Corals Lacking Color But Still Growing

[cmcimino]

I currently have a 75 gallon tank setup and I have had some issues with some of my corals loosing color, specifically my SPS, and chalices. Most of my LPS looks okay. My parameters seem to be in check, Alkalinity stays right around 8.5 dkH consistently, calcium around 430 ppm, and magnesium is around 1400 ppm. pH fluctuates from 8.15 to 8.0 at night.

I live in Wilmington, NC so I was hit by Hurricane Florence and was without power for 5 days. I ran my tank on a generator, but them rose to 86 degrees. Once my power came back on my temperature dropped back down to 78.5 pretty quickly. I was not thinking but I should have changed my apex settings to lower it back down more gradually. Could this have caused some paling of colors?

The only other thing I can think of is my lighting. I am running two Gen 3 Radion XR30s on the AB+ spectrum. I was running them at 50% about 14" off the water, but decided to lower it down to 35% since my corals starting paling.

I am thinking my lighting is okay though because I have lots of skeletal growth on my corals. Plugs are being encrusted, new polyps are forming on LPS, but they are just lacking color. Any other ideas of what could cause the pale colors?

 

[BigJim]

It could be from the temperature change. Some corals (especially SPS) can take months to color back up after being stressed. Do you know you nitrate and phosphate levels? It's possible knowing those levels could help determine the cause.

 

[cmcimino]

I don't have a nitrate level, but I am running a large skimmer on this tank + refugium, and only have 3 fish (2 clowns and a tri-color wrasse). Last time I checked my phosphates they were at .04.

 

[Jonreefer]

I have the same issue. My SPS is very pale and lost alot of its color. But it is still growing at a pretty good pace just bland looking. My tank is stable at a PH 8.2, cal 430, alk 9, mag 1460 red sea test.
Couldnt figure out what it was. finally checked phose and nitrates and on my hanna URL phos test it was zero and nitrates are zero so basically was starving my tank and been feeding more and dosing red sea reef energy and have noticed I am slowly starting to get the tips of the sps showing more color still basically reading zero phos and nitrate but I am feeding the tank for the corals and seems to be helping.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Ultra low nitrates can definitely cause loss of color.

 

[jda]

Most people who put T5s on with their Radions report back with better color.

If you just had all of those things happen, then give the coral a few months to recover.

 

[roberthu526]

I am in the same boat. No fish in the display and some acros are very pale. I am dosing 40ml of acropower and Red Sea A&B daily and still can’t get nitrate. I think once I have the tank stocked with fish things will turn around.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Growth is more important to me than color as color can be made up with nutrients and a little rise in nitrates. A pure as Zero nitrates sounds, you still want a little

 

[Coral Newbie]

I have the same issue. I posted on it about a month ago. My levels were 1 and .04 for nitrates and phos. A lot of people recommend increasing the nitrates. BRS just did a video on this issue and running a tank with low nit and phos. Their video said for a established tank of 2+ yrs that going all the way up to 20 on the nitrates was acceptable. Not recommending that but general consensus is 3-5 is a good range from what I see is being tossed around.

 

[Paul J]

Try potassium. I had a similar scenario with plating coral and others. The ICP test said add 44.6 ml over three days. l thinks that's a lot for a 88 liter reef tank. But the corals have come back, very well.
Iodine to be raised over two days, 0.88ml and 0.18 then continue daily with 0.11ml
Strontium to be added 9.02 in one day. One off dose.
Boron I still have not done still waiting for product, Salifert
I'm using Tropic Marin pro. This needs alk added to the salt mix as it reads 7kh with out it. I have mine at 9kh
I dose vodka and the reads are too low at zero. So reducing doseage to 0.6ml each day. Sorry going of track here!

 

[Craigb350]

Have you checked your trace elements if your nutrients are ok?

things like potassium, iodine, strontium, iron?

 

[Saltyanimals]

+1 on the lack of nitrates and point of sale. growth is not a problem but color is. I have same lights on AB+, but I added a couple hours of blue in the mornings as this suppose to help with color.

I have a 75g with 10 fish and intentionally try to overfeed. autofeeder x3 daily. Energy A /B plus Redsea Color. Generous concoction of 3 different powder mix every other day and still can't get numbers detectable. I just started Aquaforest 123 recently hoping the 3rd part with trace will improve my situation a bit.

 

[Jonreefer]

i am in the same boat.
I have 8 fish in my 35cube. I am feeding ALOT more now, also have my skimmer set for a 12hr on and 12hr off and still not getting any nitrates or phos. Hoping the reef chili and red sea A/B also started dosing red sea colors per my BRS calcium use. so hopefully all that will give the corals what they need to get alot more colorful

 

[Paul J]

I recommend keep the skimmer on 24/7
Are you dosing anything to reduce nitrates / phosphates? Look into this to start reducing no3 no4

 

[cmcimino]

So I did some testing during lunch today. Results are below.

Alk: 8.2 dkH Hanna Test Kit
Calc: 420 ppm Redsea Test Kit
Mag: 1400 ppm Redsea Test Kit
Nitrates: 0 ppm Salifert Test Kit
Phosphates: 0 ppm Hanna Test Kit - ULR

My tank is not very stocked, 2 clowns, a small wrasse, some snails, and a cleaner shrimp. I plan on expanding livestock, but the room my QT is usually set up in is currently occupied by a friend who was displaced during the hurricane. I run an AquaC EV-180 Skimmer which is a little over sized for my tank, but it barely pulls anything out at the moment. I am currently emptying it ever 2-3 weeks with only about half an inch of skimmate. I also run a refugium on a 12 hour light cycle. It is currently full of chaeto so that may be a reason my nutrients are so low. I also have some very pale brown nuisance algae that seems to be popping up around my tank. Not sure where it came from, but it is similar to some algae I had in my nanocube and it went away on its own so I am not going to try and chase it.

Should I try to increase my nutrients? I don't want that nuisance algae to really take off, but I also don't want my corals to pale out anymore.

 

[cmcimino]

I cleaned my chaeto out about a week ago, and have been dosing KNO3, at about 1/16th a teaspoon per day. Should raise my nitrates 1ppm per day. Only problem is after 24 hours its undetectable again. I will keep dosing until I get my nitrates up. I am still at 0 phosphates. Should I worry about trying to raise it?