Cali Kid Corals

I NEED HELP FIGURING OUT WHY I CANT KEEP SPS

And I have a PAR meter you can borrow if you are in the East Bay.

I support the biome feedback, but seems like you have established rock etc.

I am not seeing what your other major (and minor) elements are. E.g., what is your calcium, what is our magnesium level?

I agree with not chasing numbers, but being aware of them is still helpful if you encounter struggles like the ones you face. And you might need to adjust some of them if they are signficantly out of line.

If you really want to know what’s wrong, I would do the following:

1. Test CA and MG, if not already, and adjust accordingly, if needed.

2. Test your lights with a PAR meter and adjust accordingly, if needed.

3. Perform an ICP from a good company and determine if anything outside expectations could be linked to your problem.

4. Perform an Aquabiomics test as a last resort if steps 1 to 3 did not lead to improvements.
 
Alexander1312 said:
And I have a PAR meter you can borrow if you are in the East Bay.

I support the biome feedback, but seems like you have established rock etc.

I am not seeing what your other major (and minor) elements are. E.g., what is your calcium, what is our magnesium level?

I agree with not chasing numbers, but being aware of them is still helpful if you encounter struggles like the ones you face. And you might need to adjust some of them if they are signficantly out of line.

If you really want to know what’s wrong, I would do the following:

1. Test CA and MG, if not already, and adjust accordingly, if needed.

2. Test your lights with a PAR meter and adjust accordingly, if needed.

3. Perform an ICP from a good company and determine if anything outside expectations could be linked to your problem.

4. Perform an Aquabiomics test as a last resort if steps 1 to 3 did not lead to improvements.
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I'm currently in moraga and surrounding areas like concord today, once I'm home I will test my mag and calcium. My nitrates are at 31. But I've read nitrates don't really affect corals
 
I agree on the age point. IMO, wait till 18 months and you will see more success if you started with all dry rock. If you want to test to see if the tank is ready, get a few monti, stylo, or birdsnest frags as test pieces. When they stat doing well, your tank is closer to ready.
 
TwinsReef said:
I have digis,green slimer and Monti those aren't doing well. I have others which seem to be doing better
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Let's make sure the lack of Ca Mag testing doesn't get lost, that is definitely a very important part of the process and should be done more than once a week i'd say. Many SPS people have an apex and a trident for this, me included. If green slimers arent making it my guess is that light, RODI water quality, and Ca/Mag testing all need to be worked on. Don't beat yourself up though, I went through these same challenges!
 
jstiltne said:
Let's make sure the lack of Ca Mag testing doesn't get lost, that is definitely a very important part of the process and should be done more than once a week i'd say. Many SPS people have an apex and a trident for this, me included. If green slimers arent making it my guess is that light, RODI water quality, and Ca/Mag testing all need to be worked on. Don't beat yourself up though, I went through these same challenges!
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This is true, test these for sure.

TwinsReef said:
have digis,green slimer and Monti those aren't doing well. I have others which seem to be doing better
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Doesn't seem to be an issue with coral selection then.
 
jstiltne said:
Let's make sure the lack of Ca Mag testing doesn't get lost, that is definitely a very important part of the process and should be done more than once a week i'd say. Many SPS people have an apex and a trident for this, me included. If green slimers arent making it my guess is that light, RODI water quality, and Ca/Mag testing all need to be worked on. Don't beat yourself up though, I went through these same challenges!
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I watched a video of from all for reef and they had mention usually mag and ca follow alk
 
I set this tank up 2 - 3 months ago for my son's . With rock I had in a bucket with saltwater and dried sand. Only issues I had was dinos, but once dose beneficial bacteria I don't have that problem. Sps are doing better here, we have blue stylo,digi,and green slider. Equipment is a ai prime 16hd, brs settings. No skimmer just started to use activated carbon. Water change every 2 weeks. I don't test or dose and corals are doing good in this tank. It might be the par of my radions which doesn't allow me to keep sps in my red sea reefer??
 

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H2OPlayar said:
I agree on the age point. IMO, wait till 18 months and you will see more success if you started with all dry rock. If you want to test to see if the tank is ready, get a few monti, stylo, or birdsnest frags as test pieces. When they stat doing well, your tank is closer to isk
Click to expand...

H2OPlayar said:
I agree on the age point. IMO, wait till 18 months and you will see more success if you started with all dry rock. If you want to test to see if the tank is ready, get a few monti, stylo, or birdsnest frags as test pieces. When they stat doing well, your tank is closer to ready.
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Idk my tank will be 1 yr by the end of this month, I used rock from my previous tank and used live sand. I set up a 20g for my twins, literally 2 -3 months ago, with dried sand, and rock I had soaking in a bucket. And the sps their are going well. Idk if it's my lights ??
 
TwinsReef said:
Idk my tank will be 1 yr by the end of this month, I used rock from my previous tank and used live sand. I set up a 20g for my twins, literally 2 -3 months ago, with dried sand, and rock I had soaking in a bucket. And the sps their are going well. Idk if it's my lights ??
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1 year is when things just started to work for me the first go around. Focus on stability.

If the lights are at the recommended mounting height and peak at ~75% intensity, you likely have enough light. Use the club par meter when you have a chance, but if you have decent quality lights at the right height and intensity, you likely have enough light.

Make sure there is enough random flow in all directions.

Keep the main 5 parameters stable. Temp, salinity, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium. Right now you have afr, but will likely need to tweak your dosing of ca, alk, mg to get all 3 where you want them.

Do you feed your corals and fish enough?
 
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