Things were going pretty well until I went out of town for a week. I didn’t have anyone to come by and change the filter socks so I thought it would be a good idea to put in another bag of chemipure which was a dumb in hindsight especially because I’d been trying to raise my phosphates a little to try and get more growth and polyp extension. Well pretty sure that combined with lower feedings and higher PH while I was away caused the phosphates to drop too fast (although based on my testing it still only went from .07 to .04) and came back to a princess peach acro, cotton candy torch and another frag I had gotten from Dave totally RTN’d and bleached. A couple others were starting to show signs I pulled that bag out and hopefully things stabilize. Any chance any of these come back? If anyone has a frag let me
Know I really liked them.
While I was getting growth I felt like it was pretty slow still especially on the acros. Are there any suggestions on what may be causing them to be retracted? The only SPS with good extension is the stylo and birds nest. Everything else seems to retract the polyps after a few days. Any suggestions based on the below:
PH: 7.9 usually, I definitely think higher PH would help with growth because I see the biggest growth when out of town for an extended time. Would higher PH help with polyps? Are there any scrubbers that don’t require a skimmer? I don’t run one currently.
Alk: consistently 8.2-8.4
Phos: .02 -.07 I’ve run the tank at various levels and doesn’t seem to make much of a difference
Nitrates: 10-15
Mag and Calc: I need to test these, can either cause low polyps?
Lights: 3 XR15s I ramp up and down with two hours at 100% is it possible the lights are too strong? I’ve used a PAR meter and the lighting is only around 100-150 throughout the tank.
Flow: two mp40s mid tank directed at each other running at 30% reef crest. Flow seems pretty good and random although maybe some are getting more direct flow
Dosing: all for reef
Know I really liked them.
While I was getting growth I felt like it was pretty slow still especially on the acros. Are there any suggestions on what may be causing them to be retracted? The only SPS with good extension is the stylo and birds nest. Everything else seems to retract the polyps after a few days. Any suggestions based on the below:
PH: 7.9 usually, I definitely think higher PH would help with growth because I see the biggest growth when out of town for an extended time. Would higher PH help with polyps? Are there any scrubbers that don’t require a skimmer? I don’t run one currently.
Alk: consistently 8.2-8.4
Phos: .02 -.07 I’ve run the tank at various levels and doesn’t seem to make much of a difference
Nitrates: 10-15
Mag and Calc: I need to test these, can either cause low polyps?
Lights: 3 XR15s I ramp up and down with two hours at 100% is it possible the lights are too strong? I’ve used a PAR meter and the lighting is only around 100-150 throughout the tank.
Flow: two mp40s mid tank directed at each other running at 30% reef crest. Flow seems pretty good and random although maybe some are getting more direct flow
Dosing: all for reef
