Chalices are bleaching please help !

[scubasteve020]

My chalices are bleaching don’t know why,
Phosphates have been at 0 my nitrates were at a 10 I thought that was the reason so I started dosing phosphate which ultimately helped bring the nitrates down to 3ppm with using nopox. Phosphate still at 0 and I’ve been using like 6ml of neophos when I only have like 40gallons of actual water volume. My alk has been around a steady 8dkh and ca usually around 440 and mag 1320. I do a 10 percent water change weekly.. I have the chalices towards the bottom around 100 to 150 par. Low flow on the chalices. Is it maybe something bacterial ? I don’t have any pests that would eat the coral like nudibranchs etc
Last levels before adjusting the ca a tiny bit and the mg

 

[Billldg]

From the info your gave I will have to say your nutrients are to low for that amount of par on your chalices. You said you dosed NeoPhos and nopox at the same time, is this correct or a typo?

 

[fishguy242]

hi with what i see so far alk is little low ,please post some pics of corals and full tank shot ,salinity,type of lighting,

 

[Uncle99]

Make sure your not blasting them with light, that will bleach them!

 

[Reefer40b]

I think we need some pictures to help a little better..

 

[jmags080307]

have they been slowly losing color or did it happen quickly?

 

[IKD]

how long have you had them? Agree with other posts that phosphates and nitrates being too low.

 

[scubasteve020]

so overall story was about 8 months ago I had a huge phosphate spike went up to .5 so I started using gfo and things went back to normal and been great for months till last month suddenly things started getting worse and I noticed my nitrates got to high and had 0 phosphates. Nopox is basically useless at that point because the bacteria is not getting enough phosphates(nutrients) to survive and break down the nitrates. So I slowly removed the gfo over a period of two weeks and still no phosphates. So I started dosing neophos but still kept the same does of nopox. Nopox is mostly for nitrate reduction. By dosing both at same time I was able to finally bring down the nitrates. I have to up my dosage of phosphates to get a better ratio. I have two radion pro xr15s on a shallow tank only 11 inches from sand bed from top of tank. I have the pro mounts I think it’s about a foot above the tank. I don’t think it’s the light because I had chalices growing great where they were until last month when I noticed the nitrates were high.

 

[scubasteve020]

have they been slowly losing color or did it happen quickly?

About a week from losing color to bleaching so not very quickly

 

[scubasteve020]

hi with what i see so far alk is little low ,please post some pics of corals and full tank shot ,salinity,type of lighting,

The chalices I had that bleached I took out cause they were complete goners but I have some bleaching on some sps(monti and my Acro colony) and some lps but not everything. Here is current pictures of things having issues

 

[Billldg]

so overall story was about 8 months ago I had a huge phosphate spike went up to .5 so I started using gfo and things went back to normal and been great for months till last month suddenly things started getting worse and I noticed my nitrates got to high and had 0 phosphates. Nopox is basically useless at that point because the bacteria is not getting enough phosphates(nutrients) to survive and break down the nitrates. So I slowly removed the gfo over a period of two weeks and still no phosphates. So I started dosing neophos but still kept the same does of nopox. Nopox is mostly for nitrate reduction. By dosing both at same time I was able to finally bring down the nitrates. I have to up my dosage of phosphates to get a better ratio. I have two radion pro xr15s on a shallow tank only 11 inches from sand bed from top of tank. I have the pro mounts I think it’s about a foot above the tank. I don’t think it’s the light because I had chalices growing great where they were until last month when I noticed the nitrates were high.

I think you have the answer in the last sentence. The problems started when you started to address the N03. Where do you want your N03? Unless you are going for a ULN tank, 10 ppm is good IMO. I also use Neophos when I have low P04, I have a 120 tank with a total water volume of 120 gals and I use 30 ml to raise it .02. If you tank is P04 starved, which is sounds like it is then the sand and rocks will lock it up for a while.