Your thoughts on why my monti caps are bleaching.

[Mykesocalreef]

Does the spectracide only raise nitrates? If so what will raise phosphates?

Where did you find the amounts to dose? If I get to that point of needing to I would like to know how much and if there are any other things I need to know.

 

[malira]

Does the spectracide only raise nitrates? If so what will raise phosphates?

I use phytofeast because it's also food for your other organisms.

I think seachem makes just a phosphate solution.

 

[Cory]

Does the spectracide only raise nitrates? If so what will raise phosphates?

Its potassium nitrate so it will raise both by 1 to 3 ratio iirc.

 

[blkhwkz]

Where did you find the amounts to dose? If I get to that point of needing to I would like to know how much and if there are any other things I need to know.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/q...ide-stump-remover-dosing.213281/#post-2443440
That is what I used to calculate it. Brightwell and some others make stuff you can dose for Phosphate. I just fed more, but that is not exactly precise.

 

[N4sty T4te]

So the plan is dropping to 35% on the lights. How long should I keep it before I decide to make it lower if need be? Going to get a kit for phosphate and see where I am at. If there aren't any detectable or in the desired range I will need to get some more in there, best practices for that?

Shorten your LED duration to 9hrs.

I have a similar fixture with similar bulb setup. I run mine at 70% 9" over the water. With a par meter the middle of the tank is around 180-200 par. I run a shorter peak. My guess is you need more nutrients.

 

[Playa-1]

I always recommend taking a hard look at the water filter performance before anything else. Sometimes people read way too much into the TDS numbers and overlook other important aspects of the water quality. Just throwing it out there in case it hasn't been ruled out yet.

 

[Mykesocalreef]

I always recommend taking a hard look at the water filter performance before anything else. Sometimes people read way too much into the TDS numbers and overlook other important aspects of the water quality. Just throwing it out there in case it hasn't been ruled out yet.

My water incoming to my TDS meter is 14 and 0 out. Filters are changed every three months. They always look clean but I still change them anyway.

 

[Mykesocalreef]

So I purchased the Red Sea nitrate and phosphate kit. Here are my updated numbers.
Temp-79
Sal- 1.025
Mg-1600 ppm
Ca-420 ppm
Ph- 8.2 ppm
Phos- 0.0ppm
Nit- 4 ppm
Alk- 8.5 dkh
Lights have been reduced to 35%.
What are everyone's thoughts now? Obviously need to get some phosphate in there.

 

[Ty Hamatake]

So I purchased the Red Sea nitrate and phosphate kit. Here are my updated numbers.
Temp-79
Sal- 1.025
Mg-1600 ppm
Ca-420 ppm
Ph- 8.2 ppm
Phos- 0.0ppm
Nit- 4 ppm
Alk- 8.5 dkh
Lights have been reduced to 35%.
What are everyone's thoughts now? Obviously need to get some phosphate in there.

Has your tank made any progress? Other than the low PO4, looks like mag might be a tad high, but I don't what effect that has.

 

[tcarter1936]

What are you using for water changes. I bleached my corals by not verifying ALK and realized my salt mix was much lower causing swings

 

[Mykesocalreef]

Has your tank made any progress? Other than the low PO4, looks like mag might be a tad high, but I don't what effect that has.

No progress still the bleached caps. Mag might have been s botched test. I have to retest. Last check was 1350 and I haven't dosed mag. So I think it was operator error.

 

[Mykesocalreef]

What are you using for water changes. I bleached my corals by not verifying ALK and realized my salt mix was much lower causing swings

I use Red Sea coral pro. The last water change it was 8.5 dkh my tank was 8.8dkh. It was a 25 gallon change..

 

[Thor2j]

I use Red Sea coral pro. The last water change it was 8.5 dkh my tank was 8.8dkh. It was a 25 gallon change..

Red sea coral pro is much higher then that, more like 12.

 

[Mykesocalreef]

Red sea coral pro is much higher then that, more like 12.

Mine didn't test that high. I let it mix overnight though. So maybe that was the difference? Also if it mixes at 12 what would you do to lower the dkh?

 

[tcarter1936]

Mine didn't test that high. I let it mix overnight though. So maybe that was the difference? Also if it mixes at 12 what would you do to lower the dkh?

I think you need to replace your kit or at least take some fresh mixed salt to your legs and let them test to verify ,red Sea shouldn't be that low at 1.026.
I am just recovering from such a similar scenario. I was dosing kno3 and wasn't testing all on new water and when I still wasn't getting colors I realized I was causing major ALK swings with my aquaforest salt being so low.

 

[tcarter1936]

Also not sure how to lower other than using different salt.
I'm pretty sure hydrochloric acid is what you would you but I would wait on the chemists of the group for that question.

 

[bif24701]

Unfortunately there is a big difference between 0 and 5 IMO you want them between 5 and 10.

Anything under 5ppm results in pale colors for me.

I think systems with high intensity lighting or very long duration needs more NO3 in order to keep up with the coral demands.

 

[bif24701]

It is probably only too much light if you don't have enough nutrients...which it appears you don't. I would either increase your nutrients, or decrease intensity.

Exactly

 

[Ty Hamatake]

No progress still the bleached caps. Mag might have been s botched test. I have to retest. Last check was 1350 and I haven't dosed mag. So I think it was operator error.

That may be true. Everything else looks good though. I think getting some PO4 in there would really make the difference. I had bleaching in most of my SPS and the only thing that fixed it was getting my NO3/PO4 up. It's taking a long time for stuff to recover, but it is happening. I wonder what would happen if you reduced your WC frequency/size. I know every tank is different, but one thing that helped me was to reduce mine to 15% every two weeks...

 

[Mykesocalreef]

I think you need to replace your kit or at least take some fresh mixed salt to your legs and let them test to verify ,red Sea shouldn't be that low at 1.026.
I am just recovering from such a similar scenario. I was dosing kno3 and wasn't testing all on new water and when I still wasn't getting colors I realized I was causing major ALK swings with my aquaforest salt being so low.

My alk test is a brand new Hanna checker, I also double checked with the Red Sea alk test.