Acros lose color when added

[jasonandsarah]

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

Great observation on the food! Did you read Randy Holmes write up on rinsing frozen foods? He says it eliminates almost no Po4 and actually mostly rinses away potassium. Witch potassium is known for helping with Sps color. Plus all the small particles your rinsing off that the Acro's can eat.

 

[eg8r210]

Not sure what my issue is. Anytime I add a healthy colorful acro frag to my tank it bleaches within a week or so. It continues to live and even grow, but loses it's color. I can see polyp extension. Other SPS thrive (birdsnest, stylo, pocilopra, Monti caps and digi) and are very colorful. I thought it was my light (Reefbreeders Photon series) since i had the blues at only 70%, but I've been increasing the intensity over the past few weeks and today I'll make the jump from 90 to 100%. The whites only max out at 40% I believe. I've also added a single T5 strip with an ATI Coral Plus bulb about 3 weeks ago. My other SPS have colored up even more since adding this supplemental light, but not the Acros. I run the T5 six hours a day and my LEDs are on a sun rise/sun set ramp with the peak staying on for about 4 hours. My parameters are as follows:

salinity (a little low but I'm bringing it up slowly): ~1.023-1.024; pH: 8.2; Alk: 9.2 dKh; Ca: 350 (bringing it up to 450 slowly); Mg: 1250; temp 79; phosphate and nitrate undetectable.

It's a 72g bow front and my coral stock is as follows (see picture):

ORA green birds nest - about a 6-8 inch round colony
Pocillopora - 4-6 round colony
Montipora digi - about a 6-8 inch colony
stylopora - 3-4 inch colony
anacropora - 3-4 inch colony
turbunaria - 6-8 inch colony
Monti caps - green and red
2 small chalice
Potato chip pavona - 3-4 inch colony
fuzzy/hairy pavona (I think) (pink/purple) - 3-4 inch colony
elephant eye - 2 inch
small jack o lantern leptoseris
war coral - 6-8 inch colony
meteor shower - 8 inch+ and expanding
various LPS and zoa/palys colonies

My fish stock is:

1 clown
1 bristletooth tang
1 blue chromis
1 starry blenny
1 convict blenny
1 six-line wrasse
1 mandarin

Do you see anything that's not not copacetic? Any suggestions?

In addition, I think you should raise your mag up and raise your phosphate/nitrate.

 

[cee]

Great observation on the food! Did you read Randy Holmes write up on rinsing frozen foods? He says it eliminates almost no Po4 and actually mostly rinses away potassium. Witch potassium is known for helping with Sps color. Plus all the small particles your rinsing off that the Acro's can eat.

I REALLY respect Randy's posts since the early days of RC but honestly have paid no attention to this tidbit. I used to rinse food and found that SPS corals would wash-out. Therefore, based on observations, I stopped doing it and behold, better coloration. Of course, I try to maintain parameter stability and am pretty anal about other aspects of reef-keeping but through several tanks, going back to my tried and true method has always resulted in satisfactory results.

 

[Ryan15236]

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

Sounds like you run a very similar system to myself cee. I keep my alk around 7.5-7.7 calcium 420ppm, mag 1400ppm, nitrate and phosphate undetectable and salinity 1.025. I too run not high end LEDS. Reefbreeders to be exact. Never rinse frozen foods either. I wouldn't say I am an example to live by but I have a few frags and they are showing good color and PE. I recently added a teal tip stag however and it developed RTN and I lost it pretty much overnight. Seems like getting some of these corals acclimated to your tank and settled in is one of the more crucial moments as far as keeping SPS goes, especially acros. never had a problem with things like birdsnest and stylos.

 

[cee]

Sounds like you run a very similar system to myself cee. I keep my alk around 7.5-7.7 calcium 420ppm, mag 1400ppm, nitrate and phosphate undetectable and salinity 1.025. I too run not high end LEDS. Reefbreeders to be exact. Never rinse frozen foods either. I wouldn't say I am an example to live by but I have a few frags and they are showing good color and PE. I recently added a teal tip stag however and it developed RTN and I lost it pretty much overnight. Seems like getting some of these corals acclimated to your tank and settled in is one of the more crucial moments as far as keeping SPS goes, especially acros. never had a problem with things like birdsnest and stylos.

Don't get me wrong, I've lost my share of acros but generally speaking, this works for me. Your mileage may vary, of course.

 

[jasonandsarah]

Don't get me wrong, I've lost my share of acros but generally speaking, this works for me. Your mileage may vary, of course.

Not trying to highjack but... I've tried so hard to keep my Alk at 7.5 or even 8 but it just seems to hover at just under 9.

 

[Ryan15236]

I am not sure how my alkalinity is in that range. When I first started testing my tank I had some LPS in the tank and never dosed. I just did water changes every two weeks. Maybe I was getting more uptake that I thought with just the LPS I don't know really. Since testing I found my alkalinity to have only about a 0.6 dKH throughout the week. So, I bumped back to the 7.7 range and added Calcium hydroxide to the ATO container to try to maintain levels. I kind of just stumbled upon my alkalinity range and liked it so I am trying to keep it there. My biggest problem is keeping my pH up. It was around 7.9. However, since adding the kalkwasser to the ATO container I have noticed a slight increase over the last few weeks to about 8.0-8.1

 

[cee]

I am not sure how my alkalinity is in that range. When I first started testing my tank I had some LPS in the tank and never dosed. I just did water changes every two weeks. Maybe I was getting more uptake that I thought with just the LPS I don't know really. Since testing I found my alkalinity to have only about a 0.6 dKH throughout the week. So, I bumped back to the 7.7 range and added Calcium hydroxide to the ATO container to try to maintain levels. I kind of just stumbled upon my alkalinity range and liked it so I am trying to keep it there. My biggest problem is keeping my pH up. It was around 7.9. However, since adding the kalkwasser to the ATO container I have noticed a slight increase over the last few weeks to about 8.0-8.1

You know, I haven't measured pH in YEARS. I am not convinced that it is that important of a parameter. That having being said, however, I do use sodium carbonate anhydrous (baked baking soda) to boost my alkalinity which is notorious for raising pH. I just don't measure pH.

 

[Anthony kolodziej]

with low calcium under 400 and a ULNS you will get browning . alk at 9 should be ok colors might not be as vibrant as they could be but not browning .IMO get your calcium up and give it a few weeks to see what happens . THEN and only then maybe adjust alk a bit lower One adjustment at a time

 

[wrfreeman]

Tested my parameters this evening with the following results:

Ca: 450
Alk: 7.62
Mg: 1260

Keep in mind that all my SPS with the exception the acros are very bright and colorful. I added some Mg so I'll check it again tomorrow. My GFO has not been running since I started this thread and still no measurable amount of PO4. I've not check Nitrates, but am guessing it's going to come back at 0 as well. It may that the cheato is eating it up as it should, but there should still be enough for the coral as well. Maybe I need to feed some Coral Frenzy once a week. That'll most likely add a little phosphate to the water column. I used to do that, but just got out of the habit when I had an algae bloom.