Acros lose color when added

[twilliard]

Acropower is just an amino acid which is good for coral's general health, it can also entice feeding response. po4 can come from anywhere, fish food, coral food, fish waste, etc. I wouldn't worry about po4 lvls too much.

Does this amino not compare to say the red sea energy aminos?

 

[jcdeng]

My guess would be all the amino acids are similar. IME I have used both elos' skimmer friendly amino and acropower, I notice the feeding response is more aggressive with acropower, for both LPS and SPS corals. As to if they contain p04 or not, I guess its safe to assume they do to some small degree or even undetectable amount, even though the manufacturers claim that they don't.

 

[Big Larr]

After lowering my light intensity and switching from acro power to aqua vitro fuel my acros colored up a lot better than before

 

[jasonandsarah]

I used to listen to all the ULNS stuff but quickly realized it's probably one of the most complicated things to consistently maintain in reefing! If your not running a "program" like Zeovit or the like then knowing all the acceptable parameters can be hard. Especially with TONS of misinformation online.
Now my real suggestion would be to up your P04 to 0.03-0.05 and try to maintain your Nitrates around 5 nothing wrong with these numbers for Sps at all. Also with these parameters you'll be able to keep your Dkh at 9 without any worry and allow your Acro's the nutrients they need. You'll get your color back rather quickly.
Personally I don't like dosing potassium nitrate (not that there's anything wrong with it) but instead I like to feed a lot and filter even better! I have had great success with stopping Gfo all together and going with a more natural method of PO4 reduction with a algae turf scrubber.
Your tank will find its own sweet spot. Just have to have patience and listen to successful reefers.

 

[reefbeard]

Some more info regarding po4 and no3.
http://reef2reef.com/threads/help-my-sps-are-paling-and-i-dont-know-what-to-do.210035/

 

[ReefMadScientist]

Exactly my problem and asked the same question a week ago. All my acros were thriving and growing but all bleached out. I tried increasing light, decreasing light period. etc etc.. We all strive for 0 nitrate 0 phosphate and read about ULNS a lot . But i guess nitrate and phos are important. 1 week, is started dosing ammino acids and increase fish feeding from 1 time a day to 2-3 times a day and BOY what a difference in little over 1 week! I also decrease my flow to GFO to accumulate some phosphate. I have nitrate now at around .25 - .5 (Red sea nitrate test) and phosphate 0-0.01 (hanna checker)

Not all.

I strive for 3ppm's of NO3 and undetectable to .02 OF PO4.

Ok when you get your PO4 to an undetectable margin, just take your GFO offline. Watch how your tank reacts and if PO4 jumps up, which it will since you are feeding a ton, then turn it back on.

Do not feed a lot. Feeding does not increase your NO3 but ONLY PO4 from my experience. Higher levels of PO4 over NO3 will cause nasty algae outbreaks and blooms.

I would suggest to stop dosing amino acids. I used to do this daily until I noticed all I was doing was fueling algae growth.

 

[ReefMadScientist]

I used to listen to all the ULNS stuff but quickly realized it's probably one of the most complicated things to consistently maintain in reefing! If your not running a "program" like Zeovit or the like then knowing all the acceptable parameters can be hard. Especially with TONS of misinformation online.
Now my real suggestion would be to up your P04 to 0.03-0.05 and try to maintain your Nitrates around 5 nothing wrong with these numbers for Sps at all. Also with these parameters you'll be able to keep your Dkh at 9 without any worry and allow your Acro's the nutrients they need. You'll get your color back rather quickly.
Personally I don't like dosing potassium nitrate (not that there's anything wrong with it) but instead I like to feed a lot and filter even better! I have had great success with stopping Gfo all together and going with a more natural method of PO4 reduction with a algae turf scrubber.
Your tank will find its own sweet spot. Just have to have patience and listen to successful reefers.

I agree but over feeding does not increase NO3 as much as it does with PO4. I had a NO3 deficiency and all I did was add a fish or two. Problem solved.

 

[ReefMadScientist]

To the OP, my .2 cents - your acros are starving.

 

[ReefMadScientist]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/help-my-sps-are-paling-and-i-dont-know-what-to-do.210035/

Here is what my closet looks like. Can you figure out what I dose?

From Reef Roids, Vita Checm, Reef Chilli, Acropower, Selcon, Ziovit.

The answer: NONE. I stopped dosing amino acids.

 

[jasonandsarah]

I agree but over feeding does not increase NO3 as much as it does with PO4. I had a NO3 deficiency and all I did was add a fish or two. Problem solved.

I didn't say over feed. ;) I said feed a ton and filter better. I'm only using a Ats for PO4 and I'm still having a hard time keeping my levels above the 0.02 mark.
I'm not feeding more just to get nitrates either but rather to make sure everything (corals included) get enough food. Weather it be small particles of food or fish poop either works for me! Main thing is I do this because it works for my tank. I feed just about the same amount every day and I try to stay very consistent with my husbandry (Ats, large skimmer and biweekly WC)

 

[bct15]

Bump your mag up to 1320 and wait a few weeks. I bet you'll start seeing your color come back. Try to get your calcium to about 400 also.

 

[WetWhistle]

I am also not a fan of dosing potassium nitrate. Not saying that potassium nitrate doesn't work I am just saying there are other options to try first. You can run into the opposite problem if you dose with it and end up with high nutrients.

I also like the more natural method and stopped using GFO after my tank cycled. I added mangroves with my Caulerpa in my refugium to handle my filtration needs. As a bonus you feed your corals and create a food web cycle that takes care of any algae blooms and helps balance out your tank. If you foster the food web you will have a healthy reef tank.

You should try cutting back on mechanical filtration and chemicals like GFO and feed a little more. You will notice a slight rise in Nitrates and Phosphates once you do assuming you don't go feed crazy. That way you are not adding things into your tank that is not needed. I found when I ran GFO my SPS didn't have the rich bright colors they have now. The color was more muted and not as bright.

If you stick to a few things soon your tank will find its sweet spot and color comes quickly. This is what I have learned over the years. Watch your tank and learn what it is telling you and learn to spot problems before they become an issue. Every reef tank has what I call indicator corals that always show you a problem is building before the other corals do. Keep your hands out of the tank unless you absolutely have to. Every time you stick your hand into your tank you are putting into your tank what you did during the day from the outside world. Perfumes, toxins, soaps, oils ect all come out of your skin into the water. Don't tinker all the time and don't chase numbers of what you think something show be so you are making adjustment all the time. There is no exact number that works on all tanks so watch your tank and see what it is telling you. Foster the food web. Do your weekly maintenance and don't get lazy with it. Don't add unnecessary products into your tank. These are the things I do to keep my corals happy, colorful and growing.

 

[wrfreeman]

Some more info regarding po4 and no3.
http://reef2reef.com/threads/help-my-sps-are-paling-and-i-dont-know-what-to-do.210035/

This is a great write up! Thank you sir!!

 

[wrfreeman]

GFO has been offline for three weeks and my PO4 is still undetectable. I'll plan to just leave the GFO offline until I start to see some kind of measurement. Still no color in my acros, but the colors on everything else have become richer since adding the single T5. I'll just exercise patience and see if they color up eventually.

 

[Ryan15236]

Great to see a local keeping SPS. I am in Kingsport and keeping a mixed reef tank with some SPS. I run my system with low nutrients and Parameters close to seawater. Not really by choice just kind of how it is working at the moment. I only have 2 clownfish and a firefish in my tank at the moment and skim 24/7. I had a purple stylo that came pretty dull from moving around from a few tanks but is starting to turn purple again around the base after a couple of weeks. I will be tagging along to see what you come up with. If you ever want to do some trading around on frags or sell any let me know as well. I am still in the pretty early and empty stages of my 125 gallon tank.

 

[wrfreeman]

Kingsport? Excellent! I'm in Blountville. I do have some Hypnotic Montipora Digitata frags both large (4+ inches) and small for sale or trade. They are pink with blue polyp hence the "Hypnotic" name. I also have some neon green birdsnest and scroll (turbinaria) frags. Did you happen to see my post about the nano aquarium I'm putting together? I posted some things I need for it that you may have.

 

[Reefrookie220]

Interested in a frag of th st monti wade. Shoot me a text or email.

 

[Ryan15236]

I haven't seen your post about the nano build. I may be overlooking it but you can send me a PM if you want to. Honestly I think all I have left from my build is some dry base rock from Marcorocks. If you don't need any rock you can PM me prices for what you want for a monti frag and scroll frag. I have ORA green BN and sour apple BN already

 

[wrfreeman]

I'll take some pictures of what I've got tonight and shoot them to you with prices. I also reposted my nano build to this forum:)

 

[cee]

So I agree with other posters that I believe your alk is too high. I run mine in the mid-sevens and have had it drop as low as the high-fives with no ill effects. I too run with PO4 and nitrates virtually undetectable by hobbyist test kits. I too run LEDs, nothing high-end, and have pretty good colors. I usually dose Zeo Sponge Power and Pohl's Xtra but while I was gone for the entire months of September my tank-sitter dosed nothing. Amazingly, virtually no change in coral colors so perhaps I'm just wasting money LOL. One thing I used to do was rinse my fish's food but no more. Perhaps the SPS corals are getting sufficient nutrition from the residual food "juice". BTW, I too am a local SPS junkie so I wish you the best of success. If you're ever up to trading or just seeing how your corals might do in another system just LMK.

Dave