LPS and Softies

[allan]

Ah ha!

Got you to look!

Do any of you stick folks have a hard time with LPS or Softies? Reason I'm asking is that I've a Kenya that seems to be sloughing off tissue which I repeatedly cut back. An Open Brain (trachy?) that may have been a file fish that decided it no longer needed it's mouth section. And for the life of me by now after a year I should have a lot of 'shrooms but they just don't seem to grow that well for me.

Additionally, and this is worthwhile for future buyers, the only zoas I seem to be able to keep are the more hardier species.

Now all of my sticks are showing growth. Every last one of them is either spreading a disk at their base or branching out noticably. I don't have the color varient that I've seen in some of your tanks, but they're doing well as far as growth.

I run ten T5 tubes inside my canopy, and the spectrum can probably be dialed in a bit better. Right now I can tell you that I have a couple of whites, a couple blues, and a couple of purple/violate tubes labled "coral excellerator" and "Coral Stimulant".

I dose kalk, until recently, by hand. One teaspoon disolved in RO (about a gallon) poured into the sump around four am. I've since hooked up a aqualift pump to a five gallon container filled with solution. And I stir that before I bed down for the night.

My parameters are all zero for the important stuff (AM, Trite, and Trate)... and I know what you all are thinking, everyone's 'trate is always zero. I tested mine for the first time in about four months over the weekend and the color was so light it didn't even register on that color chart. I blame this on the vast and copious amounts of Cyano Bacteria which I've read tends to love 'trates. My PH was just a bit low, but who can really tell with those colors?

I haven't checked CA or Alk... primarily because my sps seem to be doing fine.

Okay, so I can get back to work my question is rather simple. Do any of you SPS folks find the same difficulties in maintainging the lps and softies?

[Big_Pun]

i keep a mix of everything, but from what i remeber from your system is you are running ozone, and softies like kenyi's love dirty water as weird as this sounds your water may be too clean. ill give you a break down of my system, filtration is just my fuge(cheato) bare bottom no sand, skimmer, and chemi pure elite. water changes 20 gallons a month. i dose 2 part b-ionic. thats pretty much it i feed fish every other day, and coral gets fed 2x a week (coral frenzy and FUEL). maybe some of your other parameters are off but that my opionion from the info you gave.

[hobogato]

i agree with chris. when i had an sps dominant tank, the more i tried to clean the water up for the coloration of the sps, the less softies and lps would grow. some lps will still do ok, but zoas and other softies dont like ultra low nutrient systems.

[Big_Pun]

i agree with chris. when i had an sps dominant tank, the more i tried to clean the water up for the coloration of the sps, the less softies and lps would grow. some lps will still do ok, but zoas and other softies dont like ultra low nutrient systems.

my sps color is nice but i havent been able to keep every piece ive bought colored up, just trial and error

[allan]

I've just taken out a few pounds of chaeto. Maybe that mass was taking up to much nutrients?

I had some issues with my skimmer, so I took the ozone offline. I put it back on about two days ago.... Maybe a week. I run it through an airstone in my sump.

I hadn't thought of the nutrient rich.... Wouldn't that lesson my cyano?

[hobogato]

sorry, didnt mean to make it sound that way. i agree, you can get great colors on most sps without running ultra low nutrient, but there are a few sps that wont get their brightest colors if they have high populations of zooxanthellae in their tissue - especially bright yellow (which will look more green in anything but ULN systems) and bright pink/red (which will look more rusty brown in ULN systems). for example, i have a piece of john's red planet that was screaming pink in his tank, but in my tank (high nutrient) it has lost that bright color.

my sps color is nice but i havent been able to keep every piece ive bought colored up, just trial and error

[allan]

Okay, I may be answering my own question here. But doesn't cyano indicate a large nutrient level?

As far as me answering my own question, would a large amount of cyano drive down my nutrient levels?

[hobogato]

yep, maybe not large, but at least somewhat elevated. the cyano wont take down the nutrient level, you will have to find the source.

[allan]

The source remains elusive.

I bought a SPS thing at BnBs before he moved to the north side at R2U. It had all but died, and about four months ago I noticed a single polyp. Now it has about ten polyps and is a real light colored purple, mauve almost. Really surprised that it's pulling through.

I think I'm finally at that stage where I really don't need to be buying anything else. Finally.