SPS Color Issues

mshonk

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I did notice my sps were bleaching. I realized that it was the gfo I was running. I have noticed some color coming back since I pulled it and my Phosphates are pretty much in check. Though, I am a little concerned with my hanna low phosphorous checker. It seems that sometimes when loading the c1 vial, if it takes a while to prompt for the next step it will always give me a 200ppb reading. I know you shouldn't wait longer than the 2 minutes to run the test on the second vial but I reran it on the same vials last time this happened and got a 8 ppb reading. I also wipe the vials with a paper towel the microfiber cloth an rinse with rodi before and after use. I may contact hanna today to see if I can find some insight.

I also purchased Lugol Solution, AquaForest AF Amino Mix and AF Energy. I dose a drop of lugols about every two weeks and I was doing a drop of each the Amino and Energy but noticed my sps will look worse than they had the day prior, being that I dose those when the lights are out. I dose the lugols in an effort to bring my blues back into my cali tort. Its as brown as brown can be.

Which leads to the next issue. Not all sps are brown or pale but a good majority are. My params are fairly steady. All but two sps have good polyp extension [I will point them out in the list], and I have 5 powerheads with wavemaker/alternating currents. placement on most of these are mid to high and in high flow.

The ones that look good are:
-Green Gecko
-Green Stylo
-Purple Stylo
-Spongodes Monti
-Birdsnest

Looking fair are:
-ORA Borealis
-Silver bullet
-Wolverine from aqua sd [no polyp extension good color]
-tricolor granulosa [ bit brown]
-rainbow pocci [ little pale]

Brown and pale:
-red millie [brown]
-lime raspberry [pale flesh but purple polyps]
-bonsai acro[some purple but turning brown polyps are barely green]
-ora red planet[bleached]
-Waynes Reef Acro [bleached but coloring back up. I think this was from the gfo. poor polyp extension]

there are a few more but this should give a good idea.

Params:
From 10/5
alk 9.7
cal 410
mag 1400
ph 8.3
temp 79.5 +- .2
No3 0ppm(Api) haven't picked up a better test kit yet
Po4 .009ppm
Amm 0

my alk rose from 10/5 - 10/21

10/21
alk 10.9
cal 410
mag 1400
ph 8.3
temp 79.5 +- .2
No3 0ppm(Api) haven't picked up a better test kit yet
Po4 .021ppm
Amm 0

11/15
alk 10.7
cal 410
mag 1400
ph 8.3
temp 79.5 +- .2
No3 0ppm(Api) haven't picked up a better test kit yet
Po4 .024ppm
Amm 0

There was one day that the po4 rose to .046ppm but I don't this that would be an issue.

EQUIPMENT/TANKINFO:

RIO 2100 return pump
VECTOR 130 Skimmer
Media Filter MaxiJet pump running Carbon one week a month.
2 Jecod DP-3 dosing pumps [Alk/Cal/Mag/Topoffs][Randys reef recipe 1]
BloomSpect 165w LED Light
[blues on for 9 hrs @ 100% and whites on for 7 hrs at 45%]
3 550 gph SunSun JVP 110s[1 on A/B 15 minute Wave Maker schedule, 1 stadyflow behide rock, 1 in sump to prevent settling in hard to maintain chamber.]
2 Current Eflux 660gph pumps wave maker or whatever I adjust to.
Jebao TW-10 PowerHead with wavemaker controller[Other part of A/B WaveMaker]
100w Heater
65w Chinese LED over sump.
Reef Keeper Power supply with temp sensor

30 lbs LR
20 lbs fine LS
20 lbs small coarse sand

water changes about 2-4 g weekly
coralife salt

Am I on the right track and just need to wait it out or is there something I am missing.
 

Graffiti Spot

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Are these frags? If your tort is brown using any kind of suppliment probably won't help. Also there is a big difference between brown and bleached and most of the time it's one or the other. Pics are the best option to get some help.
 

Duhnk

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whats your nitrates and sps love flow and i mean a ton of it
i dose nitrates to my tank and they are full of color. nitrates is a huge thing when it comes to color and flow will help so much.
i run a gyre and like 4 other pumps to create as much flow in my 29 gallon.
ive run into the pale and browning stage but if you are gonna dose nitrates make sure you are doing water changes every week
have a good filtration system setup.
i dont run gfo only carbon also.
 
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Duhnk

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i just saw you had 0 nitrates dont run zero and you will have those sps looking amazing
the more flow you can add without the corals hating it do it.
 
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mshonk

mshonk

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Are these frags? If your tort is brown using any kind of suppliment probably won't help. Also there is a big difference between brown and bleached and most of the time it's one or the other. Pics are the best option to get some help.
I will post pics later and I get that it is one or another sorry if there is any confusion. Many arent bleached. Mainly browning. I tried to disassociate one state from the other when I listed the various types and what was up with them.
 
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mshonk

mshonk

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Are these frags? If your tort is brown using any kind of suppliment probably won't help. Also there is a big difference between brown and bleached and most of the time it's one or the other. Pics are the best option to get some help.
Yes they are still frags but over 2months or more in my tank.
 
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mshonk

mshonk

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whats your nitrates and sps love flow and i mean a ton of it
i dose nitrates to my tank and they are full of color. nitrates is a huge thing when it comes to color and flow will help so much.
i run a gyre and like 4 other pumps to create as much flow in my 29 gallon.
ive run into the pale and browning stage but if you are gonna dose nitrates make sure you are doing water changes every week
have a good filtration system setup.
i dont run gfo only carbon also.
Nitrates are 0 via an API test. I plan on a better one sooner or later. And I have 2 550gph pumps, 2 660gph pumps, and 1 that can reach 1000gph on a 40 g breeder dt. I do weekly if not biweekly water changes.
 
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mshonk

mshonk

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whats your nitrates and sps love flow and i mean a ton of it
i dose nitrates to my tank and they are full of color. nitrates is a huge thing when it comes to color and flow will help so much.
i run a gyre and like 4 other pumps to create as much flow in my 29 gallon.
ive run into the pale and browning stage but if you are gonna dose nitrates make sure you are doing water changes every week
have a good filtration system setup.
i dont run gfo only carbon also.
I stopped the gfo 2-3 weeks ago since I thought it was causing the bleaching. Since then The waynes reef and two other corals have gone from bleached to brown.
 
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mshonk

mshonk

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I believe your alk is too high with that low of nutrients (po4-No3)
I was wondering that. I made a strong mix and I was focused on getting it level and steady and havent lowered it. Since it was in range. I will dial the dosing pump down for a bit. What range would you recommend for the alk.
 

Duhnk

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I stopped the gfo 2-3 weeks ago since I thought it was causing the bleaching. Since then The waynes reef and two other corals have gone from bleached to brown.
then dose nitrates to the tank start slow and every few days
then as the lvls go up you can add more to help with the color. you can feed more but my fuge pulls so much out from feeding i had to dose it directly to the return. i do every other day 3ml of nitrates to the tank and the corals that i thought i had lost are coming back and have full color. corals will come back from death. ive done it twice with my current setup.
 
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mshonk

mshonk

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then dose nitrates to the tank start slow and every few days
then as the lvls go up you can add more to help with the color. you can feed more but my fuge pulls so much out from feeding i had to dose it directly to the return. i do every other day 3ml of nitrates to the tank and the corals that i thought i had lost are coming back and have full color. corals will come back from death. ive done it twice with my current setup.
What do you use to dose?
 

BigJim

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Can you get your hands on a par meter? Brown acros can be an indication they are not getting enough light. I would definitely recommend you look into the lighting. I also agree that you probably want to get your alk below 9 with such low nitrate and phosphate.
 
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mshonk

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Can you get your hands on a par meter? Brown acros can be an indication they are not getting enough light. I would definitely recommend you look into the lighting. I also agree that you probably want to get your alk below 9 with such low nitrate and phosphate.
I am not too sure about getting a par meter. But I had the Waynes Reef Acro under these lights for 4 months and its color was great for approximately 3.5 of those months. Plus there is a recent thread https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-real-black-box-light-study.503052/page-5#post-5358462 that has par for an ideally similar unit. I would imagine that the par readings can't be that far off.
 

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I was wondering that. I made a strong mix and I was focused on getting it level and steady and havent lowered it. Since it was in range. I will dial the dosing pump down for a bit. What range would you recommend for the alk.

With your nutrients that low I would shoot for lower 7's....I have been running mine at 7.2 with no issues at all as I am slowly increasing my nutrient load as well.....just slowly decrease and you will be fine....no more than 1dkh per day and even less than that is fine.
 

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Nitrates are 0 via an API test. I plan on a better one sooner or later. And I have 2 550gph pumps, 2 660gph pumps, and 1 that can reach 1000gph on a 40 g breeder dt. I do weekly if not biweekly water changes.
Get the RedSea Pro NO3 test kit. It has a hi & low range method. The low range measures zero to 4ppm in 0.25 increments.
 
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I have my dosing pumps dosing 3-4ml 7 times a day for alk I will just bump one down a ml and go from there. I am not new to reefing just never focused so much on sps. I definitely have learned my lesson on alk swings.
I should have the Test Kit by next week for the NO3
 

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i have it on my dosing pump started with 1ml every few days
then got it up to 4ml every other day
took it down to 3ml every other day but coral colors and growth are amazing right now. all sps
I’ve had similar results
 

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