SPS FADING...HELP PLEASE

[Joewestwood]

Hey friends. 30 years in the hobby here and I can't crack this one.

155g sps tank w/all corals growing well. I cannot get several sps to maintain color. Most fade to light pastel colors regardless of where placed.

sg 1.025
nitrate-between 0 and 2
Phoshpate, not detetable
Cal. 410
alk. 8.0
mag. 1440
lighting- 3 ocean revive t247s w/ 2 led strips all running about 80% blue
50% white
Par readings: 350 surface, 290 midwater, 150 sandbed.
Dosing b-ionic and kalk.
Red sea pro salt.
Photoperiod is 8 hours blue 6 hours white.
Feeding is fish twice daily and corals every other day with rods and reefroids.

I removed my skimmer and gfo reactor to help get nutrients up. Whenever I plug them in, fading increases and losses occur. I used to add vinegar to kalk but have stopped. The pics are of my friends colonies which I'm coral sitting and my established colonies.

Thoughts?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

So when you plug your gfo reactor and skimmer in they fade?

 

[Joewestwood]

So when you plug your gfo reactor and skimmer in they fade?

Yep, even worse then they already are. It seems like something is sucking nutrients out of the system.

 

[LAReefer4Life]

Water parameters look good but you definitely need to get those nutrients up as this has a negative impact on SPS corals specifically. Definitely remove GFO from the equation. My question is how often are testing your water and has it stayed consistent with the numbers you provided?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Yep, even worse then they already are. It seems like something is sucking nutrients out of the system.

If your corals look better when those devices are off, I would leave them off.

 

[Joewestwood]

If your corals look better when those devices are off, I would leave them off.

Thanks. I'm still having losses. It will just be a matter if time until these do the same thing.

 

[King Turkey]

Water parameters look good but you definitely need to get those nutrients up as this has a negative impact on SPS corals specifically. Definitely remove GFO from the equation. My question is how often are testing your water and has it stayed consistent with the numbers you provided?

I agree I would not drop nitrate below 5 and phosphate needs to be detectable like .05 not less. I rune my tank dirty and never had a coral die. get some amino to dose in the mean time it will help in the system. i run .1 phosphate 20 nitrate never had a coral die.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I would definitely stop the gfo. Zero po4 is never good, especially with an alk of 8.

 

[King Turkey]

Thanks. I'm still having losses. It will just be a matter if time until these do the same thing.

feeding? amino dosing?

 

[ycnibrc]

Feed 8x a day it will help u

 

[Joewestwood]

Water parameters look good but you definitely need to get those nutrients up as this has a negative impact on SPS corals specifically. Definitely remove GFO from the equation. My question is how often are testing your water and has it stayed consistent with the numbers you provided?

Thanks so much. Yes I test every week and numbers are quite consistent. I should buy some new kits although mine haven't expired yet.

I've never heard of a tank that requires so much feeding and no filtration.

Fish population is modest....two tangs, six chromis, 3 clowns, Royal gramma and a wrasse.

 

[Joewestwood]

I agree I would not drop nitrate below 5 and phosphate needs to be detectable like .05 not less. I rune my tank dirty and never had a coral die. get some amino to dose in the mean time it will help in the system. i run .1 phosphate 20 nitrate never had a coral die.

Looks amazing. What kind of aminos?

 

[daelie]

Yup probably starving them. You could dose some acropower for aminos or brightwell aminos seem to be popular these days. You might also want to dose some phosphates to your system as well. Brightwell has a product called neophos that can achieve that for you.

 

[Joewestwood]

Yup probably starving them. You could dose some acropower for aminos or brightwell aminos seem to be popular these days. You might also want to dose some phosphates to your system as well. Brightwell has a product called neophos that can achieve that for you.

Thanks a million. I have a lot of corals....over a hundred frags and colonies. Do you think they are simply competing for nutrients and sucking the system clean? I've never had this occur before. I also may send a water sample to tridant.

 

[daelie]

Sending a water sample to Triton can never hurt as long as you take the time to understand the results.

You may just be overfiltering your water since you're basically undetectable for both phosphate and nitrate, especially since skimming and gfo seem to be worsening your condition.

 

[UCF Alum]

@Joewestwood
FWIW-
I checked p04 today. It was .15
No3 is 25.
SPS dominant tank with good growth and color.

you did the right thing by turning your skimmer off. Think about dosing phosphate. Good luck sir.

 

[Joewestwood]

Update. I have new reagents for hanna ultra low checker and I'm getting .04

New salifert nitrate kit and I can't get much of a reading. Looks like between 0 and 3.

Kh is 7.8
Mag is 1480
Calcium at 420.

Still losing corals. No filtration except filter socks.

Water change or increase feeding? Maybe both?

Very frustrated!

 

[OHBA]

Joe did you ever get this under control. I am suffering from the exact same thing. Wondering was it the nutrients? Did you find anything else?

 

[scott11106]

yes, did you get the problem fixed? coming in late on this but it would take a couple of weeks for things to show improvement so wondering if they are doing better?

 

[ycnibrc]

Did u start with dry rock? Have u ever add any Other bacteria source beside the one to cycle your tank? If u said u were in the hobby for 30 years then u should know that back then we were using live rock from the ocean which contain many strain if bacteria beneficial for the tank. All we need is to wait for the tank to mature so those bacteria can populate and keep coral healthy. Now a day everyone start with dry rock and just cycle their tank for 9 months to a year and their corals start having problems even though all parameters are good. The reason why is you dont dose additional beneficial bacteria. Corals especially sps need bacteria to be healthy because they consume them as food. Now in your case i dont see u mention dosing amino or any bacteria which mean your sps are starving no food. In the ocean they eat all day. Every brand have their own bacteria dosing u can read and find which one fit u the most and dose it.