Trouble with colouration, PE and pealing SPS

[DeepakNZReefer]

Hi everyone,
I’m running a Waterbox 190.5 with 3 Radion XR30s at 50% intensity. I recently started adding a few acros and a monti, but they aren’t doing great—no polyp extension, and my encrusting monti is starting to lose color. I also had my nutrients bottomed out and stayed that way for 3 days.

Here are my current parameters and dosing schedule:

• Alkalinity readings:
  • 12 AM → 8.59 dKH
  • 6 AM → 9.0 dKH
  • 12 PM → 8.56 dKH
  • 6 PM → 8.95 dKH
    (I usually see a swing of about 0.4–0.5 dKH daily, sometimes peaking when I’m not actively dosing.)
• Dosing (Red Sea Foundation, via Versa):
  • 6:30 AM – 11:45 AM → 8 ml
  • 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM → 0.5 ml
  • 6:30 PM – 11:45 PM → 2.75 ml
• pH: 8.36 – 8.65
• Calcium: 470 ppm (haven’t dosed in weeks)
• Magnesium: 1430 ppm
• Nitrate: 3.7 ppm
• Phosphate: 0.05 ppm
• Water changes: Every two weeks

My concern: should I be worried about the 0.4–0.5 dKH swing, or is this considered acceptable? I would have expected the peaks to align with dosing, but sometimes my alk spikes when I’m not dosing, which I can’t explain.

Could this swing be enough to stress SPS (acros, birds nest and montis), or should I be looking at other factors (light intensity, nutrients, etc.) as the cause of poor coloration and lack of PE?

I have added the pic of my tank before things went south. Note that I had 2 xr15 and a xr30 and I recently switched to 3 xr30. As I mentioned before I am running them at 50% intensity to avoid light shock. I will take pictures of how my corals are doing when the light comes back up.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Have you ever measured your par? Why do you keep you lights at 50%

Sorry if I missed it, but I don't see any powerheads in the tank, what do you have for flow?

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

Your issue is your nutrients. Bottoming nutrients will cause the color loss for sure. But also since everything bottomed out you starved the entire ecosystem and are most likely going to see an algae out break. What is also stressing the corals will be the imbalances that are now happening.

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

I also would like to add that if you only keep nutrients 5-.05 I would lower my alk to about 7-7.5. For color there is a balance between nutrients and alk. Higher nutrients allows higher alk.

 

[DeepakNZReefer]

Have you ever measured your par? Why do you keep you lights at 50%

Sorry if I missed it, but I don't see any powerheads in the tank, what do you have for flow?

I was running 2 x XR15 at 100% before and I had 180 where the acros are placed. Now that I switched them to 3 x XR30 (2 weeks ago) I am keeping it at 50% so I am acclimating them slowly.

I have 2 Nero 7 on the either side of the tank. It’s a 5ft tank. I probably need to add few more power head but I thought I can get away with just 2 while the corals are just frags for now.

 

[DeepakNZReefer]

Your issue is your nutrients. Bottoming nutrients will cause the color loss for sure. But also since everything bottomed out you starved the entire ecosystem and are most likely going to see an algae out break. What is also stressing the corals will be the imbalances that are now happening.

Something I didn’t mention in my post. After the nutrients bottoming out event my birds nest bleached and another one started to peal. I also had a stylo which almost fully pealed. I have been struggling with 0 phosphate for months and I have been dosing phosphate. Now I am dosing both nitrate and phosphate. Is there anything else I should do ?

 

[DeepakNZReefer]

I also would like to add that if you only keep nutrients 5-.05 I would lower my alk to about 7-7.5. For color there is a balance between nutrients and alk. Higher nutrients allows higher alk.

Is that going to cause issues with my PH? I do not have any fancy reactors or co2 scrubbers or refugium. I just run skimmer.

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

Your issue is your nutrients. Bottoming nutrients will cause the color loss for sure. But also since everything bottomed out you starved the entire ecosystem and are most likely going to see an algae out break. What is also stressing the corals will be the imbalances that are now happening.

Something I didn’t mention in my post. After the nutrients bottoming out event my birds nest bleached and another one started to peal. I also had a stylo which almost fully pealed. I have been struggling with 0 phosphate for months and I have been dosing phosphate. Now I am dosing both nitrate and phosphate. Is there anything else I should do ?

No. But if you’re struggling than something is consuming them. Boost up your doses and don’t be afraid to even get those numbers to 20 nitrate .2 phos that would be a safer range during these times. I prefer 10n to.1 phos but if there’s a lot of consumption 20/.2 is a safer bet and trust me I’m sps
Heavy in my system they will do just fine at those levels.

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

Is that going to cause issues with my PH? I do not have any fancy reactors or co2 scrubbers or refugium. I just run skimmer.

No your ph will be fine. Don’t rush to lower alk just raise the nutrients that’s the safe route at this point. Also your ph probe seems to be off as you won’t go above 8.4 natrually without using additives such as kalkwasser.

 

[DeepakNZReefer]

No. But if you’re struggling than something is consuming them. Boost up your doses and don’t be afraid to even get those numbers to 20 nitrate .2 phos that would be a safer range during these times. I prefer 10n to.1 phos but if there’s a lot of consumption 20/.2 is a safer bet and trust me I’m sps
Heavy in my system they will do just fine at those levels.

Nice, that will give me a bit of workout scraping algae off the glass. But hey I will do it if it will keep my corals happy

 

[DeepakNZReefer]

No your ph will be fine. Don’t rush to lower alk just raise the nutrients that’s the safe route at this point. Also your ph probe seems to be off as you won’t go above 8.4 natrually without using additives such as kalkwasser.

Good to know. I will do a calibration on those.

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

Nice, that will give me a bit of workout scraping algae off the glass. But hey I will do it if it will keep my corals happy

as long as your tank has balance it doesn’t matter what your. Nutrients are. The high nutrient = algae is a myth. Keep everything is a 100:1 ratio and you won’t have algae issues. But when you starve your bacterias that are competing with other bacterias such as cyano and dinoflagellates that rely on light more than nutrients; you will start to see those algaes take hold.

 

[Dburr1014]

Hi everyone,
I’m running a Waterbox 190.5 with 3 Radion XR30s at 50% intensity. I recently started adding a few acros and a monti, but they aren’t doing great—no polyp extension, and my encrusting monti is starting to lose color. I also had my nutrients bottomed out and stayed that way for 3 days.

Here are my current parameters and dosing schedule:

• Alkalinity readings:
  • 12 AM → 8.59 dKH
  • 6 AM → 9.0 dKH
  • 12 PM → 8.56 dKH
  • 6 PM → 8.95 dKH
    (I usually see a swing of about 0.4–0.5 dKH daily, sometimes peaking when I’m not actively dosing.)
• Dosing (Red Sea Foundation, via Versa):
  • 6:30 AM – 11:45 AM → 8 ml
  • 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM → 0.5 ml
  • 6:30 PM – 11:45 PM → 2.75 ml
• pH: 8.36 – 8.65
• Calcium: 470 ppm (haven’t dosed in weeks)
• Magnesium: 1430 ppm
• Nitrate: 3.7 ppm
• Phosphate: 0.05 ppm
• Water changes: Every two weeks

My concern: should I be worried about the 0.4–0.5 dKH swing, or is this considered acceptable? I would have expected the peaks to align with dosing, but sometimes my alk spikes when I’m not dosing, which I can’t explain.

Could this swing be enough to stress SPS (acros, birds nest and montis), or should I be looking at other factors (light intensity, nutrients, etc.) as the cause of poor coloration and lack of PE?

I have added the pic of my tank before things went south. Note that I had 2 xr15 and a xr30 and I recently switched to 3 xr30. As I mentioned before I am running them at 50% intensity to avoid light shock. I will take pictures of how my corals are doing when the light comes back up.

Thinking outside the box, have you thought about lowering the alk a tad?
Low nutrients high alk, not so good.
PO4 will bind to the rock, not sure how old your system is.
8ish alk or even down in the 7's will slow uptake.

No your ph will be fine. Don’t rush to lower alk just raise the nutrients that’s the safe route at this point. Also your ph probe seems to be off as you won’t go above 8.4 natrually without using additives such as kalkwasser.

He is adding a 2 part. That will boost alk.

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

Thinking outside the box, have you thought about lowering the alk a tad?
Low nutrients high alk, not so good.
PO4 will bind to the rock, not sure how old your system is.
8ish alk or even down in the 7's will slow uptake.
He is adding a 2 part. That will boost alk.

Ya for sure stop dosing alk can cal. I’d imagine it’s not really being consumed much anyway

 

[DeepakNZReefer]

Thinking outside the box, have you thought about lowering the alk a tad?
Low nutrients high alk, not so good.
PO4 will bind to the rock, not sure how old your system is.
8ish alk or even down in the 7's will slow uptake.
He is adding a 2 part. That will boost alk.

My system is 9 months old and I started with dry Marcorock. I think po4 is binding too hence it started bottoming out.

I started dosing alk because even with redsea reef salt which is supposed to mix at 8dkh my tank was running at 6ish dkh. So I brought it up. I had high nitrates like in 15 to 20 range with po4 at 0. That want good either but atleast now my ratio is close to 1:100.

 

[DeepakNZReefer]

8ish alk or even down in the 7's will slow uptake.
He is adding a 2 part. That will boost alk.

Ya for sure stop dosing alk can cal. I’d imagine it’s not really being consumed much anyway

How slow should I do this ? Over the course of a month, week ?

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

What are you using to test alk? Salt mixing in at 6 dkh seems strange to me. What salt are you using? If that is the case though you could do a small water change to bring it down. .5 a day max but I wouldn’t try to really go down more than 1.0dkh a week. A alk swing is going to be worse than just raising ur nutrients. That is why I suggested to just raise nutrients as it’s the safer route to go. Maybe lower .5 dkh n raise nitrates a bit

 

[DeepakNZReefer]

What are you using to test alk? Salt mixing in at 6 dkh seems strange to me. What salt are you using? If that is the case though you could do a small water change to bring it down. .5 a day max but I wouldn’t try to really go down more than 1.0dkh a week. A alk swing is going to be worse than just raising ur nutrients. That is why I suggested to just raise nutrients as it’s the safer route to go. Maybe lower .5 dkh n raise nitrates a bit

I was using redsea reef salt when I tested 6ish dkh and testing with redsea test kit. Now I am using aquaforest reef salt.

I also have trident that tests everyday my tank. May be I will back off 1ml per week until I lower it to 8-8.5 dkh and increase nutrient dosing at the same time.

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

What are you using to test alk? Salt mixing in at 6 dkh seems strange to me. What salt are you using? If that is the case though you could do a small water change to bring it down. .5 a day max but I wouldn’t try to really go down more than 1.0dkh a week. A alk swing is going to be worse than just raising ur nutrients. That is why I suggested to just raise nutrients as it’s the safer route to go. Maybe lower .5 dkh n raise nitrates a bit

I was using redsea reef salt when I tested 6ish dkh and testing with redsea test kit. Now I am using aquaforest reef salt.

I also have trident that tests everyday my tank. May be I will back off 1ml per week until I lower it to 8-8.5 dkh and increase nutrient dosing at the same time.

I know Red Sea blue bucket does mix in the lower side 7.5-8.0

 

[BryanM]

I would not be concerned with a .5 dkh swing myself.

I agree the lighting seems low.

And I would just focus on nutrients.... What's your feeding look like?