Corals Changing/Fading colors

[oohnoo]

I'm new to keeping corals but learning more and more everyday. Some of the new corals I had picked up from the vendor auctions seem to be fading somewhat in color. See pics for example. I'm not sure if the light was to high or low nutrient levels (Nitrates)
I'm new to this so naming them is a chore as I'm learning . Everything else in the tank is doing great and growing. I'm dozing BRS 2-part and for the most part everything seems to be growing. Even some old branching coral I had that looked shot are now forming skin and polyps. Some new SPS corals I got seem to be thriving with new polyp growth also. And yes I bought waaaay toooo many corals at those sales.
PAR for the most part is between 100-275 depending on location as I have it set on 30% acclimation from the Hydra thread.
These corals shown here were in a high PAR area mid tank and with good flow. But for now I moved them to a low light area against the side of the tank. You can see in the pics the top area is faded more than the sides. I have a Neptune Classic with they're PAR meter which I moved around the tank taking readings. Amazing tool.

Tank is a IM 30L with two Hydra26's / Rock and some corals moved over from 15gal on 5/5/2017

Some tank paramiters:
Salt: Red Sea Coral Pro
Salinity: 1.26
Temp: 78.9
Ph: 8.17
KH/Alk: 8.51 / Hanna
Calcium: 428 / Hanna
Magnesium: 1350 ppm / Salifret
Nitrates: non detectable / Red Sea Pro
Phosphates: .06 Red Sea

Corals in question with before/after pics. Crappy pics I know, again I'm learning.

 

[john.m.cole3]

First off you need some nitrates in your tank especially for LPS to thrive, look plump, have nice colors, etc... That can be done by skimming more dry, turning off the skimmer a few hours everyday, dosing nitrate, and so on. Find out what way you want to go and we can help you figure out how to raise nitrates correctly.

Next, lower your light! Corals can survive with much less light than we thihnk. When your corals are pale it usually means lights are too high and nutrients are too low. Lower ther lights until you see color being restored to the corals. This can take weeks and even months. Once they start to color back up, you can slowly start ramping your lights back up.

 

[oohnoo]

Yes I suspected that. I've have been reading up on dozing for Nitrates using potassium nitrate (aka stump remover), even ordered it but didn't get a chance go start as I'll be on vacation next week and my tank is at my workplace.
For the lights that's the funny part as not all my corals are loosing color, especially the SPS. Everything is probably ticked at me as when I was taking PAR readings on Friday I had my Hydra's on manual mode and forgot to set them back to Auto and they stayed on the whole weekend . I know, I know. But everything looked normal when I came into work and it wasn't until I looks at the PAR logs in Neptune did I discover it. Turned them off for the day anyway to give them the much needed rest period. But those were fading before this happened anyway.
Posted some more shots of my tank. Any help would be appreciated

 

[oohnoo]

Thinking about it more I think I mucked with the lighting acclimation and dates. So I turned turned down my lights. Set acclimation to 50% from what it was and that brought my intensity down to PAR 145 from 275. Going on vacation next week so I won't be watching it as my tank is in my office at work.
Once other thing I'm going to be looking into is Nitrate dozing which is a very good read on coral growth. Seems to be very much the way to go
Did some daily tests today and I find it odd that my Calcium went up? From 428ppm to 465pm with the Hanna, did a retest and confirmed it. Then did a test with the Salifret test and it was 450ppm. Very odd. I'll be coming in a few evenings next week as it's a stay home vacation to feed and check up on things so I'll keep my eye on things

 

[oohnoo]

So to give a little update since reducing the light and moving some corals to a low light area. There seems to be no change in color with them so I'm suspecting low Nitrates of which I just tested for 0, phosphates with a Hana checker are at .06
I am getting some algae on the frags which I've been removing with a toothbrush.
Can I ask for some assistance on dozing Nitrates Stump remover? Tank is a IM 30L which I'm guessing there's 20gal of water in it. From what I've been reading this is the way to go. But I'm not sure on what my target Nitrate should be. Should I start off with a target of 2ppm and continue dosing until it holds and then stop and see how much is being consumed?
https://reeformadness.wordpress.com...or-better-tank-health-and-better-coral-color/