Elmorenicholas

Ok so gonna try to reply without missing any questions lol. 

A few questions come to mind:

1. What kind of flow are you giving the SPS? High flow from one end of the tank.

Will be adding a second powerhead to the other end to vary the flow.

2. Do you know the Alk parameters the new frags came from?  If it was really low maybe they're shocked by your higher alk.  

All of them came from between 8.3 to 9.5 alk.

Good afternoon everyone. Need some help. I am having issues with SPS as the forum title implies. First parameters

ALK 8.9-9.1 swing through out the day

Calcium 480

Mag 1500

Nitrates 20

Phos .15

Temp 76.5 -78

Amonia 0

Nitrites 0

My issues is when first adding any sps thwy look great. However they are slowly dying off after 2 to 3 weeks. No tissue loss. They just gradually lose polyp extension and color and die off. My par levels are good and nothing is burning either.  LPS corals look great. Zoas look ok but dont open all the way. Thw one possibility I'm thinking is that I have a metal clamp in the water on my return pump. I'm wondering if this is leaching and causing my issues. Could anyone help with some ideas. I'm kind of lost for probable causes. 

3 hours ago, xmas_one said:

Basically, there is no correct answer. I could put a Chinese black box of green leds above your tank and increase your perceived PAR to 2000(the meter is dumb and will read 532nm green as PAR), but this would do zero for plants or corals and look ugly as hell.

PUR is phontsynthetically useable radiation, there’s no PUR meter, because it’s different for everything. 

My point is you can not use a PAR meter to dictate your lighting choices. “My corals aren’t doing good, PAR meter says I need moar PAR.” Not a good way of doing things.

Water quality/stability in my opinion is a much more worthwhile obsession. Take a look at guys tanks online that are obsessed about lighting, that should tell you a bit about how important reef lighting is. 

Agreed on the water quality but one question. And definitely more of a question than argument.  If I'm using the par meter to get a reading it should be reading all spectrums or at least the highest output spectrum correct?  Which in turn means if my par is low and I turn my whites up as I did to get the par up i would at least have more of a chance to have the useable spectrums at the par numbers i need?  If the meter is reading low then i know for a fact I'm not hitting the par levels on any spectrum.

2 hours ago, CrabbyCrabs said:

Can anyone chime in on the UV setting of these lights. Some say low 20% some say high 70+% or does it really matter? 

I know most around here run the uv higher. 

As far as the sps I think that would be a question for some others on here to answer. This is my first tank trying sps also and I'm still trying to get it dialed in. However I have my zoas on a frag rack maybe 6 inches below the waterline on the side and they are doing great. May have to move them now. 

My light schedule starts at 1030 and ramps up to the settings in the picture by 1pm. The settings stay the same until 9pm then ramps down to 2%rb and 1%b at 11pm. More of a moonlight than anything. Everything zeros at 4am.  

I have seen quite a few forums posting about the primes. BRS also has a video with the par testing for those. Everyone seems to skip the hydras lol. After comparing to the AI website I'd check that out also. The levels they posted are accurate. 

Good morning everyone. Thought I would share some info. After getting the club par meter and checking my lights I was very suprised at the results. The entire time to the eye I was thinking I had them way too high. To start I have a red sea reefer 250 with two hydra26 lights mounted 14 inches off the water. Each light is centered 13 inches from the side of the tank and exactly in the middle front to back. I was originally running the lights full power on uv, rb, b, and violet. 10%w 6%r 6%g. Using the par meter I was only achieving a max par of 200 at the very top of the water. 8 inches down a max of 150 at the brightest point. Very surprising to say the least. To get a par level of 300 at the top of my rock structure which is 6 inches below the water line I had to max out all uv, violet, and blue channels along with turning the whites to 60%.  Not exactly the look I want but to get the par levels it was necessary.  

I also went to the AI site and looked at the par levels that are stated on the site. I must say they are pretty dead on. The par meter was reading almost exactly with the graph they had. I believe the future has a t5 hybrid fixture coming to my tank so I can have the par levels and look I want in the tank. When finished I was reading 350 just below the surface of the water. 300 6 inches below. 150 mid tank and a mix between 130 and 85 at the bottom. I will also post a picture of the settings now.

I hope this helps a few people out because after hours of searching it has been difficult to find par levels for these lights. Happy reefing!! 

1 hour ago, youcallmenny said:

Randy Holmes Farley has had a lot to say about the coorelation between alkalinity and nitrates.  Here's his basic chemistry primer that sort of includes it: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/

If you search more of his following work, that article evolves pretty quickly in to talking about that coorelation.  Essentially though, lower nitrates need lower alk.  High alk with low nitrates can result in burnt tips on SPS etc.  I try to keep my alk right at 9.1dKH and right ~10ppm nitrates personally.  

Thank you I'll definitely check it out..

2 hours ago, SuncrestReef said:

You just need a series of frag tanks...Your introductory 8.0 dKH tank for new frags, then a few weeks later move them to your 8.5 tank, then 9.0 tank, etc.  Eventually they end up in your 11 dKH tank.  Can you imagine all the dosing pumps or calcium reactors you'd need to monitor and maintain for this???

Alternatively, you just have 1 frag tank that starts at 8.0 dKH.  Then you buy a pallet of new frags all at once (perhaps from @viper55's new shop) and put them in the frag tank.  Over the next couple months you slowly increase alkalinity to 11.0, then BOOM....new frags ready for your display tank! 🤣

Thank you for the reply. I've been holding my alk at 9.0. I dose 2.5ml a day to hold it there. Nitrates were at 20. Phosphate I'm waiting on my test kit. Getting the par meter tomorrow to get that where it needs to be. I added a few testers. Some died in a day or so. The others have stayed alive and have polyp extension but I am having quite a bit of red carpet alge. The snails take about half of that out every night but I'm starting to get a few spots that are losing color and have algea on them. But it's not the tips. It's kind of in the middle of the frag and they have been in there for three weeks. 0 nitrite 0 amonia. Just trying to find the sweet spot and didnt know which way to go with the nitrates. I feel like my water is a little too dirty even with alk at 9. I also have a torch that seems like its bleached but has full extension. Of course zoas and shrooms are perfectly fine. Any suggestions would be great. 

2 hours ago, viper55 said:

Are you talking about the redfield ratio?

Sort of but I didnt understand that very well lol.

Amazing!!  Share the love

So I've been looking for research related to this with no luck. Seems I remember that you want to keep a certain level of nitrates and phosphates for sps relative to your alkalinity. However, I can not remember if all goes up you want more or less of the other. Just wondering if I could get some thoughts and opinions on this topic?  Thanks in advance

@lewisriverfisherman pm'd

Mr Bret at paradise coral and upscales near tigard have black widow bubble tips and very good prices. 

Could this please be closed out.  Thanks again Vance

That would be awesome!!  Would you have time to meet today by chance?

Does anyone have any super cheap sps frags?  Need a couple tester pieces to see if my tank is ready. I can meet anytime today.  Thank you in advance. 

Thank you

Could you please add me for the USB meter?

Mr Bret has some high quality pieces to see also. 

Check out zen reef. Magnetic racks are amazing. And have a patented gridlock system that keeps thos pesky snails from knocking your frags off. Best you can get. 

That would definitely help where are you located and when would you be able to meet?  

Does anyone have an overabundance of snails and hermits that need to part with a few?  I will pay for them. Just hard to get to the LFS with my work hours. Please let me know

Thanks everyone for welcoming me to the event I enjoyed the short time I was there and look forward to becoming a paid member. I cant wait until the next event.