SPS losing green color?

[Cassian]

Hello all! so for about a month or so now certain SPS have been losing their greens. I have a BC Rainbows in Spain, a tort, and a few others I cant remember. One is purple with green tips, but its green tips have vanished. The purple still looks great and it has good PE, but no green. I loved tanks about 2 months ago, so im thinking lighting could be the problem, but I dont know. what could be causing this?

Parameters:
salinity: 1.027
temp: 79 degrees F
cal: 450
Mag:1500
Alk: 8
nitrates/nitrites/ ammonia: 0ppm
phosphates: N/A
ph: 8.0/7.8 (I struggle with getting this any higher. any suggestions?)

I feed fish frozen brine/mysis mix once per day. I also feed frozen rotifers and 4 spoon fulls (the provided measuring spoon) of Reef chili that I spot feed the SPS with.

#reefsquad

 

[Crabs McJones]

Hello all! so for about a month or so now certain SPS have been losing their greens. I have a BC Rainbows in Spain, a tort, and a few others I cant remember. One is purple with green tips, but its green tips have vanished. The purple still looks great and it has good PE, but no green. I loved tanks about 2 months ago, so im thinking lighting could be the problem, but I dont know. what could be causing this?

Parameters:
salinity: 1.027
temp: 79 degrees F
cal: 450
Mag:1500
Alk: 8
nitrates/nitrites/ ammonia: 0ppm
phosphates: N/A
ph: 8.0/7.8 (I struggle with getting this any higher. any suggestions?)

I feed fish frozen brine/mysis mix once per day. I also feed frozen rotifers and 4 spoon fulls (the provided measuring spoon) of Reef chili that I spot feed the SPS with.

#reefsquad

Nitrate and phosphate are both 0?

 

[mta_morrow]

0 nitrates and phosphates May be an issue.

I would begin by getting those measurable and everything in the tank needs a bit of those.

Also you are leaving yourself wide open to Dino’s if you are truly running at 0 NO3 and PO4.

That’s the only observation I can make with what is posted so far.

 

[Cassian]

Nitrate and phosphate are both 0?

nitrate is at zero and I haven't tested the phosphate yet, I just got my test kit in a couple of days ago

 

[Cassian]

0 nitrates and phosphates May be an issue.

I would begin by getting those measurable and everything in the tank needs a bit of those.

Also you are leaving yourself wide open to Dino’s if you are truly running at 0 NO3 and PO4.

That’s the only observation I can make with what is posted so far.

I have been trying to raise them slowly. I dont know if phosphates are at zero though. I just got my test kit in a couple of days ago. But I have always run my system with 0 nitrates, why would it just now lose its color? it has looked great for months

 

[Crabs McJones]

nitrate is at zero and I haven't tested the phosphate yet, I just got my test kit in a couple of days ago

If it helps, its been my personal experience, as well as the experience of @HotRocks that SPS corals need some nitrate and phosphate to thrive. We try to keep nitrate around 5PPM and phosphate around .02 ppm. We were both running our sps tanks through a fallow period to eradicate Ich and Velvet, and without fish to keep nutrients up everything was upset and had horrible color. As soon as we added fish and nutrients went up, everything colored up beautifully

 

[Cassian]

If it helps, its been my personal experience, as well as the experience of @HotRocks that SPS corals need some nitrate and phosphate to thrive. We try to keep nitrate around 5PPM and phosphate around .02 ppm. We were both running our sps tanks through a fallow period to eradicate Ich and Velvet, and without fish to keep nutrients up everything was upset and had horrible color. As soon as we added fish and nutrients went up, everything colored up beautifully

thanks for the advice! im working on adding more fish, so hopefully I can get the nutrients up

 

[Hemmdog]

I have been trying to raise them slowly. I dont know if phosphates are at zero though. I just got my test kit in a couple of days ago. But I have always run my system with 0 nitrates, why would it just now lose its color? it has looked great for months

Why have you been targeting 0 nitrate ?

 

[mta_morrow]

I am by no means an SPS expert. And I personally can’t explain a specific color loss. There will be some folks with great success see this and be able to help a lot more than me in this specific issue. I will keep an eye on this thread to help make sure you get the help you need. BTW, how long has this tank been up and running and how long have you had the sps?

 

[Hemmdog]

I am by no means an SPS expert. And I personally can’t explain a specific color loss. There will be some folks with great success see this and be able to help a lot more than me in this specific issue. I will keep an eye on this thread to help make sure you get the help you need. BTW, how long has this tank been up and running and how long have you had the sps?

Green pigments are related to iron&iodine, so if the tank had perfect parameters I’d look for a trace element deficiency, very common if there’s a fuge. Easily fixable with trace elements or a decent size water change.

 

[motortrendz]

Nitrates and phosphates at zero or non detectable are definitly an inhibitor. But I've also noticed in some of my corals that have different tips, like fox flame, a few wild pieces I have and purple base green tip stag all lost their color tips when I first added them... I actually increased the lighting and the colored tips came back. My nitrates are between 5-10 and po4 is usually .08-.15

 

[Rhydder_Reef]

Try zero water changes for a month. Just change filter media (socks, floss, etc.) if you have any and see if your NO3 comes up. You have to "dirty" your tank up a little so to speak. IMO

 

[Cassian]

Why have you been targeting 0 nitrate ?

not necessarily targeting it, but ive just never been able to get it up. Although, I do have a large skimmer, but it is on Econo mode so it shouldn't take out too much.

 

[Cassian]

Green pigments are related to iron&iodine, so if the tank had perfect parameters I’d look for a trace element deficiency, very common if there’s a fuge. Easily fixable with trace elements or a decent size water change.

fuge as in refugium? because I do have one

 

[Hemmdog]

fuge as in refugium? because I do have one

Is there macro algae growing in it? How long do you run the light for ?

 

[mta_morrow]

Try zero water changes for a month. Just change filter media (socks, floss, etc.) if you have any and see if your NO3 comes up. You have to "dirty" your tank up a little so to speak. IMO

Zero water changes has drawbacks. You are not replenishing many other elements for the sake of trying to raise nutrients.

Turning of the skimmer for a while or cutting back on fuge light cycle and increasing feeding would be a better route to go IMO.

 

[Cassian]

Is there macro algae growing in it? How long do you run the light for ?

I have some cheato (maybe a handful) and live rock and a sand bed in it. the light runs 8 hours on a reverse cycle with the tank

 

[Hemmdog]

I have some cheato (maybe a handful) and live rock and a sand bed in it. the light runs 8 hours on a reverse cycle with the tank

Hm I don’t think that would be significant enough to make a dent in your trace elements.

 

[KrisReef]

I read your title and guessed your nitrates: When my nitrates get elevated everything first turns green. If they keep increasing, next everything moves towards chocolate brown.

And yes, phosphate needs to be present. I feed my fish to provide nutrients.

 

[HotRocks]

If it helps, its been my personal experience, as well as the experience of @HotRocks that SPS corals need some nitrate and phosphate to thrive. We try to keep nitrate around 5PPM and phosphate around .02 ppm. We were both running our sps tanks through a fallow period to eradicate Ich and Velvet, and without fish to keep nutrients up everything was upset and had horrible color. As soon as we added fish and nutrients went up, everything colored up beautifully

If it helps, its been my personal experience, as well as the experience of @HotRocks that SPS corals need some nitrate and phosphate to thrive. We try to keep nitrate around 5PPM and phosphate around .02 ppm. We were both running our sps tanks through a fallow period to eradicate Ich and Velvet, and without fish to keep nutrients up everything was upset and had horrible color. As soon as we added fish and nutrients went up, everything colored up beautifully

This^

@LukeWolf are you using powerful lighting? Nutrients can certainly be run at lower levels but IMO this will keep your tank riding on the edge of disaster if everything else isn't perfect. I had major color loss and lost a few pieces when nutrients were flat. I run higher par in the 400 range using radion pro 4s coupled with t5s.