Lps STN'ing.

[Hobineros]

Hey everyone, having an issue with LPS and needed some guidance... about 3 weeks ago I noticed my nitrates had fallen below 1ppm (hannah checked at .80). Was dosing 1ml a day nopox into a lightish stocked tank, I was watching the nitrates slowly drop over about 60 days from about 4 ppm... shut off the nopox on 21 april. Last 3 weeks been slowly dosing nitrate (neonit) while testing it daily. Up to 3 ppm today. Don't see any algae problems showing up at this point. My problem is... all my lps look like death. Have stn or tissue is dying off from the growth tips on most varieties like hydno, pectina, chalices, acans, trachys... before this I noticed my monti caps went very dark in color and result tests showed higher than normal phos at .06... usually was .03 or less. Added some gfo and got that back to preferred range within 3 days. Anyways.... its been about 3 weeks since I increased nitrates and things are looking about the same.... do i give it more time or dig deeper? Nothing else was changed. All params within range. No pests detected. Mushrooms, zoas, even a bird nest look perfect. Blastos growing like weeds. I sent off a moonshiners icp yesterday...but im kind of spazzing out feeling like all my lps os gonna die within a hour... thoughts?

 

[Stang67]

Took the values too low. Ni 20+ po .1+ works for me.

 

[Lavey29]

Agree LPS need nutrients rich water. Nitrates 10 to 20. Phosphate. 1 to .2

 

[Hobineros]

Agree LPS need nutrients rich water. Nitrates 10 to 20. Phosphate. 1 to .2

Eep... using hannah phosphate ulr I shood be going for that much phos? I was aiming for .03 tops. I knew the nitrate had nearly bottomed out... if I feed roids and ab+ will this help stabilize short term?

 

[Lavey29]

Eep... using hannah phosphate ulr I shood be going for that much phos? I was aiming for .03 tops. I knew the nitrate had nearly bottomed out... if I feed roids and ab+ will this help stabilize short term?

.03 with the hanna error ratio could mean you are actually at 0. Yes roids will raise phosphate.

 

[Hobineros]

I'm understanding lps like a higher nutrient supply in the water, kind of was leaning that way. I guess my true perplexing question is: How is my Zoa's and other softies doing so great if the water is to clean? I dont overly feed them, everyone gets a broadcast about once a week. When I did detect higher phos (.06 range) why did my monti caps. go extremely dark? Based on past experience that was from higher phosphates. When i reduced it, they went vivid coloring again. I actually lost about half of my encrusting montis during this time period as well. Not like half of all colonies, disappeared but literally like half of each colony died back.

I guess i'm not totally convinced that dropping in food will fix the issue.

Thankyou'ze for the discussion so far

 

[Lavey29]

I'm understanding lps like a higher nutrient supply in the water, kind of was leaning that way. I guess my true perplexing question is: How is my Zoa's and other softies doing so great if the water is to clean? I dont overly feed them, everyone gets a broadcast about once a week. When I did detect higher phos (.06 range) why did my monti caps. go extremely dark? Based on past experience that was from higher phosphates. When i reduced it, they went vivid coloring again. I actually lost about half of my encrusting montis during this time period as well. Not like half of all colonies, disappeared but literally like half of each colony died back.

I guess i'm not totally convinced that dropping in food will fix the issue.

Thankyou'ze for the discussion so far

You can grow soft corals in a toilet bowl. LPS have different requirements to keep then healthy and thriving. Bottomed out nutrients mean they are slowly starving to death.