Fading tissue

[mfollen]

Hey all, worried reefer here!

The tissue of two new frags are fading away near the base... other SPS seem just OK. Just these two newer additions are fading at the base. Please see attached pictures.

Parameters are:
Alk:9.3
No3: 2.5
PO4: .002
Ca: 450
Mag: 1420

I’m kind of freaking out, I am working so hard to keep these coral and I have no idea what’s going wrong.

Other considerations:
-Vibrant bacteria has been in the tank attacking remaining green turf algae.... this typically doesn’t affect SPS.
-ICP results are ok.
-been doing regular water changes
-flow and lighting have been stable.
-dosing reef energy a&b (proteins and aminos) once a day.
-feeding is fish food. Heavy.
-not running the skimmer at all. Haven’t been as I can not keep nutrients up.

Anyone have any ideas as to why the tissue is fading? I can’t suffer anymore losses...

Thank you!!!!

 

[Redfoxtang]

I’m sure you’ll get a solid answer here as I’m not the best at this but with that said. I have seen this quite a bit with low nutrients in your tank. I would try to increase N03 and P04 so the corals can rebuild.

 

[mfollen]

Thank you. I’ll try increasing PO4 from .02 to .04 and no3 from 2.5 to 5 by increasing inorganic dosing. I’m already dosing quite a bit as the vibrant bacteria is consuming those inorganics.

 

[Waters]

I have had that happen with new frags due to not acclimating them to the light properly. Normally I move them further down towards the bottom and they recover.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Thank you. I’ll try increasing PO4 from .02 to .04 and no3 from 2.5 to 5 by increasing inorganic dosing. I’m already dosing quite a bit as the vibrant bacteria is consuming those inorganics.

It’s probably the vibrant. Vibrant is very harsh on sps. Stop the vibrant and I bet you’re nutrients will rise and give your sps a chance to recover. What lights are you running?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Frags do not do well with po4 below 0.10 btw. I keep my po4 between 0.10 and 0.30

 

[mfollen]

Thank you so much for your help! I’m really trying hard to get this right. I’ve had some losses over a month ago and am doing my best to give these coral what they need.

I will stop dosing vibrant and will try to remove as much of the turf algae left. It won’t all be dead unfortunately and can come back. I haven’t found anything that will eat it.

I will also slowly increase PO4 to 0.1. Is there a recommended timeline to do this from 0.02? Can’t this happen too quick?

Lastly I have 6 xr15s, laid out 3x2 on a 6’ long tank.

Thank you everyone.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Thank you so much for your help! I’m really trying hard to get this right. I’ve had some losses over a month ago and am doing my best to give these coral what they need.

I will stop dosing vibrant and will try to remove as much of the turf algae left. It won’t all be dead unfortunately and can come back. I haven’t found anything that will eat it.

I will also slowly increase PO4 to 0.1. Is there a recommended timeline to do this from 0.02? Can’t this happen too quick?

Lastly I have 6 xr15s, laid out 3x2 on a 6’ long tank.

Thank you everyone.

I personally wouldn’t worry about raising them to 0.1 as fast as possible. The turf algae is probably what’s sucking up your no3 and po4. I had some turf algae that I couldn’t get rid of but I refuse to use vibrant, nopox, gfo etc. I decided to try a half dose of flux rx and it wiped out all of it. It didn’t stress any of my corals but I’ve been advised that it can by other collectors but that wasn’t the case for me. I would focus on the health of your sps for now and not worry about the turf algae. Polyp booster from polyplabs will raise your no3/po4 fairly quick

 

[mfollen]

Yea I’ll keep things slow and steady.

I’m worried about leaving the remaining turf algae in the tank. Nothing eats it and without vibrant it will just explode again. I killed off maybe 90% of it.

 

[motortrendz]

Too much vibrant will bleach and fade sps. I learned that the hard way.

How long has your tank been up and running?

I've had success using fluconazole killing turf and gha

 

[mfollen]

Ok. Thank you. I’ve been dosing vibrant on the higher recommended side.

Tank has been running for 6 months now.

 

[motortrendz]

Yea way too much for a new tank, my tank is 3 years old and I've only dosed half the dosage of the lower end. When I've dosed full dosing I've bleached out almost all my sps. Took about 2 months for them to recover

 

[mfollen]

Jeez... I researched a ton. Wish I saw that. Thank you so much.

Based on the pictures is this bleaching or slow tissue recession?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Jeez... I researched a ton. Wish I saw that. Thank you so much.

Based on the pictures is this bleaching or slow tissue recession?

Those look stressed/starved which will most likely lead to rtn. I believe your alk is a touch high for ultra low nutrients. I’d let it fall to 7.5-8. Are you running/dosing any other media or products?

What are your radion settings?

 

[mfollen]

No I have not dosed alk/ca since vibrant.

It has very, very slowly gone up from the increased nitrate dosing during vibrant. My salt is at 7.5.

Its been at 9.1/9.3 the last few weeks to a month thanks to water changes.

In regards to nutrients.
I’m feeding fish heavy, tank is stocked well.
Nitrates and PO4 have been consistent at that 2.5 & 0.02 level.
I dose reef energy a and b daily.
Feeding reef roids once a week.

 

[mfollen]

For lighting schedule:
100 across uv& blues
Whites 30% & 25%
Green and red at 15%

Photointensity is 8 hours with 2 hour ramp ups and downs.

Intensity is down slightly now as corals acclimate to lighting.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

What’s your normal intensity? What is it set at now?

 

[mfollen]

Normal intensity are those values.
Currently at 80% of that during acclimation.

When I rented a par meter I was around 230-290 PAR throughout the tank.
Average around 240-250. I increased that light amount two months ago to get closer to 350 and that led to the turf algae breakout.
So I reverted back and believe I am close to around that PAR.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Normal intensity are those values.
Currently at 80% of that during acclimation.

When I rented a par meter I was around 230-290 PAR throughout the tank.
Average around 240-250. I increased that light amount two months ago to get closer to 350 and that led to the turf algae breakout.
So I reverted back and believe I am close to around that PAR.

250 ain’t bad. This info makes me more convinced that the vibrant combined with ultra low nutrients and high Alk are to blame for the coral stress.

 

[mfollen]

Ok...

Yea I’m with you and feel this might be it.

It’s weird, the frags that have been in the system are improving in color and growth. Whereas the new frags are the two that are suffering.

What’s very weird is that the same acro, from the same farm, I have two of. One the older frag, which survived is recovering nicely and growing. The same coral, just a new frag, is the one in the picture which has gotten worse.

Very strange. Maybe the longer tenured corals have built an immunity to vibrant and the newer ones aren’t used to it? Or more of a lower nutrient higher alk issue...