fishflorist
CANNOT SPEAK ENGLISH
which yellow ? I dont have yellow corals.... they should be green....
algae and pale corals, help !!
- Thread starter fishflorist
- Start date
which yellow ? I dont have yellow corals.... they should be green....
Scrape all that garbage off the back wall, siphon it out. Stop dosing the carbon sources and bacteria, add some fish, feed more and skim heavy. I had the same issue 2 years ago with vsv dosing, the nutrient level of the water gets so low that phos and nitrate that are stored in the rocks/sand/plastics start leaching it into the water. the bacteria and algae grow on that surface to get whatever is available. I feed 4 cubes of mysis a day in an 80 shallow with 10 fish skimming heavily.Iits loaded with sps and they all have dark rich colors. No nuisance algae. Your corals are starving
So you are saying increasing the nutrient level of the water stopped the leaching of nutrients from the rocks? The leaching part makes sense for phosphates but not nitrates. Did you run gfo or add more herbivores when you started feeding more (and turned off the carbon dosing)? What made the algae go away?
fishflorist
CANNOT SPEAK ENGLISH
does anyone have some comment on the green color algae on the rear ?
Hey Louis.. From the pictures, it appears to be the same stuff that's on your rocks... Considering that you've pulled back on the supplements, I would do what someone else suggested and start scraping and siphoning out what you can get off the back wall. For the now, I would also scale back your lighting to 9 hours total.. This can can help darken your corals a bit as well.. They may be getting a it too much light with 12 hours right now..
c0mp|ex
New member
It's dinoflagellates. I had this same exact stuff in my tank in which I dosed vodka and mb7. It's fuzzy brown looking with some bubbles underneath. I grabbed a samble and viewed it under a scope to confirm diatoms. I then began dosing hydrogen peroxide at 1ml/10gallons and within a week they began to die off with no side effects on tank inhabitants or corals (I keep an sps system). Give it a try or do a search first if you want.
1ml H2O2 per 10 gallons of tank water volume.
1ml H2O2 per 10 gallons of tank water volume.
mightymizz
New member
I think that you have too many different dosing systems running. Zeovit with their stones requires a very fine line of dosing. You usually need to be really precise with what you are dosing and how much, and how often.
There is a Zeovit forum where you might find more specific help, you might check there. It is a different website.
Best of luck!
There is a Zeovit forum where you might find more specific help, you might check there. It is a different website.
Best of luck!
fishflorist
CANNOT SPEAK ENGLISH
less light can darken the corals ? are you sure about that ?
I used to thought the opposite way. like human skin under too sunshine will get more thick and dark.:hmm4:
fishflorist
CANNOT SPEAK ENGLISH
thanks c0mp|ex, for now , H2O2 seems to be too aggressive to me , but I'll keep this method in mind .
fishflorist
CANNOT SPEAK ENGLISH
Thanks !
I'm not actually running zeovit system , I just use zeolite filteration + carbon source as a main filteration system for N and PO4. zeovit system have too many supplements that is expensive and we dont actually know what is in it. So I just chose some well commented supplement .
c0mp|ex
New member
No problem. There's a long thread on another forum is you search documenting results if you search. If you can confirm its dino's it will help. You can pull a piece out and try too. Its best if you run a filter sock because the dino's will begin to "flake" off. Most people dose 3 days then lights out for 3 days. I just dosed it with no lights out period and i saw slower results but after about a week i saw it receding and now my tank is spotless. Let me know if you decide to try it and how it works.
I think the amount of nutrients in our system play a large role with how much light is actually needed to get the resuklts that we are looking for... I would agree that coral color and skin tanning are both a result of UV rays.. However, too much UV is not good for skin or coral and the results may vary....
I use to run Metal Halides for 12 hours in my last tank and although my SPS colors were good, I was running a DSB, had readable nutrient levels, a lot more live rock per gallon, where more detritus could hide and I was not carbon dosing. My current system runs much cleaner. When I established my current tank with T5s, I used a very shallow sand-bed, which I regulary siphon, less rock per gallon, Carbon dose and add active bateria to help with denitrification. When the tank was new in it's first year, I noticed that my corals had color, but were very light in color.. Intstead of increasing the amount of hours the tank was lit, I simply allowed the system to mature and added more bioload along the way.. As the nutrient levels in the tank started to in crease(still within acceptable levels), I noticed my colors becoming much more intense and definitley more colorful than my first tank. I achieved this with only 9 hours of light and 2 of those hours(3 hours less than my last tank with Metal Halides) only two of my 10 T5 bulbs are on for dusk to dawn.
When I started reading about tanks with bare bottoms around 2005, a majority of reefers who tried it noticed that their corals became lighter in color. This was tied to lower nutrients in these tanks. Many of these hobbyist, began shortening their photo period and found success in deepening their SPS colors by doing this..... Also, if that alagae is in fact Dino flagelettes, a reduced lighting period my help you in your fight against it.
reefyourself
New member
Yeah i realized the same. When my tank was brand new my coral colors were light. As the tank started aging they started to become darker and darker. For some reason algae started pickibg up in my system. Nutrients were being exported by the nuisance algae which started to starve my corals so they lightened again. I also need to get rid of my algae. Im continuibg with weekly water changes + neo zeo + manual removal. Hopefully over the long run things will pickup again!
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I agree on the ultra low nutrient levels causing these corals to starve from hunger. Since you are stimulating excessive growth of bacteria that compete with corals for elements the corals also lack those at the moment.
This causes them to look even paler turning greens into yellow (not enough Iron). That is one of the reasons why you have to add elements with zeovit systems. I think that if you test for potassium or iodine they will be to low and so will others (that you won't have to test for or even can't test for).
Fish poo is rich in all sorts of things, including elements because all of those can be found in fish food and are never fully taken up by the fish itself.
So increasing bio load is a good first step. Alternative would be to manually start dosing nitrate and possibly phosphate next to elements from the zeo line.
This causes them to look even paler turning greens into yellow (not enough Iron). That is one of the reasons why you have to add elements with zeovit systems. I think that if you test for potassium or iodine they will be to low and so will others (that you won't have to test for or even can't test for).
Fish poo is rich in all sorts of things, including elements because all of those can be found in fish food and are never fully taken up by the fish itself.
So increasing bio load is a good first step. Alternative would be to manually start dosing nitrate and possibly phosphate next to elements from the zeo line.
fishflorist
CANNOT SPEAK ENGLISH
I tried that too. I calibrated with warmed calibration fluid at last.
But , according to Pinpoint's user guide, they claim that what ever temp the fluid is (0-50 degree c ) , the probe have temperature compensation can manage the problem, which I found totally useless.
this is a proof: I test tank water 50.6ms at 25 degree, I siphoned out 20L water and wait it become cold to 10 degree, the reading is 52.7ms.
I dont think a little evaporation can make the salinity raise so much, only took 6 hours to cold down.
fishflorist
CANNOT SPEAK ENGLISH
Thank your Jbanks ! for sharing so much. I have increased 1 hour of the MH light period already. hope get a good result.
fishflorist
CANNOT SPEAK ENGLISH
Thanks Mabuya, all I am hoping now is that spring come sooner, when the temperature is higher, I will buy some fishes . I agree that is a more natural way to increase the nutrition in the tank.
as for the potassium, I add 2ppm into my tank (use KCl) daily since maybe 7-8 month ago. but since there is no very good test kit, I am not sure about the concentration of it. Good news is CEO of salifert said there test kit will be released soon, maybe 2 week only fom now. I will test for it. I am actully worring about the potassium level too high in my tank. Also the iodine, I add 2-3 drops of Kent Lugol's into my 200G tank.
Adding nitrite or nitrate ? is this a common dosing in a ULNS ?
I hope you meant that you "decreased" light by 1 hour
You're very welcome! Helping each other is what this forum is all about :beer:
