Pale Color & Poor Polyp Extension

[Ashish Patel]

To answer your question yes you can totally overskim and pale your corals even when nitrates are present. phosphates are usually the first to drop when your overskimming; Corals are exposed to less nutrients and the light intensity becomes too much so they pale. Nitrates once your tank is mature (8+months), tend to remain stable and won't fluctuate as fast. Based on my testing phosphates and observing the glass, if I don't see some haze on the glass after 1-2 day I know my phosphates may be low so I feed a little more and sometimes turn of the skimmer for 4 hours.

Temp, Alk, Phosphates (daily swings are the reason SPS die in an established reef). I test my phosphates and alk at least 3 times per week and if its fluctuating I test daily.

 

[dave57]

Great thread, I’m also having the same problem. Parameters stable, Nitrates were elevated at about 5-12 but now slowly coming down at 1.5 no3 po4 0.024 , feeding daily oysterfeast, phytofeast, reefrenzy and still phosphates are being kept low. I did notice some improvement as far as polyp extension and small color changes.. also dropped my led lights down to 20% as I just added a new aquatic life 61” t5 fixture. I believe it’s a combination of too much light as I noticed the paling get worse with the addition of the t5 overall 400-500 par above acros now at 250-350 par measures with mq-510. Even with a par meter there are many other parameters at play that can cause these issues. Take your time and make small adjustments and let things settle. Here is my new fixture I’m happy with it. I’m also adding some trace elements coral colors from redsea 2 ml daily and dosing 1 drop of lugols iodine weeklyfrom brightwells. Coral vitalizer, kz amino acids are added occasionally when I remember. Still have pale colors just needs time as I see small improvements daily. Overall I believe things need time to adjust for the better

 

[Ashish Patel]

Dave57 - I think I overdosed for a month on Redsea color (iron). I was doing 3ML twice per week per their recommendation but when my Phosphates where already low It just drop them down even more. Now I dose 2ml only when my Phosphates are > 0.05. iron binds to the phosphates and get skimmed out so too much will bring the PO to undetectable. I would never use RS Iron if my phosphates where below 0.03, not sure companies such as BW states on their label to only dose when PO are low to avoid algae problems.

 

[dave57]

Dave57 - I think I overdosed for a month on Redsea color (iron). I was doing 3ML twice per week per their recommendation but when my Phosphates where already low It just drop them down even more. Now I dose 2ml only when my Phosphates are > 0.05. iron binds to the phosphates and get skimmed out so too much will bring the PO to undetectable. I would never use RS Iron if my phosphates where below 0.03, not sure companies such as BW states on their label to only dose when PO are low to avoid algae problems.

I didnt know that hmm that’s good to know! Could also be that my cheato is growing like crazy now and pulling out a lot of the nutrients as well

 

[Ashish Patel]

Yea the cheato will benefit from Iron. I noticed on the day of Iron dosing the skimmer would get filled faster and the glass would not develop a haze, the phosphates proved the theory when it tested around 0.02. I got the red sea color test kit (iron, potassium, Iodine), so I plan to test the iron after dosing to make sure I am not overdosing. I did however use the Redsea Iodine test kit, since I dose BW lugols aswell and was on the high side on my last ICP Test, this test kit is very good for confirming if your in the danger zone or safe zone. I would recommend RS Iodine to anyone the Iron and Potassium I still have to use but hopefully they match my next ICP test.

 

[cwk84]

I noticed that there is a sweet spot between phosphates and other nutrients in the tank. I think the sweet spot for my tank is 0.03 -0.06. If it goes above or below that I will see dull colors. If I have barely any trace elements in the water (e.g. no water changes) I can see it getting worse. High ALK seems to play a role as well. Idk man it's all so intertwined.

 

[Miller535]

Hello all. Just an update and a question. I've been keeping things stable since my last post. I was seeing some great improvements. Then last Thursday I was doing a water change and noticed that my protein skimmer air intake was clogged. During the water change I cleaned it out and got the skimmer back up and running. Then Friday morning we left for the weekend. Yesterday evening I came home and noticed poor polyp extension and fading/bleaching again. I have measured the parameters and everything is still about where it was. Nitrates are still high, but not horrible. Can I be over skimming yet still have high nitrates? I have a Bubble Magus Curve 5 on this tank with approx. 70 gallon water volume.

I realize this thread is a little old, but I am having the same issue and am wondering if you ever got this resolved.