HELP! I put sps in a immature tank

[BioMan]

Hello fellow reefers,
BACKGROUND INFO- I have been "cooking" some pieces of live rock for about 2-3 months now and set up a new tank and added live sand, the rock and properly mixed reef crystals. This was july 3rd. I have a larger tank that was holding some nice frags of sps corals that I think were starving to death because I never seen the polyp extension they showed at the store/booth.
The morning of July 4th I noticed that 2 of my frags (which were very small) lost their skin. I dipped them before I put them in my tank.
Nervous I decided to re dip the remaining frags and place them into my new tank. I dont know if this makes a difference but it is being light with T5-HO and I have the same polyp exstension that I saw when I first got them and as of tonight before work they looked like they were "healthier" in only 3 days. The tank showing no polyp extension was Kessil a350w.
What should I do? Im not expecting any die off from the rock and the sand is very shallow. No Skimmer installed yet. WHat should I do? THis is way ahead of schedule but my frags seem to be enjoying the new tank better than the main mature tank!?

 

[BioMan]

Bump

 

[prattreef]

Clearly they are responding to better water conditions in your new system. I would slowly move over more live stock to the new system and see how things fair. Something in the old system is amiss. You can try to suss that out in the meantime.

 

[BioMan]

Thanks,, what I'm scared of is that phase where my tanks builds that biological filter from an ammonia source breaking down,, is like the water's steril except for the live sand and 1 of the rock was in my main tank

 

[Chefjpaul]

Keep a bottle of bacteria on hand if levels are off

Like Dr. Tims or similar.

 

[prattreef]

If you go slowly, you should be fine. Corals are far more tolerant of small ammonia and nitrite spikes than fish are. In fact, they kind of like it within reason. Adding bottled bacteria is not a bad idea either.

 

[BioMan]

OK,, I see that "bio spira" everywhere,, maybe I'll try that.

 

[BioMan]

One more thing,, sps aside, I've had a Scoly for like 3 years and am somewhat attached lol,, can I move him too or hold off?

 

[prattreef]

Anything that is happy where it is hold off on. Anything that seems unhappy move first.

 

[ReefDiver]

Anything that is happy where it is hold off on. Anything that seems unhappy move first.

Words to live by, in reefing and in broader context.


What about lighting? Were the Kessils too strong in the older tank?

 

[BioMan]

Words to live by, in reefing and in broader context.


What about lighting? Were the Kessils too strong in the older tank?

I never got the chance to use a par meter, but I did try every combo of lighting for at least 2 weeks at a time with no luck. My lps and clams are happy,, which I thought happy clams=successful sps, but not in my case. Out of 12 sps,, 2 mille skin went away within a day off noticing it and 2 acro same story but all 12 didn't have the polyp extension already present in their new house. Also, when I first started stocking this tank I got a deep water acro a little bigger than my fist and note that too has polyp extension. Is it possible I starved these guys or not enough light? Basically all other tests are identical.

 

[JBNY]

It looks like the conditions are better in the T5 lit tank. You can't really starve acros unless you leave them in the dark for a very long time. Many people never feed their SPS and they do just fine for years. Kessils are pretty weak lighting so I wouldn't worry about that being the problem.

 

[BioMan]

Thanks everybody for the advice,,, what I left out, is that I manually dose my alk, mag and calcium and this could've been from alk swings. I test every 4 to 5 days and with a265 gal tank I find myself adding 80-100ml of alk all at once.

 

[Chefjpaul]

Most likely water perimeters swinging than lighting.

Although, to keep switching any one thing around constantly, being light, elements / inconsistent dosing , etc...., does cause instability.

 

[prattreef]

I'm not sure how stocked your tank is, but as an example my 240g. SPS reef that is heavily stocked soaks up 200 ML of Alk and Ca per day, so if you are adding only 100ml per week that seems really, really low.

 

[JBNY]

Yeah it should go without saying that your parameters in the tank should not be moving but should be very stable.

 

[BioMan]

I had 12 frags,, now I have 8 healthy ones sitting on the Sand bed and I'll have to get a doser soon.

 

[BioMan]

UPDATE: I dipped all my frags in Coral RX in case of a pest problem,, killed some pods and a few baby bristles... 3 types of Birdsnest,a tort, a deepwater acro, a red planet and 2 acro I forgot names survived. the skin to 2 different millepora and the rest of the acro peeled right off and flew away by the morning. even though a lot are skinless and white or a weird shade of light green Im keeping them in there because my first sps frag 3 months ago I got at a swap turned white when I got it home and now is a bright yellow. Now I need to buy a doser. This tank is 80 gallons...any suggestions?

 

[Chefjpaul]

Sometimes less is more.
Try and just leave them alone for a bit, let them adjust. Moving around and continuous dipping may stress them more.

It's totally fine to manually dose, I just suggest, if you do, then do it more often and consistent rather than once a week or all at once, that can be the cause of small spikes.

Fyi- I'm just using a jabeo DP-4 doser, but I don't have anywhere near the demand you do / will have.

 

[BioMan]

Fyi- I'm just using a jabeo DP-4 doser, but I don't have anywhere near the demand you do / will have.

So dosers are rated like protein skimmers? Is that for water volume or how stocked im trying to be?