Pale or brown SPS

[Nami]

Hope I can get some insights here. My Sps frags have either turn brown or pale since i added them in my tank (RS max nano) but I’m still getting moderate growth on them. My alk is consistent at 8ish, calcium abit high, 0 nitrates and phosphates. Attach a photo from a store test but i did verify the results with my own Hanna checkers.

I’m dosing AfR and I have one Rsled G2 115 light.

Monti digitatas: become light colored and pale

Green dallas and another staghorn: become brownish.

 

[Sam7]

What par are you getting?....is the light strong enough? Maybe your corals are starving and not getting enough nutrients. I am no expert just guessing....How long has your tank been running?

 

[Featherweight]

It's likely the zero nitrate and phosphate. You will also probably see very little polyps extension. General consensus these days is phosphate between .03 and .15 and nitrate 3 to 10. Keeping zero to ultra low nutrient trends to cause a lack of color

 

[Nami]

What par are you getting?....is the light strong enough? Maybe your corals are starving and not getting enough nutrients. I am no expert just guessing....How long has your tank been running?

The light is 1x RedSea Led G2 115 running 100% for 10 hours. This RedSea tank itself is 2 months old but I actually transferred most of the inhabitants and rocks over from another tank (was a sumpless tank without reefmat or skimmer) that I had been running for 1 year.

 

[Nami]

It's likely the zero nitrate and phosphate. You will also probably see very little polyps extension. General consensus these days is phosphate between .03 and .15 and nitrate 3 to 10. Keeping zero to ultra low nutrient trends to cause a lack of color

Yes, very little to no polyp extension despite having some new tips forming. I have 7 small fish in there and feed only once a day. Maybe the new Nanomat and skimmer working too well?

 

[Sam7]

i dont know maybe your running your lights too long or too high....just guessing Did you check the par

 

[Featherweight]

Must be working too well. I've gone away from reefmats these days for that reason.

Maybe feed twice? Maybe add a biweekly benereef or some such. I like tropic marin phos feed.

 

[Nami]

i dont know maybe your running your lights too long or too high....just guessing Did you check the par

Unfortunately I do not have a par meter, but I'm using one of the recommended settings from the RedSea Led light templates.

Must be working too well. I've gone away from reefmats these days for that reason.

Maybe feed twice? Maybe add a biweekly benereef or some such. I like tropic marin phos feed.

I will start broadcasting some coral food to see if it will have any impact on the nitrates and phosphates.

 

[386reeftrader]

Colors are a little washed out but the corals look natural and healthy, imo. None of them look at risk so I would move slow.. just feed the fish more for now and see how that does. Broadcasting coral foods wont help SPS in the same way well fed fish will and you might end up with worse issues if you swing your nutrients too fast.

 

[Biff0rz]

I'd suspect either the low nutrients or a lighting issue.

 

[fish_collector]

Your nitrates and phosphates need to be measurable. You can raise phosphate by making a solution of RODI and LoudWolf (Amazon) sodium triphosphate and nitrates can be raised with a solution of sodium nitrate and RODI. Both solution formulas can be found on this site if you search Randy’s chemistry forum. Using these is multitudes cheaper than buying anything premixed.

Your light is probably adequate. Polyp extension isn’t really a good indicator of coral health, it’s just a bonus. There’s lots of reasons for no PE. Corals will grow without it. Your tank looks relatively healthy otherwise, good job.

Whatever dose you need to bring the levels up, cut in thirds and spread it out over several days. You can find a good dosing calculator on Randy’s forum as well. James Planted Tanks is the one I use.

 

[X-37B]

To get more no3 and po4 into your system feed the 7 fish more.
3-4 times a day is a good start.
No need to feed the corals as the fish will if given enough food.
My 15g nano cube with 2 fish gets fed 4-5 times a day.

 

[Nami]

Many thanks for all the amazing feedback guys!

The SPS are growing but all looked either washed out or dull/brown as 386reeftrader observed.

I will definitely start feeding the fishes more daily, and maybe once a week coral food. Hopefully I can see some increase in nutrients after. Otherwise, I will look into KLC's suggestion of directly dosing the nitrate and phosphate solutions.

 

[fish_collector]

The phosphate is actually trisodium phosphate (tsp). I had it backwards in my post

 

[Boehmtown]

I dose phyto for nitrates and phosphates. I would heavily assume that's your main problem. Red bugs also cause similar symptoms and can be hard to spot.

 

[Nami]

I dose phyto for nitrates and phosphates. I would heavily assume that's your main problem. Red bugs also cause similar symptoms and can be hard to spot.

From searching the forum, people advised that phyto helps to further reduce nitrates and phosphates or are you saying the phyto dosing is for corals intake?

 

[Boehmtown]

From searching the forum, people advised that phyto helps to further reduce nitrates and phosphates or are you saying the phyto dosing is for corals intake?

It definitely does not reduce it. It's alive but not for long and it doesn't get exported, it dies and rots in the tank if it's not eaten. And the eaten ones turn to you know what.

 

[Nami]

Hi everyone, an update - I have fed the fish more and also coral food twice a week.

Now my nitrate is still 0.0 but phosphate is 0.06.

What should be my next step?

 

[bubbgee]

You can start dosing nitrate like brightwell NeoNitro if you do not want to DIY. Follow dosing instructions until you get a reading of 10-20 nitrates during tests.

 

[Matt Bravo]

Alright, got some reading which is a good start. Like Bub^ said you should consider dosing nitrates, you don’t want to accidentally raise phosphates too high and not raise nitrates along with it