help

[GaryL]

ok i stink. what are the easiest sps to keep? bird's nest and bali slimer and monti caps right ?!!!???

 

ok so here is my ordeal, i cannot keep it. the dies from bottoms up and the slimer goes top down. the montis grow out then polyps dissapear. i keep calcium levels high in the 450-500 range. ph goes from 7.9 to 8.4 alk is a little high around 10 nitrates 0 nitrites 0 ammonia 0. is there some thing i should be looking for? i dont get it. is the ph flutuating too much? is the alk too high? i have a nice lps collection 4 RBTAs which just split by the way. so im doing something right!! right?? HELP!! any thoughts or input.

 

anyone can come over and look at my system and tell me what im doing wrong just LMK when you wanna come over to see it.

 

thanks, Gary

[dhoch]

Gary,

 

Stabelizing the Ph is something I would look to do regardless (not sure if that's your culrprit though).

 

What lights and how much flow do you have?

 

Where were corals placed relative to this?

 

Dave

[GaryL]

1k watts MH and they are placed 3/4 top of the tank. flow is around 3000- 4000 gph roughly

[Lee Stearns]

Gary you have a nice set up-

I have only lost SPS on a couple of occasions- One when It actually gets lost- falls down behind some rocks and I either forget or can't take the rockwork apart to get to it to rescue it back to the light- The only other two occasions were getting them knocked down into some stinging torch, or when the alkalinity spiked- My PH is fairl stable usually between 8.1 and 8.2 but has fluctuated below 8.0 and up to 8.35- These were all events percipitated by my own hurry in adding Kalk or baking soda- One thing that has helped stability is timers on the lights, and the off cycle lights over the fuge. My limited experience is some of the sps Birds nest is one of them, are very sensitive to alkalinity swings. Kalk is a balanced additive, so while it can bump ph it is relatively neutral to alk. What are you adding in additives would be my fist question? The Bali slimer digitatas and birdsnest are not terribly sensitive to water flow- unlike other acros and some millis. Sounds like you have plenty of that for your system for these easy sps. Although I do not count birds nest as an easy sps- as it is the only sps I have lost twice- Though I have a frag that is doing well for now from Grav. I would lean toward unstable Alk as your culprit. You did not mention phosphate- they can be sensitive to phos as well- but Macro Algea usually takes care of most phos in the fuge.

[GaryL]

thanks guys, maybe ill try to do an alk test in the am throughout the day to see if that may help.

[craby]

Gary,

I had the same issue when I had the RBTA's in my tank. The sps are doing better now that I removed the RBTA's. I don't know if they could be part of the problem, but I think they are more suited to a softie tank. I read somewhere that they release toxins in the tank that fowl the water. I am not aware of a test you can do to measure this toxicity, but if you plan to have luck w/ sps, you may want to look into removing some, if not all of the RBTA's. Also, zoos are fairly capable of releasing a similar, although less potent toxin in the water if stressed.

Do you have alot of zoos?

[GaryL]

luke thanks again for the gear!! any way i moved my zoos into the 29g tank. its funny you mentioned the rbta. one is competing for space with a borneman anenome. ill keep an eye on it.

[Guest alex wlazlak]

hey, if you wanna get rid of one of those rbta's, pm me.. ill pay you or somthin, but that is if you dont want it.