Stylophora bleaching maybe?
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Brandonn
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Could my wrasse be messing with it?The tip top started turning white a week ago , no changes at all with environment, please help with advice . Do I have to worry? All my other corals and anemones are happy as can be
road_runner
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Wrasses are reef safe. Am not aware it a wrass that will pick on coral..
Mkeller088
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How long have you had it?
Hemmdog
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I see. Do you know your full parameters? Alk, cal, mag, nitrate, phos, salinity, temp
Brandonn
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Salinity is always between 1.023-25, temp always 78-80 max depending on how hot the summer day is here in Michigan , nitrate is around 20-40 ppm, I’ve struggled with nitrate. I was told not to worry about cal, mag,phos, until I get more hard corals that take up a lot of nutrients. I use reverse osmosis water and do a 3 gallon change every 2 weeks . My aquarium is 20 gallons with a 3 gallon ish sump filter .
Westoncase
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Calcium is definitely very important with sps and lps, not quite that important with soft corals. Somewhere between 400-450ppm is good. I’m not sure about magnesium, and phosphate needs to be .01-.03. It wouldn’t hurt to do bigger or more water changes.
Mkeller088
Active Member
How long do you run the whites per day? It definitely bleached. Frags that size bleach out completely in a matter of hours once it starts.
I don’t guess you have a par meter?
I’ve had a lot of success with sps in a mixed reef tank. My light cycle is 12 hours, but the whites only run for 3 hours.
Lighting can be a major factor, depending on what lighting they came from.
A safe bet is start low and very slowly bring the lighting up.
I attached my set up using AI 26 HD’s, 8 inches off the water. My SPS are 15 inches below the surface. That’s where my par readings come from.
What lights do you use?
I don’t guess you have a par meter?
I’ve had a lot of success with sps in a mixed reef tank. My light cycle is 12 hours, but the whites only run for 3 hours.
Lighting can be a major factor, depending on what lighting they came from.
A safe bet is start low and very slowly bring the lighting up.
I attached my set up using AI 26 HD’s, 8 inches off the water. My SPS are 15 inches below the surface. That’s where my par readings come from.
What lights do you use?
Mkeller088
Active Member
Here is mid day
JCOLE
Grower of the Small Polyps
Stability is key with SPS. SPS isnt hard but it is a lot of work to maintain levels for SPS. This is where the struggle is. Stylophora is pretty hardy.
I think the reason here is your levels were jumping around and stressed the coral out. Your salinity and nitrate reading is a huge gap between. Your phosphate is very important with SPS. Too little and too high will take out some SPS. Also, what is your ALK? Are you measuring ALK everyday? If you ALK is fluctuating a lot throughout the day then that is a death wish for SPS.
If you are looking to get into SPS then I would monitor your parameters daily especially ALK until you reach a level of stability. This is even more important for a smaller tank like yours. The smaller the tank the harder it is on the corals with fluctuations. That is why I have a 150 gallon so it is more forgiving.
Once your system is stable and not fluctuating then SPS will be much easier to keep.Keep it up. It happens to all of us and when the tank gets there then it will be very rewarding.
