I have a few questions, bta’s, gsp, placement for torch and frogspawn, & ph!

[alvssaxo]

Okay, while looking at my tank today, I have a few questions.

1. I have a gbta and 2 black widows. The gbta is what I’m worried about. It was bleached when I got it last year around this time and I nursed it back to health and it got its color back. It looked big and beautiful all year. For the last couple months it seems to be bleaching to me. I’ve been feeding more for the last month because that’s how I fixed the bleaching before. I’ll post a few pictures of what it looked like before and one from today. Any ideas why the sudden loss of color and why it’s so stringy looking? what I can do?
Ph 8.0
Nitrate 20
Alk 8.2
Temp 79
Mag 1500
Phos .03
Cal 480

2. in the old anemone picture, you can also see the gsp on the back wall. it hasn’t come out for a couple months as well and looks pretty bad like it’s melting away. I’ve added another picture of what it looks like today. Should I just scrape the rest off the back wall and get a new frag and start over? Or can this be saved?

3. I glued down a new torch and frogspawn in the front. You may have to zoom in in the last picture. (I realize the frogspawn is tilted to close to the left and I’ll have to reglue it upright) but if I fixed it do you think the placement of the two are too close together? They seem happy and have been doing really well where the are right now, but Of course they will grow. Am I pushing my luck and just find a different spot for the torch?

4. Okay last question wondering a safe way to raise ph? I have two power heads near the top, and the pump nozzle agitating the waters surface really well. It hasn’t budged over 8, ever. I also have refugium with chaeto.

Sorry for all the info, I’ve been waiting things out to see what happens and haven’t had any progress. Thanks in advance

 

[Spare time]

No one knows why bubble tips getting stringy as far as I am aware from the literature. I wouldn't worry about bleaching unless something in the water is clearly off. What all do you dose and how often do you change water? Keep feeding it every few days while it's bleached. I forget the turnaround time for their digestion but it's about that long if I remember correctly (2 days maybe?). You can also supplement zooxanthellae (phycopure) or their byproducts (i.e. reef energy, vitachem marine, and similar products)For pH, you can use a higher pH alk additive for dosing, but never dose to only raise pH. Opening windows is a big way to help. As for the euphyllia, it's usually an issue when they grow into each other imo. The gsp may have gotten too much light there but not sure.

 

[alvssaxo]

No one knows why bubble tips getting stringy as far as I am aware from the literature. I wouldn't worry about bleaching unless something in the water is clearly off. What all do you dose and how often do you change water? Keep feeding it every few days while it's bleached. I forget the turnaround time for their digestion but it's about that long if I remember correctly (2 days maybe?). You can also supplement zooxanthellae (phycopure) or their byproducts (i.e. reef energy, vitachem marine, and similar products)For pH, you can use a higher pH alk additive for dosing, but never dose to only raise pH. Opening windows is a big way to help. As for the euphyllia, it's usually an issue when they grow into each other imo. The gsp may have gotten too much light there but not sure.

Okay that’s what I was thinking too. I posted this in a reef group on Facebook as well and someone said that the black widow are known for war to other nems. But it hasn’t moved by the bw til two weeks ago and it’s looked like this for longer. Someone also suggested to dose iodine for lps and nems. But idk how much I would dose or what to use. I’ve been doing 5 gallon water changes once a week lately. I was doing them every 2-3 weeks before my nitrates got to 20. For alkalinity I made Soda bicarbonate but also have jug of soda ash mixture from brs I haven’t started using yet cause I wanted to use the rest of soda bi carbonate. I remember reading that soda bi carbonate can lower and soda ash raises ph? Could this be true? In that case maybe I should go ahead and use soda ash. I also dose ab+ occasionally and reef roids. I’ve recently been mixing mysis & brine with reef plus from seachem. The gsp was doing great for like 8 months and showed good growth. I noticed a decline when I added a bag of regular gfo from Brs when my phosphates were high. I lost a torch from it as well as most heads on my Duncan. I believe I added too much at once. Everything else recovered besides the gsp and the 8 headed torch I lost. I took a tooth brush over top of gsp to get algae off because someone recommended that too and the die off looks worst since then. I may get a new frag and start over with it lower. I’m almost scared to scrape the gsp off the wall because it’s not one piece anymore from melting. I’m afraid if i lose some of it in tank and it starts to grow in random places around the tank. Sorry if that was a chaotic reply, was just trying to answer your question with all the info I have