Confused About My Coral Coloration--Things Aren't Adding Up

[X-37B]

I would first stop dosing MB7/Clean it will drive nutrients to zero and if they are already zero you cant win.
I agree lower your alk. 9+ and going to 10 with no nutrients can cause exactly what you are seeing. The alk spike to 10 did not help.
What is your ca mag?

Remove as much algae as you can. Get a sea hair and remove it when the algae is gone.

I just got rid of algae in my 20g.
I did 2 doses of Algaefix. Many dont like using it but I have had great results over the years.

Long term feed your fish more.

 

[rhpmiller]

Out of curiosity you mentioned you don’t run skimmer, how about water changes? Do you do any or none or ….. ?

My suspicion is that due to low PO4 your biofilm is not functioning and died back. This released the stored PO4 into your rock and algae is now taking over.
This is based on my experience with algae.
You did mention you used GFO so I suspect you used to have detectable/elevated PO4 and tried to correct it. In reef tank what you did or did not do 3 weeks to 3 months ago is what you see now.

IMO before you play with light, flow I would try to make sure the water chemistry is good. There is no magic bullet or button or potion that can quickly fix a reef tank (temporary fix maybe but you will be at the same place in month).
The algae will need to be manually removed though.

Usually do a 2-3 gallon water change every 1-2 weeks.

Yeah, there’s not a ton of algae all over the rocks or anything, like you’d get during the ugly phase of a new tank, but had some small outbreaks in certain areas.

Removed a bunch of sea lettuce off power heads and scrubbed the rocks and siphoned that off during the water change over the weekend.

Going to keep dosing NO3/PO4 for the next 3-4 weeks, keep my alk stable, and remove any new algae that crops up. Hoping that detectable levels of nutrients and stable alk will help add back some of the color and health to the SPS

 

[BranchingHammer]

I would first stop dosing MB7/Clean it will drive nutrients to zero and if they are already zero you cant win.
I agree lower your alk. 9+ and going to 10 with no nutrients can cause exactly what you are seeing. The alk spike to 10 did not help.
What is your ca mag?

Remove as much algae as you can. Get a sea hair and remove it when the algae is gone.

I just got rid of algae in my 20g.
I did 2 doses of Algaefix. Many dont like using it but I have had great results over the years.

Long term feed your fish more.

Agree with everything he said, but definitely reduce your alk it will help in my experience.

 

[Jeremy_d]

Hey all,

Hoping some folks can help me figure out potential issues and solutions for something going on in my tank, as I'm a bit confused with some of what i'm seeing in the tank vs. what i'm seeing in my testing.

To start, I've got a 20 gallon Max Nano that's almost 2 years old and it's a bit of a mixed reef, with 5 fish, CUC, and an anemone. Over the past ~2 months my SPS colors are fading and turning more pastel-ish, and any new SPS frags do the same. Even my slimer is feeling it.

My initial thoughts were that I don't have enough nutrients in my tank, backed up by my readings on both Hanna and Salifert tests of N03 and P04 being 0.0 on most readings. However, I have lettuce and hair algae growing on my power heads, parts of my rock, and tips of some corals, and a new film on my glass almost daily. So i'm assuming there's nutrients, but they just keep getting taken up by the algae vs. coral.

So what I'm hoping people can give me some advice or help with is:

1. What do you think is the cause of the coral fading and pasteling?
2. Since I can't get a tang to put in and eat the algae, while I dose NO3/PO4, does anyone have any suggestions on how to balance increasing nutrients, without blowing up the algae?

Really appreciate any feedback and input!

Seems like you have a nutrient imbalance in your tank, with low nitrate (NO3) and phosphate (PO4) levels, which could be causing the fading and pastel colors in your SPS corals. The presence of algae and other growth indicates that there are some nutrients in your system, but they might be getting consumed by the algae rather than the corals.

1. Light and Photo Period: Ensure you have appropriate lighting for your tank and adjust the photo period to prevent excessive algae growth.
2. Feed More: Increase the amount and frequency of feeding your fish and/or corals to introduce more nutrients into the system.
3. Supplement Feeding: Consider using specific coral or reef supplements that provide trace elements and nutrients, but be cautious with dosages to avoid overfeeding the algae.
4. Refugium: Implementing a refugium can help grow macroalgae, which can consume excess nutrients and compete with nuisance algae for resources.
5. Chemical Filtration: Utilize appropriate chemical filtration methods like activated carbon or GFO (granular ferric oxide) to help control excess nutrients.
6. Bigger Water Changes: bigger water changes can help replenish trace elements and restore balance to the system.

 

[rhpmiller]

Agree with everything he said, but definitely reduce your alk it will help in my experience.

Going to reduce my alk from 9.2/9.3 and try and stabilize it around 8.8. Is that still too high?

 

[BranchingHammer]

Going to reduce my alk from 9.2/9.3 and try and stabilize it around 8.8. Is that still too high?

I would bring it down to around 8 or a bit lower over two days if you can because 8.8 might still be high. That's in my experience from having low nutrient systems. It is debatable whether corals are actually utilizing the dosed nitrate and phosphate compared to more biologically available nitrogen and phosphorous containing compounds from the nutrient import from the fish. Reducing alk could stop the tip burn you're seeing and improve the health of the corals. That's my 2 cents

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

I am having nutrient issues also. As in none... I know I do have nutrients because I, like you have a bit of hair, bubble, etc. I have been using TM NP plus and have had some luck with that. My corals have been coloring up. I also recently have been adding NeoPhos and Nitro and got to .1 PO4. I stopped for a day just to see the use and it was pretty much gone the next day. TM NP plus does have some carbon dosing in it so my hair algae was/is being reduced.
I also feed 3 times a day. Flakes pellets and frozen, Phyto, rotifers

 

[rhpmiller]

UPDATE: Did a lot of manual algae removal--scrubbing rocks, dipping of some frags, power heads, and frag racks in hydrogen peroxide solution, and turned on my skimmer. Additionally, brought my ALK down to a range of 8.3-8.7 (vs. 9.3-9.7)

Have had much better nutrient readings, with NO3 readings between 7.1 and 11.4 and PO4 between 0.05 and 0.08.

Know it will take quite a few weeks to months to get things colored back up, but feel this is a good start and some consistency levels to aim for. Appreciate all the input and thoughts!