sps pale and losing color

[Ernie C]

Sorry for the duplicate post, but originally posted in the lighting section. Not sure that is the issue and haven't gotten any helpful responses. I moved my old 110 tall 30 gal sump into a new red sea 350 total volume of 93 gallons. Also went from Chinese leds to AI hydras. I have the acclimation setting to 100%. Tank has been up for a month. Had a bacterial bloom two weeks in that lasted a week (added a UV). Let things settle and just did a 12 gal water change to suck up detritus from tank and sump. I have a bb tank and sump. I stopped dosing anything to let things settle. Only have a couple small sps frags and two LPS. The LPS are doing great but SPS aren't looking well and very pale with little polyp extension. Not sure if i just need to be patient or do something? Had filter socks and sponge in the sump, but i don't have time to clean/swap regularly so pulled them out rather just suck up detritus that settles in the corners. Water clarity is extremely clear still.

Phosphate - 0 ppm (I doubt this cause i have bit of algae growing on the rocks and cheato is growing in the sump) i ordered some new test kits for po4 and no3
Nitrate - 0 ppm
Alk - 9-10 dKH
Mg - 1400
salinity - 1.025
ph - 8.02
Cal - 480

 

[Peng]

Tank is still new. Nutrients too low.

 

[Ernie C]

So you think because I moved everything over from an established tank and replace 50% + water, this eliminated nutrients? I have some algae growth tho. Any suggestions or just feed my fish and wait?

 

[Peng]

The move causes damage on the original biosystem and now it’ll still go through the several months of maturation until your tank is stable. Old rocks and water may accelerate the transition but it still takes time for a new tank to mature. I see people with pale sticks in new/newish systems a lot (myself included). Get a few astrea snails to help with the algae growth. Trim back the cheato, don’t use phosphate remover. Nitrate may stay low I don’t really recommend dosing nitrate or phosphate. Just wait for the transition phases to proceed and finish. Once it’s done your nitrate should be greater than zero and same for phosphate. If you use carbon only use a little, passive flow. Feed a bit more.

 

[BigJim]

How were the SPS doing in the 110 before the move? Do you have any pictures? I would suspect Peng's thoughts are accurate, but pictures might help someone spot a problem. SPS hate change, so just the change in light could be causing the issue.

 

[Ernie C]

i'll have to take some after pics and post. I don't see any tissue recession or tissue damage just no color and little to no polyp extension. Thank you for information. I've been testing daily to keep track of any water chem changes but things to be pretty stable.

 

[OriginalUserName]

The move causes damage on the original biosystem and now it’ll still go through the several months of maturation until your tank is stable. Old rocks and water may accelerate the transition but it still takes time for a new tank to mature. I see people with pale sticks in new/newish systems a lot (myself included). Get a few astrea snails to help with the algae growth. Trim back the cheato, don’t use phosphate remover. Nitrate may stay low I don’t really recommend dosing nitrate or phosphate. Just wait for the transition phases to proceed and finish. Once it’s done your nitrate should be greater than zero and same for phosphate. If you use carbon only use a little, passive flow. Feed a bit more.

I also suspect that when using old rock/water a lot of the "maturity" on a new tank is the owner adjusting to the new care schedule. I've definitely found that to be the case for myself. I had the same issue with pale SPS after I rebooted my tank. It wasn't quite ready and I was still dialing in a few things.

 

[jda]

Physical moves are hard. Moving LEDs is hard on SPS. Fresh setups (even when moving from an established tank) can take some time on the front end even though the existing rock will take lots of time off the backend. You probably just need to keep doing your due diligence type of stuff and chill out for a while.

PE is not a sign of anything. It can even be a false positive in the case of more PE due to water quality issues and decreased respiration efficiency from the acropora. Do not worry about this at all. Color is more telling.

 

[SOCOM]

Dose nitrate to reach 2ppm. They will color back up.

 

[Ernie C]

Dose nitrate to reach 2ppm. They will color back up.

Wouldn’t this cause me algae issues? Also, where can I get the solution to dose? I haven’t seen any product for dosing nitrates. Thanks.

 

[SOCOM]

It’s no constant, dose as you see fit. I will see if I still have some I can send you for free.

 

[hatfielj]

Gotta get those nutrients up. If you dose nitrates and phosphates and get your levels to P04 0.03-0.05 and NO3 2.5-5.0, your color will come back. You might get a little bit of algae on the glass at first, but it will subside after a few weeks.
Anytime I let me nutrient levels drop, my colors fade instantly.
You can make your own solutions. Go to Amazon and buy Monosodium Phosphate powder and Sodium Nitrate powder. I dissolve 10g of Nitrate in 1,000 mL of RO water and just 1g of Phosphate in 1,000 mL of RO water. Start slow at first and measure your levels after each addition.

 

[Ernie C]

Gotta get those nutrients up. If you dose nitrates and phosphates and get your levels to P04 0.03-0.05 and NO3 2.5-5.0, your color will come back. You might get a little bit of algae on the glass at first, but it will subside after a few weeks.
Anytime I let me nutrient levels drop, my colors fade instantly.
You can make your own solutions. Go to Amazon and buy Monosodium Phosphate powder and Sodium Nitrate powder. I dissolve 10g of Nitrate in 1,000 mL of RO water and just 1g of Phosphate in 1,000 mL of RO water. Start slow at first and measure your levels after each addition.

Cool. Sounds easy enough. How much to dose daily on a 93 gallon setup?

Just in case If I don’t go the dosing route, how long before those levels go up? Just got Red Sea tests and sure enough both do not register at all. Thanks for the advice.

 

[BoomCorals]

You have algae growing. That means there are nutrients there. Don’t dose any nutrients. I’d slowly lower alk to 7-8. And then I bet color will slowly come back. Peng was spot on.

 

[Mrx]

You have nutrients or you wouldn't have algae and I'm suspecting its not one of a few low nutrient algaes (not common) ...lower your alk to around 7.8 to 8.2 and then just give it time and keep things cleaned up....are you feeding corals anything like a reefroids ..coral frenzy.. acropower.. fuel?

 

[Ernie C]

Update: Ok so alk is around 8.6, calcium is 460. Ph at 8.2. PO4 and NO3 still don’t register on my Red Sea tests. Removed the cheato and haven’t really seen any new algae. Actually it seems less. Corals seem happy though although not very colorful, but the monti is really the only real bright one I have. The lps are fine. Here are some pics.

 

[Skep18]

Did this get any better?

 

[Ernie C]

It did for a bit, but then I ran into another disaster that i'm currently working through. I had always bought my RODI at the LFS, but started making my own at home. I wasn't aware that you needed to change the sediment and carbon filters every month or so. My tank exploded in horrible hair algae and covered everything. Finally figured out it was my RODI used in topoff. Now I am afraid to use my RODI unit. =\ Luckily most my corals haven't been horribly affected but are still rather pale. Now slowly trying to get everything back on track. Sigh. Thank you for asking.

 

[Ernie C]

Any suggestions welcomed

 

[Skep18]

Any losses or just generally pale?

I'm starting to dose nitrate and phosphate. Nitrates seen steady but my phosphates are getting soaked up still.

My tank is newer and some SPS got pale. One browned out. They seem to be OK in health but I figured color wasn't this extreme. I think a couple maybe responding to the dosing but we'll see.