to the ocean but like I explained before if your test is off a little or you over dose or forget to dose then alot of things could go wrong.
What are you adding to your tank on a dairly basis?
How are you checking your PH, Like a meter or test kit? And when are you testing it?

 

[yerboy]

Originally Posted by MaTT B
http:///forum/post/3006478
Were the SPS encrusted onto the plug or could you still see the glue? Oceanic salt is the reason for the high calcium and lower dkh. Some like to keep their levels close to the ocean but like I explained before if your test is off a little or you over dose or forget to dose then alot of things could go wrong.
What are you adding to your tank on a dairly basis?
How are you checking your PH, Like a meter or test kit? And when are you testing it?
They where fresh cut sps. I use a ph meter to monitor ph and i check it several times a day. I add nothing to my tank, i have kalk reactor that runs with my ato but i havent ran any top off thru it in a week or so because my ph has been around 8.5-8.6 lately so i dont want it to go any higher.

 

[yerboy]

Little update. Took some water to the LFS to have tested and my Nitrates where at 40 ppm while my test kit said they where 0. So my test kits are bad and i tossed them. Would nitrates of 40 cause sps to die off?

 

[cablebox615]

Yes I would get that down asap. I was going through the same thing. My acro died and I kno what the problem. Nitrates were at 30ppm. Which starts to be dangerous for a fowlr. I did two 15g water changes in two days. Twenty dollars down the drain

. After the two water changes the acro that I thought was dead started to look better by the next day. Also I would not drip acclimate any SPS ever. They dont get enough oxygen or flow during drip acclimation. Sps are fine with just getting the temp the same, or you can do the float method if that make you feel better. I have never drip acclimated anything. I have not lost really no inverts or corals. Oh yeah the 2 Tangs and a torch coral I got from *****. Never ever again will I buy anything from ***** alive!!!!!!!!!! I would say the nitrates are probably your problem.

 

[yerboy]

hows the weather down in nashville?

 

[cablebox615]

It was great today. It was in the upper 60's. Just glad all the rain is gone.I didn't kno you lived in Clarksville. Where do you buy your livestock. We have 3 LFS here do you ever go to any of those.