Vinegar dosing effects on corals

[Titleist]

So I've been running a newer tank with nitrates around the 60 mark for a few months now. Had an elegance coral looking good with a few others. Since starting dosing I've noticed the elegance deflated and a bit of recession around a stylo. Within 2 weeks. Dosing 3 times day totalling 24 ml a day into a 200 gallon system. Nitrates are still around the 40 mark using the nitrate pro kit from red sea.

Nothing else in the tank is showing stress from the vinegar other than the elegance and stylo. Stylo recession around a lower branch close to the rock it's on.

Anyone else have a similar issue with an elegance? Issue with stylo or other corals from the vinegar?

 

[redfishbluefish]

Could it possibly be the secondary effect of the nitrates dropping. Corals get use to high nitrates. Maybe the sudden drop in nitrates is the cause of the change in the elegance. Note that corals will also "consume" a carbon source as well, not just the bacteria.

What are you phosphates at? They are also needed for carbon dosing, an a pinch left over for your corals.

 

[Titleist]

Didn't check the phates yet. Let me check. Only reason I even started is my chaeto keeps losing the race with GHA in the sump and some on the rock. Chaeto was in there after it cycled and has been stunted growing for a while even though I was using chaetogro and knew the nitrates were high. In the effort to reverse the GHA I was continuing the chaetogro and dosing the vinegar in the hopes the cg would help the chaeto beat the gha.

 

[Titleist]

Well I just went down to run the test and decided to take a look in the sump (lights are off now). Looked daker than usual without direct light so I turned on the sump light and it was completely black. Dug in and pulled out about 5 pounds of blue/green slime algae. Some even translucent. Ton of gas escaped as well. All adhered to the bottom of the fuge and sides. Chaeto was still there, hasn't grown. The slime algae had that phosporus stink to it, if that's what causes the smell.

So after pulling that all out I tested for nitrates. Below 1ppm now. In 2 weeks. Man that was a fast explosion. Never got a white bloom in the tank, never saw the "strands".

At this point I don't know what's the better option: clean it all out and let it go for a bit without dosing or bring up the nitrates to around 5 or so with potassium nitrate. Not that anything good happens quick but I'm not sure which direction the elegance and stylo are going, would pulling nitrates back up to 5 ease the stress or is letting it go back up on it's own the better option?

Never even got the phosphate test