Pale Color & Poor Polyp Extension

[nivekid]

Hello All,

I'm struggling with my new(er) setup. The tank has been running since last October. My soft corals and most of my LPS are doing great. My SPS and a couple of my LPS are struggling, pale, and have almost no polyp extension. I've been keeping reef aquariums for over 12 years and have experiences must issues. This is my first real setup (not cheap/pieced together). I've kept full SPS tanks and never had these issues. I'm at a loss and need advice.

The SPS that are struggling are Monti cap, Stylophora, and birdsnests. All of them A couple of my blastos are very pale and one of my torches doesn't have the color it should. The Montiporas show almost no polyp extension. None of them are growing at all. Even after many months!

About a month ago I switched from Red Sea Coral Pro (black bucket) to standard Red Sea salt (blue bucket). Before the switch my Alk was way too high (12) and corals were STN'ing. I used to run a the salt on an established SPS system and it did great. Obviously the system was utilizing enough of the elevated alkalinity to keep it around 7-8. Since I made the switch on this tank things have gotten better and colors have improved. My Montis still aren't doing great and polyps almost never show. My parameters are pretty normal, my nitrates a little high but this has never caused me this issue.

• Salinity: 35 ppt
• Temp: 78*F
• pH: 8.3
• Alk: 7.3
• Calcium: 400
• Mg: Not Measured
• Nitrates: 20 ppm
• Nitrites: 0

I run a Bubble Magus Curve 5 skimmer, Nanobox LED/T5 Hybrid (LEDs currently set way down to 20% in case I was giving too much light and bleaching them out).

Any ideas for anything I can try?

Thanks all!

 

[Crabs McJones]

Hello All,

I'm struggling with my new(er) setup. The tank has been running since last October. My soft corals and most of my LPS are doing great. My SPS and a couple of my LPS are struggling, pale, and have almost no polyp extension. I've been keeping reef aquariums for over 12 years and have experiences must issues. This is my first real setup (not cheap/pieced together). I've kept full SPS tanks and never had these issues. I'm at a loss and need advice.

The SPS that are struggling are Monti cap, Stylophora, and birdsnests. All of them A couple of my blastos are very pale and one of my torches doesn't have the color it should. The Montiporas show almost no polyp extension. None of them are growing at all. Even after many months!

About a month ago I switched from Red Sea Coral Pro (black bucket) to standard Red Sea salt (blue bucket). Before the switch my Alk was way too high (12) and corals were STN'ing. I used to run a the salt on an established SPS system and it did great. Obviously the system was utilizing enough of the elevated alkalinity to keep it around 7-8. Since I made the switch on this tank things have gotten better and colors have improved. My Montis still aren't doing great and polyps almost never show. My parameters are pretty normal, my nitrates a little high but this has never caused me this issue.

• Salinity: 35 ppt
• Temp: 78*F
• pH: 8.3
• Alk: 7.3
• Calcium: 400
• Mg: Not Measured
• Nitrates: 20 ppm
• Nitrites: 0

I run a Bubble Magus Curve 5 skimmer, Nanobox LED/T5 Hybrid (LEDs currently set way down to 20% in case I was giving too much light and bleaching them out).

Any ideas for anything I can try?

Thanks all!

Any reason you're not measuring Mag? Nitrates could come down, but I don't believe that to be the deal breaker. Lets see if anyone from #reefsquad has any advice

 

[nivekid]

I just ran out of the test kit for Mag haha. Waiting for the new one. I doubt it is out of whack though. Last I measured it was at 1200 two weeks ago. I keep up on water changes and all the corals are quite small, not a lot of demand.

 

[hybridazn]

Phosphates?

Also when you were using the black bucket, how much of a water change did you do and how much volume in the tank? You could have been causing alk swings by running alk at 7-8 and using black bucket.

Also it could also be because your setup is still new. 6 months isn't very long, esp when it comes to keeping sps.

 

[Crabs McJones]

I just ran out of the test kit for Mag haha. Waiting for the new one. I doubt it is out of whack though. Last I measured it was at 1200 two weeks ago. I keep up on water changes and all the corals are quite small, not a lot of demand.

how long ago did you turn down your lighting? and do you have access to a par meter to see what they're getting for intensity?

 

[DLHDesign]

Any way to measure your PAR levels near the trouble corals? The problems you describe sound a lot like what happened to mine, and low lighting was one of my main problems (prompting me to use the Seneye to measure and adjust). Flow was another, so that would be something else to look into (though I have no great suggestions on how to empirically go about fixing that...).

 

[lewisriverfisherman]

I would say your mag is low. Mag should be around 1320

 

[nivekid]

Phosphates?

Also when you were using the black bucket, how much of a water change did you do and how much volume in the tank? You could have been causing alk swings by running alk at 7-8 and using black bucket.

Also it could also be because your setup is still new. 6 months isn't very long, esp when it comes to keeping sps.

I started the tank with the Red Sea black bucket, my Alk was consistently above 10. I was doing 10 gallons weekly. System is about 70 gallons total, including sump. I get the setup is new for Acros, but I've never had an issue with Montis like this.

 

[nivekid]

Any way to measure your PAR levels near the trouble corals? The problems you describe sound a lot like what happened to mine, and low lighting was one of my main problems (prompting me to use the Seneye to measure and adjust). Flow was another, so that would be something else to look into (though I have no great suggestions on how to empirically go about fixing that...).

I'll see if I can find a PAR meter to borrow. I can't imagine that it is too much PAR. The lights look super dim all day long, but when my Alk was high the tips looked burnt. Now the Alk is down where it should be maybe I can start raising the light levels again?

 

[Scorpius]

I get pale colors when my phosphates bottom out.

 

[reefwiser]

How many gallons is this aquarium? Sounds like a system with water parameter swings. Especially with the easy to keep SPS you are keeping. It's good that you went to the Blue Bucket salt the high alk salt can cause swings in alk if you do not watch it closely when doing water changes. Need to concentrate on getting your alk as stable as you can. Check it everyday for a week and before and after water changes. The SPS in your tank are tough and easy to keep if you are having trouble with them its the parameter swings that is causing the issue.

 

[ihavecrabs]

I get pale colors when my phosphates bottom out.

How many gallons is this aquarium? Sounds like a system with water parameter swings. Especially with the easy to keep SPS you are keeping. It's good that you went to the Blue Bucket salt the high alk salt can cause swings in alk if you do not watch it closely when doing water changes. Need to concentrate on getting your alk as stable as you can. Check it everyday for a week and before and after water changes. The SPS in your tank are tough and easy to keep if you are having trouble with them its the parameter swings that is causing the issue.

I agree that one of the above may be causing your issues.

Dosing daily would help with the alkalinity swings. If you do not want to dose and want to continue replenishing through WCs you can attempt more smaller changes, but keep an eye on that Alkalinity when doing so.

PO4 would be good to know also.

 

[Dana Riddle]

From what I've seen, poor polyp expansion is often due to low flow. Even if using a great pump for water motion, there can sometimes be areas of low flow.
If not doing so, try some activated carbon. It could be that one (some) of the corals are producing an irritant (toxin) that could be enough to cause other corals to retract. This is known as allelopathy. Or maybe something else... Years ago, I got some emails from a hobbyist complaining of pink slime in his reef. This was in the office of a small manufacturing business. I had no idea. As it turned out, fumes from the manufacturing process were mixing in the water and causing the 'sliming.'

 

[Ashish Patel]

I struggled with Monti, stylos early on and I believe it was due to two things, (lighting, and too much tinkering with nutrients). If your parameters are now stable at safe range then leave them where they and do your best to keep them there. Changing too much parameters won't help your corals regain color and strength. few things I would recommend is keep parameters stable (ALK, Phosphates in particular), put them in lower light area, and feed coral food.

 

[nivekid]

Thanks everybody. I'm seeing some improvements in color, and extension. I'm going work on keeping things stable and slowing ramp up the lights. I'll update this thread after some time to let you all know how my efforts have gone.

 

[reefwiser]

I would get a Par meter if you have a local Salt water club get evolved and they can come over and use their par meter to help you get your lights straight. Always have a way to measure anything you want to adjust in an aquarium. The human eye is horrible at adjusting light. Our eye can not see shifts or intensity the way that corals do.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Good point Reefwiser! PAR meters was one of the best investment ive made. Whats the first mistake we tend to make? Put the coral in too high PAR by guessing then we try our hardest to go backwards but by that times it sometimes little to late. With a Par meter I put them in 3-4 different spots in 3 weeks going from 100-150 PAR then 150-200 PAR then finally 200-300. I feel even if a coral is say coming from WWC used to similiar PAR it still going to need time to adjust to shipping, new tank parameters, placement, along with new PAR so starting off at 150Max is best practice, at least IME

 

[reefwiser]

Yes i will keep a coral for at least a month in low Par levels. One wants to do this to give the coral time to adjust to the chemistry of your particular aquarium water. If one places a coral at higher Par they do not adjust well too changes both in Par and chemistry. Corals do better with lower par levels when they are adjusting to water chemistry. I have found it takes a good three to four months for SPS to adjust and if one has water chemistry that varies a lot they will never adjust. So stability it key.

 

[nivekid]

Hello all. Just an update and a question. I've been keeping things stable since my last post. I was seeing some great improvements. Then last Thursday I was doing a water change and noticed that my protein skimmer air intake was clogged. During the water change I cleaned it out and got the skimmer back up and running. Then Friday morning we left for the weekend. Yesterday evening I came home and noticed poor polyp extension and fading/bleaching again. I have measured the parameters and everything is still about where it was. Nitrates are still high, but not horrible. Can I be over skimming yet still have high nitrates? I have a Bubble Magus Curve 5 on this tank with approx. 70 gallon water volume.

 

[ZaneTer]

@nivekid
We really need to know your phosphate levels please. Nitrates and phosphates are present independently but both are required for coral health. If the lighting,flow and alkalinity didnt fluctuate between when it was improving and now that would suggest it isnt them at fault. You may have nutrient issues. Are you running GFO or dosing carbon? Do you have a lot of macro algae?