Brown SPS help

[DragonFish]

I am having some problems getting my SPS to color up. First some history and tank info. The tank is an oceanic 33 cube tank with no sump. I am running a Remora hang on skimmer that doesn't really seem to pull out very much. I have a SEIO 620 and 820 for circulation and my light is a 150w JBJ Viper HQI that I hated until I put an XM 20K bulb in it. Now it is very bright and great color. I first added a small brown monti and let it go for about a month before I tried anything else. I saw nice growth and great PE from it. About three months ago I added a pink birdsnest, purple monti digitata, orange monti cap and a blue tort frag. Within 24 hours all the SPS were the same drab brownish except the cap, but even that lost a lot of its color. I dig some research and found that my PO4 was way too high at .5 so I started running Phosban. Once it got down to .04 I waited a few weeks and didn't see the slightest difference in my SPS. I really only feed my fish sparingly so I started feeding them a good amount of frozen brine every day and started using DTs Oyster eggs daily as well. I've been doing that for a couple weeks too and although all my softies are looking spectacular the SPS are still brown. They are all growing and I have nice polyp extension but just no color at all. Well I guess brown is a color. My calcium level is stable at 400-420 ppm and my magnesium is right around 1200. My alk seems a bit low at 2-2.5 meg/l but I'm working on that as well. The only thing I can think of is my nitrates are around 10-15 all the time. I don't have a sand bed, instead my wife got me this shell substrate so it isn't quite sand and it isn't quite BB either. I run every thing hang on and just don't have room for a hang on fuge. What else can I do to get my nitrates down and is that really whats causing my problem? What else do I need to be looking at? Thanks!

 

[desjardiniidj]

sending pm

 

[Qwiv]

Get your alk up. Your alklinity is more inportant then the calcium/mag. Then give it some time. They won't color up over night.
Keep the tort right under your bulb, as high as you can get it. 150 with a 20 bulb is not making much light.
Maybe run some carbon. Softies will release chemicals that adversly effect the health of the stonies.

 

[DragonFish]

I do run carbon in the outflow of my skimmer pretty much 24/7. I actually just got the 20K XM, previously I was using a 14K hamilton. The overall tank color sucked with the hamilton, way too yellow. I have all the SPS within 6" of the water surface.

 

[Qwiv]

Your tank shouldn't be yellow with a hamilton bulb. Is your water clear?? Get that Alk up before you try anything else to the tank.

 

[glassbox-design]

Try some decent sized water changes 30%+. I'd pull the substrate too...it's probably trapping lots of detritus. I'd suggest pulling it and going BB or create a DSB with ooltic grade.

e+f

 

[desjardiniidj]

The alk. is very important. I (my opinion) don't like Hamilton bulbs. I prefer 20K (Radium), but sometimes they just don't have enough power.Try getting the alk up and possibly adjusting the skimmer 1st.After the water is fixed, give it some time(like qwiv said) and things should start to look better. If not, maybe a bulb change might be in order. Best of luck. D.J.

 

[DragonFish]

Okay, tested the water tonight and things are just out of wack. Alk is at 2.8 meg/l and calc is near 500??? I'm using seachem tests. My water is crystal clear, I think I just like my tank more on the blue side. I used the reef chemistry calculator and added the recommended amount of baking soda to bring the alk up. Mag was a little low so I added some seachem mag buffer per the calculator too. I have no idea where that calc reading came from, I expected it to be low because I haven't dosed calc in several days. I think a 10 gal water change is in order then I'll retest everything and start from there.

 

[vegadan1]

water quality

water quality

I had the same brown film on everything Purlely H20 helped me out with filters. How is your TDS on your RO/DI.

 

[hansnfrans]

"I used the reef chemistry calculator and added the recommended amount of baking soda to bring the alk up."

I sure hope that you didn't add all of that baking soda at once. From the way you wrote, it sounds like you did. Anyway, PO4 should be zero for SPS. 0.1 wouldn't be too bad, but 0.4 is way too high IMO. Magnesium should be raised to around 1300 asap because a Mg2+ level that's too low will cause instability in the Alk and Ca+. No sense in correcting the Alk and Ca+, if a Mg2+ that's too low will allow the Alk and Ca+ to get out of whack again.

Also, there has been much talk (not sure if there's hard scientific evidence), that Mg2+ plays a large role in the proper coloration of corals.

I assume that you have the SPS high up in the aquarium (unless of course it is a deep-water species).

 

[DragonFish]

The required amount of baking soda was 1/3 tsp so I did add it all at once since that is such a small amount. I checked the tank out visably this morning and nothing appears to have been stressed. One question I have is what exactly are the desired levels of alk in meg/l, calcium in ppm? Oh, and my PO4 isn't .4, it is .04. Thanks for all the replies, I need all the help I can get!

 

[hansnfrans]

Seawater levels are-

Alk: 8 dKH or 2.9 meq/L
Ca+: 400-425 ppm

You might wanna run another Ca+ test. I would think that the water would be supersaturated (meaning that there would be precipitation of one of the components out of solution) @ a ALK reading of 2.8meq/L and 500ppm of Ca+. But I am not sure about this. Anyway, run another Ca+ test and verify if you can.

 

[DragonFish]

Retested everything tonight. I ran the calcium test twice and I got 350-375. Last night must have been a fluke. Mag is up to 1300 and Alk is at 2.9-3ish. Now I just have to maintain it. How often should I expect to have to supplement the Mag? I'll plan to test everything every night for a few weeks until I have a good handle on things.

 

[Qwiv]

Mag is approximatly 1/4 or your calcium dosing or so. Really depends on your dosing amounts.