Help with SPS coral

[yrevanth]

Hi all,

I am relatively new on the Atlanta reef club. I recently set up my 35 gallon cube (this is week 6). But I have been in the hobby for about 5 years now.

My tank specs are as follows:

Lights: 2 AI Vegas running at 25% whites right now, blues at 50%
Skimmer: reef octopus rated for 75 gal
Powerhead: jebao wp25 running at 50% power ( setting on W1 and Power S3)
Return: rio 7
Carbon and GFO in a dual BRS reactor
Controller: apex
Dosing brs 2 part on timers attached to the apex

Alk: 8 dkh
Ca: 420 ppm
Mg: 1300 ppm
Ammonia, nitrates, nitrites:0 ppm
Temp: 78
Ph: 8.1

Livestock:
2 clown fish
1 fire shrimp
About 40 lbs of live rock
About 20 lbs of live sand
1 small 2 head Duncan frag
1 ricordea shroom
4 frag of birdsnet in various areas of the tank ( 1 on sand bed, 2 in the middle in completely different flow environments, 1 right at the top of my rock work in front of the power head)
1 frag of unknown acro

The parameters have been fairly consistent and I have been testing everyday for about 2 weeks before I introduced any coral into my system. I acclimated them slowly over a period of 2 hours and also light acclimated them through the functionality on the ai vega. But still there is no PE till now for both the sps frags. The Duncan and ric seem to be doing ok though.

It's been a week now since I put the coral in. Is there anything that I am missing?

Thanks,
Rev

 

[seth the wine guy]

I've had many an sps frag not have PE for weeks or months before. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Not sure how far away your one frag is sitting in front of the power head, but, I try to avoid doing that if I can. I've melted the flesh off more than one coral that way by accident.

 

[grouper therapy]

What fish do you have?

 

[yrevanth]

The frag in front of power dad is a good 12 inches away. Doesn't seem like there is too much direct flow.

The Duncan's also started acting up today. Haven't seen them open up since yesterday.
Will reduce the flow further and see if that helps.

But in your opinion is a wp25 too much for a 20" cube ?
Never dealt with smaller aquaria before..
Rev

 

[yrevanth]

Sorry.. Auto correct issue:. "Power head"

 

[ff337]

Indirect flow is best.

 

[snowmansnow]

put a pic up of any of the in questions corals I'm sure that will help

 

[camellia]

IMHO yes a WP25 is over sized and if possible going down to WP 15 would be better for your size tank.
It's hard to reduce a WP 25 low enough and still get the flow covered throughout the tank as needed.
If you can trade them, I would!

Your tank maybe too new and not established enough for the more difficult SPS coral (yes even Birds Nest). If you reduce your flow, your LPS would be happier. If your SPS do not turn around and begin to thrive, I would give it more time before adding more SPS.

With your bio load unless you're really feeling heavy I wouldn't think you would need GFO. Your system could also just be to clean! Are you testing for phosphates? Do you know what your phosphates are? As a general rule of thumb it's usually recommended not to dose or add anything that you haven't tested for, hence know you need...
Pictures do help but regardless keep us informed on how they do.
GL

 

[yrevanth]

Here is an update guys..

1 removed GFO yesterday so let's see how that goes.

2 Removed carbon as well. I am planning on doing a 20% WC this Saturday, to see how that impacts things.

3 reduced light % to 20 whites on both the Vegas.
4 moved he power head direction so that t is now hitting the wall first and then reflecting off of that to the corals, so that the force isn't too much.

Will update u guys as and when anything changes.

Thanks,
Rev

P.S do you guys know how to upload pics through the iPhone here?

 

[lsu_fishfan]

Use phtobucket,
Once you upload your photos, you can copy the IMG format to the right of the photo, and paste in text box.

 

[yrevanth]

Here are the pics. Let me know if u guys can see.
Sorry for the crappy quality, these are from my iPhone.

As you can see (or maybe not) all the sps on the frag rack (all are pieces of bordsnest) do not have any PE.

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[yrevanth]

So, I found a couple of old 425 gph pumps and added them and removed the wp25. Will let the system be in this state for a couple of days and then see if it has any impact.

 

[yrevanth]

Hi All,

i noticed some really strange looking filament type things sprouting from the Tissue of my sps. These are there all the time. what exactly are these? i tried taking pics but they dont show clearly.

again, these are NOT from the polyps but from the tissue. Do i need to be concerned?

Thanks,
Rev

 

[jvb89]

Mesenterial filaments

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[jvb89]

A way for sps to feed. Some of mine do it every time I feed LRS food.

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[genesis]

I think you tank just needs to mature up some more before its fully supportive of SPS

 

[lsu_fishfan]

Genesis;1066235 wrote: I think you tank just needs to mature up some more before its fully supportive of SPS

+1
If there putting out Mesenterial filament, it sounds like they are healthy. How long have the sps been in the tank? When I first started adding sps, they didn't have pe for at least 2 weeks.

Also, did you only start seeing the filament after you removed the media?

 

[yrevanth]

Ok. Looks like the spa which was putting these out is slowly losing tissue from the lower side of the branches. I will take you guys advise and try to put in another tester drag next month.

It's been a couple weeks since I added my frag.

 

[ricky5415]

Try to get the gfo reactor off line and see how it goes. Is your ph stable during the day and night?

 

[yrevanth]

Yep.. Gfo has been off for about a week now. Ph is very stable, according to my apex.. Swing is between 8.3 and 8.2 over the last 1 month