Last few days I've had the impression that my corals have become lighter in color, resembling Zeovit pastels. Today, I was sad to discover that one of my main showpiece corals, a big red puffy Lobo, looks like is starting to lose some pale tissue close to the mouths.
First thing that came to mind was the stories I've read about "SPS tip burn", from too high alkalinity, in ULNS. I've been bringing up alk slowly over the last few weeks, with 2-part, from 6.6 dkH to 12 dkH, testing with Hanna Alkalinity meter. Last time that I checked phosphorus with my Hanna meter I measured 0 ppb, which I thought was erroneous, because I had to recalibrate C1 with another tube when the meter turned itself off and such. Also I'm not running a skimmer or a refugium on the system, while feeding 0.5 cubes of frozen food/day (2 small fish). Checked now and got 6 ppb. Nitrates have been undetectable every measurement, including today. That may be because the Red Sea nitrate pro test reagents are two years past expiration. All other tests are within expiration dates.
Seems unlikely that my corals are going pale because of too high Alk. Maybe not enough food?
Last weeks, I've had an outbreak of green hair algae and some cyano, after starting to add a bit of sandbed to my previously bare bottom tank. The algae and cyano has died back to nothing, by itself, now. Still some algea in the sump, where I keep some frags. The sump is light with a Maxspect Razor 60W LED fixture.
Also, started dosing kalkwasser in ATO yesterday, but a weak solution (0.8 teaspoon/gallon RO/DI). I mixed the kalk in a seperate bucket with a lid and let the percipitate settle for about 2 hours, before i decanted the clearish liquid into my ATO container. The ATO intake is elevated a couple of inches above the bottom, just in case there would be any percipitate that got acidentally transferred from the mixing bucket or there would be any further settling of suspended percipitate in the ATO container. Pretty sure I have not dosed any kalk percipitate into the tank, causing a pH fluctuation. Also, these changes seem to have been ongoing for at least a few days before I started kalkwasser dosing.
My plan is to increase feeding to 1 cube frozen food/day, and perform as close to a 100% water change as I can. Water change in case there is some contaminant that I haven't/can't measure for.
I would deeply appreciate some more thoughts about this situation.
First thing that came to mind was the stories I've read about "SPS tip burn", from too high alkalinity, in ULNS. I've been bringing up alk slowly over the last few weeks, with 2-part, from 6.6 dkH to 12 dkH, testing with Hanna Alkalinity meter. Last time that I checked phosphorus with my Hanna meter I measured 0 ppb, which I thought was erroneous, because I had to recalibrate C1 with another tube when the meter turned itself off and such. Also I'm not running a skimmer or a refugium on the system, while feeding 0.5 cubes of frozen food/day (2 small fish). Checked now and got 6 ppb. Nitrates have been undetectable every measurement, including today. That may be because the Red Sea nitrate pro test reagents are two years past expiration. All other tests are within expiration dates.
Seems unlikely that my corals are going pale because of too high Alk. Maybe not enough food?
Last weeks, I've had an outbreak of green hair algae and some cyano, after starting to add a bit of sandbed to my previously bare bottom tank. The algae and cyano has died back to nothing, by itself, now. Still some algea in the sump, where I keep some frags. The sump is light with a Maxspect Razor 60W LED fixture.
Also, started dosing kalkwasser in ATO yesterday, but a weak solution (0.8 teaspoon/gallon RO/DI). I mixed the kalk in a seperate bucket with a lid and let the percipitate settle for about 2 hours, before i decanted the clearish liquid into my ATO container. The ATO intake is elevated a couple of inches above the bottom, just in case there would be any percipitate that got acidentally transferred from the mixing bucket or there would be any further settling of suspended percipitate in the ATO container. Pretty sure I have not dosed any kalk percipitate into the tank, causing a pH fluctuation. Also, these changes seem to have been ongoing for at least a few days before I started kalkwasser dosing.
My plan is to increase feeding to 1 cube frozen food/day, and perform as close to a 100% water change as I can. Water change in case there is some contaminant that I haven't/can't measure for.
I would deeply appreciate some more thoughts about this situation.
