Bottom bleaching on my Milli?

[Wet Sleeve]

Hey guys, over the passed few days I've noticed some bleaching on my green Milli, near the bottom where it encrusted over the frag plug..I've just done a 5G water change and took the coral out about 30 minutes prior to this picture so polyps are not fully extended yet, however the tank is approx 4 months old, I have a dosing pump doing 10ml 2 part daily, I dose 10Ml Iodine and Strontium weekly, and 10ml of Reef plus weekly, also 5G water change weekly.
I inspected for parasites and saw no signs, the Milli recently encrusted over the plug over he passed week or two, however now it's bleaching, so I'm a bit at a loss...I feed the corals 1-2x a week with Reef roids.

Water:

Salinity: 1.025
ALK: 8.3 - 8.6 ( stays between )
Calcium: 450
Magnesium: 1300
Phosphate 0
Nitrate: 0-0.02 (can't notice a collar change)

Using all Salifert test kits, thoughts?

 

[outssider]

it looks like a shading problem.....

you should not be dosing iodine and/or strontium without testing. you don't state the size of your system but the amounts you're dosing seem very high. there is only supposed to be the smallest trace amounts of both iodine and strontium

 

[Cheapreef]

That's a pretty new tank, IMO shouldn't keep SPS in a tank till your past the first year. That's just me and being old school maybe.
Why are you dosing Iodine and Strontium? Are you testing to see if it's needed?

 

[Wet Sleeve]

it looks like a shading problem.....

you should not be dosing iodine and/or strontium without testing. you don't state the size of your system but the amounts you're dosing seem very high. there is only supposed to be the smallest trace amounts of both iodine and strontium

I do have Salifert Iodine and Strontium test kits, strontium test is very wonky and I'm debating on stopping the dosage of both, I'm following Aquaforest recommendations, the system is a 40B with a 165W LED mounted about 15" above the tank..I get a pretty good spread... I have however recently turned the, down about 10% to acclimate a new coral..

 

[Wet Sleeve]

That's a pretty new tank, IMO shouldn't keep SPS in a tank till your past the first year. That's just me and being old school maybe.
Why are you dosing Iodine and Strontium? Are you testing to see if it's needed?

Just more of a experiment then anything, I know the tank is young however it is stable, well..as stable as a 4 month tank could be.
Fish load is very minimal, wanting to keep nutrients as low as possible.

Like mentioned I don't think I will continue the dosage... I just found it strange that this is the best growing coral in my new system at the moment and suddenly a bit of bleaching is going on so I would assume that it is probably not liking something I did recently.

 

[Cheapreef]

Your going to get shading with just one of the 110w Black Boxes, you would need 2 to get proper spread on a tank that size.
I would def stop dosing both the Iodine and Strontium, they are replenished by your water changes. Foods etc also have Iodine, dosing that amount in a 40gal system is not good.
I have never dosed either of those and see no reason to.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

I killed a bunch of sps the first year of my tank and I found Millis to be particularly difficult (RTN/STN). Just after 1 year everything started to do well.

 

[Wet Sleeve]

Your going to get shading with just one of the 110w Black Boxes, you would need 2 to get proper spread on a tank that size.
I would def stop dosing both the Iodine and Strontium, they are replenished by your water changes. Foods etc also have Iodine, dosing that amount in a 40gal system is not good.
I have never dosed either of those and see no reason to.

I definitely have some shading on the sides of tank, where I keep mainly caps and Pocilliopora, in the centre I measured between 550-850 par via the Seneye.. however i will take what you're saying into consideration.. I will most certainly not dose Strontium and Iodine going forward, I did suspect it to be the reason hence why I did my WC slightly early.

 

[Cheapreef]

I definitely have some shading on the sides of tank, where I keep mainly caps and Pocilliopora, in the centre I measured between 550-850 par via the Seneye.. however i will take what you're saying into consideration.. I will most certainly not dose Strontium and Iodine going forward, I did suspect it to be the reason hence why I did my WC slightly early.

I didn't say that was the reason, I said you should not be dosing it.

Pervious post I said you shouldn't be stocking SPS in a system before the year mark IMO. Your likely to go through loosing a few before you hit that mark so don't be suprised.

Yes that light puts out lots of par had one on my tank that doesn't mean the light spread will keep it from shading. You need more light evenly spread out, if it were me I would run 2 or 4 T5's with that LED and get proper coverage since you have the length to run T5's

 

[Wet Sleeve]

I didn't say that was the reason, I said you should not be dosing it.

Pervious post I said you shouldn't be stocking SPS in a system before the year mark IMO. Your likely to go through loosing a few before you hit that mark so don't be suprised.

Yes that light puts out lots of par had one on my tank that doesn't mean the light spread will keep it from shading. You need more light evenly spread out, if it were me I would run 2 or 4 T5's with that LED and get proper coverage since you have the length to run T5's

It's very hard to get a good picture for you with an iPad that is within the size allowed, the iPad is making my pictures dark because of how bright it is, I'm well aware that you probably have experience or at least know of the light in using. The tank from a visual stand point looks very well lit from where my more demand SPS will be located, however I'm not an expert... I had success with my mixed 120g with these LEDs run at a lower intensity, so I thought they should do the job. But as the coral grows I do notice some shading happening, so putting another over the system may be something to consider.. T5s not really an option for this system.. it's meant to be an experiment system as I plan my 280G that I would like to have SPS dominant, i figured I would start smaller scale before investing that much money into equipment and frags.

 

[Cheapreef]

It's very hard to get a good picture for you with an iPad that is within the size allowed, the iPad is making my pictures dark because of how bright it is, I'm well aware that you probably have experience or at least know of the light in using. The tank from a visual stand point looks very well lit from where my more demand SPS will be located, however I'm not an expert... I had success with my mixed 120g with these LEDs run at a lower intensity, so I thought they should do the job. But as the coral grows I do notice some shading happening, so putting another over the system may be something to consider.. T5s not really an option for this system.. it's meant to be an experiment system as I plan my 280G that I would like to have SPS dominant, i figured I would start smaller scale before investing that much money into equipment and frags.

Your not understanding what I am saying, it's not about how bright the light is or par really it's about a even spead throughout the tank front to bakc side to side. You simply cannot get that with one 16"X8" light with 90 deg optics over a 36" X 18" surface.
I switched from one of these BB over my 18" cube to 2 hydra 26's spaced evenly front-back-side-side. The light coverage is night and day difference, it's like t5 lighting now. This is what you want if your going SPS dominant, on your 280Gal your going to need quit a few to get proper coverage.

 

[Wet Sleeve]

Your not understanding what I am saying, it's not about how bright the light is or par really it's about a even spead throughout the tank front to bakc side to side. You simply cannot get that with one 16"X8" light with 90 deg optics over a 36" X 18" surface.
I switched from one of these BB over my 18" cube to 2 hydra 26's spaced evenly front-back-side-side. The light coverage is naight and day difference, it's like t5 lighting now. This is what you want if your going SPS dominant, on your 280Gal your going to need quit a few to get proper coverage.

Okay I think I understand what you mean, get the coverage more evenly lit so the tank is bright all over thus better eliminating shadowing under corals?

Thanks for taking the time to share your advice, I'm probably putting effort in the wrong places, concentrating to much on intensity hitting the top of the coral and not enough hitting the base/sides

 

[Relativity]

I dident really read threw the whole thread but I have noticed if my bases of corals are even touched a little bit they die from the base up.

 

[jda]

That looks like textbook LED shading/shadowing. You aren't going to want to hear this since you have not already, but you need another panel. With different kinds of lights, the rock underneath that coral would be lit.

Don't dose anything but the big three. Everything else will come in your water changes, which you need to be doing.

 

[Wet Sleeve]

That looks like textbook LED shading/shadowing. You aren't going to want to hear this since you have not already, but you need another panel. With different kinds of lights, the rock underneath that coral would be lit.

Don't dose anything but the big three. Everything else will come in your water changes, which you need to be doing.

I went into the tank hoping that 1 LED would be enough however its not that big of an issue to buy another, WC are done every week.. about 50% a month.

i've done T5's in the passed, they work but i'm not a huge fan. i like the crisp look of LED's. 130$ is a small fee to pay to put another over the tank. had i gone with Radeon's like my 120G display it would probably leave a bitter taste in my mouth

i'm fairly certain the bleach is from dosing to much Strontium/Iodine, i was skeptical of Aquaforest recommendations but its always good to get other opinion's as well.

 

[jda]

Keep changing your water and don't dose anything else outside of Calcium, Alk and Magnesium. Most of what you read from people trying to sell you stuff has fringe benefits at best and can be harmful at worst, but mostly it just does nothing.

If your point is that you would not be mad if you had to buy another Radion, then it is a good one... they don't cover any better than a black box.