is my water at fault

[saltwaterpicaso]

well I have a 90 gallon tank with 3 radion g3 pros and 2 t5 actinic and blue plus. I have had the radions on at about 60 percent certain shrooms and hammers would bleach out after a few weeks so I have lowered the radions to 30 percent and the t5s to only 3 hours a day yet certain lps are still fading. I use aquaforest pro biotic salt. neofood 7 biomate and there amino acids and a very small amount of carbon in a reactor. so now that the light has been lowered and the fading still continues is my water to clean and leading to the fading resulting in the corals starving. my tank does not grow any algea of anykind I even have a light on in the sump for 24 hours a day and there is not a speck of algea..

 

[Brew12]

well I have a 90 gallon tank with 3 radion g3 pros and 2 t5 actinic and blue plus. I have had the radions on at about 60 percent certain shrooms and hammers would bleach out after a few weeks so I have lowered the radions to 30 percent and the t5s to only 3 hours a day yet certain lps are still fading. I use aquaforest pro biotic salt. neofood 7 biomate and there amino acids and a very small amount of carbon in a reactor. so now that the light has been lowered and the fading still continues is my water to clean and leading to the fading resulting in the corals starving. my tank does not grow any algea of anykind I even have a light on in the sump for 24 hours a day and there is not a speck of algea..

It sounds like it is too clean for softies and LPS to me. How high are your phosphates and nitrates?

Lets get some other opinions. #reefsquad

 

[jsker]

It sounds like it is too clean for softies and LPS to me. How high are your phosphates and nitrates?

Lets get some other opinions. #reefsquad

1+ on the nutrient numbers and are you dosing any trace elements.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

well I have a 90 gallon tank with 3 radion g3 pros and 2 t5 actinic and blue plus. I have had the radions on at about 60 percent certain shrooms and hammers would bleach out after a few weeks so I have lowered the radions to 30 percent and the t5s to only 3 hours a day yet certain lps are still fading. I use aquaforest pro biotic salt. neofood 7 biomate and there amino acids and a very small amount of carbon in a reactor. so now that the light has been lowered and the fading still continues is my water to clean and leading to the fading resulting in the corals starving. my tank does not grow any algea of anykind I even have a light on in the sump for 24 hours a day and there is not a speck of algea..

id guess yes. no nutrients.

 

[rock_lobster]

Yep lol especially for shrooms they do well in nasty water.

 

[mcarroll]

It sounds like it is too clean for softies and LPS to me. How high are your phosphates and nitrates?

Lets get some other opinions. #reefsquad

1+ on the nutrient numbers and are you dosing any trace elements.

id guess yes. no nutrients.

+1 to all, but it's being dictated by the light regime.

@saltwaterpicaso you have more light on that six square feet of tank surface than most folks put over twice that much area.



Supported with the proper nutrient levels and flow it can work, but lowering the light intensity will make everything easier for you. (Nothing needs that much light.)

And get yourself a light meter of some kind. Most of us here use something like the $12 "LX-1010B" lux meter that I use, but if you can afford or have access to a PAR meter that's obviously fine too.

But don't keep going without a meter.

(And maybe consider letting those T5's or one of the Radion's go?)

 

[Diesel]

Expose some test results, and a FTS maybe some close ups.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

cal 449
dkh 7.5
phos 2ppb
using hanna checkers
will have pics up in a minute

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

as you can see the octo in the bottom is bleached partially from light being at 60 percent

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

the schroom on the left of the rock was dark purple in the center has faded

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

most torches seem fine but all hammers and octo and shrooms have faded a lot

 

[john.m.cole3]

That's crazy that your torches are still alright. I always have to put mine in shae to keep it happy. I think it was too much light too soon. How long have you had the lights at 30% now? I use a LUX meter to adjust my lights and it works good for me. If the corals don't start looking better in a week or 2 at 30%, the light needs to be even lower percentage wise. Once the colors start to return to the corals, you can increase your lights by 1000 to 2000 LUX each week. this is a timely process, but you will find the sweet spot your corals like if you go slow. I, for example, bought several SPS corals and immediately increased my lights because they were my first SPS and all I knew was that they like higher light and flow. In about 3 weeks my corals were becoming pale and a few bleached. I lowered the intensity down to 25% and increased the intensity by 5% a week until I got up to 100%. That took me 3 1/2 months. I use a dimmable T5 fixture so the rate you increase each week will probably be different than mine.

Here's a link to the LUX meter I use. It has gone up to $17 https://www.amazon.com/HDE-LX-1010B...UTF8&qid=1480359515&sr=8-7&keywords=lux+meter

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

I have used the lux meter on my phone it was reading 30000 at the surface water at 60 percent I have had radions for 3 years and corals always fade so I'm thinking its a combination of the 2 so I bought reef roids reef frenzy and fauna marine lps and reef prime flake. I have had the lights at 30 percent for a week now before they were at 40 I have read that it takes a month or more for the color to come back to lps

 

[john.m.cole3]

It can take a week or several months. Like everything else... it depends