Acros hate me

In the sticks · Jan 17, 2023

I officially think acros hate me!!! I have a bunch of digis monti caps birds nest and some unknown sps. All growing like crazy.. but every acro I stick in starts to bleach in like a month or to. My parameters are
alk 9
cal 465
Mag1340
No3 3.5
No4 .05

those numbers are very stable to I don’t know what I am doing wrong. Thinking about a icp test.

adsf430 · Jan 17, 2023

Would bet $ it’s your PH. Add a CO2 scrubber to your skimmer.

billyocean · Jan 17, 2023

Not sure. The nitrate might be low for 9 alk though.

zheka757 · Jan 17, 2023

green slimer was my first acro that, successfully grew in my tank, many others stayed as frags up to a year and died.

Acrofiend · Jan 17, 2023

Low nitrate and high alkalinity is a death sentence. Also 0 phosphate will kill them.

In the sticks · Jan 18, 2023

adsf430 said:
Would bet $ it’s your PH. Add a CO2 scrubber to your skimmer.

I have a scrubber ph 8.1-8.4

In the sticks · Jan 18, 2023

NJM16 said:
Low nitrate and high alkalinity is a death sentence. Also 0 phosphate will kill them.

Yea I have a hard time with nitrates. I have been dosing nitrates for last 6 months. Is a good target with nitrates 5-10 with alk being 9

billyocean · Jan 18, 2023

In the sticks said:
Yea I have a hard time with nitrates. I have been dosing nitrates for last 6 months. Is a good target with nitrates 5-10 with alk being 9

I would aim for at 10 minimum personally..probably more like 15