Reefs.org Forums

[mitchell]

OK, it's been 10 days and I am now seeing some tissue necrosis.

I give up.

[Thales]

Did you do anything different?

[mitchell]

Did you do anything different?

Good question. It would be insane to just do the same thing and expect a different outcome.

I've spent the last 2 months dedicating myself to being extra compulsive about monitoring and caring for my tank. Water changes done weekly, topoff done daily to try and prevent any salinity swings, parameters checked weekly, carbon and GFO in reactor changed monthly, etc...

My tank has been very stable and looks good. 10 days after adding my SPS frags, one is completely dead, the other two are receding.

[Thales]

Have you done anything to address the allelopathy - that seems to be the number one piece of advice in this thread.

[The Escaped Ape]

Rich,

Leaving aside the issue of allelopathy for a second, how important is magnesium for stony corals?

I'm having all sorts of problems keeping SPS and LPS and can't seem to work out what the problem is. Testing at 0 nitrates, pH 8.2, alkalinity 4 meq/l, salinity 1.025. Running both carbon and GFO and the water is crystal clear at the moment, with no algae that I can see.

I've been scratching my head about what the problem could be and read somewhere that those using Instant Ocean sometimes have a problem with magnesium shortages. I've not got a test kit for magnesium at the moment, but could get one.

Sorry if this is a bit too much of a hijack, but thought it was still relevant under the thread title.

[Thales]

Tom, Mg is important and if you are keeping SPS you want to know what you levels are and adjust them to between 1250 and 1350. I prefer the higher end. Whats you Ca?

[The Escaped Ape]

Thanks Rich. My Ca seems OK. More or less around 450. But again, I'm not sure I can trust my test kit (a moderately priced local brand), as it varies quite a lot. What do you use most to test for Ca/Mg? I might need to invest in proper (i.e. more expensive I guess) test kits.

[Thales]

I don't like any test kit, so there! Anything will work for trending over time. You Ca and Alk seem on the high side, more thoughtful about the alk.

[The Escaped Ape]

Thanks Rich. Off for a week back in the UK, but will get back to this in earnest on return

[Snailman]

I've never had any luck having both in the same tank. One always wins out. It is usually the Xenia.

[Matt_]

Thanks Rich. My Ca seems OK. More or less around 450. But again, I'm not sure I can trust my test kit (a moderately priced local brand), as it varies quite a lot. What do you use most to test for Ca/Mg? I might need to invest in proper (i.e. more expensive I guess) test kits.

Even relatively fancy test kits for Mg are going to have a margin of error of 10% or so. That's a swing 120ppm in either direction, so take any reading you get very cautiously. It is just not easy to test for.

[cjdevito]

I've never had any luck having both in the same tank. One always wins out. It is usually the Xenia.

I've managed it, but it's had to be very lopsided... much more biomass of stony corals than xenia.

I'm going to echo everyone else... it's the xenia. I love xenia. I love xeniids in general. But allelopathy can have a huge effect on other species in the tank. Hell, I've even seen negative responses between multiple xeniids in the same tank (for example, I really don't recommend trying to grow both cespitularia and xenia/heteroxenia in the same tank) on each other.

[_Andy]

Mitch I would recommend a dedicated SPS tank too - think of the photography potential and again I love the look of the Xenia tank.

[mitchell]

Ok, I've ripped out most of the xenia and have let the tank run for several months. I introduced an ORA birdsnest last week. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that my problems have been related to the allelopathy mentioned in this threag.

[Matt_]

[Louey]

Luck!