Pale SPS almost no color.

[NickyReefs]

I would venture that the cyano and algae are somewhat separate issues from the pale sps, but 1/2 cube per day was nowhere near enough food for those fish. Glad you increased but even 1 cube is light imo.
Edit. The easiest and cheapest way I’ve found to raise phosphate is to feed pellets. They’re like little bombs.

Thanks for the imput! So my Fish have been around for a year and a half now (they came from my old 65) I've only been feeding 1/2 a cube because the usually don't want more. I swap between 2 diffrent types of mysis and some reef frenzy. They are super healthy and very active all day. But I'm definitely gonna up to 1 cube and let's see if they get nice a plump

The stuff that your corals need is output from your fish. Feed the fish more. It is really this easy. Don't worry about target feeding or dosing N and P on the backend. Remember that N and P numbers on a test kit are fools gold. Just test that N and P to make sure that they are climbing too high... which can happen and then you need to export more.

Definitely will do! Any advice on the cyano/gha that comes with the extra feedings / nutrients?is it something I'm just gonna have to let balance out?

 

[SPS247]

Just sharing my journey in hopes there is something here that sparks an idea you haven’t tried yet. R2R has been my main source of reading and this is what I am trying based on my research.

I’m going through the same stuff you are but about 1month into trying to fix my problem naturally. Random Pale SPS Even lost a few long term SPS 5+yrs that where to far gone to save. In this newer tank. It’s about 1.5yrs old with set backs along the way. some SPS have been ok up until I got unbalanced with No3 and PO4 to zero and Alk to high. Cyno soon followed once I hit zero and random pale SPS.
So here’s what has helped with my SPS so far.
Cyno I’m still battling back and fourth.
1. No3 held no lower then 3ppm Po4 minimum .03ppm no higher then 1ppm. This can be + or minus as long as it stays consistent to each other from what I’ve learned. Alk also plays into this as well. Lower No3 lower Alk 6.5 to 7.5 ish anything over 8 and I had trouble with lower nitrates and Phosphates.
2. Flow! Up your flow to the point where it’s a washing machine in your tank but not blasting anything direct. SPS will start to extend the polyps over a few weeks. Random whirl wind burst is good from cross flow. This will help with cyno too. I don’t have many soft coral but do fine with burst too just not constant direct flow.
3. Using AB+ to feed starving pale sps until my NO3 and PO4 are balanced so the corals have a natural source. Also using Brightwell Restor.
4. Microbacter 7 added daily to out compete the cyno’s food, fingers crossed. This is a long journey. I read at least 3 months min. I know sounds counter productive with No3 and Po4 and Bacteria eating it up but this is suppose to help balance it where it’s not stripped out instantly but slowly and balanced naturally.
Bio load increases bacteria increase bio load decrease bacteria decrease slowly.
5. Started adding trace elements since I don't do many water changes. I use to have a 35g for yrs and never did water changes and the tank was insanely packed with colored SPS. Never once did I have a cyno outbreak but I did allow other algae to grow good or bad. Looking back I still don’t know how but I’m trying to apply the same method to the bigger tank now with out the bad algae.
6.Just started adding Phyto to help pods grow to eat micro foods left behind to out compete cyno and other bad algae.
6. I feed my fish decent and am trying to add more fish as quickly but slowly as possible.

So far my pale SPS are coming back my other SPS that where doing good already have gotten brighter and stronger.

Hope something here helps you.
I’ve been reading for two months straight trying to learn something new I might have missed/forgotten or need to do. I’ve been reefing for 15+ yrs. and always had luck with SPS from day one. So yeah cyno and balanced nutrients have been kick my … I guess it’s only a matter of time when something catches up too you and Reef Gods tell you to pay up. LOL
So I’m paying my dues and sharing what I have found so far. Good Luck!

 

[SPS247]

Tank proof of my cyno battle.

 

[NickyReefs]

Tank proof of my cyno battle.

Much appreciated of all the info!! Very informative. Very jealous of your tank as it looks beautiful even with the cyano haha! I can see you really did your research. I was also thinking of dosing microbacter7 to outcompete the cyano but currently want to get my nutrients up before I start. I thought about flow aswell, but anything above 60% of my gyre starts throwing sand around. was thinking of adding a second 4k on opposite side of tank to really make some chaotic movement. Going tommorow to pick up some AB+ as others have mentioned worked well. I do dose phyto occasionally for my tiger pods. A freind of mine is moving out of state and breaking down his tank Sunday and he wants to give me his 4 tangs yellow/black/gem/purple, I'm not quite sure if I should take all 4 considering tank size, but the bioload increase does sound pleasing! Maybe I should take them for the time being and rehome if they become too big? Gonna have to make that desicion on Sunday I guess lol. Once again I'm very appreciative that you took time out of your day to share Information! Looks like I'm just gonna need patience and time to make it work, I'll gladly let you know how things are going so we can tackle it toghter!

 

[SPS247]

Much appreciated of all the info!! Very informative. Very jealous of your tank as it looks beautiful even with the cyano haha! I can see you really did your research. I was also thinking of dosing microbacter7 to outcompete the cyano but currently want to get my nutrients up before I start. I thought about flow aswell, but anything above 60% of my gyre starts throwing sand around. was thinking of adding a second 4k on opposite side of tank to really make some chaotic movement. Going tommorow to pick up some AB+ as others have mentioned worked well. I do dose phyto occasionally for my tiger pods. A freind of mine is moving out of state and breaking down his tank Sunday and he wants to give me his 4 tangs yellow/black/gem/purple, I'm not quite sure if I should take all 4 considering tank size, but the bioload increase does sound pleasing! Maybe I should take them for the time being and rehome if they become too big? Gonna have to make that desicion on Sunday I guess lol. Once again I'm very appreciative that you took time out of your day to share Information! Looks like I'm just gonna need patience and time to make it work, I'll gladly let you know how things are going so we can tackle it toghter!

Thanks on the tank. I try to remind myself every time I look at it to focus on whats looking good and not focus on the bad before I kill everything.

Flow is key to healthy SPS no question debatably vs lighting even. SPS need that crashing wave flow to flourish. I have the sand issue to but I live with some sand moving around slightly. I keep my pumps high closer to the surface.

Fish wise I would take them that’s just me until I need to find a new home. Do it when the Police tangs are not looking of course. LOL!

Good luck with your SPS/tank. Hope you can get them back to the color you know they can be. If something works for me on my adventure I will try to update as I am randomly on. I just so happened to see you post and was like maybe I can help. Anyway enjoy your tank and journey. If you happen to find the silver bullet for cyno without chemclean let me know. LOL!

 

[NickyReefs]

UPDATE:

So just want to thank everyone again for there advice, you guys were spot on! I've 100% made the mistake of stripping my nutrients with the GFO reactor. I should of definitely done more research before deciding to add that to my tank. What I thought was cyano turned out to be 100% dinoflagellates (thriving because of no nutrients) I've been feeding a full cube of mysis daily, nori every other day and started dosing 20ml daily of the RedSea AB+. Have my skimmer skimming dry. My nutrients are still reading .0 but I have noticed that my sps polyp extension has doubled. The sps tips appear to start showing slight coloration. Even one of my zoanthid colonys has popped a few new heads! I'm going to continue this regiment until I can reach appropriate nutrient levels and maintain them. Once again I am much appreciated of the information and research you guys have done!

 

[biecacka]

how are things looking now? have they settled down and were you able to get any N/P readings?

corey

 

[MrGisonni]

Dose nitrates slowly. Brightwell makes a good product. I never thought I would say that (being old school ULS), but get your nitrates up. When my nitrates go to zero bad things happen in my mixed reef. Find what level from 5 to 30 that makes everyone happy with nice color and good PE and keep it close to that. Keep feeding fish, back off on the coral feeding a bit. Doing that is when my nuisance algae started. Macro algae will work against your gha and cyano. Cerith and turbos will clean the rest.

 

[NickyReefs]

Dose nitrates slowly. Brightwell makes a good product. I never thought I would say that (being old school ULS), but get your nitrates up. When my nitrates go to zero bad things happen in my mixed reef. Find what level from 5 to 30 that makes everyone happy with nice color and good PE and keep it close to that. Keep feeding fish, back off on the coral feeding a bit. Doing that is when my nuisance algae started. Macro algae will work against your gha and cyano. Cerith and turbos will clean the rest.

Nutrients / elements have been pretty much stable since this last post 8 months ago... SPS did not make it.... any other sps I have tried also just turns white overtime and dies... did ICP test and all came out well... I belive its just the fact that 2 kessil a360xs are not enough light for a 4ft tank