Frogspawn Bleaching?

[HowardJ02]

My frogspawn is bleaching and I'm not sure what to do.
I always thought the main cause for bleaching is too much light?

I have an Aquatic Life 4 bulb T5
It's been in the sandbed since I've had it.

What do I need to do?

 

[Zack K]

-What are your Parameters?
- How deep is your Tank?

 

[taintstick]

I would suggest moving it to a more shaded region for now. Keep params in check.

 

[HowardJ02]

Nitrates- 0
Nitrites- 0
pH - 7.8-8
Salinity - 1.024
Temp - 77

I don't have any other test kits. That's using the API kit.

 

[HowardJ02]

It's a 20L so 12"
But He sandbed is 1" and the light sits at least a couple inches from the top of the water.

 

[Zack K]

Your coral may be hungry. LPS corals need Nitrates and phosphates to live. The recommended level for these is:
Nitrate 2ppm-5ppm (Some guys go up to 20ppm)
Phosphate: .2ppm-.5ppm

Low nutrients also cause corals to bleach.

 

[Rakie]

Get the following test kits from Salifert, Giesmann, or even Red Sea

- Alkalinity
- Calcium
- Magnesium
- Nitrates (no3)
- Phosphates (po4)

Move the coral to a shady area. Do a water change (it never hurts to do a water change). Consider raising your salinity to 1.025+ (I prefer 1.027, adam from Battlecorals supposedly runs 1.035+).

The old school of thinking is that you want zero nitrates / phosphates -- This is not true. Nitrates and Phosphates are what the corals eat. If you don't have any food for them, they will pale. Most people want nitrates at 2 at the bare minimum (I prefer 5-10), and phosphates at .03+

 

[HowardJ02]

Will get some ordered. Thanks, guys!

 

[Flippers4pups]

Dosing element supplementation can't hurt ether.

Also need to know what your KH is at.

 

[Rakie]

Dosing element supplementation can't hurt ether.

Also need to know what your KH is at.

@HowardJ02 -- KH, dKH, Alk is all Alkalinity. Some people say one word, some say others, some say multiple (I say alk / dKH)

@Flippers4pups -- You're right about dosing elements, although I would say to make sure you know what your levels of these elements are first (either by testing, or seeing whats in your salt mix). I'm pretty sure that's how I killed my first reef in middle school. Dosed a bunch of stuff, made a problem, dosed more stuff, caused an algae bloom = Woke up to milky white coral & fish soup.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Carbonate hardness is the true value. KH, DKH and alkalinity all the same. Agreed.

Aside from the elements in your salt mix, I was referring to trace elements that water changes will not keep up with. Some will say not to dose what you can't test for, but most, if not all of us don't have that ability to test for these. Triton testing is an option though.

Feeding the tank once a week with coral specific foods can't hurt either. A little goes a long way.

 

[Rakie]

Carbonate hardness is the true value. KH, DKH and alkalinity all the same. Agreed.

Aside from the elements in your salt mix, I was referring to trace elements that water changes will not keep up with. Some will say not to dose what you can't test for, but most, if not all of us don't have that ability to test for these. Triton testing is an option though.

Feeding the tank once a week with coral specific foods can't hurt either. A little goes a long way.

Very true. I dose nitrates and even a little phosphate on occasion if they fall out of balance. I struggle to keep no3/po4 in tank, even with 7 fish in a 50 cube with LOTS of feeding.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Very true. I dose nitrates and even a little phosphate on occasion if they fall out of balance. I struggle to keep no3/po4 in tank, even with 7 fish in a 50 cube with LOTS of feeding.

You must have hungry corals! And a very healthy good bacteria population!

 

[Rakie]

You must have hungry corals! And a very healthy good bacteria population!

They're getting there! Go figure, addition of 5 fish at once (deal I couldn't pass up) caused a nitrate spike from my average of 5ppm to 50ppm -_- Corals are a little pouty but after getting things settled back to around 5 no3 they're rebounding quickly, and I'm struggling to keep no3/po4 detectable again.

That AF bacteria is a nuke. It's almost too good..

 

[Mpal771]

They're getting there! Go figure, addition of 5 fish at once (deal I couldn't pass up) caused a nitrate spike from my average of 5ppm to 50ppm -_- Corals are a little pouty but after getting things settled back to around 5 no3 they're rebounding quickly, and I'm struggling to keep no3/po4 detectable again.

That AF bacteria is a nuke. It's almost too good..

Hello Flip-AF bacteria? Thx!

+1 on the advice here; shade, direct feed (oh so miniscule amount), water change & live yor params-including trace elements. Dose accordingly.
There are many schools of thought on 0 nitrates vs a"low nutrient" environment. It doesn't seem that long ago (but it is) that achieving 0 nitrates/phos was an extreme pursuit and reserved for a lab grade marine science approach complete with equipment only found at universities. Well, that pursuit has led us here, where it is simply a choice. I agree with flip in that LPS thrive with food and where we differ on the "0" nitrates is maintaining a mixed reef (sps) and controlling variables. Just for my comfort level Troubleshooting sps starts at <1 no.

Good luck w/ the hammer bud and enjoy this troubleshoot experience! best part of the hobby!

 

[Rakie]

agreed @Mpal771 lots of ways to skin a reef. If we look long enough we'll see people all do things successfully that shouldn't work out.

It took me quite a bit of testing and dosing to get my no3/po4 into an acceptable range.

 

[Mpal771]

agreed @Mpal771 lots of ways to skin a reef. If we look long enough we'll see people all do things successfully that shouldn't work out.

It took me quite a bit of testing and dosing to get my no3/po4 into an acceptable range.

Indeed Sir! I intended that that question for you-AF bacteria? Im drawing a complete blank....don't you dislike buying test refills? It's like paying for bad news! lol

 

[Rakie]

Aquaforest Pro Bio S & Bio S.

In my nano reef I sort of operated it as an experiment to both try products and separate fact from SPS'fiction. My colors looked best at no3/po4 of 25/.05 -- When I got them a little higher than I wanted (35+/.10+) I tried both of those AquaForest products -- They absolutely decimated my nutrients within a couple days, down to 0/0

Having populated this reef with Bio S / Pro Bio S, it has an insanely powerful bacteria population. I've been dosing no3 and just to keep things detectable (After the no3 spike from introducing 5 fish), and typically overnight my no3 will drop about 1ppm or more.

It took a good bit of no3, heavy feeding, and 2ml of Seachem Phosphorous to get my no3/po4 to 5/.04

So if you want a good bio filter? I definitely back Aquaforest bacteria. If you want to have some no3/po4 in your system? Maybe not Aquaforest.. The stuff is a nutrient nuke.

 

[HowardJ02]

I still haven't ordered test kits.. Red Sea looks like I could mess it up pretty easy.
I know a lot of people don't like API, but would it really be that bad? It's half the cost of RedSea and it comes with 4 things to test for vs. the 3 in the RedSea kit.
The master reef kit has all that I need but magnesium.

 

[Rakie]

Red Sea is okay -- Salifert is the gold standard.

Giesemann has also gotten into the field with some really nice test kits (I've used the no3 test, it's very nice and accurate for lower nutrient systems).

If you plan to run your no3 over 5ppm to 10ppm API is fine. But for Calcium, Magnesium, Alkalinity I highly recommend