Sps turning white!

Yrevanth · Nov 5, 2017

Hi all,

I recently noticed that my sps are turning white where they are exposed to the light directly. I have 3 ecotech radion gen3 pros running at 100% blues, 5%red, 5% green and 25% white.

Tank is around 5 months old. I had to move all coral from my old tank (5+ years) which was starting to crash after a tank move.

Corals have been in this new tank for about 3 months now

Parameters are
Alk.9 dkh- 10dkh
Cal: 450 ppm
Mag:1360 ppm

Photo period is between 10;30 to 8:00 pm.

Nitrates are: <1 ppm
Po4-- 0.05 ppm

Temperature between 79-82.

Please help! I don't think the light intensity is too high for the corals to bleach out, but please let me know what you guys think!

tdileo · Nov 5, 2017

Did you raise the light intensity lately or have you had an alk spike?

Yrevanth · Nov 5, 2017

Alk is on a Doser which doses 50ml of 2 part 4 times a day.

Total volume is 130 gal (including sump).

Light intensity I brought it down lately, actually..

saltyfilmfolks · Nov 5, 2017

Lower the intensity or use the acclimation mode as firs aid.
Slow the coral metabolism.

Start the tests. Alk , ammonia ,

Alk is high ish. For the low ish nutints. And the high is light.

saltyfilmfolks · Nov 5, 2017

Yrevanth said:
Alk is on a Doser which doses 50ml of 2 part 4 times a day.

Total volume is 130 gal (including sump).

Light intensity I brought it down lately, actually..

50 ml four times a day?

Yrevanth · Nov 5, 2017

Yes.. that is what I calculated to keep the dkh between 9-10

Yrevanth · Nov 5, 2017

Lights are mounted to tank using the RMS. So about 18" from the top of water

Yrevanth · Nov 5, 2017

I test all everyday and adjust disings accordingly..

Flippers4pups · Nov 5, 2017

We're the corals in good health in the previous system?

Was the lighting in the previous tank the same? Same intensity and duration?

Spike in alkalinity/water pramameters different than previous system, too intense or no light acclimation, location in new system different than current location in relationship to light, Lack of nutrients, corals stressed/poor health prior to new system....... A lot of variables can cause this.

Big ones: light acclimation/too intense and water pramameters off of what they were used to.

Yrevanth · Nov 5, 2017

But would water parameter impact show 3 months later? Just curious..

They were in good shape in prev tank. Light intensity in prev tank was 40 pct all channels.

I changed it to 100% blues and 25% whites recently (about 3 weeks ago).

Should I cut this back?

leepink23 · Nov 5, 2017

Yrevanth said:
Hi all,

I recently noticed that my sps are turning white where they are exposed to the light directly. I have 3 ecotech radion gen3 pros running at 100% blues, 5%red, 5% green and 25% white.

Tank is around 5 months old. I had to move all coral from my old tank (5+ years) which was starting to crash after a tank move.

Corals have been in this new tank for about 3 months now

Parameters are
Alk.9 dkh- 10dkh
Cal: 450 ppm
Mag:1360 ppm

Photo period is between 10;30 to 8:00 pm.

Nitrates are: <1 ppm
Po4-- 0.05 ppm

Temperature between 79-82.

Please help! I don't think the light intensity is too high for the corals to bleach out, but please let me know what you guys think!

What is the overall intesity? I run max 50% at those individual light settings except I had to cut my uv down to 50%, i found my sps would pale on my higher up sps before cutting uv down. Also I run my dKH lower, around 8, with the lower nutrients. I plan to add diffusers to hopefully even the spread out.