Stunner Chalice bleaching over a few weeks

[MarkaRagnos]

tried searching for answers on my own and tried just about everything I could think of. It’s been very slow. Alk is at 7.2 but it’s always been there. Nitrates are high but have always been. I lowered feeding and kept up with water changes. I buy my water from the local reef store here. No ammonia or nitrites. Phosphates were high and the coral was growing. By high I mean 1.2. Have been running hc gfo for about two months now. I got this tank about 4 or so months ago. I had a zoa frag that was covered by bubble algae. Saved it. Looks great now. Bubble algae was covering everything. Been dosing vibrant with great results. Now it’s killing the hair algae that covered everything. Comes off in chunks. Almost completely rid of that. But my montipora digitatas polyps don’t all come out. Had a minor amount of bleaching at the bottom but that stopped. Then the chalice started to bleach at the edges it worked it’s way throughout and is almost a completely dead frag. Everything else seems to be ok. Candy cane, rainbow ricordea mushroom are fine. Birdsnest died all the way but the guy I got it from told me it would probably happen so it was free. (Was laying on the sand bed for a long time. Broke off and was already sort of dying) dk what could make the chalice die though..

 

[HD_Reefer]

Could be flow or lighting. What is your setup?

 

[MarkaRagnos]

Ai prime 16 hd about a foot above my tank maybe a little more. Set to blues and purples and uv mainly. It is getting flow from the filter but it’s on the bottom of the tank. It’s a 10 gallon. I’m running chemipure blue and hc gfo. I have an auto top off but I top off every other day manually bc it’s not set up all the way. I use a refractometer to check salinity weekly and fix manually. I do 20 % water changes weekly.

 

[MarkaRagnos]

Could be flow or lighting. What is your setup?

My blinds broke in my house. Do you think the morning sunlight (indirect but the zoas and palys all turn towards it) could be the culprit?

 

[HD_Reefer]

sounds like a little of both, but mainly light. If your zoas & polys are reaching for the light, that's an indicator that you don't have the PAR they're looking for. There are a ton of videos and canned settings for the AI, I would start there. Make sure you run the acclimation mode when you change the intensity....going from too little to alot in a short period can be more detrimental on the fish & coral.

 

[MarkaRagnos]

Could be flow or lighting. What is your setup?

sounds like a little of both, but mainly light. If your zoas & polys are reaching for the light, that's an indicator that you don't have the PAR they're looking for. There are a ton of videos and canned settings for the AI, I would start there. Make sure you run the acclimation mode when you change the intensity....going from too little to alot in a short period can be more detrimental on the fish & coral.

They reach for the sunlight before my light turns on. Mother in law was cleaning stuff and broke the blinds that cover that kitchen window. No direct sunlight. Only minimal indirect sunlight. Maybe they do need more light though. I have them on frag plugs that I pushed into the sand to be their own islands. The zoas are multiplying but at a seriously slow rate. I don’t feed the corals only the fish and inverts. Mainly the fish but scraps do fall. I’ll have to research more about the light because I don’t know where acclimation mode is

 

[MarkaRagnos]

They reach for the sunlight before my light turns on. Mother in law was cleaning stuff and broke the blinds that cover that kitchen window. No direct sunlight. Only minimal indirect sunlight. Maybe they do need more light though. I have them on frag plugs that I pushed into the sand to be their own islands. The zoas are multiplying but at a seriously slow rate. I don’t feed the corals only the fish and inverts. Mainly the fish but scraps do fall. I’ll have to research more about the light because I don’t know where acclimation mode is

I’m using the pirates of the Caribbean setting with the reds and greens off. It’s this one but I shortened it to 8 hours.