What do i do now?

[Taiko]

I have a 400 gallon system that consisted of mainly sps. A month ago I was noticing corals looking pale before i crashed my tank with the parameters being alk 8.4 - 8.7, cal 400+, no3 0-3ppm (didnt keep up with potassium nitrate dosage), and po4 0.03. At the time i ran out of reagent for my po4 test kit and used an expired one, the result was a big spike to 1.0. As a person that overthinks a lot i panicked and packed in a bunch of rowaphos (which i found to be my second biggest mistake) into a tray that was placed before my return pump. A day after that my stylos, seriatopora, and pocilloporas have began to stn and rtn but suprisingly not the acros or montis (yet). A month later i still have acros hanging on for dear life and some still maintaing colour as well as some polyp extension.

What Ive found and realized i did wrong was not maintaining my no3 at 3-5ppm (which is why i believe the corals colors were fading), not using the proper or an unexpired phosphate test kit, and that i put too much rowaphos that it probably killed my corals by dropping the alk/ph and not because of stripping out my phosphates in such a short amount of time.

The system today sits at recommended water parameters but still have some corals not regaining color (from brown) along side with a few burnt tips on some with a few still rtn or stn here and there.

Im here looking to see if anyone has had or hear of anyone going through something like this and want to know what to do and how to get the system functioning so that i can restock and not lose corals that i add into it.

 

[TessGlo]

We all make mistakes, I did something very similar. Decided to lower my nutrients with GFO to help rid some algae and stripped my nutrients to 0, even thought I used a very small amount. Immediately I lost corals and color in those that survived. Two months later things started to get back to their best coloration. I fed the corals like crazy, including plenty of aminos.

Sounds like you have done a great job figuring out what went wrong and correcting things, so you may just need to be patient, something this hobby constantly tests. How long has it been since you got parameters back where you wanted them?

 

[Taiko]

Thanks for your response and yes patience is a virtue lol. Ive only gotten my levels stable this past week as i hafd to turn off my dosing pump and just keep up with single manual doses for now since the demand isnt as it used to be. 8.4 alk 450 cal 0.03 po4 and 2-5ppm no3.