Hi everyone. I am after some more thoughts on a problem I have. I have been building up my new tank since the start of May when the first corals went in (after a start up of around 2 months to get bacterial population started etc). The corals have been a mix of success and my specific question relates to my SPS.
Firstly my parameters:
I had some corals showing very pale colour over the past month or two but now several others are showing pale colours as well. I have raised the nitrates as per the above numbers with some additional feeding with a plan to start dosing PNO3 if required. I am also dosing Continuum ULNS Phoshate to try and lift PO4 to 0.03-0.04. I do have trisodium phosphate but will use up the Continuum product first. I have also been dosing Vibrant for the past 4 weeks in response to some dinoflagellates/algae issues which weren’t super bad but i wanted to nip in the bud before they got out of control.
The corals are becoming very pale with some corals showing a paler colour all over and some corals showing paler colour where the tissue is directly exposed to the light (that is the shaded sections are still holding some colour). My LPS all look OK at this stage.
I would love to hear back from others on what they think is effecting the corals. My thought has been low nutrients. Also how long would i expect to need to see change as i lift nutrients. My target is 5-10ppm NO3 and 0.04-0.05ppm PO4.
Firstly my parameters:
- Tank - 900L (235G)
- Alk - 8.25dkh (held very stable by KHGuardian +/- 0.1)
- Temp 25 C (77 F)
- Calcium 420-430
- Magnesium 1250-1300
- PO4 - 0.02
- Nitrates - 5-10ppm (have just lifted from a range of 0-2ppm)
- I test with Tropic Marin Pro Nitrate test kit, Red Sea Pro Phosphate and Magnesium test kit, and Hanna for Calcium.
- Fish - 1 x yellow tang and 1 x sailfin tang - both reasonably large
- PAR - most corals shown in the pictures below getting 250 - 300 PAR from a mix of Mitras LED’s (LX6) and ATI Blue+ T5s measured with an Apogee MQ-200 meter.
- I dose Quantum trace elements and aminos/vitamin supplements (at lower end of dosing suggestions)
- Water change - automated to change a total of 5% per week over a seven day period (recently lifted from a change of 3% per week) using natural sea water.
- I run a larger Korallin-Zucht skimmer rate to around 1500L, matrix bio balls, clarisea, and a calcium reactor. I did run biopellets but took them offline about two weeks ago as i was seeing Cyanobacteria and thought that the carbon dosing was feeding it plus i had super low nutrients (PO4 down to 0.01 and nitrates down to 0).
- I do have an Algae Turf Scrubber but have delayed installing it due to the low nutrients.
I had some corals showing very pale colour over the past month or two but now several others are showing pale colours as well. I have raised the nitrates as per the above numbers with some additional feeding with a plan to start dosing PNO3 if required. I am also dosing Continuum ULNS Phoshate to try and lift PO4 to 0.03-0.04. I do have trisodium phosphate but will use up the Continuum product first. I have also been dosing Vibrant for the past 4 weeks in response to some dinoflagellates/algae issues which weren’t super bad but i wanted to nip in the bud before they got out of control.
The corals are becoming very pale with some corals showing a paler colour all over and some corals showing paler colour where the tissue is directly exposed to the light (that is the shaded sections are still holding some colour). My LPS all look OK at this stage.
I would love to hear back from others on what they think is effecting the corals. My thought has been low nutrients. Also how long would i expect to need to see change as i lift nutrients. My target is 5-10ppm NO3 and 0.04-0.05ppm PO4.
