My "help my pale colors" thread

[dragon99]

Several of my corals (frags) are quite pale. Mostly the monti's and sps. My LPS, rbta, and clam look happy. Talking with a fellow reefer, who provided most of the frags I was thinking K was possibly low, but Triton results came back normal for that.

Salinity - 34ppt
Alk - 8.5 (dosing kalk, 1/2 tsp per gal, ~1gal per day in ATO)
NO3 - 13ppm
PO4 - 0
Changing 6g water weekly on ~80g volume.

Regarding PO4, I'm not running GFO. I dosed NAH2PO4 3 times this week (.190g each time) reaching .4ppm after dosing and dropping back to zero the next day first two times. After third dose it has only dropped to .02ppm.

Lighting - 3x AI Prime, 1x AI PrimeHD. On at 7:30am 5hr ramp up, 4hrs full power, 4hrs ramp down and off at 8:30pm. ~16k color setting. Reading about ~25-32k lux at top of tank

Green monti digi frag on right has been in my tank ~2months. Frag on left is new from same mother colony and was added the night before.

Red planet frag that has been in tank ~3months

New frag of red planet (same source)

Triton results, Al from MarinePure block:

 

[helen ann]

Sorry can't help ... Am an LPS kind of girl ;)

Will call one of the the SPS gurus for you :)... @Diesel

 

[Diesel]

Dang dude, 13 on the No3 but 0.0 with Po4.
Before I go deeper on this lets throw some more eyes on this.
@Randy Holmes-Farley #reefsquad

 

[WetWhistle]

How fast did they lighten in color? Fast or slow? What size of tank? 80 gallon? Have you checked for AEFW? In some cases NO3 @ 13ppm can cause issues but I have seen levels way higher with no issue. But it is a good place to start to get the numbers a little lower.

 

[giloop]

Following, I am having the exact same problem.

 

[dragon99]

NO3 has been creeping up because I've started feeding like crazy trying to get PO4 to show up. It was 8ppm about a month ago. Feeding Reef Frenzy and PE mysis mostly. Usually throw in a small amount NLS pellet or Prime flake in the morning for the fish to have breakfast.

Color's have been slowly getting lighter. Nothing dramatic. I have a tri color valida that bleached out while I was out of town and my Alk dropped (that was end of Sept), but otherwise everything just seems to slowly lose color.

 

[Cleverbs]

I am thinking the lack of p04 could be an issue here. Of course I am not Randy ;) I would wait for him

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yea. I'm too much of a simpleton. I'd lower the lighting and turn off my skimmer.

Bummer, sorry about the trouble man.

 

[dragon99]

Yea. I'm too much of a simpleton. I'd lower the lighting and turn off my skimmer.

Bummer, sorry about the trouble man.

Nah, great minds think alike. I actually put the lights into a 1 month acclimation with 30% drop starting a week or so ago.

I haven't shut down the skimmer, but I removed the rox carbon in an attempt to raise DOC.

 

[dragon99]

Started with an 18g WC last night, made some more RO today and I'll probably do another 18g tomorrow.

Mg is low even in fresh mixed IO which is odd. Most of the results I see people post show it being on the higher side. Got 1185 @ 35ppt.

I ordered some Panta Rhei Lith, hoping that will remove the chromium. Not finding much help on what removes Cr

 

[skim]

Looks like Reef Crystals salt to me or Coral Life. I would lose the Marine Pure I had more problems with it then without, there are other ways to deal with Nitrate.
From what I see and you describe I would lower the Whites or the intensity some, you can wash out the color if the Whites are too intense. Get that Mag up also looks like your tank is Magnesium hungry this also can cause some fading or light bleaching, Magnesium is actually more important then Calcium so you are probably better of being high on Mag and lower on Cal. Your numbers are not too bad that is why I am leaning towards a lighting issue. I just noticed you are dosing something for Phos and Nitrate maybe stop for a bit or cut it back like by half and see what happens.

 

[dragon99]

Did the second 18g WC (22%). Family and Halloween prevented me from getting it done over the weekend.
Magnesium still a bit low after WC, 1185. Dosed 11oz BRS Mg supplement targeting a 50ppm increase. I'll check again tomorrow and dose again.

I'm not dosing anything for Nitrate, just phosphate. I've had zero PO4 almost every time I've tested for the past few months. Changes made to this point are (2) 18g water change, dosing monosodium phosphate for ~1week, and lowered lighting (30% acclimation and reduced UV by 20%)

I've actually started seeing a little more color this week (could be wishful thinking). Hopefully I'm making progress.

 

[dragon99]

Mg is up to 1310 when I measured a couple days ago. Still having to dose some phosphate since it drops to zero daily.

Still seeing improvement. My red planet has gotten darker and is showing hints of green at the base. The pink birdsnest is actually a nice dark pink now. The original green digita frag is still pretty pale, but it's getting better.

 

[Codym808]

I have the exact same problem, 20 ppm nitrates but 0 ppm phosphate ever since my tank has been up. Has dosing phosphate seem to be the fix for you?

 

[dragon99]

Dosing phosphate and raising my Mg are the most significant changes I have made.

I have also lowered my lighting intensity (acclimation mode) and did a couple large water changes. It's very possible all or none of these things is the solution.

 

[Psiber_Syn]

I think the problem was too much light I run my leds ramp up to 40%w 100%b and I still have some bleaching depending on where under the light and what coral

Glad things are looking better good luck

 

[Rick.45cal]

Keep dosing the phosphates it sounds like you have a phosphate limited system, and the bacteria will likely consume them until an equilibrium is achieved with their carbon source. My tank went through a phase where it was consuming PO4 very heavily and required daily phosphate dosing. I dunno if you have been carbon dosing or not, but if you have you might have built up a surplus of organic carbon that your bacteria need to consume before they settle down.

Lowering the intensity of the lights is also a great idea, especially until everything heals. Good luck

 

[a6walter1]

I had the opposite issue, where my system was Nitrate limited. I had to dose KNO3 for a couple of months before my tank reached its "equilibrium". Now it seems that the system maintains around 2ppm Nitrates and 0.03 ppm Phosphates. Color is excellent. I also turned down my lights from 100% to around 80%.