My coral is losing colour

[paola1315]

Hi all,
Can someone help me to understand why my sps is losing his colour? He supposed to be green like the base but this morning I noticed he has some small polyps open but the green is totally loss, just the base is still green. I attached picture of my parameters, I know phosphate is too High, I was working on it 2 weeks ago using seagel, sachem phosphate remover, then I had to add oodinex for my fish and they suggest to take any carbon off the tank while doing treatment, testing the water the phosphate was down to normal range 0.03 already after 4 days and I decided to remove the phosphate remover to start the treatment for the fish. Today tested the water and is high again, just added the sachem phosphate remover to help lower the phosphate. My high range ph was always 8.1-8.3 not sure what happened and why today after testing I discovered is 7.8, just open the windows to help increase the ph. Calcium and magnesium always been very high since beginning, is going to lower slowly, especially calcium that was 585 and now is going to normal range slowly, magnesium still high but im not dosing the tank at all, hoping it will decrease. As you can see the polyps in the sps is still open, but the colour is losing. Not sure if maybe the light is too much

 

[ClownSchool]

Your calcium is high, but that should not be enough to create a change that fast.
Other things to consider:
What’s your salinity? Are you using a consistent ATO or adding water manually?
What’s your temp throughout the day?
What’s the flow in that area?
What’s your par light and settling?
Have you added anything?
Have you sprayed any aerosols or burnt scented candles in the room?
Is it being stung by another coral?

 

[paola1315]

Temperature is between 24.5 and 25, I bought another heater because this is 100 watt but I rhink is not working properly, my tank is only 36 lt, it's impossible that the temperature doesn't go up more than this. The flow is direct and strong, I added acropora last Tuesday, but he is not touching other corals at all, salinity is stable at 1026, not burnt any candle or something else. The other coral are fine, the acropora still not showing polyps but is only 4 days in the tank, the other sps, lps are good extended and full of colour. I have the water top up with RO water with a bottle direct in the tank, I attach picture. For the calcium and magnesium, unfortunately there is no way to lower them, adding more coral is working because slowly parameters are going down. I have popbloom RL60, thouth that maybe is too strong the light because the coral is high in the tank, the light is 17 cm from the surface, running 20%white, 100%blue,100 % violet only for 4 hours at midday, slowly increase in the morning and decrease in the evening. You can see from the last picture the coral on the right top the colour is totally lost comparing with the others

 

[IKD]

I lean towards your lighting (too high) or flow. How long have you had the corals in that spot? Any idea how long it took for the color to change? This article may be helpful as well (assuming this is an Anacropora)

https://tidalgardens.com/articles/coral-care-articles/anacropora-coral-care.html

 

[paola1315]

is green branching montipora. The position is the same since months. I moved the light a bit lower few days ago because I thought he didn't received enough light, now I put it high again. The colour has changed maybe from yesterday or few days anyway, not sure because I noticed today

 

[ClownSchool]

Based on its location, and depending on your light’s lens, it may not be getting enough direct light. Based on the light’s diagram, the coral may be outside the effective range for that monti. If you moved the light away from that coral recently, that’s probably what it is.
Or, the coral is positioned so close to the glass, it’s not getting as much flow as you think.

 

[ninjamyst]

I see this issue with new reefers over and over and over.

It's not the lighting or the flow. Those are rarely issues with modern day lights and wavemakers.

The issue is you are chasing perfect numbers and whoever told you phosphate needs to be 0.03 is wrong. Stop adding crap to your tank to lower phosphate and nitrate. Your corals are starving and you are stripping the water of nutrients they need to survive. Stop the seachem phosphate remover. Feed your tank more. Phosphate of 0.08 is not too high. Your corals will appreciate actually having nutrients.

 

[IKD]

is green branching montipora. The position is the same since months. I moved the light a bit lower few days ago because I thought he didn't received enough light, now I put it high again. The colour has changed maybe from yesterday or few days anyway, not sure because I noticed today

Ah ok, if it’s a Monti then they are light loving. If the color changed that quickly, maybe water chemistry cause.

Focus on stability of parameters and maybe check for any contaminants with a water test if no improvement