Essential elements dosing need advice

[stevediaz1]

Hello I have a 30 gallon Nuvo reef tank with a mixed reef I'm loosing color in my corals or seem to be fading I was told to check a number of things including phosphates, lighting, I'm currently using echotech radions pro 3rd gen and have them at 35% brightness not intensity...is there a difference if so what is it? Anyways my parameters are as follow

Ca 440
Mg 1350
Alk 9.4
Ph 8.2
Salinity 1.025
Temp 78 degrees
Phosphate 1.0
Nitrate 10.0
Ammonia 0

I do weekly water changes 5 gallons every Sunday
I'm running 2 desktop innovative marine protein skimmers in the back chambers ( I have a all in one system ) I'm using a 60 gallon chemipure elite bag in one of the chambers and I'm also using a media reactor with 2 spoonful of rox0.8 and 1 spoonful of gfo

I'm currently trying to use "replenish" by brightwwell it's a essential elements and minor elements to try and restore color

So my question is why am I loosing color in my corals they seem to fading color about 1-2 weeks after I get them what am I doing wrong

 

[stevediaz1]

Oh I forgot to add I use Red Sea coral pro salt to mix my water with rodi

 

[ZelThophe]

Why two protein skimmers?

 

[stevediaz1]

Why two protein skimmers?

They are desktop skimmers and I had a heavy bioload so I bought two

 

[Gunison1]

Maybe the lighting is too much? How long have you had the corals? Did you try moving them around to different with spots in the tank?

 

[Jason mack]

My guess would be lighting

 

[stevediaz1]

Maybe the lighting is too much? How long have you had the corals? Did you try moving them around to different with spots in the tank?

Yes i moved them didnt work ive been told that radion leds are the reason any thoughts

 

[Gunison1]

Yes i moved them didnt work ive been told that radion leds are the reason any thoughts

The light intensity could be too high for the corals.Try turning them down and see how the corals respond. For example, on my IM 20 fusion my lights are only at 10% blue and 5% white and my LPS are fully opened.

 

[stevediaz1]

The light intensity could be too high for the corals.Try turning them down and see how the corals respond. For example, on my IM 20 fusion my lights are only at 10% blue and 5% white and my LPS are fully opened.

I have them at 35% brightness isnt that a low enough? And thats at it highest point

 

[Gunison1]

I have them at 35% brightness isnt that a low enough? And thats at it highest point

Could still be too high in my opinion. When you say highest point. Are you talking how far the light fixture is from the water surface?

 

[stevediaz1]

Could still be too high in my opinion. When you say highest point. Are you talking how far the light fixture is from the water surface?

No I mean I set the total brightness setting to go no higher than 35% the height of the light from the water is based on the mount I have it's a ecotech marine RMS mount that is a accessory the the light itself if I'm not mistaken it's about 10-15 inches

 

[glweek]

Did everyone just skip right over phosphate = 1.0 and nitrate = 10.0? Are you sure those numbers are correct? They are both very high. I highly recommend you retest your phosphates. What are you using to test phosphates and nitrates?

 

[stevediaz1]

Did everyone just skip right over phosphate = 1.0 and nitrate = 10.0? Are you sure those numbers are correct? They are both very high. I highly recommend you retest your phosphates. What are you using to test phosphates and nitrates?

I use salifert for phosphate and API for nitrates those numbers are high but since than I did a large water change and brought my phosphates down to 0.5 down nitrates are about 5 on the API test

 

[glweek]

Nitrates are fine but phosphates are still incredibly high. Anything past 0.1 is considered to be dangerous to corals. You want to be aiming for 0.01 to 0.07ish. How long has it been that high? At this point you don't want to do anything too drastic as a sudden impact in phosphate change can shock your corals and cause problems. But is absolutely something you'll want to start addressing asap.

 

[randy4083]

The light intensity could be too high for the corals.Try turning them down and see how the corals respond. For example, on my IM 20 fusion my lights are only at 10% blue and 5% white and my LPS are fully opened.

What kind of lighting do you use because I have a Kessel 360we light on a 25 gallon tank and some of my lps corals are fine but one has lost some of it color and I even moved it in the shade also and I'm wondering if I have my light to high but I also have an anemone in the tank also and its a bubbletip anemone so what kind of light do you have on your tank

 

[glweek]

@randy4083 What are your tank dimensions, light settings (intensity, color, ramping) and how high off the water surface is it?

 

[stevediaz1]

Nitrates are fine but phosphates are still incredibly high. Anything past 0.1 is considered to be dangerous to corals. You want to be aiming for 0.01 to 0.07ish. How long has it been that high? At this point you don't want to do anything too drastic as a sudden impact in phosphate change can shock your corals and cause problems. But is absolutely something you'll want to start addressing asap.

Yes I started to use my media reactor with gfo and started half with the recommended dose

 

[Gunison1]

What kind of lighting do you use because I have a Kessel 360we light on a 25 gallon tank and some of my lps corals are fine but one has lost some of it color and I even moved it in the shade also and I'm wondering if I have my light to high but I also have an anemone in the tank also and its a bubbletip anemone so what kind of light do you have on your tank

I have a OceanRevive that's about 6 inches off my water surface. I think any higher might burn out my corals.

 

[stevediaz1]

What kind of lighting do you use because I have a Kessel 360we light on a 25 gallon tank and some of my lps corals are fine but one has lost some of it color and I even moved it in the shade also and I'm wondering if I have my light to high but I also have an anemone in the tank also and its a bubbletip anemone so what kind of light do you have on your tank

I'm using a ecotech marine radion pro 3rd gen xp15

 

[stevediaz1]

@randy4083 What are your tank dimensions, light settings (intensity, color, ramping) and how high off the water surface is it?

DIMS (36” x 15” x 13”)