Corals not opening up and coloring up

[PCguy21]

Its the lights or your alkalinity and calc or mag ect is too high or low ill just be flat out honest here.


Nutrients in my experience dont do crap to corals litterally my nutrients are super high i have algae all over... and its controlled by my fish. Snails and sea urchins... i have high phosphates like .5ppm and nitrates at 20-40ppm i have 2 kinds of frogspawns.. with 7 heads... i have a huge torch coral.. a hammer coral. 3 bubble corals... 3 types of acroporas.. 5 zoanthid typs.. a neon green tree nepthea and a regular green nelthea leather... i have 4 types of mushrooms... a clam... purple sepitulara and many other corals like chalices ect..


Not one of these corals is closed. MY lights are t5s ati bulbs . Two blue. One purple one coral plus which is is a whitish pinkish. My tank is much brighter thrn yours... youres looks too dim. And too blue.

Its been proven corals grow better under less blue light... Youre tabk should have more of a purple hue... mix of blue and reds to make it seem purple.


Im sure some will dissagree but thats my experience and its been proven actuslly that blue doesnt grow corals as well as more red.whitishight does. Alkalinity should be 8-9 and calcium around 420.. magnesium around 1350-1450.

These are the best params i found.

Frogspawn prefer slow flow... and i mean like a slight flow to make then move around a tiny bit if your flow is medium.. and makes then wiggle around and wave around they will stay closed more... pur them in really slow flow and watch them extend ALOT .. hammer corals do better in medium flow not too high but enough to move the heads... torch corals like pulsing flow... slow to medium.. so slow flow then pulse...

If your tank is 24 high and ligjts are 10 inches up. Keep them in middle of the tank.


Im sure someone will disagree.. someone always does.


But im telling you this is what ny tank thrives under.. my frogspawns.. are HUGEEE like 3 heads as big as my palm extended...


Those zoas need to be higher up.. put them in the middle.. see my frogspawns... and see how much brighter and more pinmish my tank is ? When i turn on my blue leds.. all my corals shrink... Your lights imo are the problem.. also see how much are just sitting there hardly any flow

 

[AlexR]

Its the lights or your alkalinity and calc or mag ect is too high or low ill just be flat out honest here.


Nutrients in my experience dont do crap to corals litterally my nutrients are super high i have algae all over... and its controlled by my fish. Snails and sea urchins... i have high phosphates like .5ppm and nitrates at 20-40ppm i have 2 kinds of frogspawns.. with 7 heads... i have a huge torch coral.. a hammer coral. 3 bubble corals... 3 types of acroporas.. 5 zoanthid typs.. a neon green tree nepthea and a regular green nelthea leather... i have 4 types of mushrooms... a clam... purple sepitulara and many other corals like chalices ect..


Not one of these corals is closed. MY lights are t5s ati bulbs . Two blue. One purple one coral plus which is is a whitish pinkish. My tank is much brighter thrn yours... youres looks too dim. And too blue.

Its been proven corals grow better under less blue light... Youre tabk should have more of a purple hue... mix of blue and reds to make it seem purple.


Im sure some will dissagree but thats my experience. Alkalinity should be 8-9 and calcium around 420.. magnesium around 1350-1450.

These are the best params i found.

Frogspawn prefer slow flow... and i mean like a slight flow to make then move around a tiny bit.. hammer corals do better in medium flow not too high but enough to move the heads... torch corals like pulsing flow... slow to medium.. so slow flow then pulse...

If your tank is 24 high and ligjts are 10 inches up. Keep them in middle of the tank.


Im sure someone will disagree.. someone always does.


But im telling you this is what ny tank thrives under.. my frogspawns.. are HUGEEE like 3 heads as big as my palm extended...

I really dislike my lights. And I agree they look bad. In photos they do look worse.

I'm waiting on a radion xr30w g4 pro to come in. I will only have one for now and I will mix it up with my current lights until I can get another radion.

My levels are all ok except magnesium is on the high side at 1800.

Overall I agree my lights stink. Can't wait for the radion to come in.

 

[AlexR]

I do have a calcium reactor running. It's keeping my Alk and calcium at good and even levels.

 

[PCguy21]

I really dislike my lights. And I agree they look bad. In photos they do look worse.

I’m waiting on a radion xr30w g4 pro to come in. I will only have one for now and I will mix it up with my current lights until I can get another radion.

My levels are all ok except magnesium is on the high side at 1800.

Overall I agree my lights stink. Can’t wait for the radion to come in.

Im unfamilier with leds.. i stick to t5s... but i hope they do work for you. I would chsnge flow accrodingly and arrange corals to be under your new light and see if it changes anything before you buy more lights..


1800 is high.. mine is at 1450

 

[mcgyvr]

You have new corals in a tank that was poorly maintained for a while, just recently stirred everything up and are having quite a big diatom or dino problem and keep messing with the corals..

Um... yeah...:facepalm: don't expect them to be happy..

Get your diatom problem solved...Focus on parameter stability.. Stop messing with stuff and give them time to adjust.. You certainly aren't putting them into an optimal habitat right now so don't expect happy corals..
And I'd caution you to watch the GFO use.. It can do more harm than good when used when not needed..
Its for those with a phosphate problem.. Zero is NOT a problem..

 

[travisstewart]

When I say nutrients are an issue to the coral, I'm not saying because the values are high. Any drastic change in any level will cause unhappy coral. When adding that many fish that quick, your nutrients sky rocketed which caused a spike in your nutrients


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[AlexR]

One question I ant seem to answer myself or find an answer for is what type of algae do I have?

Is this diatom or dynos?

I do see small air bubbles sometimes stuck to the rock, but this can be from regular oxygenation.

I don't see long slimey strands that usually indicate dynos. I would deal with it better if I just knew what it was.

You right about the phosban reactor. I was not thinking of it that way. I suppose there is no sense running it if my phosphates are undetectable.
I've shut it down.

I'm still very much looking forward to getting the radion in. I feel this is a huge improvement.

 

[AlexR]

So to sum it all up.
I 100% agree I have a nutrient problem. Even my ATS is indicating the same by growing brown algae on the screens.

So what I will do is cut my feeding in half. I was feeding one whole frozen cube a day. I'll start cutting them in half. Also I'll start feeding nori only once every 2 days.
The tang loves it but also likes to rip it apart and half goes to waste and I can't always catch it in my large amount of live rock.

I decided when I do my water changes I will begin siphoning out as much sand as I can. I have a deep sand bed and I think it's too silicate rich.

I will continue to do 15g water changes weekly. For my 125g with refugium that's about 10-12%.

I will clean out my ATS weekly until I start seeing normal green algae growing.

I have turned off my GFO reactor. Since my phosphates are undetectable by test kits.
I shut it off a day ago and it's weird but I think I see a slight improvement already.

I am adding an activated carbon reactor.


Then to top it all off I am upgrading my lighting to radion xr30w g4 pros. I have one on order and will be getting another in about a week and he 3rd maybe a month or so later (depending on outcome).

Again I appreciate everyone's feedback and advise

 

[PCguy21]

You have new corals in a tank that was poorly maintained for a while, just recently stirred everything up and are having quite a big diatom or dino problem and keep messing with the corals..

Um... yeah...:facepalm: don't expect them to be happy..

Get your diatom problem solved...Focus on parameter stability.. Stop messing with stuff and give them time to adjust.. You certainly aren't putting them into an optimal habitat right now so don't expect happy corals..
And I'd caution you to watch the GFO use.. It can do more harm than good when used when not needed..
Its for those with a phosphate problem.. Zero is NOT a problem..

For once i agree eith him.. i tried gfo once.. took my phosphates down for sure.. but my corals didnt like it and the lack of phosohates actually caused a dino outbreak.. when i took the gfo out the dinos went away and my corals went back to normal once my phosphates went back to .50 ppm weird i know.

 

[AlexR]

For once i agree eith him.. i tried gfo once.. took my phosphates down for sure.. but my corals didnt like it and the lack of phosohates actually caused a dino outbreak.. when i took the gfo out the dinos went away and my corals went back to normal once my phosphates went back to .50 ppm weird i know.

I think everyone had some great insight.

 

[AlexR]

My frogspawn is starting to get some of its color back. The hammer is opening up nicer.

 

[bowhunterj]

I had the same problem, I had to get it through my thick scull that the fish were the problem. all my parameters were good but my coral just sat there for 3 yrs. one day I noticed a bicolor angel nipping every coral it swam by, I trapped him and relocated to another tank and the coral took off. this may be your problem. just a thought.

 

[AlexR]

Finally everything is opening up nicely!!

All along it was due to my GFO reactor. After shutting it down everything starting livening up the next day!!

 

[PCguy21]

Yea after experiencing this myself im a firm believer that phosphates and nitrates are good for corals... Like i ssid my phosphates were .50 which according to alot of people is crazy high.. nitrates werr 20+ at times and you saw how big my frogspawns were right ?

Put in gfo and took it all down over a few weeks and my corals hated it. Took it out and they came back.

Are you still going to keep your new light or return it ?

 

[AlexR]

Yea after experiencing this myself im a firm believer that phosphates and nitrates are good for corals... Like i ssid my phosphates were .50 which according to alot of people is crazy high.. nitrates werr 20+ at times and you saw how big my frogspawns were right ?

Put in gfo and took it all down over a few weeks and my corals hated it. Took it out and they came back.

Are you still going to keep your new light or return it ?

I love the new xr30w g4 pros I got. Huge improvement. Definitely keeping them.

I think the GFO was one part of my problem.
I am sure my phosphates were way too high at one point. Then I started taking care of the tank. Doing weekly water changes for a few months.

The GFO sucked the phosphates out of the water column very quickly but leaving phosphates in my DSB and LR. The cyano was feasting on the rock and sand. My tank is over 5 years mature so there was plenty of it.
Removing the GFO leveled things out. In 2 days after removing the GFO reactor the algae pretty much completely disappeared from sand and rock. And all corals look so be doing great now and opening up completely.
It's an incredible and drastic improvement in just a couple days.

All zoas are fully opening.
The hammer coral is fully opening and color is amazing. The hammer is new, so it didn't suffer too long. Just a couple days.
The frogspawn suffered for a few weeks with my GFO running, not opening fully and losing its color. Now it's opening fully but not all color has come back yet. It is however looking like color is starting to get better.

I just received an order of zoas from Ebay today. Took 4 days shipping from CA to FL. Risky and harsh, I know. They were hard to find zoas in my area.
They fully opened after just 2 hours in the DT.

 

[AlexR]

I had the same problem, I had to get it through my thick scull that the fish were the problem. all my parameters were good but my coral just sat there for 3 yrs. one day I noticed a bicolor angel nipping every coral it swam by, I trapped him and relocated to another tank and the coral took off. this may be your problem. just a thought.

The only iffy fish I have is my coral beauty angel and flame hawk.
But i keep it full with daily feedings on nori on a clip I also out in for my tang.
The flame hawk does not really nip at anything as far as I can tell.
The coral beauty seems to love the nori as well as the power brown tang and flasher wrasse.

All other fish are pretty much completely reef safe. Clowns, fire fish, cardinals, powder brown tang, flasher wrasse, bartlett anthias and a watchman goby.

I don't have that much fish.

 

[PCguy21]

Flamw hawks dont nip at corals. They just kinda swim and sit on them ive noticed.

 

[AlexR]

So after everything is said and done - now all of my corals look happy and are opening up completely every day now for a few weeks. The colors look amazing now.

All zoas completely open all LPS have completely opened and have full color back.

All algae is completely gone. The tank now looks completely healthy.

Now my main question is how long should it take until I notice some growth?

I've been doing broadcast reef roids feedings 2x a week. Feeding various frozen cube food once daily, occasionally sprinkle in some pellets (once every few days) and always have some nori on a clip. Replace the nori daily.

Was doing weekly 10% water changes. Am starting to change it to bi-weekly next week.

Kh 10
Calcium 400
Nitrates 1
Phosphates 0
Ph 7.8-8.1 (probe readings)

Using radion xr30 g4 pros at the coral labs ab+ setting from 9am to 7pm )with ramp up and down)