Stunner Chalice bleaching?

[dianamm88]

I'm a beginner salt water hobbyist and I've had this Hollywood Stunner Chalice in my 10G fluval evo tank for about a month and a half and I noticed it started bleaching around the edges, noticed a few white spots over the top and also the bottom is entire white. I've seen other bleaching chalices images, but I haven't found anything that looks like the behavior mine is having. My parameters are:
Salinity: 1.025
PH: 8.1
Amonia 0 ppm (API)
Nitrites 0 ppm (API)
Nitrates 5 ppm (API)
Phosphate: 0.25 ppm (API)
Alkalinity: 8 dKH (API)
Calcium: 460 ppm (API)
Magnesium: 1380 (Salifert)

Note: nitrates have been constantly dropping to 0 while phosphates have been at ~0.25, so I dose nitrates and vodka to try to remove phosphates and algae. Although the vodka has done wonders and the algae is gone, the phosphates still won't go below .25. I also had a GFO bag in there but after reading that it might be the cause of the coral bleaching, I removed it yesterday.

I also dose Part A&B to keep the Ca & Mg up. I target fed the corals with reef roids and phytoplankton.

I also have the light intensity low ( 30%), and the chalice is located at the bottom of the rock, but not in the shade, so I can't image the light intensity being the issue.

Anyone have any thoughts? The image below shows what the coral looked like yesterday (left) compared to 6 weeks ago when I first got it (right). I've read in some places that it could be new growth, but to me it seems like it's shrinking instead of growing. I first noticed the white edges about 3 weeks ago.

 

[LuizW13]

Welcome to R2R!

The Chalice certainly doesn't look happy. The Nitrates at 5 is fine, however, the phosphate are quite high. Generally speaking anything between .03-.1 is considered in range. However, people say the API test kits are not reliable.

Anyway, Dosing Nitrates and Vodka is contradicting itself. The vodka is fueling the bacteria that consumes Nitrates, which is why you're seeing it drop to 0- it won't do much for phosphate.

The reason people don't like to use GFO, is that it can unpredictably remove Phosphates from the water, leading to it removing too much.

I would do a series of small water changes over the week, maybe even dose a bit of Nitrates to the new saltwater, until you get the water N & P in the right range.

 

[dianamm88]

Thanks so much for the reply! I've responded in-line below.

Welcome to R2R!

The Chalice certainly doesn't look happy. The Nitrates at 5 is fine, however, the phosphate are quite high. Generally speaking anything between .03-.1 is considered in range. However, people say the API test kits are not reliable.

I've been questioning the reliability of the test also. I've been considering getting the Hanna low-level tester, yet some ppl even seem to have issues with those as well.

Anyway, Dosing Nitrates and Vodka is contradicting itself. The vodka is fueling the bacteria that consumes Nitrates, which is why you're seeing it drop to 0- it won't do much for phosphate.

I feel like there's conflicting info out there about this topic. It's a bit confusing. My actions were based on this article that states that the carbon feeds both the bacteria that consumes the nitrates as well as the bacteria that consumes the phosphates:

"Usually, under denitrifying conditions with the availability of a sufficient carbon source, two other groups of nutrient reducing bacteria will start to thrive: the polyphosphate accumulating bacteria and the sulfate-reducing bacteria. These two groups have a significant impact on the overall nutrient reduction processes in the aquarium. The most common PAO’s or Poly-P bacteria are the PHA’s that accumulate phosphate in a two-stage process of aerobic/anoxic and anaerobic conditions." (https://www.redseafish.com/blog/nitrate-and-phosphate-reduction-via-carbon-dosing/)

So my thought process was the vodka was meant to feed the polyphosphate accumulating bacteria, but since the nitrifying bacteria also consumes carbon, I added the nitrate dose to prevent the nitrates from completely going to 0. Even before I introduced the vodka, the nitrates were always at 0 even though I kept increasing the feeding.

The reason people don't like to use GFO, is that it can unpredictably remove Phosphates from the water, leading to it removing too much.

I see...well, it didn't even really do much for me anyway.

I would do a series of small water changes over the week, maybe even dose a bit of Nitrates to the new saltwater, until you get the water N & P in the right range.

Okay, I'll try that this week!!! I was initially told at the LFS to slow down on the water changes because my nitrates were too low and use the GFO to remove the phosphate, but since that experiment didn't change much of anything, I'll try your suggestion with the water change+ nitrate dose instead.

Thank you so very very very much!!!

 

[LuizW13]

I feel like there's conflicting info out there about this topic. It's a bit confusing. My actions were based on this article that states that the carbon feeds both the bacteria that consumes the nitrates as well as the bacteria that consumes the phosphates:

"Usually, under denitrifying conditions with the availability of a sufficient carbon source, two other groups of nutrient reducing bacteria will start to thrive: the polyphosphate accumulating bacteria and the sulfate-reducing bacteria. These two groups have a significant impact on the overall nutrient reduction processes in the aquarium. The most common PAO’s or Poly-P bacteria are the PHA’s that accumulate phosphate in a two-stage process of aerobic/anoxic and anaerobic conditions." (https://www.redseafish.com/blog/nitrate-and-phosphate-reduction-via-carbon-dosing/)

So my thought process was the vodka was meant to feed the polyphosphate accumulating bacteria, but since the nitrifying bacteria also consumes carbon, I added the nitrate dose to prevent the nitrates from completely going to 0. Even before I introduced the vodka, the nitrates were always at 0 even though I kept increasing the feeding.

Yeah, I think Lou from Tropic Marin said a similar thing. Watch the video below, very informative.

Carbon Dosing your Reef tank with Lou Ekus form Tropic Marin

As far as test kits go, I use the Salifert Nitrate and the Hannah ULR Phosphorous- I like them both.

 

[KC's CNC Creations]

that's not bleaching, that's tissue recession, honestly, with it being a 10g tank, just do a 100% water change with newly mixed water and stop dosing anything, then just let the tank recover for a week or two, then IF testing shows a need you can dose alk/ca additives accordingly.