Why has this happened?

[Olliefowler]

Ok people so im an intermediate at reef tanking i would say. And up until 1 or 2 months ago all the coral i have bought has been really successful.
However in one shop i bought a montipora frag, two digitate frags and a sereatpora frag. And a gonipora frag!
The montipora is doing really well however the other 3 have slowly but surely over 2 months gone down hill!

I dose kalkwasser and stopped running rowaphos about 2 weeks ago. I have no algae issues whatsoever and all of my paramaters seem ok. I am running chinese dimmable 165w leds and wonder if this could be the problem. As my tank is just over 2ft deep i now have blues on 75% and whites on about 60%. But before they started bleaching they were both on 100%! Did this kill them?
I put them both on sand for a week and moved them up. Is this also too quick?

All lps is thriving! And i had 2 acros pirchased cheaply as they were nearly dying doing really well and hydnophora doing great!

190gallon
Ca 440
Dkh 8
Ph 8.2
Mg 1350
Am 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
Phospates between 0.25 And 0.5 (salifert test really hard to read!)

Please can you advise me so i can try again!




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[Olliefowler]

They did look like this

I am soo frustrated!!


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[Gregcoyote]

It's almost impossible to tell you exactly what to do. There is significant variability among corals even of the same species. Some do great while one right next to it does poorly. Sometimes this can be attributed to warfare among the corals themselves. With others it's all about flow and lighting. You just need to experiment and realize very few systems can grow everything. Concentrate on the corals you have that are doing well and don't buy the ones you've had trouble with until you are ready, then try one tiny frag at a time. If a tiny frag doesn't grow, a bigger version ($) won't either probably.

Your alk is a bit low IMO, but the rest looks okay. Keep P4 to under .1ppm if you can.


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[Olliefowler]

Yea maybe i should run rowaphos again. But i may get hanna checker for phospates as that reading is an estimate!
Do you think i could have blitzed them with lights so intense?
I have tried moving them around to no avail!


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[Olliefowler]

Btw are they gonners or is there still a chance they could magically recover?


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[Gregcoyote]

If they bleached from too much light, yes, they can recover but not always.



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[Olliefowler]

Cool thanks for ur help.


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[Sniperhank]

SPS are vulnerable to drastic change. When you stopped running anti-phosphate media your phosphate increased to nasty levels. .5-.25 are by no means acceptable for SPS, even hardy ones. You want to see levels like .05.
What test are you using to test for phosphates?

[Olliefowler]

Salifert. Really hard to define the shade of blue. It is low but the readings i gave were worst case!
Yea i agree with you but i have 2 acros a monti and a hynophoria doing great so is strange!


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[Olliefowler]

Do you think running phosphate reactor is a must then? The media is just so expensive!!


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[Sniperhank]

Well, that is a good test kit so I'll agree with the readings then. Are you using ro/di? How often and much are you feeding? Can you cut back feeding?

[Sniperhank]

When it comes to phosphate reducing media, it can be expensive. I've tried everything under the blue moon I think at this point for it. So far the best in my experiences is either GFO or phosguard. Both have their cons, where GFO can clump up and phosguard can be used up in couple of days rather than a month if the phosphates are really high. A steep drop in phosphates like that can be just as deadly as the rise to SPS, like you are experiencing IMO.
Have you tried ordering in bulk? Bulkreefsupply just finished a weekly deal on their signature media where I ordered bulk GFO and activated carbon.

[Olliefowler]

Im in the uk so the products available are a little different!
But i will just have to put my hand in my pocket i suppose!
Yea its a good kit. But just like the copper test the shade of blue is real hard to define!!


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[Olliefowler]

Just tested again. Is about .25. So maybe that is my problem!!


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[Sniperhank]

Part of it. Stability is the key to SPS. When you stopped running rowas (I think that is what you said you were using earlier) your phosphates went up. The rise in phosphates is what caused the issue.

[Olliefowler]

Yea but the media i had in their was over a month old so i removed the reactor. I only had the corals for 2 months. All others are ok! So obviously my phospates require attention but i am wondering if i could have blitzed them with my lights.??


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[Sniperhank]

And how would you have done that and not upset the other corals in the tank? Most specifically, the less light demanding ones that you are keeping.

[Olliefowler]

True! I just wondered whether these could be more sensitive to light as they were bought from a different shop. Or i moved them up too quickly?
Im just trying to make sense of it!
But definitely going to try and bring phosphate levels down


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