SPS not so perky...

[Kalanianaole]

To test how SPS would fare in my six gallon Eclipse I used a small 1 inch x 1 inch montipora digitata that was an accidential fragging from the bottom of an LFS tank. The first week I had it it did well, polyps extended all day and such.

 

Nine days ago I upped the wattage to 39 watts of 50/50, on for 13 hours. I then put a baseball-sized montipora digitata colony in the tank, three inches below water level. I also added a pink birdsnest frag. The montipora colony and birdsnest frag had decent polyp extention for a day, but since then have been half extended at best. (Interestingly, since I added the new SPS the brown montipora digitata frag has only been half extended also. The frag was stung once by a hammer coral, although I moved it and there's been no further stress.) There are no signs of tissue decline or bleaching, although the whitish tips signifying growth have faded a bit.

 

My water parameters are all within normal range, calcium is bouncing between 400 and 450. I've done two water changes since then, and while my other corals perk up following the diaper change, the SPS have not.

 

This is my first attempt at SPS. I've had the tank for 10 months and have had great success with softies and LPS, so I figured it'd be ready for SPS.

 

What's the deal? Is my lighting too weak or am I missing something. Any advice or comment is welcome.

[Raise]

What size tank? Might be lighting, but i think ive read of sps under like 32w...so might not be lighting.

Are you SURE all your params are good? They go quick in there little ace tanks

[Physh1]

A few more specs on the actual tank setup (volume, current, filters) would help problem solve a bit....nothing really seems off but I have nothing to compare it to.

 

Cameron

[cjm033]

also another thing might be how you acclimated them