Plummeted po4 - recovery recommendations

[Breef320]

Sorry for the long post but I’m trying to be as detailed as possible.
Tanks not looking so good these days. It’s a 10 gal fusion that’s been wet for 3ish years but neglected and the fish that once were, were no more. I cleaned up the tank in November and got a fish.

I added some corals but most important for this story, I added a monti cap and a monti digi in late December and they colored up beautifully with great PE in 2 weeks. The red was very vibrant and the brown areas of the digi were coloring up.
I wrote that backstory just to say, It’s been about 3 weeks now since I made a mistake and some corals just aren’t responding well.

I had some people over and their kids dropped a toy car in my tank and it sat there all night until I found it the next day. So I pulled the car out and just to be “safe” I threw in a nano bag of Chemipure blue. I think this was my biggest mistake. But I need some reassurance or some new ideas.

The next day I ran all the tests I normally would and low and behold, my PO4 plummeted.
Typically I run a very stable tank with the following parameters ever since I started testing again about 2 months ago and everything washing great :
Alk - Red Sea pro test - 8.3-8.8 dkh
Cal- Red Sea pro test - 380-420 ppm
Mag - red sea pro test - 1440
Nitrate - nyos - 25 ppm
PO4 - Hanna ULR - 0.03-0.06 ppm( but not this time)

Well, like I prefaced, I messed up on January 13rd and plummeted my phosphates to 0 But all the other parameters didn’t change. After this happened I dosed brightwell neophos at 0.01ppma day until it came back up to 0.05ppm. I also decreased the lighting level of my radion xr15 pro g4 from 35% to 25% and started doing 5 drops a day of brightwell coral aminos. I was doing this only 2x a week before.
Still though, the PE on the monti is still much less and they are bleaching. The vibrant red is now pink. The zooxanthellae on the digi is gone especially near the base but the polyps still extend ever so slightly at night.

But what’s killing me is that something else could be going on…
The other corals in the tank have reacted as follows:
Zoanthids couldn’t care and look the same
Acan lords are beautiful and puffier than ever
Chalice is not as puffy as it used to be. It improves for the first 3 days after a water change but then looks the same by the end of the week.
Favia didn’t care whatsoever.
The cyphastraea is a hard tell as it was only purchased a couple days before the issue but it’s extending its polyps and staying well colored.

I’m setting up for my 20% WC tonight but man do I want to see what you all recommend I do to not lose the montis and see if you have a recommendation on what to do about the chalice that is only puffy after a WC.

Thanks in advance!

 

[JTP424]

Some corals prefer dirtier water, some prefer cleaner, did you remove the chemi-pure yet?
Also how long after the water change, like IMMEDIATELY? If that's the case, then I'd just blame them puffing and trying to capture moving food...

 

[Jake_v]

I’d dose to get phosphate closer to .1-.15 then let it ride. When my nitrate or phosphate drop my sps tend to turn pastel, normally I see this in my fox flame first then the yellows turn to green.. the colors shift to pastel in 24 hours but take several weeks to shift back dark.

Have you ever done an ICP to see what your trace elements look like? If you’re seeing an improvement immediately after a water change that is short lived, it sounds like you have a few trace elements that may be deficient. I use a ton of fluoride and selenium in my tank.

 

[Lavey29]

Nano tanks need weekly water changes to maintain balance. Toy car didn't do anything. Phosphate drop didn't do anything either. If you state your phosphates level is usually around .03 then you factor in the error ratio for test kits and you could be at 0 anyways. Corals decline from the inside out and can take weeks or months to show their stress. Bottomed out nutrients levels means your corals are slowly starving to death. I would hesitate on light changes also. Have you par checked your setting? You want 100 : 1 ratio for nitrates and phosphate so 10 nitrates and .1 phosphates for example.

 

[IceNein]

I would not worry about a problem that doesn't exist. You're probably worried about low phosphates because you have been told that bottoming out phosphates can cause dinoflagellate blooms, and that corals need phosphates. Both of these are true statements.

I would just feed normally and see if the phosphates bounce back. If you test it and next week it's still zero, then maybe I would consider doing something.

Basically, you know why you have zero phosphates. You put in the chemipure which pulled them out. You removed the chemipure blue, now see if the phosphates go back up with feeding.

 

[Breef320]

Some corals prefer dirtier water, some prefer cleaner, did you remove the chemi-pure yet?
Also how long after the water change, like IMMEDIATELY? If that's the case, then I'd just blame them puffing and trying to capture moving food...

Hey guys, sorry for the late reply! Oh yes. I removed the chemipure as soon as I saw the lack of Po4 and even tested twice to be sure it wasn’t a fluke test.

The puffiness of the corals lasts for days after the water change and dissipates slowly after a few days.
I feed benepets benereef every 3 days so if it was food related, I’m sure I would have seen increased puffiness then. I do see feeders out on the favia and acan lord after feeding

On the bright side, it seems the bleaching has stopped progressing and the white area on the monti is now starting to turn brown again. The polyps are still present on the white area so it’s not dead. Maybe progress??

 

[Lavey29]

Hey guys, sorry for the late reply! Oh yes. I removed the chemipure as soon as I saw the lack of Po4 and even tested twice to be sure it wasn’t a fluke test.

The puffiness of the corals lasts for days after the water change and dissipates slowly after a few days.
I feed benepets benereef every 3 days so if it was food related, I’m sure I would have seen increased puffiness then. I do see feeders out on the favia and acan lord after feeding

On the bright side, it seems the bleaching has stopped progressing and the white area on the monti is now starting to turn brown again. The polyps are still present on the white area so it’s not dead. Maybe progress??

You don't want SPS buried in the sand
At least use a piece of rock rubble to mount it assuming you have enough par on your sandbed.

 

[Breef320]

You don't want SPS buried in the sand
At least use a piece of rock rubble to mount it assuming you have enough par on your sandbed.

Thanks for the feedback. It was only there temporarily to get it away from the high par and reduce the risk of burn. The area buried has never been alive since I’ve had it.

Now that it’s showing some signs of recovery, it will slowly, over the next weeks, make its way back up the rock work and again be glued in place at its final spot.