Corals dying

[islanderjunkie27]

Hello ,
I have been having some issues with some corals and was hoping I could get some advice.
the sps in the tank have brown algae growing over them and a monti looks like it became completely bleached
I’m running 3 G5’s on the default AB+ setting. The average par on top is about 175 and 100 on the bottom
Nitrates are at 10
Phosphates .25
Alk 9.6
Calcium 450
Mag 1350

Any advice would be super appreciated.
Tank is about about 6 months old. Red Sea 525 migrated from a 36 gallon Red Sea

 

[Auto-pilot]

Newer tanks can be hard. Sounds like you have some sort of alge problem due but it's hard to diagnose if I cant see it under a microscope. How stable is your tank?? Are you dosing anything?

 

[islanderjunkie27]

Newer tanks can be hard. Sounds like you have some sort of alge problem due but it's hard to diagnose if I cant see it under a microscope. How stable is your tank?? Are you dosing anything?

Dosing aqua forest. Had some trouble keeping the params stable for awhile but they have been sitting where they are now for about a month.

 

[Shirak]

175 par at the top? Top of what? What is the par where your sps are? I am thinking it's not enough par.
Brown algae? Are you sure it's algae? Algae is usually green. Dino's, Diatoms maybe?

 

[Flux Capacitor]

175 par at the top? Top of what? What is the par where your sps are? I am thinking it's not enough par.
Brown algae? Are you sure it's algae? Algae is usually green. Dino's, Diatoms maybe?

I agree I think you should bring the par up, maybe to the 250-300 range at the top of the rocks.

 

[islanderjunkie27]

175 par at the top? Top of what? What is the par where your sps are? I am thinking it's not enough par.
Brown algae? Are you sure it's algae? Algae is usually green. Dino's, Diatoms maybe?

I’m not sure it’s algae at all. Just know irs
Brown.

 

[islanderjunkie27]

I agree I think you should bring the par up, maybe to the 250-300 range at the top of the rocks.

I only have the lights on at 50%intensity. Should I just dial it up ?

 

[Shirak]

I only have the lights on at 50%intensity. Should I just dial it up ?

well good question. I see what looks like a mix of some lps and sps and some softies. I don't have experience with the kessils to know what kind of par you might be getting at 50%. How high from the water are they and how deep is the 150? Maybe someone with more experience with these lights can chime in. Alternative would be to get a par meter to know for certain. I wouldn't just go turning them up without some more knowledge. I am guessing the previous owner was running them at 50% too? Were they also running them 24hrs? That is a bit odd and maybe they miss programmed them for you?

 

[islanderjunkie27]

well good question. I see what looks like a mix of some lps and sps and some softies. I don't have experience with the kessils to know what kind of par you might be getting at 50%. How high from the water are they and how deep is the 150? Maybe someone with more experience with these lights can chime in. Alternative would be to get a par meter to know for certain. I wouldn't just go turning them up without some more knowledge. I am guessing the previous owner was running them at 50% too? Were they also running them 24hrs? That is a bit odd and maybe they miss programmed them for you?

I didn’t get them from a previous owner. Just left it at the defaults. The lights are 9 inches from surface and the sps are a few inches down from there. Maybe 6 I think.

 

[Shirak]

on a side note you might be able to find the BRS video on these lights to see what kind of par numbers they put out and at what heights/depths. That would give you a ball park.

 

[Shirak]

woops sorry was looking at another thread and posted in this one. Still unsure what you are reading at 175par. for the sps you would want more 250ish...

 

[Flux Capacitor]

What G5’s do you have? I’m running 4 xr15 G5 at 10” above the water. I use the AB+ I’m getting 300-350 par at the top of my rocks, and 200-250 on the bottom glass(I run bare bottom). I run them at 100%. That’s about 9-10 inches below the water line. If you bring them up do it slowly! Use the acclimation function over a 30 day period. The best thing you can do to be sure is rent a Par meter or borrow one.

 

[islanderjunkie27]

woops sorry was looking at another thread and posted in this one. Still unsure what you are reading at 175par. for the sps you would want more 250ish...

Cool. I will check that out. The brown stuff only grows on the sps. Could that be because the lights are two low ?

 

[SuncrestReef]

Phosphates at .25 is pretty high. Mosts SPS reefers shoot for lower PO4 numbers in the 0.03 - 0.1 range.

 

[islanderjunkie27]

Phosphates at .25 is pretty high. Mosts SPS reefers shoot for lower PO4 numbers in the 0.03 - 0.1 range.

Should I run gfo to bring it down ?

 

[Shirak]

Cool. I will check that out. The brown stuff only grows on the sps. Could that be because the lights are two low ?

Probably more from the phosphates and nitrates.

 

[SuncrestReef]

Should I run gfo to bring it down ?

GFO can help, though it will also cause a drop in alkalinity. Another option is dosing Lanthium Chloride or products such as Phosphate-E.

 

[Shirak]

Should I run gfo to bring it down ?

Maybe.. maybe feed the fish a little less? Could also do more water changes. If you have some macro algae you could pull some nutrients out. I prefer to avoid gfo and things like that if possible. Nitrates not super high so maybe a bit of gfo just to get phosphates back in line is the best plan.

 

[islanderjunkie27]

GFO can help, though it will also cause a drop in alkalinity. Another option is dosing Lanthium Chloride or products such as Phosphate-E.

Thanx. Will give that a shot.

 

[Flux Capacitor]

I would only do one thing at a time to try to rectify the problem. I would personally start with the par. If you do too many things at once it could make it worse.