Losing color

[macci]

hello i have mixed reaf tank i am having trouble i am losing green and yellow color of my acros
i have 300 ltr tank here what i do and dose
40 ltrs water change with priobiotic salt weekly
evrey other day
2 drops amino mix
2 drops af vitality
2 drops af build
2 drops af energy
10 drops phyto mix

daily

2 drops pro bios
2 drops np pro
2 spoons af food
2 spoon ricca food
compoments 1,2,3 20 ml daily split in 24 hrs that keeps my alk 7,3 stable

i also use pacific sun hybrid x4 t5 ( 2 blue, 1 white , 1 pink) with led on 35%

my parameters are stable

ammonia 0
no2 0
no3 0
phos 0
alk 7,3
mag 1400
calcium 450

is there any thing i can do i was thinking to start doining iodine and iron

any suggestion

 

[Anirban]

The first thing you should do is stop using NP Pro and Pro Bio S. Just do water changes with probiotic salt. Your system need some nutrient. Second, what do you mean by losing colours? Are they paling or bleaching or dyeing? Pictures will help us to determine what exactly you are facing. Dont start adding iron and iodine now, just wait and slowly increase your nutrient a bit.

 

[macci]

This was all metalic green and yellow when i buy it

 

[Anirban]

Yup bring those nutrient up like 0.01 PO4 and 5-8ppm NO3. Stop dosing the Pro bio S and NP pro but keep doing the water change with Pro bio S. Don't change anything else for the time being. Continue this for couple of weeks and keep reporting the progress.

 

[macci]

Omg i thing it know the proplem my lamp was on 100% (( id didint save when i set it ((

 

[Anirban]

High light intensity with low nutrient is quite bad for corals...

 

[cbear44]

Interested to see others thoughts on Nitrates. I did a stock AF start with BioS for my 1000L system (180g display tank). Stocked with SPS and LPS. Nitrates were always at 0.2 and I didn't dose ProBioS/NP Pro at all based on this. I've been worried about pale colors as well and been focusing on skimming and carbon optimization and was pondering dosing stump remover. Last frags added are looking great and colors are popping. Checked Nitrates and they are at 5ppm.

Bottom line is that I'm leaning toward keeping some nitrates around - this has happened in my system naturally it seems. I'm adding a bit of NPpro/ProBios since I have it. Certainly too much lighting can be an issue though!

 

[Anirban]

I think a majority of people like me , jsker and perry like to keep a little bit of nitrate in the system. Too little nitrate pale out the SPS overtime and we dont like pastel shades but its a choice.

 

[cbear44]

I think a majority of people like me , jsker and perry like to keep a little bit of nitrate in the system. Too little nitrate pale out the SPS overtime and we dont like pastel shades but its a choice.

What is a "little bit" 1-3? 3-5? I guess this is where people are departing from stock AF with ULNS with 0.1-0.3 nitrates

 

[Anirban]

What is a "little bit" 1-3? 3-5? I guess this is where people are departing from stock AF with ULNS with 0.1-0.3 nitrates

"little bit" is variable...to me 2-5ppm, Jsker -4-8ppm and Perry 1-2ppm. it become more variable with respect to PO4 levels, lighting and alkalinity. Its basically depends on a system and a personal choice. What people dont understand that AF is way of doing reefing but not the only way or strict way of doing it. a person does not need to follow it blindly you can always change it depending on how you want your system to look like.

 

[Deaf clown]

I lost color in my acros and lost a decent sized birds nest colony while using this salt. Did not realize it was taking that much nutrients out of my water. When I figured it out I started feeding heavily and switched salts.

 

[macci]

I lost color in my acros and lost a decent sized birds nest colony while using this salt. Did not realize it was taking that much nutrients out of my water. When I figured it out I started feeding heavily and switched salts.

What salt are you using now?

 

[Deaf clown]

What salt are you using now?

Fritz. A local guy sells it super cheap ($50 a box) I've read and heard tons of good reviews. I'm really liking it so far. I've tried Hw marinemix and seachem-liked seachem better than he marinemix. But Fritz is far better according to what I'm noticing with my corals.

 

[macci]

Fritz. A local guy sells it super cheap ($50 a box) I've read and heard tons of good reviews. I'm really liking it so far. I've tried Hw marinemix and seachem-liked seachem better than he marinemix. But Fritz is far better according to what I'm noticing with my corals.

Fo the colors come back?

 

[Deaf clown]

Fo the colors come back?

Yep!

 

[re76]

I think a majority of people like me , jsker and perry like to keep a little bit of nitrate in the system. Too little nitrate pale out the SPS overtime and we dont like pastel shades but its a choice.

I'm also on the little bit of nitrate band wagon. I dose stump remover to get to 2ppm Nitrate. I try to stay between 2-4ppm.

I still use Pro Bio s and np Pro. I know it is unnecessary but I like being able to control my nitrates by just adjusting the dose of stump remover.

 

[jsker]

I run the reef salt and dose small amount of Np pro and Pro bio to do as @re76 is doing. I like to be able to control my levels of nutrients. As @Anirban stated I run .02 Po4 and between 4 and 8 ppm on the nitrates. If my nitrates go a little bit higher that is ok too. I do not run low nutrient system so I do not need Probiotic Salt.

I will say that I am very happy with the results using the Life Bio Fil along with carbon and a small amount of phosphate minus.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I keep nitrates at 0 or 0.2 and phosphates at near zero too. I don't have to worry about getting pale corals because I always have a large amount of food going in and out of the tank. I use a lot of carbon source and even run my alk at 8.5. I also run a lot of light.
Having a lot of nutrients or food going through a system makes my system a lot easier to manage, since I don't have to worry about alk being to high or nutrients to low or light to strong. I am having a lot of fun with these tanks since I can feed so much.

 

[Perry]

This is all in the eye of the beholder, many US keepers tend to blue out there tanks and keep a spot of nutrients. This tends to saturate the colors of the sps corals. Whereas in Europe, they tend to run nutrients more on razors edge with enhanced dosing and feeding in mind. It really all depends on your taste. To me, washed colors do not exemplify a happy coral, any slight parameter shift can cause issues, particularly when you are thinning tissue through use of heavy metal dosing, like copper. This is why Zeospur is so effective, but so dangerous to over dose. Energy only has traces, but if you use Micro E, Energy, and also dose Comp 123, you could run the risk of essentially over doing it heavy metal dosing, just be careful. In fact, if you do dose Comp 123, I would NOT dose Micro E.

 

[Oldreefer44]

I went from Salinity salt and The Triton system to Aquaforest and their system. Lost some color similar to your description. Went to the Red Sea system and so far am seeing increased growth and some return of color to at least the level I saw originally. Had too many inconsistent spikes with AF.