Coralline turning white

hopperjl16 · Oct 2, 2016

I've always had a few white spots in my purple coralline but all of a sudden they're everywhere. I'm assuming something is "off" nutrient-wise? Here are my stats:
29 gallon nano tank, up and running for 10 months
20% water change weekly with my own water from a spectrapure filter system
4 fish, 2 shrimp
I don't add anything to the water nutrient-wise
Multiple soft corals and one frogspawn
Nitrite, ammonia, phosphate all zero
Nitrate is 0-5ppm (depending how far I hold the water vial from the indicator card)
SG 1.024, temp 78
Lights are the stock ones that came with my biocube

Incidentally I have a mushroom coral that is losing color and my ricordias seem to be smaller and less colorful than usual. My leather corals are all super happy and huge. My frogspawn is ok, but doesn't seem to be growing.

Thanks for any advice! I know I prob need to check a calcium level, so I ordered a kit but don't have it yet.

Reeferdood · Oct 2, 2016

Might be time to change the lights... Your water change schedule should be enough to keep everything in check..
Id also bump your salinity up a notch.. 1.025 is my sweet spot...

Humblefish · Oct 2, 2016

You need to test alkalinity, calcium and even magnesium to be sure they are in line (and stay in line) with what's listed here: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/

cromag27 · Oct 2, 2016

Yeah check your other parameters. I also see some patches of gha, so your nutrients to may be higher than what you think.

Salty1962 · Oct 2, 2016

Do you have any star fish? I have seen them eat through coalline algae before.

cromag27 · Oct 2, 2016

Urchins too.

Salty1962 said:
Do you have any star fish? I have seen them eat through coalline algae before.

Ocelaris · Oct 3, 2016

Yeah, check salinity, I just noticed doing a water change mine had dropped from it's normal 1.025 to 1.022. It's on on auto top off and my skimmer has been going crazy lately. Also if salinity is ok check Alk/CA/MG like humblefish mentioned. I'm slowly bringing it back up, but new coraline algae looks ok.

hopperjl16 · Oct 5, 2016

Salinity 1.024. I'll have my test kit for calcium and alkalinity tomorrow to check that. Need to order a kit for Mg. Also noticed 2 of my previously happy ricordia florida have detached and gone missing. :-(. Really not happy about that since they aren't cheap.

I have a sand sifting star fish and a brittle sea star. No urchins.

Frosty Latte · Oct 5, 2016

This happened to me in my nano after about 1 year in. Turned out my corals I added after not having any for a long time started out competing the coralline algae for the resources in the tank due to the small size and a few missed water changes.

Jakepen · Oct 5, 2016

With that much coraline, I would assume it's eating up your alk pretty quickly. Will definitely benefit once you can test, and start to dose.

hopperjl16 · Oct 5, 2016

Fuel Doodle said:
This happened to me in my nano after about 1 year in. Turned out my corals I added after not having any for a long time started out competing the coralline algae for the resources in the tank due to the small size and a few missed water changes.

It would make sense. I'm about 10 months in and at first I was only going to do a FOWLR tank, so I didn't even get my first softies for a few months. Then I became addicted to corals and added more softies (8 ricordias, a large gsp, 4 kenya trees, 2 mushrooms and 1 yuma over a few months) and even one lps (my frogspawn). I'm religious about water changes though. However I don't dose anything into the tank. Apparently I need to?

hopperjl16 · Oct 5, 2016

Jakepen said:
With that much coraline, I would assume it's eating up your alk pretty quickly. Will definitely benefit once you can test, and start to dose.

I have a TON of coraline. It covers my rocks almost 100% and prob 1/2 my back wall. I keep it off the glass.

Jakepen · Oct 5, 2016

You would be surprised. In my 30 gallon, been running for six months, have about 25 frags. I go through 3dkh in 24 hours...

hopperjl16 · Oct 6, 2016

Ok, calcium is 400 ppm
pH is 7.8
Total alkalinity is 3.5meq/L

So I think all of these numbers are low?

Jakepen · Oct 6, 2016

ph is lower then I like it, but not worth chasing higher numbers. Alk is great, calcium I like to keep at or around 450. All in all your numbers are solid. Have a test for mag?

Jakepen · Oct 6, 2016

Guess I should not say alk is great, I don't know where great is. 10dkh however, is a very acceptable number in my opinion. Mine stays between 9-10.5

hopperjl16 · Oct 6, 2016

Jakepen said:
ph is lower then I like it, but not worth chasing higher numbers. Alk is great, calcium I like to keep at or around 450. All in all your numbers are solid. Have a test for mag?

Mg test should be here tomorrow, along with a different alkalinity test that measures in different units.

Jakepen · Oct 6, 2016

My Hanna reads in ppm, I convert on this website. https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/AlkConversion.php

Playa-1 · Oct 6, 2016

That tank looks good from my house. It's also wise to test the parameters of freshly mixed saltwater before using it, at least when you first open the new bucket. If you get a bad batch and don't realize it, then it can cause parameter swings and lots of problems.