Battling with maintaining nutrients and sps pale colors

[Gungo]

@lolgranny hahaha don't worry its okay! btw awesome photos and gorgeous corals and tank!

 

[HB AL]

I still would go with the SIMPLE solution and feed your corals whatever type of coral food you prefer the corals will benefit from the feeding and your nutrients will rise. Maybe start off doing it 2 or 3 times a week and see what your levels are at then adjust accordingly.

 

[jzw]

If my tank were in the states I would give a try to LA, but my tank is in Dominican Republic.. most sellers won't ship to DR, we buy fish from exotic aquatics in California I believe they're the only ones who ship to DR (no guarantees). Not to mention the shipping costs? a 40-50$ fish can take you x3 the value of the fish just to ship, it all depends on the volume of the order of course...

@frcarvajal... lol, if you're in the DR, just go catch some fish outta the ocean!

 

[Mattrg02]

I dose nitrates and phosphate, but only if they drop too low despite feedings. Check them once a week and dose if they are too low. Then up your feedings.

 

[MTBake]

I dose both as needed. Feeding alone doesn't keep nitrates or phosphates up in my system. I dose to .12 ppm phosphates and it's used up in 12 hrs. As in I read 0ppb on Hanna ulr phosphorus checker 12hrs after dosing. My system also uses 1ppm of no3 daily.

I use sodium nitrate and trisodium phosphate mixed into solutions with ro/di water to dose.

 

[jda]

Do most of you understand that when you dose phosphate that the anoxic bacteria is likely the source consuming all of it? It will outcompete your corals. You have likely created a larger pool of this bacteria by giving it more food.

Not always, but most of the time, you have the same available nitrate to the coral when around zero (nobody is truly at zero without carbon dosing or other chemicals and media)... only in this case, the anoxic bacterial base is smaller and not able to consume as much.

In either case, as long as the addition is constant, then an equilibrium can be reached. Both methods are very much likely the same to the corals in the end. Inconsistent feeding of bacteria can be more harmful than letting them form an equilibrium on their own.

 

[Gungo]

@frcarvajal... lol, if you're in the DR, just go catch some fish outta the ocean!

I don't really like Caribbean fish... I have friends who had to shut off their whole system after introducing local fish, even corals.. that scares me so I really prefer importing them.

 

[ZaneTer]

Dose whatever you need to dose, just keep it consistent. Peaks and troughs are not great for corals.
I also dose potassium nitrate and trisodium phosphate.

 

[ajcanale]

Not sure if it’s been mentioned but KZ Pohls Extra Special is an excellent product for coloring up sps (and other coral) in a low nutrient system

 

[ZaneTer]

I have generally found that colouring products for corals normally raises nitrate with almost no addition to phosphates.

 

[dave57]

From the thousands of variables in reef tanks honestly it can be anything.. from low potassium, salinity,temperature, nutrients, lighting, trace elements, fish to coral ratios.. and the list goes on.. I’m currently in the same boat you’re in. I’ve done icp testing, trace element additions. Supplemental feedings, amino acids, kz coral vitalizer, Phols extra, redsea colors, and much more that honestly makes little to no difference. My nutrients are nitrates 1.5 phosphates 0.04-0.05 and still have pale colors. I’ve been up to 10 ppm nitrates and still no change. I’ve seen tanks with 0.25 nitrates and they have amazing colors. A lot of people here will tell you to change this and that but honestly the more changes you make the more you’ll be set back. So if you’re gonna be changing things I’d suggest to do them slow and monitor the outcome over months.. with so much tweaking I’ve seen good changes happens over couple change but because of so many changes all at once I didn’t know what made that difference and things just got back to square one. Good luck
Oh and think long term not temporary options because that’s another change coming soon..

 

[Gungo]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions! I will just follow a friend advice, he told me that he doesn't really focus on Acropora colors, he focuses only on tank stability of everything.. colors will come eventually, with time. when everything is growing it will show its colors with patience!