True Or False?

[Todd31]

True Or False?

Since Coralline algae is growing well in my tank phosphates shouldn't be the cause of unhappy SPS?

(Basically the question is do phosphates inhibit coralline growth? And by that logic if i have coralline growing well then phosphates arent my problem. Or do they have nothing to do with each other?)

--frustrated todd with unhappy SPS

 

[Dre]

Phosphate do not inhibit coralline algae

 

[reefiness]

I've heard that phosphate does inhibit coralline, but the levels that inhibit coralline are much higher than the levels that stress out SPS.

 

[theMeat]

Coraline is effected by calcium and alkaline, phosphates not so much. With that said, even if calcium and alkaline are perfect for coralline growth, if phosphates are high and you have other types algae covering the rocks, coraline has a much harder time growing and taking foot.

 

[Todd31]

I'm not exactly sure what to do. Acros have no PE and are browned.

*I dont think i have pests. Analyzing corals with flashlight after lights off and dont see anything. But, admittedly i dont have a trained eye for pests yet.
*I'm running 2 Kessil 360WE's on a 75 tank. 12 hour light period with ramp up and down to max of 75% intensity
*Temp, salinity, Calcium, Alkalinity all stable and in good range.
*Running 1/2 cup carbon and 1/4 cup HC GFO in BRS mini reactor. I put the reactor in the system after i saw that i had .05 phosphate on a Hanna meter. This was before the Acros were put in.
*Light bio-load. 6 fish, no of which would irritate the corals.
*Flow, MP40 on right side and MP10 on back left wall in nutrient transport mode around 50%.

From what i read, browning would be from high nutrients or too little light. I cant imagine it's too little light, a couple of frags are only a few inches off the waterline. High nutrients? Maybe but dont think so. I have Nitrates around 5 and phosphates went back to 0 on Hanna after i put the GFO back on. Would going from .05 to 0 cause the problem?

Thinking about removing the reactor for a little bit to see if that changes anything.

Baffled.

 

[arthurk0722]

You could be burning the sps. You said that you have a couple of frags only a few inches off the water line. That could be too high especially since you're running 75% max intensity on your Kessils.

 

[Nandez13]

You could be burning the sps. You said that you have a couple of frags only a few inches off the water line. That could be too high especially since you're running 75% max intensity on your Kessils.

Agreed, I max out my LEDs around 60% and had to work my way up to it. It's also important to acclimate your corals to LEDs if they're coming from a tank with different lighting

Anyone know how to slow down coralline growth? lol. I'm tired of scraping the glass. At this point I just scrape the front; the other 3 sides are completely covered

 

[Todd31]

I thought I did acclimate properly but anything is possible. The reason I thought light wasn't too Bright was that the acros look more brown than pale and a couple of the frags are more mid tank and they are brown also...

 

[greenstreet.1]

What's your no3

 

[ming]

Phosphates inhibit all calcificatiom, which includes SPS and Coraline since both will calcify. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/

 

[Todd31]

Nitrates are 5. After going over all of my recent events i think i've been scorching my corals with too much light. I raised my Kessil 360we's a couple inches and knocked the intensity back to a max of 50%. I'll report back with results.

 

[Dk638]

I would say shut of the gfo also. You need a little po4. Also what's your alk?

 

[theMeat]

If you feed your tank it's pretty hard to have zero phosphates. Even if you're trying to.

Other things in your tank will show signs of going awry much sooner, and within a closer margin of what's considered a healthy phosphate level, than coralline will.

From where i'm sitting think you're on the right track with tuning down your lights.

 

[Todd31]

Phosphates read .02 yesterday. Nitrates 5. I pulled the GFO 2 days ago, lets see if phosphates/algae skyrocket.

Calcium is 450 and Alk is 8.7. Pretty stable on these lately. Alk seems to deplete quicker than calcium.

Backed off the lights to 50% intensity max.

Just put a couple new SPS frags in the tank last night, curious to see if they will be happy.

I think my problem was i torched the corals being to intense with the Kessil 360WE's without a good acclimation. Ill monitor everything closely and give some updates along the way.

thanks!

 

[oh207]

False

 

[theMeat]

Hard to get an accurate phosphate reading. It usually gets consumed as fast as it's produced, and all test kits have a margin of error. Some are downright useless

 

[Johnny Spesis]

I too have been trying to find the same answer, all my levels are where they should be, but the browning and death of these corals makes no sense. Lately, after picking the brains of a few, I was told my tank is too clean.
I have now built an enclosure for these corals. Feeding is easy, and flow is 98% less, but I have seen improvement. Not convinced yet, but coraline grows every where.

 

[Mu8st7ang1]

When your lights are off do you see any PE? I get very little PE with lights on but lots when they are off