New SPS bleached

X-37B · Apr 23, 2020

Turbo snails kept the algae down on mine until it regrew.

svogun · Apr 23, 2020

If there is tissue that is alive, the coral has a chance. Keep your numbers stable. I keep my tank between 9.5 to 10.5 DKH. Phosphate is 0.05-.0.08. Try to test at least the same time every day for a week or so to get a sense of where your alk swings truly are. I would get your phosphate and nitrate up and be patient. Could take weeks to months to see improvement. I had a red setosa that was basically bleach white and it came back with increasing PO4 and Nitrate.

Cstar_BC · Apr 23, 2020

svogun said:
If there is tissue that is alive, the coral has a chance. Keep your numbers stable. I keep my tank between 9.5 to 10.5 DKH. Phosphate is 0.05-.0.08. Try to test at least the same time every day for a week or so to get a sense of where your alk swings truly are. I would get your phosphate and nitrate up and be patient. Could take weeks to months to see improvement. I had a red setosa that was basically bleach white and it came back with increasing PO4 and Nitrate.

so how do you increase phosphate? I haven’t really seen any phosphate supplements .

nitrates I assume I can keep elevated by reducing water change schedule

svogun · Apr 23, 2020

Cstar_BC said:
so how do you increase phosphate? I haven’t really seen any phosphate supplements .

nitrates I assume I can keep elevated by reducing water change schedule

I used Neophos

svogun · Apr 23, 2020

Also in terms of nitrate, in addition to reducing water change schedule, increase feeding as well as increase bioload with more fish should help. if you are really in a bind, you can use stump remover as a nitrate source. I have used this safely without issue.

dohc97 · Apr 23, 2020

I can see how you would be overwhelmed with everything people are throwing your way. Things do not have to be complicated, I am an old school reefer and back in the day we did not dose phosphates or nitrates or most everything else everyone does now. Keep your system stable, pick parameters to run at and let your system mature, i keep an all sps reef and besides the odd random deaths I do pretty well at growing them. As far as acclimating sps all I do is temp acclimate, dip for pests, then into the tank. I do also make sure salinity matches but for the most part sps people keep their reefs at 1.025-1.026 so no issues there. Get your basics down then you can get into the more complicated side of things.

Cstar_BC · Apr 23, 2020

dohc97 said:
I can see how you would be overwhelmed with everything people are throwing your way. Things do not have to be complicated, I am an old school reefer and back in the day we did not dose phosphates or nitrates or most everything else everyone does now. Keep your system stable, pick parameters to run at and let your system mature, i keep an all sps reef and besides the odd random deaths I do pretty well at growing them. As far as acclimating sps all I do is temp acclimate, dip for pests, then into the tank. I do also make sure salinity matches but for the most part sps people keep their reefs at 1.025-1.026 so no issues there. Get your basics down then you can get into the more complicated side of things.

I would agree . Some things are very hard to understand as a new person to the hobby .

Watching/reading most “how to set up a tank” videos or articles everyone talks about clean water and no phosphate. With most standard setups having reactors for calcium, phosphate and carbon .

then you get a little further in and you do need nutrients in the water , and no one can agree on alkalinity , and yeah sometimes it’s hard to follow

dohc97 · Apr 23, 2020

I like to run my system at around 8 dkh, so I use a salt that mixes to that, some people prefer higher dkh for increased growth but it doesn't matter much until you get into extremes. Stability is the number one thing. I do not even remember the last time I checked for nitrates or phosphates, my tank tells me when they are too high and it also tells me when they are too low, you learn this along the way. I do not have a lab setup for my reef, I do not care for the glow in the dark look and I like to keep my equipment to a minimum. Do not get me started with all the supposed "frags" that people sell nowadays, what they call colonies now is still considered a frag by most old school guys. Again, do not get into messing with every single thing in your setup, get stable, get a good source of corals and you will be on your way.

svogun · Apr 23, 2020

dohc97 said:
I can see how you would be overwhelmed with everything people are throwing your way. Things do not have to be complicated, I am an old school reefer and back in the day we did not dose phosphates or nitrates or most everything else everyone does now. Keep your system stable, pick parameters to run at and let your system mature, i keep an all sps reef and besides the odd random deaths I do pretty well at growing them. As far as acclimating sps all I do is temp acclimate, dip for pests, then into the tank. I do also make sure salinity matches but for the most part sps people keep their reefs at 1.025-1.026 so no issues there. Get your basics down then you can get into the more complicated side of things.

Could not agree more. But I think nitrate and phosphate are as important as alkalinity stability particularly when the goal is sps.