SPS bleaching. what did I do wrong?

[Bon Koo]

I need some help from experienced reefers. TGC red Cadillac Acro was green and heavily encrusted. Water was good except nitrate 40 to 50ppm. Because of high nitrate, sps color changed to green or brown. So I Started dosing nopox. Now water is 0.05ppm in phosphate, 5ppm in nitrate. Alk 9, Ca 420, Salinity 1.025, Mg 1400, PH 7.8 to 8. The sps were bleaching. While I was dosing nopox, I added T5 48" 2 to AI hydra 52 x 3 . I feed the corals two times a week. I don't know if bleach is due to light or nopox. I,d appreciate any comment thanks

 

[11eyes224]

Im not super experienced so take this at face value but from what i know changing the lighting and rapidly decreasing/increasing values like nopox for your nitrates can cause something like that. If you went from 50ppm to 5ppm and it happened to quickly it could cause shock.

 

[RL6723]

Im not super experienced so take this at face value but from what i know changing the lighting and rapidly decreasing/increasing values like nopox for your nitrates can cause something like that. If you went from 50ppm to 5ppm and it happened to quickly it could cause shock.

+1

how fast did you go 50ppm to 5?

 

[Bon Koo]

+1

how fast did you go 50ppm to 5?

I think 2 months

 

[ca1ore]

Do you really mean bleached .... or dead? Dropping nitrates over two months should be fine .... I did something similar with a sulfur reactor. Light seems more likely as the culprit.

 

[joseserrano]

Bleaching is typically too much light or quick temp fluctuations (water getting hot)

 

[RL6723]

I think 2 months

Than I would rule out the nitrate reduction as that is fairly slow. I would look toward the lighting as being the culprit

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

What kind of power on the T5’s and AI’s did you throw on the corals right out of the gate?

 

[2Wheelsonly]

I need some help from experienced reefers. TGC red Cadillac Acro was green and heavily encrusted. Water was good except nitrate 40 to 50ppm. Because of high nitrate, sps color changed to green or brown. So I Started dosing nopox. Now water is 0.05ppm in phosphate, 5ppm in nitrate. Alk 9, Ca 420, Salinity 1.025, Mg 1400, PH 7.8 to 8. The sps were bleaching. While I was dosing nopox, I added T5 48" 2 to AI hydra 52 x 3 . I feed the corals two times a week. I don't know if bleach is due to light or nopox. I,d appreciate any comment thanks

Nopox takes like weeks to work, how in the world did you manage to drop nutrients that quickly? Unless this was over the course of several months and if that's the case then there was probably a lot more stuff going on during that time.

Just goes to show there is so much we don't know about the chemistry of our tanks even scientists are all over the place.

 

[fcmatt]

Too many variables have changed to even make a guess for me.

 

[stacksoner]

Your only mistake I see is that you believed it was possible to troubleshoot an SPS bleaching event without PAR and temp readings history. This could've occured bc your water clarity improved dramatically for dx

 

[Lasse]

What you measure PO4 with and did the values change during the 2 months of NoPoX ?

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Bon Koo]

What kind of power on the T5’s and AI’s did you throw on the corals right out of the gate?

I added ati 54w T5 blue and actinic. So total 108w . Hydra is 135watt x 3 units. Sps are placed in the middle but right below the led. Not sure what is the solution on this

 

[Bon Koo]

Than I would rule out the nitrate reduction as that is fairly slow. I would look toward the lighting as being the culprit

Thank you for your comment. Then I may have to lower the power of hydra. I can't move the coral since it has grown from the bottom.

 

[Bon Koo]

What you measure PO4 with and did the values change during the 2 months of NoPoX ?

Sincerely Lasse

Po4 was 0 to 0.1ppm before nopox dosing. I was running gfo reactor. After dosing, I don't need gfo any more

 

[Reefcowboy]

Higher nitrate feeds and allows zooxanthellae population to increase quickly on the coral tissue. The bacteria works as a "sunblock" depending on how much light it is exposed...

You basically reduced the sunblock abruptly(50 is a hight number already stressing the coral, to 5ppm) while changing (possibly rised intensity)of the light hitting them. The stress forces zooxanthellae to bail and leave the tissue(bleaching).

 

[Lasse]

Po4 was 0 to 0.1ppm before nopox dosing. I was running gfo reactor. After dosing, I don't need gfo any more

What are your PO4 today?

Sincerely Lasse

 

[SifuMemphis]

I added ati 54w T5 blue and actinic. So total 108w . Hydra is 135watt x 3 units. Sps are placed in the middle but right below the led. Not sure what is the solution on this

As the others said, there are a lot of variables right now, but i would suspect it's lighting shock.

I would drop the par on the Hydra, and slowly re acclimate the SPS. my 2 cents.

 

[Bon Koo]

Higher nitrate feeds and allows zooxanthellae population to increase quickly on the coral tissue. The bacteria works as a "sunblock" depending on how much light it is exposed...

You basically reduced the sunblock abruptly(50 is a hight number already stressing the coral, to 5ppm) while changing (possibly rised intensity)of the light hitting them. The stress forces zooxanthellae to bail and leave the tissue(bleaching).

Thank you . I think I get it now.