Color coloration issue possibly due to low nutrients

[Xombie2000]

I have a plating monti that has turned peach over time. My purple rain has also had some color loss over time as well. A few things have changed. My mother passed 6 months ago and I neglected my tank. In other words, I neglected to feed my corals(reef roids) and dose amino acids (reef fuel/energy). Additionally in this time frame I upgraded my skimmer to a Reef Octopus 2000int.
Parameters are as follows:
Salinity 1.027
Temperature 79f
Nitrates 0
Calcium 420
Alkalinity 8.5

Steps I'm taking to correct the issue: I'm dosing aquavitro fuel and reefroids every 3 days, feeding fish every day omega flakes, feed reef frenzy every other day, Flourish Nitrogen10ml daily. Reduced my skimmer to run 10 hours a day, dimmed my lighting.

Am I missing anything?

 

[SeaDweller]

I have a plating monti that has turned peach over time. My purple rain has also had some color loss over time as well. A few things have changed. My mother passed 6 months ago and I neglected my tank. In other words, I neglected to feed my corals(reef roids) and dose amino acids (reef fuel/energy). Additionally in this time frame I upgraded my skimmer to a Reef Octopus 2000int.
Parameters are as follows:
Salinity 1.027
Temperature 79f
Nitrates 0
Calcium 420
Alkalinity 8.5

Steps I'm taking to correct the issue: I'm dosing aquavitro fuel and reefroids every 3 days, feeding fish every day omega flakes, feed reef frenzy every other day, Flourish Phosphorous 10ml daily. Reduced my skimmer to run 10 hours a day, dimmed my lighting.

Am I missing anything?

Don't think so, hopefully you'll see a turn around. Maybe skim super dry, vs just partial day.

 

[Xombie2000]

Don't think so, hopefully you'll see a turn around. Maybe skim super dry, vs just partial day.

Thanks, yeah I'm doing that too.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Feed something better than flake food. Frozen food is much better than pellets and much much better than flakes

 

[Graffiti Spot]

What test kit is giving you a zero nitrate reading?

 

[Xombie2000]

What test kit is giving you a zero nitrate reading?

API

 

[Xombie2000]

Feed something better than flake food. Frozen food is much better than pellets and much much better than flakes

I use LRS reef frenzy frozen every other day. I feed my fish omega flakes daily.

 

[SeaDweller]

I use reef frenzy frozen every other day. I feed my fish omega flakes daily.

i have picky fish, but they love omega flakes. Plus there's no fluff listed in the ingredients, it works

 

[jda]

High quality flakes and pellets are fine. Don't sweat this.

Don't do too much at once or you might not know what did what...

 

[AdamNC]

Give it a week then test No3 and Po4. If they are still showing 0 then get testing done at your LFS even if it costs or pick up some more accurate testing kits.

 

[Xombie2000]

Will do. Thank you.

 

[MurphyJ]

I feed Omega flake as well. My fish are fat happy and healthy. they love the stuff. I also feed frozen 1-2 x a week and the Nems get ground shrimp each week.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Not saying flakes don’t work. Just saying for people having true low nutrient issues they might see a little better results feeding frozen which the op is already doing. I wouldn’t trust the api reading of zero nitrate. It could be readable or even 10+ nitrates on a good test kit like salifert or Red Sea.

 

[Reefasaurus X]

Do you check phosphate? I’d be curious to know if that level is up, which definitely would have negative impact on montis. Personally I’ve never seen montis suffer from lack of feeding.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

What test kit is giving you a zero nitrate reading?

I have had even the low range test on Red Sea Pro kit give me a true 0 ppm no3, test was crystal clear. API while not nearly as accurate is pretty easy to tell 0 ppm, bright yellow. If there is even a hint of red/orange its 1-5 ppm. Another reason I know no3 was 0 is because I had no algae growth, slow chaeto growth and 2 types of dinos bloomed in my tank.
As for foods. Flake and pellet are totally fine. Most brands we have available to us are high quality and very nutrient rich. I feed my fish pellet and flake a lot, New Life Spectrum and Ocean Nutrition are my go to dry foods. If I feed NLS for a while it will incease po4 nicely, had pk4 go from 0.03 to 0.21 ppm in a couple weeks when feeding NLS heavily. Mysis and Marine Cuisine are my main frozen foods.

I have a plating monti that has turned peach over time. My purple rain has also had some color loss over time as well. A few things have changed. My mother passed 6 months ago and I neglected my tank. In other words, I neglected to feed my corals(reef roids) and dose amino acids (reef fuel/energy). Additionally in this time frame I upgraded my skimmer to a Reef Octopus 2000int.
Parameters are as follows:
Salinity 1.027
Temperature 79f
Nitrates 0
Calcium 420
Alkalinity 8.5

Steps I'm taking to correct the issue: I'm dosing aquavitro fuel and reefroids every 3 days, feeding fish every day omega flakes, feed reef frenzy every other day, Flourish Nitrogen10ml daily. Reduced my skimmer to run 10 hours a day, dimmed my lighting.

Am I missing anything?

Whats your po4 at? If you dont have a Hanna ULR Phosphate checker get one, must have tester imo. Have you tested mag? Montis tend to gray out if mag gets below 1300. 1400 is a good level to target but 1380-1450 is good.

 

[Xombie2000]

The LFS did a test for me and nitrates and phosphates were 0. His suggestion was adding more fish. I only have 5. Coral Beauty, Flame Hawk, 2 Darwin clowns and a flame fin tang.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

The LFS did a test for me and nitrates and phosphates were 0. His suggestion was adding more fish. I only have 5. Coral Beauty, Flame Hawk, 2 Darwin clowns and a flame fin tang.

Did they test the mag? Adding more fish is great for the long term, if your tank has the room for them of coarse. In the short term get some Brightwell Neo Nitro and Neo Phos and dose them to get no3 to 5 ppm and po4 to 0.05. If you are running a fuge or algae scrubber reducing the photo period will help increase no3 and po4 as well. I really suggest investing in your own quality test kits. Red Sea Pro and Salifert have good cal, mag and nitrate tests. Hanna checkers for alk and phosphates period, mic drop.

 

[Greg P]

The LFS did a test for me and nitrates and phosphates were 0. His suggestion was adding more fish. I only have 5. Coral Beauty, Flame Hawk, 2 Darwin clowns and a flame fin tang.

Good advice on upping your fish count, if your tank can accommodate more.
My corals suffer when I don't have enough fish poop.

Get better testing products for NO3 and PO4 and consider adding some manually until your have a larger fish population.

 

[AquamanE]

Lots of good advise here. IMHO.

 

[Xombie2000]

I have the testing kits for everything most are red sea a few are APO. I had the LFS double check it for me to make sure my Reagents weren’t bad. Everything is in proper range except nitrates and phosphates.