White Acros and skeleton acans

[AB Corals]

I'm trying to figure out what is going on with my tank. I have been running the Trident for 3+ months now, and my parameters are as follows...

Alk 8.35
Calcium 458
Mag 1352
ph 8.11
Temp 76
1.026

I haven't had to dose any Calcium since a week and a half ago. Been dosing Soda Ash daily though to keep that up. Calcium has been staying consistent which has me stumped.

I put t5 lights up about 3 weeks ago, running them from 12-2pm. I run radion lights but recently bought a neptune par meter to put in the tank and noticed I get roughly 150 par when the T5 lights are NOT on, and this is measured at the top of my tank where the acros are. I know this is way low... so I'm slowly increasing my light intensity to 75% from 55% over the next 4 weeks.

I have been dosing Vibrant for the past 3 weeks at 15 ml a week for a 140 gallon tank.

My Nitrates I have been dosing and keeping up on to keep them around 5... and my phosphates I have also had to dose. I did notice before I dosed the Vibrant on Saturday that the phosphates were 0.17, so I didn't dose any then and they went back to 0 on Monday, so I dosed them back up.

I run a fuge with a little cheato in it, so between that + the vibrant I'm guessing thats where my phosphates and nitrates are going so fast.

I also have acons at the bottom of my tank and I noticed ones skeleton is starting to show. I'm guessing thats from lack of light since the par I found out was around 50 at most at the bottom of my tank. Would like to get the par up to around 150 at the bottom, and 250-350 at the top of my tank.

The acros are also whitening out at the bases, not the tips, and only on one side of them which is where the light is hitting more. I'm stumped. Any ideas? Tank is also almost a year old, feel like I should add that in.

 

[Bryknicks]

Why are you dosing Vibrant consistently? Do you have a major algae problem? Your params seem good on paper, but something is out of whack if your calcium uptake stopped.

is this a new tank or established?

 

[AB Corals]

Why are you dosing Vibrant consistently? Do you have a major algae problem? Your params seem good on paper, but something is out of whack if your calcium uptake stopped.

is this a new tank or established?

Its a established tank, only dosing it for bubble algae. But dosing the nitrates and phosphates to keep those in my system so they don't go down to zero while on the vibrant. Bubble algae is about 75% gone so I don't think I'll do a 4th dose.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Pictures will be needed if anyone is to give any sound advice.

 

[AB Corals]

My question is do you think that 150 par would make the acros go white after a while? Just glad I got a par meter on Friday and found this problem

 

[AB Corals]

Pictures will be needed if anyone is to give any sound advice.

I'll get some tonight, at work right now

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

150 par pretty low for acros. I have a bunch of acans with no issues at all. I don’t trust vibrant with sps bc it's 1 of the many products I tried in the beginning and I couldn’t keep an Acro alive for more than a couple weeks. 95% success since I bought my par meter and stopped worrying about algae and higher than the recommended po4/no3.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

My question is do you think that 150 par would make the acros go white after a while? Just glad I got a par meter on Friday and found this problem

Definitely could be contributing to your struggles. I believe no3/po4 instability is A factor as well. You’re better off keeping po4 stable at 0.17 than 0.05 1 day, 0.02 the next then 0.08 and then back to 0.05.

 

[JCOLE]

Yes,150 par could do this. Do you still have polyp extension? If so, does the flesh and polyps appear white? If so then they need more light to color them up. Also, do you dose aminos?

 

[AB Corals]

Yes,150 par could do this. Do you still have polyp extension? If so, does the flesh and polyps appear white? If so then they need more light to color them up. Also, do you dose aminos?

No I don't dose aminos yet, might try that too

 

[JCOLE]

No I don't dose aminos yet, might try that too

Aminos can help with color as well.

 

[AB Corals]

Ordered some acropower to see if that helps as well. Comes Thursday. Also slowly increased my light schedule since now I have a par meter, we will see if that helps. I'm thinking all of this is possibly a combination of lack of lighting + lack of nitrates + phosphates with using Vibrant.

 

[AB Corals]

Didn’t use a filter and my t5s were on but you can see the white on them

 

[AB Corals]

Now even my monti is getting white tips. I'm stumped. I was thinking lighting was the issue, because my monti is growing upward instead of outward, almost into a spiral. Now my phosphates one day were 0.21, then the next day 0.28! I got a new pump for my gfo and carbon reactor but I'm hesitant to put it online because I already have low low nitrates. Thinking I might dose nitrates and stick the gfo online but have it do a slow drip speed to slowly take down the phosphates. Any ideas or input?

 

[AB Corals]

Should add I also got some acropower and I'm dosing it once a week for aminos.

 

[GainesvilleReef]

I don't understand dosing nitrates and phosphates with a refugium. You can control nutrient uptake on the refugium by reducing the light time on the refugium. Keep it simple. Let the tank settle in.

+1 on the acropower. It will help if it is a starvation issue.

 

[Backreefing]

I don’t know much about your aquarium but carbon reactors are dangerous unless your smart . And GFO is dangerous to . Maybe stop all that stuff and go back to basics.
if you read around this forum you will read that gfo is a well know coral killer , and for that mater carbon doseing is very dangerous in unknowing hands . I have herd of 2 cups of pellets wiping out large aquariums .
But to each his own ways . Good luck