Base of Duncan looking... Splotchy?

[blub]

Hellooo everyone. Curious if anyone has any idea what may be causing my corals flesh to become discoloured. It's normally the beige colour you see, but I have noticed, lately, that it has darker brown splotches. The coral heads still open, but not like they used to - the heads look quite tubeish and thin vs flowy and they are releasing a white stringy substance almost every day. See photo below of it open and sleeping.

I know it's ticked but can't figure out why.
Tank is 3 years old but dealing with quite the algae bloom which I feel I have to manage daily otherwise my nutrients bottom out... Feeling like this may be part of the issue in addition to CO2 which I can't figure out how to remedy (25 gallon tank, no skimmer, weekly water change). Any thoughts, ideas?

Parameters:
PH chronically low... I ran out of test kit, but it was often reflective of alk (always in the mid to high 7s)
Alk 7.7
Nitrate 3.8
Phosphate 0.04
Calcium 395
Salinity 35.7
Temp 25

 

[Uncle99]

For that coral, phosphate to low at 0.04pp,.
I’d run .1ppm to ensure availability to micro fauna which in turn feeds corals.

0.04ppm is in the margin of error, It could be zero as well.

So at the end of the day, looks starved to me.
Will take a few weeeks to recover once fed.

 

[blub]

For that coral, phosphate to low at 0.04pp,.
I’d run .1ppm to ensure availability to micro fauna which in turn feeds corals.

0.04ppm is in the margin of error, It could be zero as well.

Yeah I am trying to raise it, but the nutrients are always being eaten up by algae!

 

[purpfish]

Reef roids solved my low phos issue

 

[Uncle99]

Yeah I am trying to raise it, but the nutrients are always being eaten up by algae!

We want algae to take up some phosphate which is then consumed by the coral (and every else).

But if your 0.04ppm is wrong and is zero, you may also trigger pest type stuff.

Safer to run higher. I’d just bump it.

I’m using neo phos from time to time to instantly correct a low phosphate reading.

 

[blub]

Ok I will try feeding reef roids tomorrow!

 

[purpfish]

Ok I will try feeding reef roids tomorrow!

Be careful one feeding I went from .08 to .2

 

[blub]

Be careful one feeding I went from .08 to .2

Yeah I do find that my phosphates swing like crazy sometimes... I just assume it's the reality of having a small tank.

 

[purpfish]

Yeah I do find that my phosphates swing like crazy sometimes... I just assume it's the reality of having a small tank.

Yep mine too

 

[Shirak]

If you are fighting low nutrients from algae growth make sure you are feeding enough for the LPS to catch some food. Duncan love to eat pellets and frozen foods etc.

The splotchy look is from different light levels hitting the skeleton. You may notice it more when the coral is all closed up and can see the skeleton more clearly or it may be because of the closed up polyps now light is hitting the skeleton more in different places. The flesh on the outside of the skeleton is reacting to varied light levels

 

[blub]

If you are fighting low nutrients from algae growth make sure you are feeding enough for the LPS to catch some food. Duncan love to eat pellets and frozen foods etc.

The splotchy look is from different light levels hitting the skeleton. You may notice it more when the coral is all closed up and can see the skeleton more clearly or it may be because of the closed up polyps now light is hitting the skeleton more in different places. The flesh on the outside of the skeleton is reacting to varied light levels

I have been feeding PE mysis and calanus directly with a baster to my duncan, torch, and rockflower, which are all looking a bit sad if I am truthful. It hasn't seemed to make a difference though - been about a week. I have also noticed my rockflower turning into a cup shape at night, which I think is also a food related response. :(

My parameters all started to get wonky when I put a mini skimmer in the back chamber (AIO 25gallon) just to add aeration. I always poured the captured liquid back into the tank, but that seemed to not work as expected so I removed the skimmer and now am dealing with this weird imbalance of algae and low nutrients.

Glad to hear the colouring on the coral is not abnormal. Think I just got paranoid after noticing the corals strange behaviour and started questioning whether it always looked like that or not lol.

 

[Shirak]

I looked at your closed photo again. Looks like the lighter areas are on the upper surfaces where the light might be hitting more. With the low nutrients it could be causing some bleaching in those areas. I would increase feeding but sounds like you also need more CUC for algae. Are those pictures current because I don't really see an algae outbreak like you are describing.

I think I would stop skimming with phosphate and nitrates so low. Or just not let it collect into a cup.

I agree it looks weird opened up. Something is not quite right. Have you checked your salinity with a recently calibrated device? Your Ca is a tad low which makes me wonder if salinity is off. It could also explain the mid to high 7 alkalinity. Are you dosing anything?

 

[Shirak]

You said this started when you added the skimmer? Are you getting a lot of micro bubbles in the tank?

 

[blub]

I looked at your closed photo again. Looks like the lighter areas are on the upper surfaces where the light might be hitting more. With the low nutrients it could be causing some bleaching in those areas. I would increase feeding but sounds like you also need more CUC for algae. Are those pictures current because I don't really see an algae outbreak like you are describing.

I think I would stop skimming with phosphate and nitrates so low.

I agree it looks weird opened up. Something is not quite right. Have you checked your salinity with a recently calibrated device? Your Ca is a tad low which makes me wonder if salinity is off. It could also explain the mid to high 7 alkalinity. Are you dosing anything?

So before the skimmer I was doing 25% weekly water changes, and someone convinced me that it was probably not great for my coral because the water change would cause fluctuations (although no evidence my corals were doing poorly so idk why I listened to that). So I started using a skimmer to reduce my water changes and that's when my problems started. I eventually got dinos and it took a few months with UV and constant work to get my tank back to "normal". After it got back to normal I put the skimmer back in to just add the aeration (because my pH was so low) but I found it seemed to continue me down the path towards dinos, even with cup off. So I removed again...

This photo was taken after my weekly 25% water change and a scrub of rocks and sand to remove algae. The algae grows so fast I have to scrub the rocks weekly because they are coated in filamentous algae and the glass and sand are coated in thick algae film daily (have to stir and scrape every day). My cleanup crew are 3 nassarius snails, one tuxedo urchin, 2 big trochus snails, and a blue legged hermit that doesn't do much. I also have a Rainford goby that only eats algae, does an ok job, but can't keep up lol.

I will say my problems also became worse when I finally started getting coralline growing on my rocks. My alk and calcium drop so much that I have to dose manually a few times during the week. Since they both drop, I have been using all for reef (half a cap every other day), but to be honest I am not noticing a difference in my levels and I am scared to overdose and cause a big swing that will kill my coral.

I recalibrated my Hanna the other day and it didn't change my readings. To be honest, I have never used any other tool to check salinity, but feel as if I need to get something else just in case...

 

[Shirak]

Coralline will suck up the minerals for sure. AFR is good. 25% weekly water change is a lot but that would also keep your parameters and trace elements more stable.

I think you need to figure out how to get things balanced and stable again if you decide to continue with the skimmer and reduce water changes. You will have to dose more for sure just to keep up with tank consumption. You might want to look into a small dosing pump for AFR daily. The coralline will suck up Mg too. So if you have been dosing a lot of Ca but no Mg, your magnesium could be low now with the reduced water change routine.

And get a few more algae eating snails to help control algae growth... maybe like a dozen Astrea

 

[blub]

New development... What the heck are these?! Little yellow things that aren't moving... Sponges?? They just appeared today...

 

[Shirak]

Looks to me like coral tissue poking through in response to something, food or irritation perhaps. Seems like they might be in areas where the flesh looks a bit darker?

 

[blub]

Looks to me like coral tissue poking through in response to something, food or irritation perhaps. Seems like they might be in areas where the flesh looks a bit darker?

I fed reef roids directly today and it has seemed ticked off since :(