LPS problems

[slm32123]

Hey everyone I am having some problems with my LPS corals. I have a frogspawn that will not open, but has been in the tank for about 4 months. And I have a candy cane that has been in for about a month, and it is very slowly receeding.

 

[little_fish]

Can you please post your water parameters? And are your other corals looking ok? What corals are they next to? How much flow are they getting? What is your lighting schedule and what type of lights to do have? Do you have any livestock that is bothering them?

 

[slm32123]

I just tested all my parameters and they are all fine, but I forgot to write them down to post on here. The only corals that look okay are my GSP, and zoas. That's all there is other than the 2 LPS that I mentioned. I have 8x54w T5. My lighting schedule has been screwed up right now because my RKL broke so I have to manually turn on and off the lights, but they are on for no more than a total of 10 hours a day. And no livestock is bothering them.

 

[little_fish]

have you tested for phosphates?

And i accidently posted a reply more fitting for this thread on one of your other ones. opps!

 

[BL1]

Where do you have the candycanes at? I recently moved mine to about the middle of the tank and a couple of it's branches were showing the skeleton for a few days. After a week though it looks normal now.

 

[slm32123]

phosphates read at zero. The candy canes are in the center of the tank. about half way up. when I first got it the 2 heads were connected by some tissue. Now they are not connected at all, and one is only about 1/4 fleshy. And the other is only half as big as it used to be.

 

[BL1]

How long ago did it split?

 

[irensing]

Definately get your light timer fixed. Generally speaking, manual schedule isn't going to bode well for your coral. I've been there before. I got my candy cane when I was running combo CF's. I had it off to the side of the tank. It had it's good days and bad. When I moved him into the substrate, under a power head (medium flow) and swtiched to a metal halide he went absolutely nuts. Started with 3 heads and now have about 40. Keep in mind this is in a tank that is 19" high tank with a 250W MH. How is your calcium level? I switched to tropic marin bio-calcium and haven't look back. How did it look in the store? I typically wounldn't purchase an LPS unless it was "swollen" similar to this photo. My logic is that I know it's healthy at the time of purchase and if it doesn't do the same in my tank than I need to make a change.

 

[irensing]

phosphates read at zero. The candy canes are in the center of the tank. about half way up. when I first got it the 2 heads were connected by some tissue. Now they are not connected at all, and one is only about 1/4 fleshy. And the other is only half as big as it used to be.

I overlooked this, it sounds like it was already wasting when you got it. I wouldn't be too discouraged about it. You can't nurse them all back....

 

[Smitty]

My candy cane and frogspawn both like medium lighting and low flow. Try placing them in the middle of the tank somewhere. And good luck with them.

 

[slm32123]

I have my T5's running the entire length of the tank. So the light is even throughout the entire tank unless I hide things in the caves. Both my frogspawn and candycane are in low to moderate flow areas. And when I bought the candycane both heads were really nice and swollen like they should be. Also they were for about 4 days in my tank then started going down hill.

 

[irensing]

How old are your lights?

 

[slm32123]

I got the lights November of last year

 

[Mr.Diggler]

You may want to consider buying new lights.

 

[slm32123]

I am looking at reefgeek.com right now and exchanging emails. I really wanted to save up to switch to LEDs but my 10 gallon is doing the exact same with the LED set up I built as it did with PCs.

reefgeek suggested:
4 ATI Blue Plus
2 ATI Aquablue Specials
1 ATI Purple Plus
1 GE 6500K Daylight

for a crisp white with a hint of blue. I want a 20k color. do you guys think that would give me a 20k look?

 

[irensing]

It's tough to say if you'll get a 20,000K from that arrangement. It sounds reasonable. I purchased a fixture which has a 250W MH (20,000K) and then 2 60W CPs (I use 420nm). I got it on Ebay from a Chinese guy who probably get's it from the guy who private labels for Odysea or Current. It's worked great. I can speak to the LEDs a bit. One of my LFS has switched 3 of it's coral systems to LEDs. After about 6 months I followed up. They noted that they were generally good, however, concerced that some of the SPS weren't doing as well compared to metal hallides. They are pretty expensive too. I'm an electrical engineer. I designed some parts for these LED ballasts. AI - life illuminated Pretty nice stuff but I'm not sure of the results. I think you can adjust the color temperature which is cool. You might even be able to replace the LED modules which isn't the case for many other LED solutions.