SPS Color Issues

[SeaDweller]

SCOP?

Sexy corals OP

 

[Bounce House]

Looks like the corals are recovering nicely.

 

[mshonk]

Looks like the corals are recovering nicely.

Yeah. The higher the no3 goes the better they look.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Mine red digi is still very pale so now I have started to feed the fish slightly more and add a little sps particulate food and fingers crossed my cyano is receding in hope of the digi coming back. As with only 3 fish fed a small amount daily I think it's just too clean.

 

[mshonk]

Mine red digi is still very pale so now I have started to feed the fish slightly more and add a little sps particulate food and fingers crossed my cyano is receding in hope of the digi coming back. As with only 3 fish fed a small amount daily I think it's just too clean.

I only have 5 so I push it now with two feedings a day. I feed reef roids daily and they are healthy and happy without adverse effects on the tank. I am testing today so I will post params later. But I bet no3 is 2ppm and po4 is about .05-.07ppm, alk at 7.5, ca at 410, salinity 1.024-1.025, mag 1300ppm. I know my iodine is at .6. Ph is between 8.35-8.45. Nh3 .009ppm and nh4 7.9 ppb.
Without a doubt I see happier corals at no3 of 1-2ppm vs .25-.75ppm.

 

[mshonk]

I did notice I have some dinos and they are more prevalent the following day when I feed the my AF amino and energy. Receeding but if they bounce back it on those days.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

I'm trying to get my alk back down to 7.5 , currently it's crept up to 9.3 as the lack of growth and frequency of testing it has alluded me, with work and just life I sort of became complacent.

 

[mshonk]

yeah testing is getting old. My salinity dipped to 1.022 about a week ago. I was testing everything but that. It's back to 1.o25.

no3 2-3ppm
po4 .076ppm
ph 8.4
salinity 1.025
alk 7.4
ca 400
mg 1350
temp 79.5

not in the mood to test fe and k

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

yeah testing is getting old. My salinity dipped to 1.022 about a week ago. I was testing everything but that. It's back to 1.o25.

no3 2-3ppm
po4 .076ppm
ph 8.4
salinity 1.025
alk 7.4
ca 400
mg 1350
temp 79.5

not in the mood to test fe and k

Just checked my alk again and it's gone bloody up not down its 10.3 no wonder that it all looks annoyed I only tested it Monday and turned the dosing down. I have now turned it off. Cal is 415
Temp 78.7
Mag 1325
PH 8.2
But why would alk keep going up? I'm assuming that the consumption just isn't there. It uses to drop 1.5 ish dkh per day when all was thriving. That was the reason for buying a doser as manually adding it was a pita.

 

[mshonk]

Just checked my alk again and it's gone bloody up not down its 10.3 no wonder that it all looks annoyed I only tested it Monday and turned the dosing down. I have now turned it off. Cal is 415
Temp 78.7
Mag 1325
PH 8.2
But why would alk keep going up? I'm assuming that the consumption just isn't there. It uses to drop 1.5 ish dkh per day when all was thriving. That was the reason for buying a doser as manually adding it was a pita.

Willing to bet that once they corals become irritated the consumtion drops and that is when the swings occur. I left my pumps off for over a week for the alk to drop to where I wanted it when I was correcting the tank params the first time.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

I have done a 10% waterchange and turned the doser for alk off. I have tested again tonight and it's back down to 9.9, I'll test again tomorrow and see if it comes down much without a waterchange. I'm not sure how much consumption I'll have as the growth has slowed down.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

I have got my alk down to 9.4 by just leaving the doser off on the alk. My green /silver digi still has great polyp extension but the red is definitely in the decline.mm

 

[mshonk]

Hang in there. If there is anything I have noticed, it's once the damage is there it may have a chance but it takes months to bounce back.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Hang in there. If there is anything I have noticed, it's once the damage is there it may have a chance but it takes months to bounce back.

I don't mind waiting months, but with the issue of cyano I have at the moment it is irritating the struggling coral more. All the other corals are fine, it is just the red digi that is not doing great. After trying to keep all the levels (apart from the alk climb) where they need to be and doing the maintenence and water changes for over 2 months now, the cyano is not giving up so I (ashamedly) have resorted to a bit of medical help, in the form of ultralife red slime remover.
I have done 1 dose as of today so fingers crossed it will go and give the montipora a chance to get growing again. These photos were taken just after lights on before I dosed.

 

[mshonk]

I don't mind waiting months, but with the issue of cyano I have at the moment it is irritating the struggling coral more. All the other corals are fine, it is just the red digi that is not doing great. After trying to keep all the levels (apart from the alk climb) where they need to be and doing the maintenence and water changes for over 2 months now, the cyano is not giving up so I (ashamedly) have resorted to a bit of medical help, in the form of ultralife red slime remover.
I have done 1 dose as of today so fingers crossed it will go and give the montipora a chance to get growing again. These photos were taken just after lights on before I dosed.

How strong is your flow? I believe cyano doesn't fair well with high flow. I had a little in my lowest flow area of the tank for a bit but it faded away. I still have dinos and they are only really on the sand. Thankfully. I have syphoned out at least 5lbs. while getting the dinos out.

As for your alk the water changes probably dont help. Your adding an extra variable into getting your param stable but you are probably doing wc's for the cyano. I dont remember but your no3 and po4 arent real high right? The nero I added to my tank goes between to 950-2200gph for 4 hrs a day and I have two jebao wavemakers that are in a slow sine mode probably do 600 to 1200 all the time. So even at the lowest end its 50x turnover. Not including the return pump.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

My flow is a flow pump of 240gph,280gph return (intank sump) plus a 1030gph wave maker (full power) that's 64x roughly as for the water changes I use nsw and that is only 7.7 dkh so does helps lower it, I have only done 3 10% water vanes in 2.5 months while siphoning out cyano Phosphates are 0.04 and nitrates 5-10. I have cyano in low and high flow so I'll see how the meds work.

 

[mshonk]

My flow is a flow pump of 240gph,280gph return (intank sump) plus a 1030gph wave maker (full power) that's 64x roughly as for the water changes I use nsw and that is only 7.7 dkh so does helps lower it, I have only done 3 10% water vanes in 2.5 months while siphoning out cyano Phosphates are 0.04 and nitrates 5-10. I have cyano in low and high flow so I'll see how the meds work.

Fingers crosssed on the meds. I used dino xal for one dose and it in combination with my dip in salinity are what made the poci, birdsnest, and stylos angry. I will not touch it again. $40 down the drain. I might just sell it. I bought an uv sterilizer to help drive it down. Its been nearly two weeks and finally the corals are looking better. I had to frag some of my green pocillapora due to die back. Its ok now.

I have used the red slime remover in the past and it worked per the instructions.

FYI When I asked about flow and wc's I wasn't questioning your knowledge or skillset. With my job I problem solve on a daily and if everything makes sense but some something doesn't work, the issue is usually an oversight. So I was hoping to review some general things and maybe you could catch the issue. I don't think you po4 is the problem but your no3 is a bit higher than I like but maintaining no3 at anything other than 0ppm is new to me. Mine jumped to 4ppm. I was trying to stay at 2ppm. My sps love it though.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Fingers crosssed on the meds. I used dino xal for one dose and it in combination with my dip in salinity are what made the poci, birdsnest, and stylos angry. I will not touch it again. $40 down the drain. I might just sell it. I bought an uv sterilizer to help drive it down. Its been nearly two weeks and finally the corals are looking better. I had to frag some of my green pocillapora due to die back. Its ok now.

I have used the red slime remover in the past and it worked per the instructions.

FYI When I asked about flow and wc's I wasn't questioning your knowledge or skillset. With my job I problem solve on a daily and if everything makes sense but some something doesn't work, the issue is usually an oversight. So I was hoping to review some general things and maybe you could catch the issue. I don't think you po4 is the problem but your no3 is a bit higher than I like but maintaining no3 at anything other than 0ppm is new to me. Mine jumped to 4ppm. I was trying to stay at 2ppm. My sps love it though.

Sorry if I came across as shirty, I was just saying what I have flow wise. I didn't read it that way I was just giving info. I don't normally run my wave maker that full as my lps don't open as much, but as people suggest low flow could be an issue I just whacked it up to full. I do run at full speed when cleaning glass to keep stuff suspended but only for a couple hours. I have been using nsw for nearly 2 years now and dont do that many frequent water changes and this is the first tank with sps.

 

[mshonk]

Sorry if I came across as shirty, I was just saying what I have flow wise. I didn't read it that way I was just giving info. I don't normally run my wave maker that full as my lps don't open as much, but as people suggest low flow could be an issue I just whacked it up to full. I do run at full speed when cleaning glass to keep stuff suspended but only for a couple hours. I have been using nsw for nearly 2 years now and dont do that many frequent water changes and this is the first tank with sps.

I didnt think you were but it was a "just in case". I agree on the lps and flow. My nero runs at that high rate (max @60%) from 11-4 then at 40% for 6 hours and 20% overnight. The other two pumps have day and night mode but where i mounted them it doesnt work so I have to dial it back manually at night. Do you have any spots that settle in your sump?

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

I don't have a sump it's just an intank filter box it's only about 90litre 24us gallon ish. So no I don't.
1st photo when I dosed ultralife red slime remover 2nd 24hrs later
Before


after

Before

after

so it is looks a bit better tonight.