Acan bleaching quickly, but the others are fine

[GibsonGuitars]

Hello, my orange crush is quickly becoming an albino. I noticed small tips being white a few weeks back and checked temp... it had creeped to 80 due to the weather warming up, so I adjusted all of my tanks. It didn’t progress at all for 3 weeks, then in the last 2-3 days it’s gone stark white.
SG 1.024
Temp 77.9
Ammonia 0.0
Nitrite 0.0
Nitrate less than 2 ppm.
I don’t add or check Alk, calcium or Mag as I do regular high nutrition water changes: as follows:
Tank is 13.5 (actual water volume is 10 gallons) I was told using Red Sea coral pro salt, and doing 50% water changes (a 5 gallon bucket) every week that the nutrition should be excellent and balanced considering I have 75-100 Zoas, 1 torche, 1 @ 3 head blasto, and 3 Acans. Very little demand for skeletal nutrients and the coral pro salt is high in those factors. Did I get bad advice from the LFS? Why is this one bleaching and the others are fine?

update to the post: here is a pic I took 3 days ago of the whole tank, I zoomed in on the Acan so you can see how ridiculously fast this thing has gone downhill. You can barley make out the small white tips from back when the temp was a little high... but overall it’s color was fully orange just days ago. This pic was taken the 21st

 

[ahiggins]

“. Very little demand for skeletal nutrients and the coral pro salt is high in those factors. Did I get bad advice from the LFS?”

yes.

Don’t take this the wrong way....but you should never use coral pro as a first salt. I say first salt because it sounds like you’re still in the “taking advice from lfs” stage of this journey. You (or anyone else) have no idea what your consumption is at the beginning-which is going to be close to 0 with just frags or very little sps/lps. Especially in a tank that small. Always (ALWAYS) double check your lfs instructions. The best ones out there are well intentioned but have no idea how your tank runs. The worst just want to make a buck.

check your cal, alk, mag. I’d be willing to be you’re way out of whack. Your other corals are probably used to it by now from the water changes and how long you’ve had them but anything new it will be a “shock” to their system. Same for water changes with coral pro. Those “coral salts” are sky high in the big 3 for tanks that have a high uptake or crazy growth.
There’s a lot of info out there on the relationship of nutrients to the big 3, start researching and good luck.

 

[GibsonGuitars]

“. Very little demand for skeletal nutrients and the coral pro salt is high in those factors. Did I get bad advice from the LFS?”

yes.

Don’t take this the wrong way....but you should never use coral pro as a first salt. I say first salt because it sounds like you’re still in the “taking advice from lfs” stage of this journey. You (or anyone else) have no idea what your consumption is at the beginning-which is going to be close to 0 with just frags or very little sps/lps. Especially in a tank that small. Always (ALWAYS) double check your lfs instructions. The best ones out there are well intentioned but have no idea how your tank runs. The worst just want to make a buck.

check your cal, alk, mag. I’d be willing to be you’re way out of whack. Your other corals are probably used to it by now from the water changes and how long you’ve had them but anything new it will be a “shock” to their system. Same for water changes with coral pro. Those “coral salts” are sky high in the big 3 for tanks that have a high uptake or crazy growth.
There’s a lot of info out there on the relationship of nutrients to the big 3, start researching and good luck.

Thank you! I have been getting my advice here at Reef2reef for the last few months. That said, there have been a few bits of advice that The LFS gave me still lingering, and I am finding out down the road the advice was bad. Using the premixed saltwater they sell (and paying extra for the premium coral pro) had not caused any problems before now so I chalk that up to a piece of bad advice that took awhile to back fire. 100% I don’t ask them anything anymore, lol... and I’ll stop paying for their premium water immediately.
I’ll do some foundational elements testing and post the results to see what’s going on. Thanks for not pulling any punches, I need blunt advice... and I need to figure out all of the lingering bad advice from the LFS that’s still floating around in my Noggin

 

[ahiggins]

No worries, we’ve all been there lol I lost so many corals before I realized how awful my lfs was. Still to this day they give awful advice. I use Red Sea regular for mine, no fancy things needed. Unless you have colonies or large amounts of frags growing, I wouldn’t use the coral salts out there. Even then, I’d suggest to test over the course of a week with no water change (a few times) to see what you’re actually using. Some need to dose one but not the other. Imo using the coral pro without knowing can do just as much harm as not having enough in there.
my advice is just scour all the forums.odds are you’ll find something later on and say “oh I saw this one person deal with it this way, I can try that”
And have fun with it! I love this hobby

 

[GibsonGuitars]

Tests done, I am due for a water change.
Cal 440ppm
Alk 3.0 dHK8.4
Mag 1520

 

[GibsonGuitars]

The Mag test I shanked the first time, over pushed the plunger during titration... first time it was 1600, second time 1520 was more accurate. Looking at charts online the magnesium is high. I’ll have to investigate to see if that can cause bleaching... otherwise I am back to square one if it doesn’t.

 

[GibsonGuitars]

Ok, I see online high magnesium can bleach Acans. What I don’t get is how I have So much higher magnesium levels than the coral pro salts provides. I dont supplement those elements, so I need to look into the other products I am using to find out where the overdose of magnesium is coming from. I think I got this from here, unless you have any additional insights to offer I will do a water change tomorrow and figure out where the Mag is coming from. Thanks again! Most of the time I get just the right advice here, and always just enough for me to figure it out in my own...

 

[ahiggins]

Was the alk at 3 a typo? That’s way crazy.
have you noticed any extra salt creep or white/ cloudy precipitation?
but yes I think you’ve got it from here. Just whatever you do, do it slowly. If you’re going to change salt, do like 5% water changes with new salt every week or two. Changing things too quickly can be just as bad as high levels.

 

[GibsonGuitars]

Was the alk at 3 a typo? That’s way crazy.
have you noticed any extra salt creep or white/ cloudy precipitation?
but yes I think you’ve got it from here. Just whatever you do, do it slowly. If you’re going to change salt, do like 5% water changes with new salt every week or two. Changing things too quickly can be just as bad as high levels.

It’s 8.4, the Red Sea kit gives two numbers on the results... not sure what the 3 means, but the dHK number seams to be the one people use , and that’s 8.4. Shouldn’t have posted both numbers, but still learning what things mean.

Calcium and Alk are actually right in the normal range, the magnesium is a bit high. I have found some articles and chat conversations that say 1500-1600 magnesium has “no ill effects” and others that say it can bleach Acans.

What I can’t figure out is how it got high, as I use reef energy A and B , it has no Mag and I use 1ml every other day. Also reef roids with my brine shrimp target Fed, 2-3 times a week. There isn’t anything I am using that contains Magnesium at those levels?

 

[ahiggins]

I would still be looking to the salt mix before your a plus b. I’ve never used it but personally I’m not a big fan of all the extra hype they have for some of these products and juices to add to tanks. The only product I can really attest to is vibrant because I’ve seen it work.
mag that high will most likely start to precip out on pumps/salt creep, sometimes binding to the other big 2. I’m not super understanding of the molecular chemistry behind it though.

 

[GibsonGuitars]

I do have some salt creep that started back about the same time this Acan first showed tips bleaching, but I attributed it to the recent rise in ambient temp... summer came early in California, it’s 100 today... lol. I think my first step would be to test the unused water I have in a jug for my next water change... see if this problem is existing prior to my system and being introduce , or if it’s something happening within my system causing an excess of Mag in my water. Coral pro salts should only have about 1250-1325 Mag, but who knows what they are also adding to their “premium” water at my LFS

 

[ahiggins]

Well, I hope you find out what’s going on I would still suggest switching salt. You don’t need coral pro so save some money lol get more coral

 

[GibsonGuitars]

Well, I hope you find out what’s going on I would still suggest switching salt. You don’t need coral pro so save some money lol get more coral

For sure, yes on switching salts. I will still test my unused water for the process of elimination. If it’s not the coral pro LFS premix, it could still be the Coral pro’s abundance of unneeded nutrients causing a reaction to create the excess Mag in my system. Hopefully the orange crush pulls through. It also sounds like I need to bring things down as slowly as possible. Patients still isn’t my strong suit, but learning to be

 

[ahiggins]

Haha I’ve been in the game about 10 years and I still haven’t curbed my lack of patience!

 

[GibsonGuitars]

Haha I’ve been in the game about 10 years and I still haven’t curbed my lack of patience!

So, confirmed the water has 1600 Mag straight from the LFS, and coral pro salts are NOT that high... I trust Red Seas quality control more than the word of my LFS. Think it’s time to start mixing my own, who knows what they are giving me.
Second, an offline friend who has had some solid advice in the past suggested I move the orange crush down to lower light for two reasons... it will reduce stress as it’s clearly not feeling well, and it could be the combo of light amount and Mag causing the bleaching. 6 hours later and it is turning from bleach white to slightly pink. Also feed it some diced whole shrimp, gobbled it up... I think eating is a good sign