Too many of my corals look drab & lifeless - need ideas and help!

[s_tempest]

Like the title says: too many of my corals are muted, dull & faded. Nothing is really dying but nothing is really doing well either. And I like to get some thoughts on:
- why
- what I can do to fix it
- how long to see any effect of the "fix"

This muted/dull color is on most but not all my corals: pavona, leptoseris, pink Montipora cap, sunset montipora, mystic sunset montipora, a purple montipora digitata, a bicolor hammer, an orange lobophyllia, a mycedium chalice, two war corals and a favia. Frags were added over a span of time from start of the tank in August through December. They're getting between 100-250 PAR depending on exactly where they're placed.
Some things are going fine, though: softies like some of my zoas, green star polyps, two ricordea, a space invader chalice, a mummy's eye chalice, two psammocora, torch and purple wall hammer.

Also, there are some other odd things:
- The montipora all have very small polyps (poppy-seed size). PE was bigger when I bought them. Setosa and spongodes also have small polyps but have great color. All of the montis are growing though.
- I have a few acropora frags picked up in late Oct. All are encrusting on their plugs, they seem neither bleached nor brown, but otherwise there is no growth and *I never see polyps on any of them*. Even middle of the night hours after lights off. They all had PE when I bought them.
- my pavona is never "furry", in that the tentacles are very short unlike when I bought them.
- my acans (from old tank) retain color but are retracted deep into their corallites. They've done this since I transferred them from my old tank in August (where they looked fine). I thought this might be a nipping fish, but I gave a suspect (Eiblii angel) to my trusted LFS six weeks ago and the acans are unchanged.
- my sinularia (from old tank) never shows polyps. It is growing, does its daily expand & contract thing, and has a nice lime-green color. It had polyps in the old tank.
- I have a small green hairy mushroom (should be a weed, right?) that is half the size it was in the old tank, and the three discosoma near it also are small and not spreading.

I measure parameters 2-3 times a week. But I've been hesitant to do much tweaking with additives and such, so it's more monitoring to see how stable things are.

Parameters:
lights: 2 AI Hydra 26hd, Settings/schedule a riff on AB+.
tank - 96 gal tank + 30 gal sump

alk - 8.0 +/- 0.2 dKh for much of the past five months
Ca - 425 +/- 20 ppm
NO3 - 12 +/- 4 ppm
PO4 - 0.1 +/- .03 ppm
Mg - 1450 +/- 50 ppm
it‘s a new tank & I’m working on stability. But these +/- reflect the range I’m measuring over the past three months.

 

[Kremis]

I personally would just start messing with the lighting to see if that changes anything. Duller colors and shrunken corals usually signifies that there is a little too much light, so maybe start by lowering your intensity or decreasing photo period.

 

[s_tempest]

I personally would just start messing with the lighting to see if that changes anything. Duller colors and shrunken corals usually signifies that there is a little too much light, so maybe start by lowering your intensity or decreasing photo period.

That’s something I’ve been mulling.
I think I fooled myself by trying to “do it right” - looking at other’s schedules, setting up mine, using a PAR meter. And the values I measured seemed on track if not lower than I expected. So I’ve hesitated changing things.
If I cut back the lights, how quickly could I expect to see improvement? in other words, how long to know if I’m on the right track?

 

[Hemmdog]

What do you feed your tank? Do you keep up with water changes? How has your temperature and pH been.

 

[MichaelReefer]

Two Hydra 26s seems like its not much light for a tank that large? Are you getting even spread or is it focused?

 

[s_tempest]

Feed: lrs frenzy, hikari herbivore, rods reef riot, mysis cubes, nori (variably, not each kind every day) for the fish daily, reef roids and other various coral food samples broadcast weekly.

Water changes: 15% every two weeks consistentl, use Fritz blue box
Temp: between 77-78.3 recorded by Inkbird
pH: 8.2-8.4, intake to skimmer runs from outside

 

[s_tempest]

Two Hydra 26s seems like its not much light for a tank that large? Are you getting even spread or is it focused?

That has been my thought too. It’s definitely focused more under the lights. But to have such a range of corals affected, at different places & with different light requirement, I’m not sure that ‘not enough’ is my problem. What would I look for if it is? They’re not turning brown. More gray, muted.
I have par maps of the tank for several settings.

 

[MichaelReefer]

That has been my thought too. It’s definitely focused more under the lights. But to have such a range of corals affected, at different places & with different light requirement, I’m not sure that ‘not enough’ is my problem. What would I look for if it is? They’re not turning brown. More gray, muted.
I have par maps of the tank for several settings.

Have you messed with your light spectrum? maybe you're a little off on certain colors and the coral aren't happy?

 

[s_tempest]

Have you messed with your light spectrum? maybe you're a little off on certain colors and the coral aren't happy?

I’ve certainly played around with the lights, all basically a riff on AB+, always heavy on the four blues, light on green, red & white.

 

[Saltyreef]

Given any thought to the balance of your nutrients being the culprit?

 

[s_tempest]

Given any thought to the balance of your nutrients being the culprit?

I’ve tried to get a sense of what most consider too high or too low, and compare my water with that. I’d like to see my NO3 a bit lower, but plenty of people say 10-15 is fine.
But I’m not sure what you mean by balance - please explain.

 

[MabuyaQ]

What are pH, temperature and salinity doing? Also any growth of coraline algae or green algae?

 

[s_tempest]

temperature & pH are stable (see #6 above), as is salinity at 1.026

 

[intricate_reefer]

What are you using to measure salinity and are you calibrating it often? Before I bought a really good refractormeter I had to calibrate it with every use.

 

[s_tempest]

What are you using to measure salinity and are you calibrating it often? Before I bought a really good refractormeter I had to calibrate it with every use.

Great question. I actually bought 35 ppt calib solution recently to make sure my refractometer was accurate. It was. And I checked a sample at my LFS.

 

[intricate_reefer]

Huh, maybe check for any contaminates, rusty magnets possibly. Probably not a solution but I dose aminos and it seems to help with color a bit. Could be worth a try and likely not hurt anything, probably wouldn't see any results for a couple weeks. If you can't figure it out, you might want to consider sending in an ICP test just for some peace of mind that there isn't anything in your water.

 

[s_tempest]

Huh, maybe check for any contaminates, rusty magnets possibly. Probably not a solution but I dose aminos and it seems to help with color a bit. Could be worth a try and likely not hurt anything, probably wouldn't see any results for a couple weeks. If you can't figure it out, you might want to consider sending in an ICP test just for some peace of mind that there isn't anything in your water.

already on it on both counts!
I started adding aminos three weeks ago (XMas present), but see no change yet.
And I have an icp sample on the way to the lab, so should have results in a week or so. I started searching if I could find anything rusty or metal, but have not fully torn apart the skimmer & return pumps (I’ll wait on those icp results).

 

[S.K.]

what is your salinity? how high are your light mounted?

 

[Jon Fishman]

Tough without pictures to say really.

 

[S.K.]

ok.. for you fyi leds have optic lenses which is light laser beam. it is better to mount 16inch and have better spread. much softer light for lps and softies.
also double check your salinity