SPS browning and turns into white

[DesertReefT4r]

Hanna is the only good/accurate po4 test in our hobby. I love my ppm Hanna checker, makes testing so easy.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I'd agree, stop dosing nopox, you would be better off growing cheato if that's an option.
I don't think lighting is the issue, if you are new to sps, start with montipora and stylophora and go from there.
The success of keeping corals is dependant on how stabile your water parameters are as well, so focus on nailing that down.

How can you say lighting isn’t the issue when we don’t even know what settings the OP is using. Hydra 26’s are not that powerful unless all channels are maxed out. I think it’s probably the nopox as well, but lighting can definitely cause this type of tissue necrosis. I have a hydra 26 hd on my 29 gallon frag tank and it’s only generating 275 par 6” below the surface of the water directly under the light at 85 watts.

 

[nanchil]

This is the light setting

 

[nanchil]

I'd agree, stop dosing nopox, you would be better off growing cheato if that's an option.
I don't think lighting is the issue, if you are new to sps, start with montipora and stylophora and go from there.
The success of keeping corals is dependant on how stabile your water parameters are as well, so focus on nailing that down.

Thanks. But I am not having any success with Monti. But stylopora are doing OK.

 

[nanchil]

I'd agree, stop dosing nopox, you would be better off growing cheato if that's an option.
I don't think lighting is the issue, if you are new to sps, start with montipora and stylophora and go from there.
The success of keeping corals is dependant on how stabile your water parameters are as well, so focus on nailing that down.

Thanks. So for the parameters, I guess it’s been stable. Not much variation. I test Alk alternative days. It is stable around 8.4.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

How can you say lighting isn’t the issue when we don’t even know what settings the OP is using. Hydra 26’s are not that powerful unless all channels are maxed out. I think it’s probably the nopox as well, but lighting can definitely cause this type of tissue necrosis. I have a hydra 26 hd on my 29 gallon frag tank and it’s only generating 275 par 6” below the surface of the water directly under the light at 85 watts.

Definitely. I have two hydra26hds over my 24in wide Red Sea reefer 170 and get about 350 PAR with both running 85w each.

Low (insufficient) PAR coupled with another stressor usually means death for my corals.

 

[chefjpaul]

This is the light setting

Saxby schedule.

Remember, he also runs mass amount of lightning with T5's as well.

I run this on 4 AI lights, different tanks, but on my SPS tank, upped the % a bit.

I suggest getting the water in line, stable and consistent. Then work on modifying the lighting schedule based on a PAR par meter. Slowly.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

This is the light setting

I don’t believe 3-26’s with these settings on a 100 gallon system is enough light.

 

[JCOLE]

I ran Seachems Phosguard a month or so ago and watched my corals lose color within 3 days. I immediately stopped and did a 20% water change. Colors are back to normal now. Artificial removal of nutrients can cause more problems in the long run that anything. I will never run GFO, NoPox, etc again unless the numbers are crazy high.

 

[LOVEROCK]

It very well can be and with a result of 0 to 0.125 that’s a big gap. Anytime mine gets over 0.08 mine start to turn brown. I lost all my sps last year from high PO4. Now I have to dose it as I always test zero.

Dosing lantrum chloride ?

 

[Hitman]

Dosing lantrum chloride ?

No I dose PO4 and NO3

 

[roberthu526]

Do you have a trend of the parameters that you can share? Especially Alk and nitrate. A two week trend of at least four data points each would be great.

 

[Sailfinguy21]

Nitrates are too low.. phosphates too low.

Get the nitrates up to 10 ppm... and dont worry sbout thr phosphates..

Seriously..

Feed feed feed feed the tank.. or shut off anything you jave that takes out nitrates.

I jave 50 corals.. 30 are sps... none of them have ever bleached.. or browned.. ever.. and they grow like freakin weeds... i even had a bleach frogskin acfopora given t9 me... in 2 weeks it recovered and its growing fast.

Get the nitrates up

 

[nanchil]

Do you have a trend of the parameters that you can share? Especially Alk and nitrate. A two week trend of at least four data points each would be great.

Sorry ... couldn't update immediately ...

Alk - I take the reading alternative days ... Nitrate - Weekly.. Thanks for your help ... Please let me know if you need more information...

 

[nanchil]

Nitrates are too low.. phosphates too low.

Get the nitrates up to 10 ppm... and dont worry sbout thr phosphates..

Seriously..

Feed feed feed feed the tank.. or shut off anything you jave that takes out nitrates.

I jave 50 corals.. 30 are sps... none of them have ever bleached.. or browned.. ever.. and they grow like freakin weeds... i even had a bleach frogskin acfopora given t9 me... in 2 weeks it recovered and its growing fast.

Get the nitrates up

I do feed my fish heavily as I have two picky eaters ... CBB and Green mandarin ... Yes both are on frozen foods ...

 

[Jinko]

How can you say lighting isn’t the issue when we don’t even know what settings the OP is using. Hydra 26’s are not that powerful unless all channels are maxed out. I think it’s probably the nopox as well, but lighting can definitely cause this type of tissue necrosis. I have a hydra 26 hd on my 29 gallon frag tank and it’s only generating 275 par 6” below the surface of the water directly under the light at 85 watts.

I'm not saying for sure hence why I said think.
OP needs to borrow a PAR meter to be sure.
The thing is I've had more corals die from too much light than not enough, I literally have an acro under a huge plating montipora that gets barely any light and still manages to grow.

 

[roberthu526]

Sorry ... couldn't update immediately ...

Alk - I take the reading alternative days ... Nitrate - Weekly.. Thanks for your help ... Please let me know if you need more information...

Overall it looks stable but the 9.1 to 8.1 drop in four days is a little wild. I am not sure if it was due to this one time swing but it is mostly unlikely.

 

[roberthu526]

I do feed my fish heavily as I have two picky eaters ... CBB and Green mandarin ... Yes both are on frozen foods ...

I would cut back on the NOPOX dosing slowly and try to raise nitrate. 1PPM increase per week is pretty safe and the goal is to maintain it between 5 and 15. Pick a number and stay there flat is the key. If the corals turn brown and don’t color up after 8 weeks, you probably need to crank up the light intensity. Again do it slowly like 1% per week until you start seeing color improvement. As soon as you see colors popping out stop increasing light intensity and keep everything stable.
I wouldn’t worry about phosphate too much. You can get a Hanna ULR checker for it but unless you are at 1PPM or higher I wouldn’t go crazy on it. My phosphate floats around 0.15PPM and I only test it once a week or so. Most of the time I don’t do anything about it.

 

[roberthu526]

Nitrates are too low.. phosphates too low.

Get the nitrates up to 10 ppm... and dont worry sbout thr phosphates..

Seriously..

Feed feed feed feed the tank.. or shut off anything you jave that takes out nitrates.

I jave 50 corals.. 30 are sps... none of them have ever bleached.. or browned.. ever.. and they grow like freakin weeds... i even had a bleach frogskin acfopora given t9 me... in 2 weeks it recovered and its growing fast.

Get the nitrates up

Agreed. But do it slowly!

 

[nanchil]

I would cut back on the NOPOX dosing slowly and try to raise nitrate. 1PPM increase per week is pretty safe and the goal is to maintain it between 5 and 15. Pick a number and stay there flat is the key. If the corals turn brown and don’t color up after 8 weeks, you probably need to crank up the light intensity. Again do it slowly like 1% per week until you start seeing color improvement. As soon as you see colors popping out stop increasing light intensity and keep everything stable.
I wouldn’t worry about phosphate too much. You can get a Hanna ULR checker for it but unless you are at 1PPM or higher I wouldn’t go crazy on it. My phosphate floats around 0.15PPM and I only test it once a week or so. Most of the time I don’t do anything about it.

Thanks. Will do. Here is my result just now.