When to worry about browning?

[Diveks]

Hello, this tank is around 5 months old, went through the various algae blooms, one happened because i got sick and couldn’t take care of the tank (someone else fed the tank). Well at the same time my ato decided it didn’t wanna work anymore and my salinity shot up and killed 2 of my corals with one in recovery. After that whole disaster though, the tank id teaming with copepods and everything is now stable again and I wanted to give sps a shot in this tank.
I used to have a biocube with thriving sps (mostly smooth skinned acros), not sure how they were growing so fast as i was still learning and didn’t even test much. Well now that im testing, my sps isnt doing so hot. It is a bali green slimer that i think is a somewhat new frag. Well its been around 5 days and it is really brown. I got it at night and it looked very green before lights out, the next morning it turned brown and had mesentrial filements which freaked me out.
The lights i have on it are hydra 32s and it is a 50 gallon tank with a sump, not sure how many gallons it is. I have a skimmer, uv, and biopellets running in it. Here is the water chem:
Dkh 7.2 (red sea)
Calcium 457 (hanna checker)
Magnesium 1350 (salifert)
Phos 0.4-0.7 (hanna checker)
Ph 8.2 (probe)
Nitrate 0.25 (salifert)
Ammonia 0 (red sea)

 

[Diveks]

forgot to mention that the coral’s MF keeps decreasing and is now not visible anymore and the salt is at 35 PPT

 

[guylaga]

Of the top these two look way out of wack

Phos 0.4-0.7 (hanna checker) - This range is really high, and could contribute to your corals browning out. Did you miss a zero and mean .04 or .07?

Nitrate 0.25 (salifert) - This is really low, may consider taking the biopellets off line until this gets a bit higher.

 

[Diveks]

Of the top these two look way out of wack

Phos 0.4-0.7 (hanna checker) - This range is really high, and could contribute to your corals browning out. Did you miss a zero and mean .04 or .07?

Nitrate 0.25 (salifert) - This is really low, may consider taking the biopellets off line until this gets a bit higher.

Ahh really sorry i put in the wrong numbers, it was 25 for nitrate and 0.04-0.07 for phosphate. In guessing the nitrate came up because of all of the older snails in my tank died.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Brown means stressed
Not high residual n/p
Most likely from the bio pellets


What’s your hydra 32 schedule

 

[Diveks]

Brown means stressed
Not high residual n/p
Most likely from the bio pellets


What’s your hydra 32 schedule

Hmm first time using biopellets actually, should i try turning them off to see if it is what is stressing it out? was worried taking it off will cause a rise in n/p. Thinking of getting a chaeto reactor as a scrubber wont fit and i can only fit a small fuge.

My hydra is running on leon tan’s preset (modified a bit) it’s been in the acclamation mode since the slimer came in and is now almost over with no change in colour (started at 50%)

 

[SPR1968]

I’d probably increase your light schedule and intensity to something like 9am to 10pm or thereabouts, this is what I use in my S650 other than in goes blue in the evenings

I would also increase your alkalinity to around 8-8.5 because at 7.2 it’s on the low end of ok and with test error margin could be less than that. 8 ish gives you a bit more ‘wiggle’ room.

 

[Diveks]

I’d probably increase your light schedule and intensity to something like 9am to 10pm or thereabouts, this is what I use in my S650 other than in goes blue in the evenings

I would also increase your alkalinity to around 8-8.5 because at 7.2 it’s on the low end of ok and with test error margin could be less than that. 8 ish gives you a bit more ‘wiggle’ room.

Will start slowly increasing the alk (guessing low alk came from my calcium that usually stays pretty high), ill also try acclimating to higher lights and ill see how it’ll do. Its no longer giving off MF since 2 days ago. What worries me is it has no PE and is brown. Although it might have encrusted a tiny bit more. Although to be fair the PE was very little even at the seller as this one was sold pretty cheap, was still very green though. When should i stay worried about it’s browning?
Also whats everyones opinion about replacing the biopellets with an algae reactor. My snails are starving as after the hair algae bloom everything is now almost spotless, and this sps is browning out. Not sure if it is the cause though.

 

[Diveks]

Also i wanted to ask if not glueing the frag could be stressing it out even more as it rocks a tiny bit from time to time from the strong currents.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Hmm first time using biopellets actually, should i try turning them off to see if it is what is stressing it out? was worried taking it off will cause a rise in n/p. Thinking of getting a chaeto reactor as a scrubber wont fit and i can only fit a small fuge.

My hydra is running on leon tan’s preset (modified a bit) it’s been in the acclamation mode since the slimer came in and is now almost over with no change in colour (started at 50%)

How many 32s are on the 50g

 

[Diveks]

How many 32s are on the 50g

2 although im thinking of getting one more in the future, for now the lone sps frag i have is straight under one

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Are they mounted 14”?

 

[Diveks]

Are they mounted 14”?

They are at 10”

 

[TX_Punisher]

Will start slowly increasing the alk (guessing low alk came from my calcium that usually stays pretty high), ill also try acclimating to higher lights and ill see how it’ll do. Its no longer giving off MF since 2 days ago. What worries me is it has no PE and is brown. Although it might have encrusted a tiny bit more. Although to be fair the PE was very little even at the seller as this one was sold pretty cheap, was still very green though. When should i stay worried about it’s browning?
Also whats everyones opinion about replacing the biopellets with an algae reactor. My snails are starving as after the hair algae bloom everything is now almost spotless, and this sps is browning out. Not sure if it is the cause though.

why not just run a skimmer? Bio pellets strip too much organic material imo. I ran them 4 years ago and had much better success without them.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

They are at 10”

Raise them as high as they can go

Find a par meter and adjust your schedule intensity to 300 par

Ditch the bio pellets

 

[Diveks]

why not just run a skimmer? Bio pellets strip too much organic material imo. I ran them 4 years ago and had much better success without them.

Got the biopellet reactor for free with my sump, so thought i would try them out. Algae issues went away so quickly but now i have 0 algae and my cuc are dying.

Raise them as high as they can go

Find a par meter and adjust your schedule intensity to 300 par

Ditch the bio pellets

To stop rid of the biopellets, should i slowly wean them off or just take them offline in one go?
And for a par meter ive been searching for ages, since i came into the hobby actually. Although in my country i cant seem to get my hands on one under $1500 (and theres only one person selling one in the whole country). All i can get is a lux meter.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

If your cuc is dying bc your water is too clean for algae then your water is close or to clean for acros.

Now if the acro didn’t look great when you acquired it the possibilities of what’s going on are endless really. Could be a pest or it was stressed and could take months to recover even under the best conditions.

Sorry the par meter is so difficult for you. I can tell you my hydra 52 HD’s are mounted 15” above my 50g cube at 80Watts each. This delivers 300-500 par in the top half of my tank.

 

[Diveks]

If your cuc is dying bc your water is too clean for algae then your water is close or to clean for acros.

Now if the acro didn’t look great when you acquired it the possibilities of what’s going on are endless really. Could be a pest or it was stressed and could take months to recover even under the best conditions.

Sorry the par meter is so difficult for you. I can tell you my hydra 52 HD’s are mounted 15” above my 50g cube at 80Watts each. This delivers 300-500 par in the top half of my tank.

Might be my mistake looking for a cheaper frag then, at least it hasent receded or anything and might even have developed on the ends. Colour and PE, not so much. Ill be taking the biopellets offline since one of my more finicky zoa is also half closed up.
Thanks for showing me how yours are mounted, ive been trying to go by how other people set theirs up. Also, beautiful tank you got there! My tank dimensions are 15x36” so im mounting them lengthways.
Here is how the frag is doing now, what looks like dinos are starting to take hold.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Might be my mistake looking for a cheaper frag then, at least it hasent receded or anything and might even have developed on the ends. Colour and PE, not so much. Ill be taking the biopellets offline since one of my more finicky zoa is also half closed up.
Thanks for showing me how yours are mounted, ive been trying to go by how other people set theirs up. Also, beautiful tank you got there! My tank dimensions are 15x36” so im mounting them lengthways.
Here is how the frag is doing now, what looks like dinos are starting to take hold.

Don’t worry so much about no3/Po4

 

[Diveks]

Don’t worry so much about no3/Po4

Wow beautiful colours you have there. Guess ill try not chasing numbers as much. my acros grew well in my old nano tank which i didnt chase numbers and just did water changes. Guess im actually starving my corals now.