Acros always turn white

[Molly1414]

So I have been on a mission to try and keep Acros. I can keep stylophora but whenever I put Acros in my tank they loose color and turn white. I started using Kalk in my ATO to keep my parameters stable and test like crazy.

Alk-9.2
Calcium- 420
Mag-1560
Nitrates -0
Ph- 8.2
Phos-0.05
Temp-78.3

Lights - two kessil 360we about 13 inches from the water. Lights run from 8am to 10pm. Lights are set to 20 % color (more blue then white) and 80 percent intensity.

I bought two small acros frags and put both at the top of the tank because they had been under metal halide at the shop. They did better then most acros and lasted two weeks before showing signs of color loss. As soon the first one showed a loss of color I moved it to the bottom of the tank to see if that would make a difference. The next morning it was stark white. The other one is still hanging in there but it's more of a gray color now.

Any thoughts on what I should try and work on would be appreciated. Should I try and get some nitrates in my tank? Should I run my GFO and lower the phosphates? To much light or not enough? Intensity or color not right?
I purchased some amino acids supp - Acropower that should be here tomorrow.
Thanks Lynn

 

[71xlch]

Intense lights with not enough nutrients and high ALK for the amount of nutrients available.

 

[toothybugs]

Yea you are doing what I did a month or so ago. My system is running BML 20K MCs and had to cut back from 70% intensity (believe it or not my zoas loved it!) down to 50% for 3 hours less than your cycle (including the 1hr ramps at either end). I'm having what I think is a nutrient issue but my new sticks are doing okay. Better than before.

 

[Molly1414]

So should I lower the Alk to 7 or 8 and lower the intensity of my lights or just do one? Will the amino acids in the acro power help with nutrients? I read that it should convert to nitrate. I already increased my fish feeding amounts from once a day to twice or three times a day, I increased my coral feeding to every night and got two more fish for the tank but all that seemed to do was increase my phosphates.

 

[Wazzel]

You should always acclimate corals to the light in your tank. I think Alk at 7-8 is a good target.

 

[brad65ford]

Agree with everyone here. One of the things everyone hates is ugly algae but it's needed. You should have film on you glass every few days and if coralline algae ain't growing it's not ready.