Help please - corals losing color

[mac227]

Help please. I have a 3 month old tank. Put these two corals in about a month ago and rapidly losing color. Prism favia and jack-o-lantern leptoseris. Water seems normal. Only thing I can think is light? I have a AI twenty-six HD. Maybe I burnt them? Only had it at 50-60% max. On about 10 hours a day. Lowered to 25% but that didn't help. Now I'm starting to think maybe too weak. Any ideas?

Also lost a prism favia before, but chalked it up to having it in there while cycling the tank. I have softies that are doing just fine - I think - this is my first tank.

PH 8.1 - kh 9.2 - Ca 470 - Mg 1300 - salinity 23 - temp 76 - zero trites trates ammo or phos

 

[taintstick]

Bring your salinity up to .025 and temp I would bring up to 78. Lights, just depends how far the light is from the water surface, then how far the coral is from the water surface haha hope that made sense. Your tank is too young also. Let it do its thing for a while longer, it's still very young.
My buddy started his tank out about the same time as you and he is losing this and that but because he doesn't want to listen and keeps buying coral when he isn't ready. He just lost another round of corals. Hurts me to see it happen... I think he is losing approximately 4-5 coral.

 

[taintstick]

Here is an example, myself was running HOB everything. When I decided to get a sump, I ran the sump alone off to the side with live rock and tank water. It wasn't until coralline started to develop when I decided to connect it with my tank.

 

[Diesel]

Correct your salt might be a little low in this case.
Temps need to be on the save side (78) but that all isn't the problem of your corals doing bad.
It's the combo of some # that are off.
No3 is 0.0............... it's BAD!!
Po4 is 0.0................It's BAD!!
Together with your ALK at 9.2 and temp at 76 with salt at 1.023 you have a perfect condition for corals to feel unhappy and will be stressed.

Start with feeding the tank slowly, maybe turn your skimmer off for a 1/2 day.
Bring temp up a bit and topoff with some freshly mixed salt water as in the evaporation in the next 24 will level out your NSWL.
Corals are probably a goner but just leave them in the tank as you never know.

 

[mac227]

Ok thank you taint (lol) and diesel. I will bring up temp and salt. Sounds like I just need to wait longer before adding more coral. Not sure what else to do. Trying to stay patient.

 

[Diesel]

You can gives us some answers about you tank as of now,


A. Total water volume ( Please include sump, etc.)

B. What are your parameters? ( CA, ALK, PO4,Salinity, etc.)

C. Type of lighting. Please include age, watts, and bulb/ballast name.

D. Filtration method (Skimmer, GFO, DSB, etc.)

E. What types of corals do you keep. (N.A)

F. How long has the tank been running?

G. What are you dosing? Dosing schedule?

H. Which brand of salt are you using?

I. What brand of test kits are you employing?

J. What are you using for CA/ALK supplementation?

K. What are you using for flow? (Pump names, how many, placement, etc.)

 

[taintstick]

Lol anytime feller.
Diesel, spot on, lots of questions but true, in order for us to know what is really happening we need to know your system. With the exception of some obvious things we have experienced but you (mac) have not.
Yes be very patient, your tank isn't going anywhere lol. Since your tank is new, stick to the basics, salinity nitrates nitrites ph ammonia and 10% water change weekly until your tank matures.
Answer some of diesels questions and we can help you a little more.

 

[taintstick]

Also how many fish do you have?

 

[taintstick]

What kind of salt do you use and water?

 

[Tahoe61]

What were you running the UV at?

Next time placement lower in the tank would be my recommendation. Also bring up the SG.

 

[Tahoe61]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ai-prime-doubts.228674/

 

[mac227]

What kind of salt do you use and water?

RO/DI water from the fish store only. It was recommended to me that I keep around 23, but i can bump to 25 easily since everyone seems to think that will help.

 

[mac227]

What were you running the UV at?

Next time placement lower in the tank would be my recommendation. Also bring up the SG.

UV is 40% tops. I have been messing around with the lighting a lot. It was as high as 60% at one point. I think i had the whites too high early when i put these corals in, may have burnt them.

 

[mac227]

Also how many fish do you have?

4 fish in a 40 gallon

 

[mac227]

A. Total water volume ( Please include sump, etc.) 40 gal - Innovative marine rear sump

B. What are your parameters? ( CA, ALK, PO4,Salinity, etc.) CA 470, ALK 9.2, P04=0, Salinity = 1.023, Mg=1300, Temp = 76, ph 8.1, No3=0, Ammo=0

C. Type of lighting. Please include age, watts, and bulb/ballast name. IA TwentySix HD 90W LED

D. Filtration method (Skimmer, GFO, DSB, etc.) Protein Skimmer only - run pretty much 24/7, but will turn off for a few hours here and there

E. What types of corals do you keep. (N.A) - softies (green torch, hammer), prism favia, jack-o-lantern leptoseris - all around a month in the tank - prism and jack - may they R.I.P.

F. How long has the tank been running? 3 months

G. What are you dosing? Dosing schedule? Was dosing Tropic Marin All-for-reef minerals, but stopped when reached appropriate hardness.

H. Which brand of salt are you using? Tropic Marin pro reef sea salt - not cheap!

I. What brand of test kits are you employing? API and Red Sea

J. What are you using for CA/ALK supplementation? TM as noted above, but stopped because that started to look good

K. What are you using for flow? (Pump names, how many, placement, etc.) IM tank has two rotating nozzles on inlets plus one additional power head i bought separately to increase flow.

I'm doing weekly 10% water changes now routinely. Trying to stay patient. Thanks in advance

 

[jsker]

UV is 40% tops. I have been messing around with the lighting a lot. It was as high as 60% at one point. I think i had the whites too high early when i put these corals in, may have burnt them.

I running my light here with no issue

I am in agreement with everyone, I would also look at your trace element and possibly dose the elements for color along with feeding more to get you phosphates up to around .02 to .03 PPM and you Nitrates up to 8 to 10 ppm I run my nitrate up around 10 to 12 ppm and phosphate around .02.

 

[mac227]

I running my light here with no issue

I am in agreement with everyone, I would also look at your trace element and possibly dose the elements for color along with feeding more to get you phosphates up to around .02 to .03 PPM and you Nitrates up to 8 to 10 ppm I run my nitrate up around 10 to 12 ppm and phosphate around .02.

Interesting, thanks. Why do you have the saw pattern?

 

[jsker]

Interesting, thanks. Why do you have the saw pattern?

I do not want to fry everything, but still would like to have periods of high intensity.

 

[Betty1964]

How is your potassium level? Low potassium can also lead to bleaching.

 

[taintstick]

So IMO, your tank is still young. As you bring up your salinity your cal and alk will go up as well, if your using good reef salt. Stop dosing. Stick to the routine weekly 10% water change.
Lighting, not too familiar with AI, but seems like all LED owners don't go above 30-40% whites and around 70-90 depending on how high they are from the water. Just FYI.... I have Chinese LEDs with whites at 40% and blues at 100 at peak time. Only reason high is because they are mounted high to get the spread I want...
anyhoo, bio-load shouldn't be a concern so I would just say you might be still acclimating. How did you start your acclimation process?